Introduction To ASP

ASP(Classic)

Microsoft Active Server Pages(ASP) is a server-side scripting  technology. ASP is a technology that Microsoft created to ease the development of interactive Web application. With ASP we can use client-side scripts as well as sever-side scripts. Maybe we want to validate use input or access a database. ASP provides solutions for transaction processing and managing session state. ASP is one of the most successful language used in web development.

Problems with Traditional ASP

• Interpreted and Loosely-Typed Code :-

                                                                        ASP scripting code is usually written in language such as JScript or VBScript. The script-execution engine that Active Server Pages relies on interprets code line by line,  every time the page is called. In addition, although variables are supported, they are all loosely typed as variants and bound to particular types only when the code is run. Both these impede performance, and late binding of types marks it harder to catch errors whey you are writing code.

• Mixes Layout (HTML) And Logic(Script Code):-

                                                                                 ASP files frequently combine script code with HTML. This result in ASP scripts that are lengthy, difficult to read and switch frequently between code and HTML. The interspersion of HTML with ASP code is particular problematic for large web applications, where content must be kept separate from business logic.

• Limited Development And Debugging Tools :-

                                                                             Microsoft Visual InterDev, Macromedia Visual UltraDev, and other tools have attempted to increase the productivity of ASP programmers by providing graphical development environment.  However, these tools never achieved the ease of user or the level of acceptance achieved by Microsoft Windows application tools, such as Visual Basic or Microsoft Access. ASP developers still rely heavily or exclusively on Notepad.

Debugging is an unavoidable part of any software development process, and the debugging tools for ASP have been minimal. Most ASP programmers resort to embedding temporary Response. Write statement in their code to trace the progress of its execution.

• No Real State Management :-

                                                       Session state is only maintained if the client   browser supports cookies. Session state information can only be held by using the ASP Session object. And we have to implement additional code if we want to identify the user.

• Update Files Only When Server Is Down :-

                                                                           If our web application makes use of components, copying new files to our application should only be when the Web server is stopped. Otherwise it is like pulling the rug from under our application’s feet, because the components may be in use(and locked) and must be registered.

• Obscure Configuration Settings :- 

                                                                             The Configuration Information for an ASP web application(such as session state and sever timeout) is stored in the IIS metabas. Because the metabase is stored in a property format, it can only be modified on the server machine with utilities such as the Internet Service Manger. With limited support for programmatically Manipulating or extracting these settings, it is often an arduous task to port an ASP application from one server to another.

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Introduction To ASP.NET

ASP.NET INTRODUCTION

ASP.NET is a web application framework developed and marked by Microsoft to allow programmers to build dynamic websites, web application  and web services. It was first released in January 2002 with version 1.0 of the .NET framework, and it is successor to Microsoft’s Active Server Pages(ASP) technology. ASP.NET  is built on the Common Language Runtime(CLR) allowing programmers to write ASP.NET code using any supported .NET language.

Advantages Of ASP.NET

• Separation Of Code From HTML :- 

                                                                    To make a clean sweep, with ASP.NET we have  the ability to completely separate layout and business logic. This makes it much easier for teams of programmer and designers to collaborate efficiently.

• Support For Compiled Languages :-

                                                                   Developer can use VB.NET and access features such as strong typing and object – oriented programming. Using compiled languages also means that ASP.NET pages do not suffer the performance penalties associated with interpreted code. ASP.NET pages are pre-compiled to byte-code and Just In Time(JIT) compiled when first requested Subsequent request are directed to the fully compiled code, which is cached until the source changes.

• Use Services Provided By The .NET Framework :-

                                                                    The .NET Framework provides class libraries that can be used by our application. Some of the key classes  help us with input/output, access to operating systems services, data access  or even debugging.

• Graphical Development Environment :-

                                                                   Visual Studio.NET provides a very rich development environment  for web developers. You can drag and drop controls and set properties the way we do in Visual Basic and we have full IntelliSense support, not only for our code, but also for HTML and XML.

• State Management :-

                                          To refer the problem mentioned before, ASP.NET provides solutions for session and application state management. State information can, for example, be kept in memory or stored in a database. It can be shared across Web farms, and state information can be recovered, even if the server fails or the connection breaks down.

•  Update Files While The Server Is Running :-

                                                                      Components of our application can be updated while the server is online and clients  are connected.  The Framework will use the new files as soon as they are copied to the application. Removed or old files that are still in use are kept in memory until the clients have finished.

• XML-Based Configuration Files :-

                                                                  Configuration  settings in ASP.NET are stored in XML files that we can easily read and edit. We can also easily copy these to another server, along with the other files that comprise our application.

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