ASP stands for Active Server Pages. These are pages that, in addition to the ordinary HTML code of a web page, have added commands that a web server processes before sending the web page to the browser. These extra commands are called server side scripts. ASP web hosting allows these scripts to be implemented and understood by the server.

About Server Side Scripts

Server side scripts, as the name implies, are scripts that are read and acted on by the server rather than the browser. Only the server can see these scripts. Even if a user was to view the code of a web page, they wouldn’t see these scripts. They are hidden to all but the browser, because only the browser need interpret them.

In terms of syntax, server side scripts appear much like HTML. They consist of tags that resemble HTML, but the tags usually open and close with the <% and %> syntax.

Uses of Active Server Pages and Sever Side Scripts

The tags in the ASP have a number of uses. These are usually interactive functions that the web page performs such as displaying the current date and time or offering the user a form to fill out. ASP pages also allow the user to send emails, take surveys, download information on the page and a number of other dynamic functions. These functions are processed before the browser sends the page, allowing it to load the coding for these applications first and then display the graphic or other content.

Most classic active server pages use the .asp extension. This is the way you can tell this type of page from an ordinary web page which usually ends with .htm or .html. Sometimes for security reasons the author of the page will hide the .asp extension and the file will have the ordinary .html extension instead.

Development of ASP

Originally, web pages were essentially static. They were written in HTML and had little interactivity. They had to be laboriously written in a text editor and would result in pages that could primarily show only text. A step toward making the process more streamlined occurred when HTML editors such as FrontPage and Dreamweaver were developed. This made the design of web pages easier, but didn’t improve much on their interactivity.

Thus, the next stage was the development of Active Server Pages. They allowed new interactive functions to be implemented by web designers and programmers by making it possible for clients (browsers) to communicate with server databases.

Soon improvements were developed here as well. A number of different languages such as the standard ASP scripting, Visual Basic Script (VBScript), and C# language allowed designers access to different interactivity features. These were eventually subsumed under Microsoft’s .NET development platform, which allowed horizontal compatibility between the languages and a level of standardization to be achieved. In fact, most pages today are written in the .NET environment and these pages end with the .aspx extension rather than simply .asp. The .NET interactivity is generally more efficient and versatile than the classic ASP design platform.

Learning ASP

Design of Active Server Pages is not particularly difficult to learn. There are many free tutorials, books, and sample coding segments that one can access easily online. With a bit of practice one can learn to code dynamic pages that are useful, interactive, and fun.

ASP Hosting

ASP hosting is simply webhosting that supports Microsoft's .NET ASP design framework. Most current web hosting severs offer this type of functionality as part of a general web hosting package.

This article is written by Carrie Donalds, a senior writer working for one of the most reliable web hosting reviews company in the market today.

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ASP contains text, HTML tags and different scripts. These scripts in an ASP file are executed on the server.Before learning ASP one should have knowledge of VBscript or Java script.ASP means Active Server Pages and this pages runs on Internet Information Services .ASP file is the same as HTML file it contains HTML, XML, and scripts and these scripts are executed on server.ASP files are saved with extension.asp.

Features of ASP

1.It edits, changes and add different contents to a Web page.
2.It replies to user queries and to data whish submitted from HTML forms.
3.Access any data or databases and return the results to a browser.
4.It also customizes a Web page to make it more useful for every users.

In ASP if variables are declared outside a procedure they can be changed by any script and if declared inside the procedure they are created and destroyed every time the procedure is executed.In ASP Response object this object is used to send output to the user and in ASP Request object this object is used to get information from the user. Application object in ASP is used to tie files together and to store variables.Application object contains information which is used my many web pages in the application.In ASP Session object is used to store information for a specific user session.In object data hold information of one specific user and one specific application .

Now let us see in details regarding Loops

Do While...Loop

Example

<%
   a=0
Do While a<5
    response.write("Hello
")
    a=a+1
Loop
%>

In this example "a<5" and the instructions defines a response text and an increment of the variable "a". In the example, a will be increased until it gets a value of 5. Then the loop will be abandon. one can use many statements within the loop.

Do Until....Loop

Example

 
<%
a=0
Do Until a=5
    response.write("Hello<HR>")
    a=a+1
Loop
%>
 

In this example "a=5", so a will increased until it is equal to 5 and then the loop will be abandon.

Select Case....End Select

Example

 
<%
  a=5
Select Case a
   Case 1
       Response.write ("Number is 1")
   Case 2
       Response.write ("Number is 2")
   Case 3
       Response.write ("Number is  3")
   Case 4
       Response.write ("Number is 4")
   Case 5
       Response.write ("Number is  5")
   Case Else
       Response. write ("a is higher than 5")
End Select
%>
 

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In the previous two articles (1, 2) we explained connecting to Microsoft Access database and writing to it, in C#.

Now we do that in ASP.Net.

For start create a new ASP.Net project. First of all we are creating two labels, two text boxes and one button with the following code (add it between the <div></div> tags)

So, lets define the event which is invoked by clicking on the button (add it above html tag)

<script><!--mce:0--></script>

When we run the script on ASP server we will get the following page

By clicking the button is invoked the button1_Click event and then the data written in the text boxes is recorded to database.

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Today we will create a simple ASP.Net web site.

You must have Visual Studio or Visual Web Deleloper to start creating web sites with ASP.Net.

We will use Visual Studio 2008.

To start go to File -> New -> Web Site (Shift+Alt+N). In the dialog box under the Templates area select ASP.NET Web Site, set the Location to File System, set the Language to Visual C#, and specify the directory where the project will be created.

Then press OK, and the project will be created, and you will see the Default.aspx source code. Will be something like this

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
    <title>Untitled Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<form id="form1" runat="server">
<div>
    </div>
</form>
 
</body>
</html>

Between the div tags insert this code

<asp:Button ID="button1" Text="Button" OnClick="button1Click"
 runat="server"/>
<asp:TextBox ID="textBox1" runat="server"/>
<br>
<h4><asp:Label ID="label1" runat="server"/></h4>
 

With this we are creating a button control, with text Button, its ID is button1 and a click event, also we are creating a textbox and a label.

Above head tag, insert this

<script runat="server">
    void button1Click(object Source, EventArgs e)
    {
        label1.Text = "TextBox text: " + textBox1.Text;
    }    
</script>

Here we are defining the function, which will be called when the button is clicked.
It, will change the label text.

Debug the project (F5), and the web page will be opened, it will be something like this

Now write something in the textbox, and click the button. You will get this

So, with clicking the button, the label text property is changing to "TextBox text: " + the text we write in the text box.

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