Learning ASP Series -- Your First ASP Page
ASP pages (Active Server Pages page sounds a bit melodramatic
but its easier to refer to them like this) are nothing but web
pages. The difference is that they have an extension .ASP and
you write the code in a Server Side Scripting language.
Do we know what's Server Side Scripting? This doesn't actually
matter if we delve into such nitty-gritty, but let's sound a bit
philosophically intellectual. Now, there are two sorts of
scripting languages:
Server Side (the hosting server where all the pages and programs
reside)
Client Side (the web surfer using the browser - actually the
browser is the client)
No, we are not talking about some corporate politics with all
this "siding" talk. Ok, before I begin with my bad sense of
humor, "Client Side Scripting" is what we generally see when we
code basic Java Scripts in our web pages to validate HTML forms
or implementing those cool image rollover effects or opening
custom popup windows etc. When you view the source of an HTML
page, and if the Java Script has been written in the page itself
(they have external Java Scripts too, but then that's a
different story), then you can see the script with all it's gory
details. A simple example of a Client Side Script written in
Java Script is:
And then you can use it when the page loads:
A Server Side Script, on the other hand, does not manifest
itself when you try to use the "View Source" option of your
browser. It is a server side matter so unless you have the
actual access to the server, you cannot view the portion
containing the server side coding. But yes, the rest of the HTML
matter is visible.
A typical ASP page looks like:
==> Page Begins <==
<%@Language=VBScript%> <% Option Explicit %>
< itle> </head> <body> <% Dim SayThis SayThis =
"Finally, I'm learning ASP!" Response.Write SayThis %> </body>
</html>
==> Page Ends <==
Provided you've configured your PWS in an amicable manner, this
docile file should show up without fuss. You can copy/paste this
page as it is using your preferred editor, and save the file as
"basic.asp".
As you know, a basic HTML web page begins with the <html> tag,
when you begin to work with an ASP page, try to make the first
line as:
<%@Language=VBScript%> <% Option Explicit %>
The first line tells the concerned authorities that the
following code is going to contain VBScript syntax.
The second line forces us to declare every variable before we
use it. We'll come back to this later when we are in a more
aware state of mind.
My preferred script for ASP is VBScript, so most of my
ponderings will be in this language. A few daredevils write
their ASP pages in Perl too, but personally I feel it is an
overkill and they are just trying to either show off or the
features they want to use only exist in Perl. For that matter,
even C++ is used for making ASP pages.
Anyway, done with the first line, are we?
As you can observe, we have all the quintessential HTML tags in
an ASP page too, but they are only necessary if you intend to
display the page to your visitors. If the page just includes a
script that performs some programming function and then loads
some other page, you can simply have the pure ASP code with
first line as <% and the last line is %>.
==> End of Chapter Two <==
Note to the Reader: If you found this chapter useful, please let
me know at mailto:amrit@bytesworth.com.
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