Active Server Pages Bible [Paperback]

Eric A. Smith (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 076454599X | ISBN-13: 978-0764545993 | Publication Date: December 28, 1999 | Edition: 1

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.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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. --Stephen W. Plain

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.

About the Author

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 aspbib1e@ asptechniques.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 792 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (December 28, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076454599X
• ISBN-13: 978-0764545993
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.4 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,454,347 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not enough quality control, January 31, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Active Server Pages Bible (Paperback)

This book follows in the grand tradition of books from companies like IDG and Macmillan: Not nearly enough quality control.

Some examples of bloopers: (*) The author mentions that For Each ... Next is not supported in page 64. Voila! in page 91 he uses the same construct to show an example. (*) The description of PATH_INFO on page 142 is incorrect. (*) The last line of page 186 is a shoddy cut-and-paste job (*) ASP 3.0 is mentioned only in passing with the promise that the author will post new information as it becomes available. Obviously he did not have access to all the betas and release candidates of Windows 2000 put out by Microsoft.

In sum, you can make this a usable book, provided that you try out the examples and ensure that they are bug free. In other words, you do the quality control.

I wonder what the quality control editor for this book has to say...?

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This Book Is No Bible, February 12, 2000

By 

J. W. Sontrop (Belleville, Ontario) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Active Server Pages Bible (Paperback)

The preface (page X) tells us that, as a minimum, (in Windows 95/98) we'll need Personal Web Server, a Web Browser, a text editor, and a db system such as MS Access. This is misleading (nothing about Server Extensions for fp98/2000 or MS IIS). The first sentence in Chapter 4 is outrageous: "As you learned in Chapter 1, the key difference between Active Server Pages code and HTML is that ASP code is always kept on the server." In fact, ASP is barely mentioned in the first three chapters of this book. It's mentioned ONLY on the second line of the first Chapter-a single line in 93 pages. There are many ambiguous references. Even the index is buggy (have a look under "Server object" on page 758). The jacket claims this book is for "Beginning to Advanced" level readers. I don't believe it was actually tested on beginners. Under "Credits" are listed two copy editors, a quality control specialist, and a proofreading and indexing service provider. Makes me wonder if this company (IDG) needs an ethics specialist.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars ASP 3.0?, March 31, 2000

By 

Brian - See all my reviews

This review is from: Active Server Pages Bible (Paperback)

Don't buy this book. I bought it because it looked good upon first blush at the store, and I had been very pleased with Danny Goodman's JavaScript Bible, also by IDG. I have learned the painful lesson that not all books by the same publisher are subject to the same quality control, etc..

As others have noted, the book is full of bugs. For example, in the lengthy app in chapter 12, Smith goes through the code piece by piece, and then the whole app is printed out at the back of the chapter. Nothing really wrong with this in theory and other books do it too, although it is kind of a waste of paper (and the book could have been much smaller, as there are several places where apps were printed out numerous times!). Anyhow, the two code sets are different in some places. For example, the EditRecord subroutine on pages 277, and 291 - it doesn't even work as is on 277 - but will work with the changes on 291. Although it wasn't that hard to fix, the AddRecord subroutine didn't work properly in either printing. There's a few interesting tips here and there, but they aren't worth the money when you consider what you can get elsewhere.

Chapter 18 is called "Integrating Microsoft Transaction Server". I learned, upon reading another book, that MTS is now called "Microsoft Component Services" in W2K. The appendix at the back of the book, "What's new in ASP 3.0" is 8 pages long.

Anyhow, you get the picture. This book is trying to cover ASP 3.0 - doesn't do it - code is full of bugs. It seems to be covering the previous version more than anything else - but I suspect that numerous other older books do this better. I've also purchased Professional Active Server Pages 3.0 from Wrox Press - this is a much, much, better book. Very detailed, and if they don't cover something, they tell you where it is covered. Just what you wanted.