Active Server® Pages Bible

by Eric A. Smith

Paperback: 763 pages
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 076454599X; (December 1999)

Learn how to employ Active Server Pages (ASP) and VBScript to write powerful server-side code with the Active Server Pages Bible, a smooth introduction to Microsoft ASP technology. Although this is an entry-level text, it offers enough depth to teach you how to build database-driven Web sites.

The techniques presented can easily be used to create online shopping carts and track customer profiles and other features that make professional-looking sites. Inside is an overview of key HTML elements such as tables, anchors, and images, plus an excellent tutorial to the VBScript language. The book points out key differences between VBScript and Visual Basic, such as the way each deals with variables, and discusses the circumstances that call for certain VBScript elements such as Do/Loop structures and Select/Case structures.

Instead of making you wade through a formal presentation of the standard ASP objects, practical examples offer immediate hands-on experience. The book uses a common home page search box to introduce the Request and Response objects--the most frequently used ASP objects for any programmer. The form examples, which show how to process radio buttons and checkboxes, offer nice boilerplate code for every Web site you build. There's also an appetizing example of how to use cookies, which tracks a user's pizza size and topping preferences. This section is very accessible to readers, but it illustrates one of the most powerful features of ASP.

A large part of the book is devoted to the construction of a series of Web pages that provide database browsing and editing via the Web. Beginning with an Access database, the author shows how to create drill-down data menus, update records, and issue queries based on user-specified criteria. Since database access is central to most sites, the example code used here will serve as a reference time and time again. Database paging--a technique many programmers struggle to implement--is also demystified and explained.

Chapters on building Visual Basic COM components, using Microsoft Transaction Server, and WebClasses are included, but the coverage of components is a bit brief. The book finishes up with a walkthrough of a complete online discussion forum that shows how to construct an object-based, database-driven ASP application.

If you've previously coded static HTML pages and want to move your talents to the next level with server-side processing, this is a good place to begin.

Topics covered: Basic HTML, VBScript, server-side includes (SSI), ASP objects, cookies, Active Data Object (ADO), Microsoft Index Server, classes and components in Visual Basic, WebClasses, and Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) integration.

Book Description: Everything you need to build dynamic Web sites with Active Server Pages is included in this comprehensive programming reference. Step-by-step tutorials and code examples from expert developer Eric Smith enable you to program and combine Web site applications to meet your specialized needs. With easy-to-follow steps and clear examples, Active Server Pages Bible is your key to unlocking the world of ASP by presenting the following topics: The essentials you need to better understand how ASP works with HTML Concepts of the VBScript language Web programming and how it differs from traditional client/server computing Integrating client/server computing with an ASP engine and making the most of its features Building commonly used applications that make it easier to publish data from a database Integrating ASP with other components, libraries, and tools like Index Server, Visual Basic, and Microsoft Transaction Server Developing an idea from concept to application.

As an added feature, many of the topics discussed in Active Server Pages Bible are cross-referenced to other parts of the book or external Web sites to maximize your understanding of the material.

About the Author: Eric A. Smith is an independent consultant who lives in the Washington, D.C. area. He is a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer and works extensively in both Web and traditional client/server environments. He has written, edited, or contributed to eight books in the Visual Basic and Web markets.

Mr. Smith is also the owner of both the VB Techniques Web site (http:// vbtechniques.com) and the ASP Techniques Web site (http://asptechniques. com). These sites are used to provide "service after the sale" to his readers. You can get updated code and related articles for all of his books at these sites. He is also the creator of inquiry.com's Ask the VB Pro site, now part of Fawcette Technical Publications.

Mr. Smith is active at his church and is a volunteer Emergency Medical Technician for the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department. If you'd like to contact him with questions about the book, you can reach him via e-mail at aspbible@ asptechniques.com.

Customer Reviews
Best ASP book on the market, June 28, 2000
Reviewer: llourenc from UK
This is an excellent resource for applying and learning the ASP craft and it smoothly moves from beginner to advanced concepts while covering the key ground. Four things make this book stand out from the crowd:
(1) It's an excellent introduction to HTML, VBScript,ADO and ASP and more advanced topics.
(2) It's clear and uses relevant examples
(3) It's comprehensive in it's coverage
(4) It smoothly moves from beginner to advanced material.

This book was written by a seasoned and certified developer and a regular contributor to the ASP/ VB community. And it shows: in the quality of the examples and the clear structure and layout of the book and code. The section on ADO essentials (Chapter 10) is excellent, and I liked the section that discussed remotely connecting to a database and using DataLink files (pages 212 to 216 in my book). That's not mentioned in most books but it's vital if you intend to connect to a database such as SQL server over a LAN or external hosting service.

The script in this book is well structured, and uses a style familiar to VB programmers. That's invaluable when you actually put a site together, and want to debug and maintain your code. This book is a good companion to 'Instant ASP Scripts' by McGrawHill. The latter is a 'cook book' with ready recipes for most of the core functions you'll need for a site. ASP Bible, helps structure the 'spaghetti code' of the former book, while rounding out the missing parts and providing the depth you'll need to enhance your site. The downloadable code samples from the book which are listed in the preface worked fine (after adjusting the code to reflect my local drive settings, DSN name etc).

Despite a few glitches in the commentary, there is plenty of good content and examples in this book. For best results use this with a 'cook-book' or 'application-ready.' A good resource if you want a book that provides a practical walk through, and plenty of bite sized examples of what you'll need to know and use as a web developer.

think before you buy it, June 8, 2002
Reviewer: A reader from Toronto
As a professional web programmer, I can honestly tell you that this is not a good programming/reference book. The coding in the books works perfectly, but this book didn't give you much idea about connecting the database, (I need to do some researching through the internet) or sending e-mail using asp... If you are serious about ASP, you should try WROX books

Great ASP Guide, October 9, 2001
Reviewer: SMar from Ellington, CT United States
First, let me say that after reading the other reviews listed here I found myself questioning the skill sets of the other reviewers....

This book is very good at what it is attempting to cover - ASP. The book is not entitled "The ADO Bible" or "The SQL Bible". The biggest complaint I often hear about this book is that its coverage of ADO and/or SQL Server is very incomplete. That may be true, but the main topic of the book is not ADO or SQL, it's Active Server Pages and that topic is covered quite completely and accurately.

One reviewer compains in his review that the author (Eric Smith) continuously sets up database connections using the ConnectionString property of a connection object (provider=.....) instead of establishing the DSN as a constant value (DSN=...). Perhaps that reviewer hasn't heard that using OLE DB Providers rather than DSN's is more efficient and gives the developer more control over the resulting connection. The author continuosly does it this way because that's the preferred way of doing it. If the reviewer had read chapter 10, he would have known that. I can't help taking someone's review with a grain of salt when other statements that they make clearly indicate that the reveiwer doesn't know what he/she is talking about!

The ASP object model is covered in great detail with WORKING code examples. The flow of topics through the chapters makes good logical sense (HTML,VBScript, ASP, DB Connectivity, etc.). The material is explained in plain terms (when possible) and insight into the networking aspects of ASP are covered as well. The appendicies are extensive and accuate and include a VERY useful comparison of ASP 2.0 and 3.0.

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