ASP.NET

1. What is ASP?

Ans:ASP stands for Active Server Pages

• ASP is a program that runs inside IIS

• IIS stands for Internet Information Services

• IIS comes as a free component with Windows 2000

• IIS is also a part of the Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack

The Option Pack can be downloaded from Microsoft

PWS is a smaller - but fully functional - version of IIS

PWS can be found on your Windows 95/98 CD

ASP Compatibility

ASP is a Microsoft Technology

To run IIS you must have Windows NT 4.0 or later

To run PWS you must have Windows 95 or later

ChiliASP is a technology that runs ASP without Windows OS

InstantASP is another technology that runs ASP without Windows

2.What is an ASP File?

An ASP file is just the same as an HTML file

An ASP file can contain text, HTML, XML, and scripts

Scripts in an ASP file are executed on the server

An ASP file has the file extension ".asp"

3.How Does ASP Differ from HTML?

When a browser requests an HTML file, the server returns the file

When a browser requests an ASP file, IIS passes the request to the ASP engine. The ASP engine reads the ASP file, line by line, and executes the scripts in the file. Finally, the ASP file is returned to the browser as plain HTML

4.What can ASP do for you?

Dynamically edit, change or add any content of a Web page

Respond to user queries or data submitted from HTML forms

Access any data or databases and return the results to a browser

Customize a Web page to make it more useful for individual users

The advantages of using ASP instead of CGI and Perl, are those of simplicity and speed

Provide security since your ASP code can not be viewed from the browser

Clever ASP programming can minimize the network traffic

Important: Because the scripts are executed on the server, the browser that displays the ASP file does not need to support scripting at all!

5.How to Run ASP on your own PC

You can run ASP on your own PC without an external server. To do that, you must install Microsoft's Personal Web Server (PWS) or Internet Information Services (IIS) on your PC.

If you are serious about using ASP, you should have at least Windows 98, Second Edition.

If you are really serious about using ASP, you should go for Windows 2000.

6.How to install PWS and run ASP on Windows 95

Personal Web Server (PWS) is not shipped with Windows 95 !!

To run ASP on Windows 95, you will have to download "Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack" from Microsoft.

Download the "Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack"

How to install PWS and run ASP on Windows NT

Personal Web Server (PWS) is not shipped with Windows NT !!

To run ASP on Windows NT, you will have to download "Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack" from Microsoft.

Download the "Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack"

7.How to install PWS and run ASP on Windows 98

Open the Add-ons folder on your Windows98 CD, find the PWS folder and run the setup.exe file.

An Inetpub folder will be created on your harddrive. Open it and find the wwwroot folder.

Create a new folder, like "MyWeb", under wwwroot.

Use a text editor to write some ASP code, save the file as "test1.asp" in the "MyWeb" folder.

Make sure your Web server is running - The installation program has added a new icon on your task bar (this is the PWS symbol). Click on the icon and press the Start button in the window that appears.

Open your browser and type in "http://localhost/MyWeb/test1.asp", to view your first ASP page.

8.How to install IIS and run ASP on Windows 2000

From your Start Button, go to Settings, and Control Panel

In the Control Panel window select Add/Remove Programs

In the Add/Remove window select Add/Remove Windows Components

In the Wizard window check Internet Information Services, click OK

An Inetpub folder will be created on your harddrive

Open the Inetpub folder, and find a folder named wwwroot

Create a new folder, like "MyWeb", under wwwroot.

Use a text editor to write some ASP code, save the file as "test1.asp" in the "MyWeb" folder

Make sure your Web server is running - The installation program has added a new icon on your task bar (this is the IIS symbol). Click on the icon and press the Start button in the window that appears.

Open your browser and type in "http://localhost/MyWeb/test1.asp", to view your first ASP page

For Further Information see www.asp.net