Web Development – ASP

ASP (Active Server Pages) is the technology developed by Microsoft for creating dynamic pages from the server. ASP is written in the same web page, using the language named as Visual Basic Script or JScript (Microsoft JavaScript).

A server-side language is one that runs on your web server, just before the page is sent via Internet to the customer. The pages that are running on the server can make access to databases, networking, and other tasks to create the final page. The client only receives an HTML page with the code resulting from the implementation of the ASP page. Since the resulting page contains only HTML code, it is compatible with all browsers. We can know more about the programming of the server and client in this article.

The type of servers that use this language are obviously those that work with Windows NT system, but can also be used on a PC with Windows 98 if you install a server called Personal Web Server. Even in Linux we can use the ASP if a component called Chilisoft is installed, although it seems clear that it will be better to work on the web server that is designed for: Internet Information Server.

With the ASP you can perform many different types of applications. We are allowed to access databases, file system server and to all the resources that have the server itself. We also have the option of buying ActiveX components manufactured by different companies which provide software development for multiple uses, such as sending email, generate graphs dynamically, and a long etcetera.

Currently there is already a better version of ASP, ASP.NET, which includes some improvements in the possibilities of language and how quickly it works. ASP.NET has some differences as to the ASP syntax, so they are sure to be treated differently from one another.