Introduction to Active Server Pages ASP

1
Introduction to Active Server Pages (ASP)

• Marios Tziakouris
• University of Cyprus
• EPL602
• Fall 2004

2
Objectives

• What is ASP?
• Compare and contrast ASP with standard HTML
• Compare ASP to client-side and server-side
  scripting languages
• ASP Crash Course
• ASP Objects

3
Objectives (continued)

• Connecting to databases
• Tools you need to create ASP applications
• Steps to start developing
• Reference tools
• Myths of ASP
• Conclusions and Q A

4
What is ASP?

• Active Server Pages (ASP). Now version 3.0
• Microsoft Technology running on Internet
  Information Services (IIS)
• Its not a language neither an application
  primarily it is a technology
• A series of objects and components that are
  executed on the web server
• Uses a suite of technologies that allows
  dynamically-generated content
• Control of how content is generated from the
  server to the browsers

5
HTML Page Execution
You Request an HTML Pagewww.cs.ucy.ac.cy/resumes.
htm
Server finds and downloads the page
Browser displays the page
6
ASP Page Execution
7
ASP Compared to Other Scripting Languages

• ASP and /JSP/PHP/Perl/CGI execution are roughly
  equivalent in execution sequence
• Compared to client-side VBScript, ASP does not
  have to worry about browser incompatibility
• Compared to client-side JavaScript, dont have to
  worry about browser versions or disabling

8
ASP in the Microsoft Language Family

• The ASP commands...

Visual Basic
VBScript
ASP

• But theres more to ASP than just code...

9
ASP in the Microsoft Language Family

• Some characterize ASP as more or less
  server-side VBScript
• Arguments supporting this statement
• Syntax is largely the same
• Arguments against this statement
• More security in connecting to Databases
• More extensibility provided by the use of COM/DCOM

10
ASP in the Microsoft Language Family

• ASP can also interact with other Microsoft
  languages or applications
• Execute SQL commands
• Open and close databases
• Create and Modify database tables
• Control applications or COM objects written or
  compiled in other languages (VB, C, Java)
• Extract content from Excel or Word
• Control an XML document

11
ASP Crash Course

• Embedding ASP in HTML
• Adding dynamic content
• Variables and data types
• Operators
• Control Structures
• ASP Objects
• Forms handling and Querystrings
• Session Handling
• Session and application scope global.asa
• Cookies

12
ASP Crash Course (cont.)

• Embedding ASP in HTML
• lthtmlgt
• ltbodygt
• ltstronggtHello World!lt/stronggtltbr /gt
• lt
• Response.Write ltbgtMy First ASP pagelt/bgt
• gt
• lt/bodygt
• lt/htmlgt
• Tagging
• lt _at_LANGUAGE VBScript gt
• ltgt
• Script ltscript languageVBScript
  RUNATSERVERgtlt/scriptgt

13
ASP Crash Course (cont.)

• Dynamically generated content
• lt If Date() gt CDate("5/25/01") Then gt
• ltpgtAnalytical Ultracentrifugation Workshop
  (May 21-23, 2001) and Symposium (May 24, 2001) at
  the National Analytical Ultracentrifugation
  Facility, Storrs, Conn. For additional
  informationlt/pgt
• ltulgtltligtlta href"http//www.ucc.uconn.edu/www
  biotc/99wkshp.html" target"_blank"gtNational
  Analytical Ultracentrifugation Facilitylt/agtlt/ligt
• ltligtlta href"naufworkshop.asp"gtAnalytical
  Ultracentrifugation Workshop and Symposium
  Description and Registration (PDF
  Format)lt/agtlt/ligt
• lt/ulgt
• lt End If gt

14
ASP Crash Course (cont.)
15
ASP Crash Course (cont.)

• Including code/HTML into your page
• lt
• Set objRec Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset
  ")
• Set objConn Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connecti
  on")
• gt
• lt!-- INCLUDE FILE "../adovbs.inc" --gt
• lt!-- INCLUDE FILE "../connection.asp" --gt
• lt
• objRec.Open "Articles", objConn, adOpenKeyset,
  adLockOptimistic, adCmdTable
• gt
• Include file are executed before the scripts
• Confidential info must be stored in files with
  .asp extension
• Content can be included from a local or remote
  source

16
ASP Crash Course (cont.)

• Variables
• Variable names must begin with alphabetical
  character
• Variable names must not contain embedded full
  stops
• Variable names are case-insensitive
• Max length 255
• All variables have local scope
• Example
• Numberoftowns 6
• Capital Nicosia

17
ASP Crash Course (cont.)

• Data Types
• As with many scripting languages ASP (VBScript)
  does not have explicit data types
• Only one data type called Variant
• Can store any data type
• ASP automatically assigns subtypes to Variants
  i.e. numeric (integer, single, double), string,
  data, boolean and special
• Forcing a data type by casting
• strPi 3.142
• intPi CInt(strPi)
• dbPi CDbl(strPi)

18
ASP Crash Course (cont.)

• Operators
• Assignment (e.g. )
• Arithmetic (e.g. , -, ,/)
• Comparison (e.g. lt, gt, gt, ltgt)
• Logical (e.g. AND, OR, NOT)
• Arrays
• One-Dimension Dim MyArray(10)
• Multi-Dimension Dim MyMultiArray(10,10)

19
ASP Object Model

• ASP itself is not Object-Oriented. ASP can use
  objects but cannot define new objects
• Composed of
• 5 objects
• 5 components

20
ASP Objects

• Built-in objects that allows for the following
• Communicate with a Web browser
• Gather data sent by HTTP request
• Distinguish between users
• Objects
• Request
• Response
• Server
• Application
• Session

21
ASP Objects

• Response Object
• Sends information to client (HTML, text)
• lt _at_LANGUAGE VBScript gt
• lt
• Option Explicit
• gt
• ltheadgt
• lttitlegtA Simple ASP Examplelt/titlegt
• lt/headgt
• ltbodygt
• ltpgtltstronggtA Simple ASP
  Examplelt/stronggtlt/pgt
• lttable border "6"gt
• lttrgtlttdgt
• lt Response.write ltBgt FormatDateTime( Now,
  vbLongDate ) lt/Bgtgt
• lt/tdgtlt/trgtlt/tablegt
• lt/bodygt
• lt/htmlgt

22
ASP Objects

• Redirect to another page
• ltif Request.Form("selection")ltgt"" then      
  Response.Redirect(thispage.asp)end ifgt 
• Ending the execution of a page (and script)
• lthtmlgtltbodygt
• ltpgtI am writing some text. This text will never
  beltbrgt
• lt
• Response.End
• gt
• finished! It's too late to write more!lt/pgt
• lt/bodygtlt/htmlgt

23
ASP objects

• Request Object
• Handles GET or POST information
• Data provided by the user in an HTML form or
  passed by the querystring
• Access to information stored on client machine
• i.e. userlogin Request.Form(login)
• i.e. selection Request.Querystring(selection)

24
ASP Objects Example

• ltheadgt
• lttitlegtName Requestlt/titlegt
• lt/headgt
• ltbodygt
• ltp style "font-family arial,
  sans-serif"gt
• Enter your name
• lt/pgt
• lt!-- request name.asp when posted --gt
• ltform action "name.asp" method
  "post"gt
• ltinput type "text" name "namebox"
  size "20" /gt
• ltinput type "submit" name
  "submitButton"
• value "Enter" /gt
• lt/formgt
• lt/bodygt
• lt/htmlgt

25
ASP Objects Example

• lt _at_LANGUAGE VBScript gt
• lt
• ' Another simple ASP example
• Option Explicit
• gt
• ltheadgt
• lttitlegtName Informationlt/titlegt
• ltstyle type "text/css"gt
• p font-family arial,
  sans-serif
• font-size 14pt color
  navy
• .special font-size 20pt color
  green
• lt/stylegt
• lt/headgt
• ltbodygt
• lt!-- retrieve and display namebox's value
  --gt
• ltpgtHi lt Response.write Request.Form(
  "namebox" ) gt, lt/pgtltbr /gt
• ltp class "special"gtWelcome to ASP!lt/pgt
  
• lt/bodygt
• lt/htmlgt

26
ASP objects

• How the information is handled
• Main communication device between pages and the
  server is by Forms
• Information can be transmitted or transferred
  from page to page in an application by
• Submitting a form
• Sending a URL-encoded string www.cs.ucy.ac.cy/m
  eetingadmin/edit.asp?ID5
• Storing data as a Session variable

27
ASP Objects

• Server Object
• Provides access to server methods or properties
• Examples
• Create an instance of an ActiveX Component
• ltSet objRecServer.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordse
  t")gt
• Convert a virtual path to physical path
• Server.MapPath(login.asp)
• Perform HTML encoding
• Server.HTMLEncode

28
ASP Objects

• Application Object
• An ASP application is a series of pages that are
  linked together through code
• Application_OnStart Event Runs once when the
  first page of your application is run for the
  first time by any user
• Application_OnEnd Event Runs once when the web
  server shuts down
• Store application level variables (kind of
  Globals)
• All must be done within the global.asa file
• One per application
• Placed at the root directory
• Called when an application starts/ends

29
ASP Objects global.asa

• Global.asa
• ltSCRIPT LANGUAGE'VBScript' RUNAT'Server'gt
• Sub Application_OnStart
• application(connectionstring) DSNconn
• End Sub
• Sub Session_OnStart
• Session(lng) EN
• End Sub
• lt/SCRIPTgt

30
ASP objects

• Session Object Session Handling
• Web is stateless/connectionless
• Need a way to track information per user
• Session ID
• randomly generated
• stored as a cookie on the clients browser
• security issues (session hijacking)
• Stored on the web server
• Session_OnStart Initiates when user establishes
  connection
• Session_OnEnd Expires when user closes
  connection
• Set in the Global.asa

31
ASP Objects

• Use Session Object to
• Be notified when a user session starts
• Be notified when a user session ends
• Store user-specific information (very important)
• Example
• Page 1
• ltSESSION(FName) Request.Form(FName)
• SESSION(lName) Request.Form(lName)
• gt
• Page 2
• lt
• Response.Write SESSION(FName) . .
  SESSION(LName)
• gt

32
ASP Cookies

• For persistent cookies (set before the ltHTMLgt
  tag)
• To write a cookie use
• Response.Cookies(lang) EN
• To retrieve a cookie use
• Lang Request.Cookies(lang)
• To set an expiration date
• Response.Cookies(lang).Expires Date() 1
• To delete a cookie
• Response.Cookies(lang).Expires Date() - 1

33
ASP Components

• Scripting Objects Component
• File System
• Dictionary
• ADO (ActiveX Data Objects) Component
• Connecting to Databases and data stores
• Ad Rotator Component
• Browser Capabilities Component

34
Connecting to databases

• Primary reason why ASP technology was created
• Two methods
• Via ODBC
• Via OLE-DB objects (faster)
• Highly facilitated by ADO technology which stands
  above ODBC/OLE-DB
• ASP can connect to virtually any data store

35
Terminology

• ODBC Open Database Connectivity is a standard
  method of connecting an application or system to
  a database. Most database vendors provide ODBC
  drivers so that you can use ODBC as a method of
  connecting to and querying their database.
• DSN Data Source Name is a joining point between
  the database server and any application wishing
  to query the database. Programs then wishing to
  connect to and query a database using ODBC can
  reference this DSN to point to the required
  database.
• OLE-DB Microsoft alternative to ODBC its
  faster and is based on data consumers and data
  providers
• ADO ActiveX Data Objects is a Microsoft to hide
  all the complexities of OLE-DB and ODBC and is
  what we use to store and retrieve information
  from data stores

36
Connection Strings

• DSN requires DSN
• DSN Contacts UIDweb_user PWDnone
• DSN-less (MS Access)
• DriverMicrosoft Access Driver (.mdb)
• DBQC\inetpub\wwwroot\MyWeb\Contacts.mdb
• DSN-less (MS SQL Server)
• DriverSQL Server ServerSQLServer
  DatabaseContacts UIDweb_user PWDnone

37
Objects

• Three basic objects
• Connection
• Handles the retrieval and storage to the
  datastore Set objConn Server.CreateObject("ADO
  DB.Connection")
• Command
• Handles the retrieval and storage to the
  datastore with extended functionality (stored
  procedures with data types)
• Set objCommand Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Comm
  and")
• Recordset
• Contains the set of data retrieved from the
  database
• Set objRec Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordse
  t")

38

• lthtmlgt
• ltheadgtltTITLEgtLogin Pagelt/TITLEgt
• ltmeta http-equiv"Content-Type"
  content"text/html charsetwindows-1252"gt
• ltLINK href"style.css" relstylesheet
  titleunit_style typetext/cssgt
• ltbase target"main"gtltBASE target_selfgtlt/headgt
• ltBODY bgColorffffddgtltPgtltBRgtlt/pgt
• ltUserLogin Request.Form("UserLogin")
• UserPassword Request.Form("UserPassword")
• ' Validate Nulls
• If IsNull(UserLogin) OR IsEmpty(UserLogin) Then
• Response.Write "You did not enter your Login
  Name"
• Else
• Set objConn Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connecti
  on")
• Set objRec Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordse
  t")gt
• lt!-- INCLUDE FILE "connection.asp" --gt
• lt!-- INCLUDE FILE "adovbs.inc" --gt
• lt
• SQLstr"Select from Users Where user_Username
  '" UserLogin "'"
• objRec.Open SQLstr, objConn, adOpenKeyset,
  adLockReadOnly, adCmdText

ltobjConn.Open "DSNcms_datagt
39

• Set Conn Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
• Conn.Open DSNTOPDB"
• SqlStr "Select from tblCompany WHERE
  CompanysName'" Session("CName") "'"
• SET RS Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")
• RS.ActiveConnection Conn
• RS.open sqlStr , objConn, adOpenKeyset,
  adLockReadOnly, adCmdText
• If Not (RS.EOF) Then
• str "ltligtltfont color3333FFgtltbgtCompany name
  already exists! Please choose another
  one.lt/bgtlt/fontgtlt/ligt "
• showError str, "Add_Company.asp"
• Response.End
• End if
• Set objCommand Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Command
  ")
• strConnect DSNTOPDB"
• objCommand.ActiveConnection strConnect

Add records to database Method using Command
object
40

• ltSet objConn Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connect
  ion")
• Set objRec Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset"
  )gt
• lt!-- INCLUDE FILE "adovbs.inc" --gt
• lt!-- INCLUDE FILE "connection.asp" --gt
• lt
• if request.querystring("task") addnew" then
• objRec.Open "Customers", objConn, adOpenKeyset,
  adLockOptimistic, adCmdTable
• objRec.AddNew
• objRec("cus_FName") Request.Form("FName")
• objRec("cus_LName") Request.Form("LName")
• objRec("cus_Address") Request.Form("Address")
• objRec("cus_Town") Request.Form("Town")
• objRec("cus_Country") Request.Form("Country")
• objRec("cus_Email") Request.Form("Email")
• objRec("cus_login") Request.Form("UserName")
• objRec("cus_Password") Request.Form("Password")
  

Insert record into database Method using ADO
41
Tools You Need to Create ASP Applications

• Web Server that Supports ASP
• Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS)Web
  services of Windows NT Server 4.0 and Windows
  2000 Server
• Microsoft Personal Web Server (PWS) Creates a
  fully functional subset of IIS 4.0 that can run
  on all other Windows OS
• PWS is an add-on for Windows NT, 95/98/Me
• Built-in to Windows 2000/XP PROFESSIONAL
• Fundamental knowledge of Visual Basic

42
Tools You Need to Create ASP Applications

• If you are working with database
  storage/retrieval
• Knowledge of Access, SQL Server, etc. (to create
  databases and tables)
• Knowledge of SQL commands (or at least how to use
  Access to generate SQL statements)
• Knowledge of the VB style of data handling (ADO)
• Authoring tool(s)

43
ASP Application Development Tools

• Development Tools
• Microsoft Visual InterDev
• Visual Studio .NET
• Microsoft FrontPage
• Visual Basic
• Microsoft Access
• Other Non-Microsoft Tools (editors)

44
Steps to start developing

• Create Web application in Internet Information
  Server (IIS)
• Create MS Access Database
• Create ODBC to point to MS Access
• Open application with Microsoft FrontPage or any
  other tool to prepare layout
• Open application with Visual InterDev or any
  other tool (FrontPage) for writing code
• Test application using the browser

45
Create Web application in Internet Information
Server (IIS)

• Create a folder with your application name in
  C\inetpub\wwwroot
• Go to IIS Control Panel-gtAdministrative
  Tools-gtInternet Information Server
• Find folder created -gtGo to Properties
• Click on create application - Sample
• Create a test page and test that application is
  working http//localhost/hw1/test.asp

46
Create MS Access Database

• Create a new Access database
• Save into a folder outside the Web Root (for
  security reasons not required for the
  assignment)
• Give write permissions to the database file for
  the anonymous user (IUSR-ComputerName)- sample

47
Create ODBC to point to MS Access

• Go to Control Panel-gtAdministrative Tools-gtData
  Sources (ODBC)
• Create a System DSN
• Give it a meaningful DSN name

48
Open application with Microsoft FrontPage

• Start FrontPage
• Go to File-gtOpen Web
• Type http//localhost/hw1
• Might be necessary to convert folder to web
• WYSIWYG Microsoft Word style

49
Open application with Visual InterDev for writing
code

• Visual InterDev is a part of Microsoft Visual
  Studio 6
• Alternatively use FrontPage or Notepad

50
Test application using the browser

• http//localhost/hw1

51
ASP Reference Tools

• Microsoft Web Site (www.microsoft.com)
• Knowledge Base for different Microsoft products
  and Web developer issues
• MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) Web site for
  subscribers and/or owners of VStudio
• Google or other search engines
• http//www.asptoday.com
• http//www.4GuysFromRolla.com
• http//www.aspfree.com

52
ASP Reference Tools

• ASP Reference Books
• ASP Developers Guide, by Greg BuczekISBN
  0-07-212274-3
• Beginning Active Server Pages, by Francis et
  alISBN 1-861001-34-7
• Professional Active Server Pages, by Francis et
  alISBN 1-861001-26-6

Online version of this book is on the Microsoft
Web sitehttp//www.microsoft.com/TechNet/iis/book
s.asp
53
ASP Reference Tools

• ASP Reference Books (continued)
• Using Active Server Pages, by Scot JohnsonISBN
  0-7897-1389-6
• VBScript
• VBScript Unleashed, by Petrousos, Schongar et
  alISBN 1-57521-124-6

54
Major Sites Using ASP

• Microsoftwww.microsoft.com
• NASDAQwww.nasdaq.com
• Beckman Coulterwww.beckmancoulter.com
• PC-Mac Connectionwww.pcconnection.com
• Ticketmasterwww.ticketmaster.com
• State Farm and Allstate Ins. Companieswww.statefa
  rm.com / www.allstate.com

55
Myths/Criticisms of ASP

• ASP is Microsoft/Windows centric
• ASP doesnt work with Netscape
• ASP pages are not recognized by Search Engines
• ASP is slow because its interpreted (or
  because its Microsoft)
• ASP doesnt work with client-side scripting
  languages, especially JavaScript

56
Conclusion

• ASP is another tool in your arsenal to control
  information
• ASP may lead you to the dark side programming
  mainly a script language
• Future of ASP What Lies BeneathMicrosoft
  FrameWork.NET, a successor to Visual Studio
  compiled ASP

57
Questions?
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