There are numerous sites that contain various articles and tutorials that can explain and teach
everything from basic ASP to advanced dynamic manipulation of internet information and user
interfaces. In this article we will introduce several positives and negatives of using this new
language framework and hopefully dispel some of the mysteries hidden in Microsoft’s ASP language.
Just over 10 years ago Microsoft poured money, time and considerable expertise into the development
of an online framework that would launch it into the forefront of the, then, newest rising
technology market, the internet. While many initially jumped onto the big ‘M’ bandwagon hoping to
capitalize on the promised power of this new initiative, many more chose a more cautious
‘wait-and-see’ approach. Many of these companies are now adopting ASPs in various situations where
it is best suited rather than using it for all their internet development needs.
Microsoft’s initiative has produced a strong, robust framework for many web design circumstances.
However, it does have a number of drawbacks. Chiefly, ASP sites are often not well suited to very
high volumes of traffic due to comparatively large code requirements, numerous browser
compatibilities issues and the requirement of Microsoft specific tools to serve up ASP pages and,
in the case of more complex functions, may require special applications to develop and/or maintain
the pages.
This may sound like an argument against using the ASP language in the design and development of an
internet presence. In actuality, the ASP language is extremely well suited to quickly develop most
small and medium sized personal and corporate web sites. The language itself can be characterized
as an extension of the Microsoft Visual Basic PC based language which many consider to be one of
the easiest to learn and use. As such it is an extremely simple framework for anyone to learn
quickly and become highly proficient with. ASPs can also natively plug into Microsoft robust Internet
Information Server (IIS) and by extension utilize ODBC, ADO and DAO to access numerous other
connectivity technologies and databases.
One of the greatest advantages of building ASP-based websites is the speed at which development can
be completed. Microsoft developed ASP with the Visual Studio development platform in mind. Visual
Studio provides all the tools, extensions and add-ons to produce exceptionally clean and fast web
pages with advanced functions and templates. It also provides the ability to preview your
development without requiring an ASP preprocessor or server.
Microsoft continues to forward the development of the ASP language and has included it in their
'next generation' framework known as .NET (Dot Net). This is a complex framework with strict
programming rules that can be used to create highly robust applications, programs, web pages and
database utilities. Microsoft defines .NET as "the Microsoft Web services strategy to connect
information, people, systems, and devices through software." It does this by exposing a number of
web services that can be exploited to create rich, highly functional application by connecting
backend programs and functions which can be written in alternate languages (most often Microsoft
specific languages) to the internet through standard internet technologies like XML, SOAP and
HTML. If you are already familiar with .NET then you will be familiar with the advantages of this
framework. Otherwise you may wish to investigate it more thoroughly on the Microsoft .NET
website. For more information on Microsoft .NET - Click Here -.
For the purposes of internet site development ASP provides an excellent platform from which to
create full, rich, dynamic websites for all smaller or medium sized personal or business needs.
Because of the requirement of Microsoft specific Servers and a relatively large ASP code base
required to serve dynamic pages the scalability and speed of execution make ASP coded sites to not
fit all situations. However, with the proper evaluation of web presence needs, the ASP language can
be a valuable development tool in the creation of most web sites.
Other Resources:
The ASP Resource Index - http://www.aspin.com
Provides a very complete set of resources for development in ASP
Genusa.Com - http://www.activeserverpages.com/genusa
Portal site listing over 140 other ASP resource web sites
4guysfromrolla.com - http://www.4guysfromrolla.com
Hosts numerous articles, tutorials and programmer forum boards
Note:
If you don’t wish to use the Microsoft specific Visual Studio you may utilize any number of third party
development tools, many of which are marketed free for personal use, to quickly create ASP websites.
For example, Yes Software (http://www.yessoftware.com) has
created the Code Charge Studio for the rapid development of web pages, sites, and applications for a
very reasonable rate.. It allows the creation of pages in numerous languages including ASP, PHP, JSP,
C# and PERL. As well, it provides a very rich set of extensions, frameworks, templates and database
tools to meet every development requirement. A downloadable 20 day fully featured demo version is
available for evaluation purposes.