What Are Active
Server Pages?
Active Server Pages (ASPs)
are Web pages that contain server-side
scripts in addition to the usual
mixture of text and HTML (Hypertext
Markup Language) tags. Server-side
scripts are special commands you put
in Web pages that are processed before
the pages are sent from your Personal
Web Server to the Web browser of someone
who's visiting your Web site. . When
you type a URL in the Address box
or click a link on a Web page, you're
asking a Web server on a computer
somewhere to send a file to the Web
browser (sometimes called a "client")
on your computer. If that file is
a normal HTML file, it looks exactly
the same when your Web browser receives
it as it did before the Web server
sent it. After receiving the file,
your Web browser displays its contents
as a combination of text, images,
and sounds.
In the case of an Active Server Page,
the process is similar, except there's
an extra processing step that takes
place just before the Web server sends
the file. Before the Web server sends
the Active Server Page to the Web
browser, it runs all server-side scripts
contained in the page. Some of these
scripts display the current date,
time, and other information. Others
process information the user has just
typed into a form, such as a page
in the Web site's guestbook.
To distinguish them from normal HTML
pages, Active Server Pages are given
the ".asp" extension.
What Can You Do with Active Server
Pages?
There are many things you can do
with Active Server Pages.
- You can display date, time, and
other information in different ways.
- You can make a survey form and
ask people who visit your site to
fill it out, send emails, save the
information to a file, etc
What Do Active Server Pages Look
Like?
The appearance of an Active Server
Page depends on who or what is viewing
it. To the Web browser that receives
it, an Active Server Page looks just
like a normal HTML page. If a visitor
to your Web site views the source
code of an Active Server Page, that's
what they see: a normal HTML page.
However, the file located in the server
looks very different. In addition
to text and HTML tags, you also see
server-side scripts. This is what
the Active Server Page looks like
to the Web server before it is processed
and sent in response to a request.
What Do Server-Side Scripts Look
Like?
Server-side scripts look a lot like
HTML tags. However, instead of starting
and ending with lesser-than ( <
) and greater-than ( > ) brackets,
they typically start with <% and
end with %>. The <% is called
an opening tag, and the %>
is called a closing tag. In
between these tags are the server-side
scripts. You can insert server-side
scripts anywhere in your Web page--even
inside HTML tags.
Do You Have to Be a Programmer to
Understand Server-Side Scripting?
There's a lot you can do with server-side
scripts without learning how to program.
For this reason, much of the online
Help for Active Server Pages is written
for people who are familiar with HTML
but aren't computer programmers.
ASP Basics
[ASP
Tutorial] [ASP
Introduction] [Date,
Time & Text] [Variables
& Forms] [If...Then
/ Next]
[Do...Loop
/ Select] [Subrout..&
Include] [Session
& Appli..] [Dictionary
Object] [ASP
Cookies] [Global.asa]
[ASP
and Javascript] [Using
Arrays] [Picture
Source] [Server
Scripting] [Logical
operators] [Server
Variables] [Languages
Select] [Period
of time] [Operators
Parenth] [Math
Functions] [Mainpulate
String]
[Date
Time Period] [Sort
& Array] [Compare
Strings] [Compare
Operators] [Random
Number]
[Period
of Time] [Get
local time] [Content
Type] [Add,Remove,Search]
Files & Folders
[Get
Data Form] [Create
and Delete Folder] [Reading
A File] [Get
List of Files] [Get
List of Fold]
[Open,Read
& Create]
Remote Pages
[XML
HTTP Object] [Get
External Pages] [Keywords
From Text] [Keywords
From URL] [Google
Search]
Form & Mail
[GET
and POST] [Request
& Save] [Email
Validity?] [CDONTS
Mail] [JMail
SMTP] [Bamboo
SMTP]
Examples
[Active
Visitors] [Chat]
[Check
Domain] [Counter]
[FFAL
Page] [Guest
Book] [Hide
Meta Tags]
[Link
Popularity] [Mailing
List] [Ad
Rotator] [Search
Engine] [Shopping
Cart] [Column
Graph]
[Code
Reduction]
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