Programming Active Server Pages (Microsoft Programming Series)

Programming Active Server Pages is not just a tutorial for creating dynamic Web pages, but also a guide to all the relevant tools and necessary Microsoft technology required to build state-of-the-art Web sites. Stressing a hands-on approach and featuring plenty of relevant screen shots, the authors take you through the basics of HTML and scripting languages such as VBScript, ActiveX, and Java and explain how Active Server Pages (ASPs) can be used to deliver platform-independent dynamic content. Further sections introduce Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS), Personal Web Server as a development tool, and Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) basics for connecting to databases. The authors then turn to the fundamentals of working with Internet Explorer 4, as well as its version of dynamic HTML, where all tags can be manipulated programmatically. Finally, the authors look at how ASPs can be used on IIS to deliver content dynamically.

Further chapters show off ASPs in action in a sample online bookstore application, which includes processing orders, an online catalog, and a magazine. (The accompanying CD-ROM includes full source code.) Other chapters tackle e-mail systems using Microsoft and Transaction Server, which can provide reliable transaction processing and better scalability for Web sites. As the authors note here, no developer can afford to concentrate on only a single programming language or tool. This book does a fine job of providing all you need to get started linking technologies and tools in the Microsoft line of products for successful Internet development.