What You Should Already Know: Home Page
What You Should Already Know: Home Page
If you want to study these subjects first, find the tutorials on our Home Page
What is ASP?
ASP is a server side scripting technology that enables scripts (embedded in web pages) to be
executed by an Internet server.
• 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 on the
server
• The ASP engine reads the file, line by line, and executes the scripts in the file
• Finally, the ASP file is returned to the browser as plain HTML
Before you study ASP .NET, it would help to have a basic understanding of Microsoft's ASP
technology.
To learn more about ASP, you can study our ASP tutorial.
What is ASP+?
ASP+ is the same as ASP.NET.
ASP+ is just an early name used by Microsoft when they developed ASP.NET.
What is ASP.NET?
ASP 3.0 is the latest version of ASP, but there will never be an ASP 4.0 version.
ASP.NET is the next generation ASP, but it's not an upgraded version of ASP. ASP.NET is an entirely
new paradigm for server-side ASP scripting.
ASP.NET is a part of the .NET Framework. Microsoft spent three years rewriting ASP.NET from the
ground up, and ASP.NET is not fully backward compatible with ASP 3.0.
You can read more about the differences between ASP and ASP.NET in the next chapter of this
tutorial.
.NET Framework
The .NET Framework is the infrastructure for the Microsoft .NET platform.
The .NET Framework is an environment for building, deploying, and running Web applications and
Web Services.
The .NET Framework contains a common language runtime and common class libraries - like
ADO.NET, ASP.NET and Windows Forms - to provide advanced standard services that can be
integrated into a variety of computer systems.
The .NET Framework provides a feature-rich application environment, simplified development and
easy integration between a number of different development languages.
The .NET Framework is language neutral. Currently it supports C++, C#, Visual Basic, and JScript
(Microsoft's version of JavaScript).
Microsoft's Visual Studio.NET is a common development environment for the .NET Framework.
Language Support
ASP .NET uses the new ADO .NET.
ASP .NET supports full Visual Basic, not VBScript.
ASP .NET supports C# (C sharp) and C++.
ASP .NET supports JScript as before.
User Authentication
ASP .NET supports forms-based user authentication, including cookie management and automatic
redirecting of unauthorized logins.
(You can still do your custom login page and custom user checking).
High Scalability
Much has been done with ASP .NET to provide greater scalability.
Server to server communication has been greatly enhanced, making it possible to scale an
application over several servers. One example of this is the ability to run XML parsers, XSL
transformations and even resource hungry session objects on other servers.
Compiled Code
The first request for an ASP .NET page on the server will compile the ASP .NET code and keep a
cached copy in memory. The result of this is greatly increased performance.
Easy Configuration
Configuration of ASP .NET is done with plain text files.
Configuration files can be uploaded or changed while the application is running. No need to restart
the server. No more metabase or registry puzzle.
Easy Deployment
No more server restart to deploy or replace compiled code. ASP .NET simply redirects all new
requests to the new code.
Compatibility
ASP .NET is not fully compatible with earlier versions of ASP, so most of the old ASP code will need
some changes to run under ASP .NET.
To overcome this problem, ASP .NET uses a new file extension ".aspx". This will make ASP .NET
applications able to run side by side with standard ASP applications on the same server.
<script runat="server">
Sub Page_Load(Sender As Object,E As EventArgs)
image1.Src="smiley.gif"
image1.Alt="Smiley"
image1.Border="3"
End Sub
</script>
<html>
<body>
<form runat="server">
<img id="image1" runat="server" />
</form>
</body>
</html>