Introduction to Active Server Pages

1
Introduction to Active Server Pages

• Introduction to
• Active Server Pages (ASP)
• ASP Architecture
• Basic ASP Scripting Techniques
• ASP Object Model
• Request Object
• Response Object

2
ASP Architecture
3
ASP Architecture

• Microsofts solution for developing dynamic web
  pages
• Uses VBScript, a variant of Visual Basic
• A subset of VB
• Internet-enabled
• Object-oriented architecture
• Provides objects for various functions such as
  database access, file access, etc.
• Supported by Microsofts IIS and Personal Web
  Server

4
Scripting in ASP

• An ASP can consist of
• HTML code
• Server side script
• Client side script
• Client side script
• Executed by web browsers
• Can be VBScript, Javascript, etc.
• Server side script
• Executed by web servers
• May be VBScript or Javascript, etc.

5
What can ASP do for you

• Dynamically edit, change or add any content of a
  Web page
• Respond to user queries or data submitted from
  HTML forms
• Access any data or databases and return the
  results to a browser
• Customize a Web page to make it more useful for
  individual users
• The advantages of using ASP instead of CGI and
  Perl, are those of simplicity and speed
• Provides security since your ASP code can not be
  viewed from the browser
• Since ASP files are returned as plain HTML, they
  can be viewed in any browser
• Clever ASP programming can minimize the network
  traffic

6
A Simple ASP Example
lthtmlgt ltheadgt lttitlegtMy First ASP
Pagelt/titlegt lt/headgt ltbodygt lt
Response.Write("Welcome to my first ASP generated
web page.") gt ltbr /gt lt "Today is " date()
" and the time is " time() gt lt/bodygt lt/htmlgt
7
Create a new web application in FrontPage

• Mapping your web folder (dt211-3studentusername)
  from erin.student.comp.dit.ie to your machine.
• Select start, Programs, MicroSoft FrontPage
• Select Open Site
• Type in http//www.student.comp.dit.ie/dt211-3use
  rname
• Now you should be able add your ASP file now.

8
A Client side example
lthtmlgt ltheadgt lttitlegtDocument titlelt/titlegt
ltscript language"vbscript"gt sub vbs
alert("This is VBScript") end sub
lt/scriptgt ltscript language"javascript"gt
function js() alert("this is
JavaScript") lt/scriptgt
9
A Client side example, cont.
lt/headgt ltbodygt Select button ltinput
type"button" Name"vbs" value"VBScript"
onclick"vbs()" /gt ltinput type"button" Name"js"
value"Javascript" onclick"js()"
/gt lt/bodygt lt/htmlgt
10
Control Flow in ASP

• Control Flow statements are divided into 2 types.
• Conditional
• Loop
• Conditional statements are
• IfThenElse
• SelectCase
• Looping statements are
• DoLoop
• ForNext
• WhileWend

11
A Loop example
lthtmlgt ltheadgt lttitlegtASP Looplt/titlegt lt/headgt ltbo
dygt lt Dim i for i 1 to 6
response.write("lth" i "gtThis is header " i
"lt/h" i "gt") next gt lt/bodygt lt/htmlgt
12
A If example
lthtmlgt ltheadgt lttitlegtASP Looplt/titlegtlt/headgt ltbody
gt lt Dim h h hour(now()) response.write("ltpgt"
now()) response.write(" (Irish Time) lt/pgt") If h
lt 12 then response.write("Good
Morning!") else response.write("Good
day!") end if gt lt/bodygt lt/htmlgt
13
Procedures

• Procedures are subroutines that can be called by
  the main program. It contains a different script
  level this separating local variables from global
  variables.
• There are two types of procedures, Sub and
  Function.
• Sub normally doesnt return a value while
  Function returns a value

14
A procedures example
lthtmlgtltheadgt lttitlegtASP Looplt/titlegt ltsub
vbproc(num1,num2)response.write(num1num2)end
subgtlt/headgtltbodygtltpgtThe result of the
calculation is ltcall vbproc(3,4)gtlt/pgtltpgtOr,
you can call a procedure like thislt/pgtltpgtThe
result of the calculation is ltvbproc
3,4gtlt/pgtlt/bodygtlt/htmlgt