This thorough and intelligently organized text covers all the bases for developing state-of-the-art Web sites powered by Microsoft Web technologies.

The book discusses the Internet in terms of the history of client/server systems and describes why it is a better way to deliver scaleable, maintainable systems using thin clients. It describes basic Microsoft tools, such as NT4, Internet Information Server (IIS), and Personal Web Server. The authors then move toward the basics of using Active Server Pages (ASPs) starting with basic objects (such as the Request, Cookies, and Response objects). They stress a solutions-basic approach with plenty of examples to show what's going on. Sections on Active Server Components and listings of third-party controls that can enhance your ASP Web site are particularly useful.

Professional Active Server Pages 2.0 thoroughly explains databases and ASPs, from the architecture of ActiveX Data Objects (ADO), object linking and embedding database (OLE-DB), and open database connectivity (ODBC) to the basic objects used to query and manipulate data in Web pages. The latter half of this book gives some perspective on the issues that real-world Web developers face every day. The authors discuss how to overcome the "stateless" nature of Internet using specific ASP objects. The book also includes material on the strategies for creating online communities--through Microsoft's support for chat rooms and personalizing content--Dynamic HTML, and how to use Internet Explorer 4-specific capabilities. The authors introduce new Microsoft products, such as Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) and Microsoft Message Queue Server (MSMQ), and provide a very useful case study of an e-commerce Web site for direct sales for a publisher. Other case studies show how to customize content to specific browsers and how to migrate a traditional client-side application onto an online version.

With its wide-ranging coverage of ASP technologies and excellent case studies that show useful applications at work, Professional Active Server 2.0 is the only title you will need to become a productive ASP Web developer. --Richard Dragan


Book News, Inc.
Updates and expands the knowledge of programmers with an existing knowledge of ASP 1.0, and allows anyone with knowledge and experience of VBScript or JavaScript and the Internet to learn this server side web technology. Topics include discovering what ASP is and what it can do; mastering programming; using and building Active Server Components for programming; using the ActiveX Data Objects technology for database access; client-server programming on the Web; Internet risks and protection strategies; and case studies of applications illustrating advanced techniques. -- Copyright © 1999 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR All rights reserved


Book Description
Building on the success of our Professional ASP book, ISBN 1861000723, this book brings the subject area bang up to date with its coverage of ASP 2.0, released as part of IIS4. Active Server Pages is the Microsoft technology which allows you to build pages dynamically, access databases easily and build secure commercial applications for use over the Internet. This book assumes a knowledge of the Internet and either JavaScript or VBScript. We cover the revised ASP Object Model and Components, then move on to look at ASP with databases, with Transaction Server and Components, with Mail Systems, with IE4, with Site Server and with Personalization Server. We also provide additional case studies to give you practical examples to adapt for your own use and a chapter focussing on the issue of securing your application.


Card catalog description
Active Server Pages is part of Microsoft's server-based technology. It enhances HTML pages for a Web or corporate intranet.


From the Publisher
Anyone who needs to plan, build and maintain a web site, both on the Internet or a company Intranet will find knowledge of ASP invaluable. This book updates and expands the knowledge of programmers with an existing knowledge of ASP 1.0, and allows anyone with knowledge and experience of VBScript or JavaScript and the internet to learn this exciting server side web technology.


About the Author
Alex Fedorov is working as an executive editor for "ComputerPress" magazine - a monthly software and hardware magazine, published in Moscow, Russia. During his work in magazine Alex authored more that 150 articles on various programming topics, including Delphi programming, Internet programming, COM/OLE and other technologies. Alex is also the author of several books, published in Russian.


Excerpted from Professional ASP 2.0 (Wrox Professional series) by Alex Homer, Shawn Murphy, Rob Smith, Dave Sussman, Richard Harrison, Alex Fedorov, and Brian Francis. Copyright © 1998. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
Chapter One A New Generation of Web Solutions Without doubt, the World Wide Web alone is currently causing major excitement in business, but the challenges that abound are also probably giving a lot of sleepless nights to many senior company personnel. The rapid changes in information processing and networking technology are compressing time - the time that is desperately needed for the business to adapt to the many opportunities offered by the new generation of Internet solutions.

While Microsoft joined the Internet game relatively late, they rapidly gained momentum and have since released an incredible range of innovative Internet products all embracing various industry standards. These products have provided users rich Internet experiences and organizations the mechanisms to develop business critical Internet solutions. Internet Information Server version 4.0 (IIS4) is the latest release of Microsoft's leading commercial web server and is an essential component in their Internet strategy.

Fundamental to Web development with IIS4 is Active Server Pages (ASP) version 2 and we shall see that this is a compelling technology for quickly building dynamic pages 'on the fly' by integrating the Web server with other software components, databases and legacy systems. In this book we shall study ASP in depth and see that not only is it extremely powerful, but also far simpler to implement than the traditional (and soon to become obsolete) methods used for extending web servers.

To begin, we'll discuss Microsoft's web solution that enables the next generation of business systems to exploit the convergence of computers and networking for business advantage:

Microsoft's Internet strategy and development toolkit

Developing solutions using software components and Microsoft's ActiveX technology for software component co-operation

The powerful functionality available in Microsoft BackOffice which can be exploited in Web Solutions

The architecture of IIS 4

Where to get hold of IIS 4, PWS and ASP and how to install them

ANNOTATION

Active Server Pages is part of Microsoft's server-based technology. It enhances HTML pages for a Web or corporate intranet.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Building on the success of our Professional ASP book, ISBN 1861000723, this book brings the subject area bang up to date with its coverage of ASP 2.0, released as part of IIS4. Active Server Pages is the Microsoft technology which allows you to build pages dynamically, access databases easily and build secure commercial applications for use over the Internet. This book assumes a knowledge of the Internet and either JavaScript or VBScript. We cover the revised ASP Object Model and Components, then move on to look at ASP with databases, with Transaction Server and Components, with Mail Systems, with IE4, with Site Server and with Personalization Server. We also provide additional case studies to give you practical examples to adapt for your own use and a chapter focussing on the issue of securing your application. Anyone who needs to plan, build and maintain a web site, both on the Internet or a company Intranet will find knowledge of ASP invaluable. This book updates and expands the knowledge of programmers with an existing knowledge of ASP 1.0, and allows anyone with knowledge and experience of VBScript or JavaScript and the internet to learn this exciting server side web technology.|

FROM THE CRITICS

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