FAQ - NT ASP
What are Active Server Pages?
These are components that allow web developers
to create server-side scripted templates that
generate dynamic, interactive web server
applications. By embedding special programmatic
codes in standard HTML pages, a user can access
data in a database, interact with page objects
such as Active-X or Java components, or create
other types of dynamic output. The HTML output by
an Active Server Page is totally browser
independent which means that it can be read
equally well by Microsoft Explorer, Netscape
Navigator, or most other browsers.
ASP make it easy for a developer to create
everything from a website that is customized to a
viewers tastes, to a complex database application
that may access legacy data from a mainframe.
The following is a very simple example of ASP:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Sample Web Page</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<P>
Hello <%=
Request.ServerVariables("REMOTE_USER")
%>
The time here is <%= now %>
Your browser is <% =
Request.ServerVariables("http_user_agent")
%>
</BODY></HTML>
Are Active Server Pages also
CGI?
Yes and no (don't you love our straight
answers). Active Server Pages and CGI scripts do
similar things - namely create dynamic output on a
web page or react to form input. However, Active
Server Pages run in the same process as the
server, and they are multi-threaded. All this
leads to faster speeds that CGI scripts can
achieve and the ability to handle large numbers of
users.
Do Active Server Pages Use
Visual Basic?
This is one of the biggest misunderstandings
about ASP. It is not Visual Basic nor is it its
own language. A programmer must think of it as a
container to use other languages. We support
VBScript, JavaScript and PerlScript. You can use
any of there languages with your ASP pages.
Are Active Server Pages
secure?
Yes. They can not cause security breaches with
a browser on their own, however, malicious Java or
ActiveX apps can be embedded in them just like
they can be embedded in ordinary HTML pages. At
the server end, individual ASPs can be protected
on a per user basis.
What databases can I use with
Active Server Pages?
You can use any ODBC-compliant database such as
FoxPro, Access, Paradox, etc. If requested clients
can be provided with Microsoft SQL Server
(additional setup and monthly charges are
involved). Please contact support@inSolSys.com for
help in setting up your databases.
Can I Use File DSNs?
Even though Microsoft suggests to use these in
much of their literature, we prefer our customers
do not use them on our shared servers as we are
able to tune system data sources to fit the
architecture of our particular servers. In order
to "synchronize" your local setup (if
you are using Visual Interdev), create a system data source
and name it the same as the data source on our
systems. In order to access your data source
through an ASP page, your connection string should
look like:
Session("DataConn_ConnectionString")
= "DSN=mydsn;UID=;PWD=" ;
In order to setup your local ODBC data source:
- Go to the Control Panel and click on the
ODBC icon.
- Select the System DSN tab and add a new DSN.
- Select the appropriate driver (MS Access)
and name the data source.
- Click on Database select button and then
choose the correct database file.
- Press the OK button to complete the ODBC
addition.
You provide ASP and Cold
Fusion. Can I use both? Is one better than the
other?
You can use both in your website, although not
on the same page. If you wish to discuss your
needs and what may be the best method of
implementing your particular Internet application,
contact development@inSolSys.com.
What are some internet
resources on Active Server Pages?