Description:
Learn how to employ Active Server Pages (ASP) and VBScript to write powerful server-side code with the Active Server Pages Bible, a smooth introduction to Microsoft ASP technology. Although this is an entry-level text, it offers enough depth to teach you how to build database-driven Web sites. The techniques presented can easily be used to create online shopping carts and track customer profiles and other features that make professional-looking sites. Inside is an overview of key HTML elements such as tables, anchors, and images, plus an excellent tutorial to the VBScript language. The book points out key differences between VBScript and Visual Basic, such as the way each deals with variables, and discusses the circumstances that call for certain VBScript elements such as Do/Loop structures and Select/Case structures. Instead of making you wade through a formal presentation of the standard ASP objects, practical examples offer immediate hands-on experience. The book uses a common home page search box to introduce the Request and Response objects--the most frequently used ASP objects for any programmer. The form examples, which show how to process radio buttons and checkboxes, offer nice boilerplate code for every Web site you build. There's also an appetizing example of how to use cookies, which tracks a user's pizza size and topping preferences. This section is very accessible to readers, but it illustrates one of the most powerful features of ASP. A large part of the book is devoted to the construction of a series of Web pages that provide database browsing and editing via the Web. Beginning with an Access database, the author shows how to create drill-down data menus, update records, and issue queries based on user-specified criteria. Since database access is central to most sites, the example code used here will serve as a reference time and time again. Database paging--a technique many programmers struggle to implement--is also demystified and explained. Chapters on building Visual Basic COM components, using Microsoft Transaction Server, and WebClasses are included, but the coverage of components is a bit brief. The book finishes up with a walkthrough of a complete online discussion forum that shows how to construct an object-based, database-driven ASP application. If you've previously coded static HTML pages and want to move your talents to the next level with server-side processing, this is a good place to begin. --Stephen W. Plain Topics covered: Basic HTML, VBScript, server-side includes (SSI), ASP objects, cookies, Active Data Object (ADO), Microsoft Index Server, classes and components in Visual Basic, WebClasses, and Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) integration.
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