ASP Full Form

Introduction

ASP (Active server pages) are server-side scripting engines that are used to make dynamic web pages. ASP is HTML pages with scripts embedded along with HTML. ASP was developed by Microsoft to make dynamic web pages.

History of ASP

• ASP was first implemented as part of IIS(Internet information service) in December 1996 and ASP first version was called ASP 1.0
• Another version like ASP 2.0 and ASP 3.0 came in 1997 and 2000 respectively.
• ASP 3.0 had some additional features as compared to ASP 2.0 and 1.0. So, the performance of ASP 3.0 was higher.
• ASP was developed by Microsoft to help programmers make dynamic web pages.

What is ASP ?

ASP stands for Active Server Pages. ASP is a server-side scripting engine to build dynamic web pages. ASP is simply an HTML page with a script embedded in the page. The scripts are programs that are executed on a Microsoft server. The ASP server-side engine reads and executes the ASP file and returns the file to the browser.

ASP supports multiple programming languages like Javascript and C#. File extension of ASP files are .asp (for ASP) or aspx (for ASP.NET).

Syntax for ASP

Output

The syntax of ASP is similar to HTML syntax but ASP contains script inside HTML like in the above code response.write(welcome to scaler topics) is a program that runs inside the ASP file and is then sent back to the browser as output.

Characteristics of ASP

• User Control - user control in ASP is an encapsulation of section of pages that are registered and used as controls. User controls are created as markup files which usually contain static (X)HTML markup and also markup that defines server-side web controls.
• Custom Controls - Custom controls can also be built for ASP applications. custom controls are not static markup like user control instead custom control has all their code compiled in Dynamic linked library(DLL).
• Rendering Techniques - ASP uses visited composite rendering technique in which composite tree is built. when the ASP code is compiled the template file, .aspx, is compiled into an initialization code which then builds a control tree that represents the original template.
• Code-Behind Model - Microsoft recommends using of Code-behind model for dealing with dynamic program code. The code-behind model places the code in a separate designated script tag or a separate file. Code-behind files are typically named as MyPage.aspx.cs or MyPage.aspx.vb, while the main page file is MyPage.aspx. ASP's code-behind model encourages developers to create apps with separation of content and presentation in mind.

Application of ASP

• ASP responds to user requests that are submitted through HTML forms.
• ASP is much simpler than PERL and CGI and also provides better speed.
• ASP code is hidden in the browser and can't be viewed so ASP code is secured.
• ASP can create a dynamic web page. The content of the page can be changed through ASP.
• ASP accesses any type of data and returns the result to the browser.

Advantages of ASP

• ASP is language independent so we can use any language to code in ASP.
• ASP reduces the length of the code as one has to write less code in ASP as compared to other server-side scripting languages.
• ASP is much faster than any other application.
• ASP has a smart caching system.
• ASP is more used nowadays.

Disadvantages of ASP

• ASP running on the Windows platform requires IIS installation which increases the cost as IIS is not free.
• ASP pages can get more complex when more functionality is implemented.
• ASP has limited development and debugging tools.
• ASP does not have some inbuilt features like File transfer protocol(FTP), Encryption, and Email sending mechanism from a webpage.