Programming Active Server Pages (Microsoft Programming Series) (Paperback)

~ (Author), Daniel Mezick (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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.

Product Description

Full coverage of Active Server Pages is given from client and server perspectives. The CD-ROM contains Microsoft Internet Information Server 4.0, Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0, and four complete in-depth applications with full source code.

Product Details

• Paperback: 301 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Pr (December 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572317000
• ISBN-13: 978-1572317000
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,053,168 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Bumbling wannabees, June 18, 1999

By A Customer

These guys want to be what Developmentor is and put out junk like this. This book is a fine example of who Scot and Dan market to. If you don't know a thing about the subject then buy this book. Otherwise save your money and search for something with more substance. If you want to see just how aweful this book is then check it out in a bookstore first. Most of the examples don't work. There are code bugs, typos, and you'll need just about every free download that Microsoft has but doesn't ship with the MSDN subscription just to make some thing work. After you work through all of their bugs you should be fairly proficient at trouble shooting an IIS and IE4/5 application. My 4 year old son summed up the opinion of everyone that I know that's ever read this book. "Poopy Heads". There must be a lot of desperate people out there who need training because this book is embarrassing.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Adequate to the task, August 18, 1999

By A Customer

This book provides good, if somewhat dated, introductory coverage of writing dynamic content for web pages. It covers a lot more than just ASP (in spite of the title) but it does it well. If you are a beginning programmer, do not expect to be ready to do much after reading this. I would NOT recommend this title to intermediate or advanced programmers; there are numerous other titles out there that are more appropriate. It is appropriate for beginners or for systems managers who do need to know the nitty gritty of programming ASP.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars There's better stuff out there, June 30, 1999

By A Customer

While there are a few chapters in the book I found useful, I thought that most of this book was essentially an advertisement for Microsoft. If anyone who will ever use your web site will use a browser other than IE4, then the majority of the information in this book is useless. Even the chapters that contain useful information aren't especially well organized. I needed a fairly thorough reference when I was first working with ASP, and I found the Wrox ASP books to be much more helpful. I also like the O'Reilly book ASP in a Nutshell, though I understand the complaints I've heard about that one.