INTRODUCTION

Active server pages (ASP) and ASP.NET are server side programming technologies d
eveloped by Microsoft Corporation. Server-side programs run on Web servers and a
re used for dynamically generating Web pages. Many data-intensive Web applicatio
ns, such as Web-based e-mail, online banking, news, weather, and search engines,
require the use of server-side programs. Server-side programming is also useful
for many other applications, such as collecting data, processing online payment
s, and controlling access to information. Server-side programs are executed each
time a Web user requests a dynamically generated Web page. ASP and ASP.NET Web
pages are identified by the file extensions .asp and .aspx, respectively.
The primary advantage of server-side programming technologies is their ability t
o utilize databases. Databases are very efficient and powerful tools used for st
oring and retrieving data. Most sophisticated Web applications utilize databases
for storing their data. Server-side programming is also very reliable. Servers
provide a more stable, secure, and controllable programming environment then the
client’s browser.
In addition to ASP and ASP.NET other popular server-side Web technologies includ
e Perl, PHP, J2EE, Java server pages, Python, and ColdFusion. All of these techn
ologies run on the Web server and generate their output in HTML (hypertext marku
p language). The Web server sends the HTML to the client’s browser, which interpre
ts it and displays it as formatted text. Most server-side technologies have simi
lar capabilities; the primary functional differences between them are scalabilit
y and programming complexity.
Server-side technologies may work in conjunction with client-side technologies.
Client-side technologies are executed by the user’s browser and include JavaScript
, Java applets, and ActiveX controls. Client-side technologies are typically use
d for controlling browser display features, such as mouse rollovers, dynamic ima
ges, and opening new browser windows. The advantage of client-side technologies
is that the processing is done on the client’s machine, thus reducing the load on
the Web server. Client-side technologies can execute more quickly because they d
o not require the back-and-forth transmission of data between the client and the
server. However, the functionality of client-side technologies is limited due t
o their inability to access databases. They also require sending more data to th
e client, which can increase the time required to load a Web page.
Server-side technologies are more reliable than client side technologies. Becaus
e client-side technologies run on the user’s browser, they are dependent on the ca
pabilities of the browser. Because browsers vary in their capabilities, client-s
ide code that works well on one browser may not work on another. Server-side tec
hnologies, on the other hand, are always executed on the server. Because develop
ers know the capabilities of their server, the results are very predictable. The
y send only HTML to the client’s browser, which all browsers support fairly consis
tently.
Introduction of ASP and ASP.NET
Microsoft introduced ASP in December 1997 as a feature of its Internet Informati
on Server (IIS) 3.0. Most of the other popular server-side technologies were int
roduced prior to 1995, making ASP a relatively late entrant into the world of se
rver-side technologies. One year later, in December 1998, Microsoft released ASP
2.0 as part of the Windows NT4 option pack (a free download). Two years later,
IIS 3.0 was introduced as part of Windows 2000. Each release introduced modest i
mprovements in both functionality and performance.
Despite its late introduction, ASP quickly became a popular server-side technolo
gy. Its popularity was driven by both its ease of programming and the widespread
 availability of the IIS server, which is bundled free with several versions of
Microsoft’s Windows operating system.
On January 5, 2002 Microsoft released the successor of ASP called ASP.NET. ASP.N
ET 1.0 was introduced by Microsoft in February 2002.
ASP.NET differs significantly from ASP in its syntax, performance, and functiona
lity. In many ways ASP.NET is a new product rather than simply an upgrade of ASP
. ASP.NET was designed to support Microsoft’s .NET strategy and has extensive supp
ort for two technologies that are at the core of the strategy: XML (extensible m
arkup language) and SOAP (simple object access protocol). It was also designed t
o overcome some of the weakness of ASP in the area of scalability and reliabilit
y.
ASP.NET aims to make the transition to web programming easier for those who are
already knowledgeable in creating programs for Windows. ASP.NET also offered so
me improvements over its predecessor. Here are some of the advantages of ASP.NET
over ASP:
• ASP.NET takes advantage of the additional features in the .NET library allowing
its pages to be coded in any of the other languages included in .NET.
• ASP.NET also has a very wide array of libraries and controls that can be used to
build a web page quickly and easily. It also had a lot of the commonly used tem
plates like menus.
• Error Handling has also been improved compared to ASP by making use of the try-c
atch blocks and exception handling.
• A compiled code format allowed ASP.NET scripts to perform faster during executio
n since it doesn’t need to be compiled by the server when called. It also meant a
lot less errors when it is already deployed since errors were easily found when
you attempt to compile a script.
One of the best improvements of ASP.NET is the use of a WYSIWYG (What You See Is
What You Get) control creation system, that gave developers a GUI that helps th
em gain a quick visual feedback on the look of their page.
With all these improvements, it’s easy to see why most web page creators have stea
dily migrated towards the .NET version of ASP.
ASP and ASP.NET are both supported by Microsoft’s IIS server. ASP is supported by
all versions of IIS from 3.0 up and later. ASP engines are also available from t
hird party developers that support ASP on a number of non- Microsoft operating s
ystems and Web servers. The ASP.NET framework is a free download from Microsoft
and runs with IIS under Windows 2000 and later. It is designed for portability b
etween operating systems, and it is expected that third-party vendors will provi
de ASP.NET compilers for non-Microsoft servers and operating systems.
Framework
Both ASP and ASP.NET are programming frameworks rather than programming language
s. A framework is a bundle of technologies that work together to provide the too
ls needed for creating dynamic Web pages. The ASP framework provides support for
two scripting languages, seven server objects, and Microsoft’s ActiveX data objec
ts (ADO). The two scripting languages supported by Microsoft’s IIS server are VBSc
ript and Jscript, of which VBScript is the most popular because of its similarit
y to the widely used Visual Basic programming language. Third-party vendors offe
r ASP scripting engines that support other scripting languages, such as Perl and
Python. Much of ASP’s functionality is derived from a collection of seven server
objects. These intrinsic objects provide the tools for sending output to the use
r’s browser, receiving input from the client, accessing server resources, storing
data, writing files, and many other useful capabilities. The seven objects are a
pplication, ASPerror, objectcontext, request, response, session, and server. Eac
h object has a set of properties, methods, and events that are employed by the A
SP programmer to access the object’s functionality. The ASP framework provides dat
abase access through the recordset object, which is a member of Microsoft’s Active
X data objects (ADO). The recordset allows ASP scripts to utilize most commercia
l database products, including Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, Informix,
and Oracle.
The ASP.NET framework supports a large number of programming languages and opera
ting systems. Microsoft’s .NET framework provides native support for VB.NET, C# (p
ronounced C sharp), and Jscript.NET. Third-party vendors have announced plans to
produce “.NET-compliant” compilers for over a dozen other languages, including Eiff
el, Pascal, Python, C++, COBOL, Perl, and Java. The ASP.NET framework replaces A
SP’s seven server objects with an extensive “base class library.” The class library co
ntains hundreds of classes and offers considerably more functionality than do AS
P’s seven server objects. ASP.NET programmers access this code by initiating objec
ts from the class library. All ASP.NET programs utilize the same base class libr
ary regardless of the programming language used.
Scripting Versus Object-Oriented Programming Languages
An important difference between ASP and ASP.NET is that ASP uses scripting langu
ages whereas ASP.NET supports object-oriented programming languages. Scripting l
anguages are generally easier to write and understand, but their simple structur
e does not lend itself well to complex programs. Scripting languages are usually
interpreted languages, meaning that the server compiles them each time a page i
s served. ASP.NET supports object-oriented event-driven programming languages. O
bject-oriented languages organize computer code into small units of functionalit
y, called objects. The advantage of these languages is that they encapsulate fun
ctionality into small reusable objects. Writing and understanding object-oriente
d programs can be more difficult than understanding scripts, but the encapsulati
on of program functionality into discrete, reusable objects offers considerable
advantages in complex programs.