What
is Active Server Pages?
Active Server Pages (ASP) is Microsoft's
most recent Web server application development
technology, designed to make it easier
for Web application developers to create
sophisticated Web applications.
The Fig. help you better understand
the role ASP plays in Web application
development and where ASP fits in with
other server-side Web application development
technologies. ASP is one of many technologies
available for developing Web server
applications.
Active Server Pages enables Web application
developers to easily leverage their
existing investments on Windows application
development tools and technologies to
the Internet. ASP is designed to make
it easier to develop interactive Web
applications and work with industry
standard Windows technologies, such
as Object Linking and Embedding (OLE)
Automation, ActiveX, Active Data Objects
(ADO), VBScript, JavaScript, Visual
Basic, Open Database Connectivity (ODBC),
Component Object Model (COM), and so
on.
Understanding Where ASP Fits into
Microsoft's Active Platform
ASP is an integral part of the Active
Platform, Microsoft's core Internet
strategy. The Active Platform is a common
set of languages, standards, and services
that can be used to develop either Active
Desktop (client-side) or Active Server
(server-side) applications. The Active
platform paradigm makes it easier and
more cost-effective for developers to
leverage their skills to develop a broad
spectrum of applications that run on
the server and the client. It also makes
it very easy to transform a desktop
application to a full blown client/server
application.
ASP is actually a DLL component installed
on your Web server. This component processes
files that end with the extension .asp
and transmits the result to the client
that requested the ASP file. This does
not mean that ASP applications render
technologies such as Internet Server
Application Programming Interface (ISAPI)
obsolete. Rather, ASP applications compliment
Web application technologies like ISAPI.
Benefits of Using ASP
There are many benefits in using ASP
that make it one of the most powerful
tools available for developing sophisticated
Web applications. here are some of the
benefits:
- ASP complements client-side scripting.
- ASP development is easy to learn.
- With the ASP development environment,
you can easily leverage existing investments
and skills.
- ASP development is compile free.
- The ASP environment is extensible.
- ASP protects proprietary business
algorithms and information.
