Active Server Pages

Active Server Pages
Active Server Pages
Filename extension	.asp
Developed by	Microsoft

Active Server Pages (ASP)
Active Server Pages (ASP)
Developer(s)	Microsoft
Stable release	3.0 / February 17, 2000; 25 years ago
Type	Web application framework
License	Proprietary software
Website	www.asp.net

Active Server Pages (ASP) is Microsoft's first server-side scripting language and engine for dynamic web pages.

It was first released in December 1996, before being superseded in January 2002 by ASP.NET.

Architecture

ASP uses scripting on the server to generate content that is sent to the client's web browser via HTTP response. The ASP interpreter reads and executes all script code between <% and %> tags, the result of which is content generation. These scripts were written using VBScript, JScript, or PerlScript. The @Language directive, the <script language="manu" runat="server" /> syntax or server configuration can be used to select the language. In the example below, Response.Write Now() is in an HTML page; it would be dynamically replaced by the current time of the server.

Server side	Client Side
The server's current time: <% Response.Write Now() %>	The server's current time: 8/11/2015 6:24:45 PM

Web pages with the .asp filename extension use ASP, although some web sites disguise their choice of scripting language for security purposes by using the more common .htm or .html extensions. Pages with the .aspx extension use compiled ASP.NET; however, ASP.NET pages may still include some ASP scripting. The introduction of ASP.NET led to use of the term Classic ASP for the original technology.

Sun Java System ASP (formerly ChiliSoft ASP) was a popular and reportedly complete emulator,^[1] but it has been discontinued.

The Server object

The server object allows connections to databases (ADO), filesystem, and use of components installed on the server.

<%
Dim oAdoCon, oAdoRec, oAdoStm, oCdoCon, oCdoMsg, oSciDic, oSciFsm, oMswAdr

Set oAdoCon = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
Set oAdoRec = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")
Set oAdoStm = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Stream")
Set oCdoCon = Server.CreateObject("CDO.Configuration")
Set oCdoMsg = Server.CreateObject("CDO.Message")
Set oSciDic = Server.CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")
Set oSciFsm = Server.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set oMswAdr = Server.CreateObject("MSWC.Swingbridge")
%>

The Application object

This object stores global variables, which are variables accessible to all users.

<%
Application("Ali") = "My ASP Application"
Response.Write "Welcome to " & Server.HTMLEncode(Application("Ali")) & "!"
%>

The Session object

Stores variables accessible only to a single visitor, which are local variables.

<%
If Len(Request.QueryString("name")) > 0 Then
     Session("name") = Request.QueryString("name") 
End If

Response.Write "Welcome " & Server.HTMLEncode(Session("name")) & "!"
%>

The session object is file based and multiple concurrent read and/or write requests will be blocked and processed in turn.

The Err object

Allows the management and fixing of non-fatal errors.

<%
On Error Resume Next

Response.Write 1 / 0 ' Division by zero

If Err.Number <> 0 Then
     Response.Write "Error Code: " & Server.HTMLEncode(Err.Number) & "<br />"
     Response.Write "Error Source: " & Server.HTMLEncode(Err.Source) & "<br />"
     Response.Write "Error Description: " & Server.HTMLEncode(Err.Description) & "<br />"
     Err.Clear 
End If 
%>

References

^ Weissinger, Keyton (6 October 2009). ASP in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference. O'Reilly Media, Inc. ISBN 978-1-4493-7959-9. Retrieved 9 October 2013.

External links

[Weissinger2009-1] Weissinger, Keyton (6 October 2009). ASP in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference. O'Reilly Media, Inc. ISBN 978-1-4493-7959-9. Retrieved 9 October 2013.

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