ASP Programming for the Absolute Beginner

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Team-Fly®

Contents

	Introduction ................................................................................	xix
C H A P T E R
	Preparing to Work with ASP	1
	Understanding ASP and the Web Server ....................................	2
1	The Advantages of Server-Side Processing ...........................	2
	VBScript, the Heart of ASP .......................................................	3
	Configuring Your Web Server for ASP ........................................	4
	Configuring Internet Information Server
	with Windows 2000 .......................................................................	4
	Installing Internet Information Server .....................................	5
	Confirming Your IIS Installation ...............................................	7
	Configuring Personal Web Server with Windows 98 ...............	10
	Installing Personal Web Server .............................................	10
	Confirming Your PWS Installation .........................................	12
	Confirming Your Web Server’s ASP Functionality ...................	13
	Displaying Your Web Server’s Default Home Page ..............	15
	Displaying the Default IIS Home Page ..............................	17
	Displaying the Default PWS Home Page ..........................	18
	Choosing an ASP Application Development Tool ....................	18
	Summary .....................................................................................	20
C H A P T E R
	Programming ASP Web Pages
	with VBScript	23
2	Integrating VBScript with ASP ...................................................	24
	Client-Side versus Server-Side Processing ..........................	27
	Understanding VBScript Variables ............................................	29
	Declaring Constants in VBScript ............................................	31

xii

Contents

	Learning to Program with VBScript ...........................................	32
	The IF...THEN Statement ........................................................	33
	The FOR...NEXT Statement ....................................................	37
	Commenting Your VBScript Code .............................................	39
	The Hello, World! Game .............................................................	40
	Summary .....................................................................................	41
C H A P T E R
	Working with ASP Objects	43
	Introducing the Request and Response Objects ......................	44
3	The Request Object .................................................................	45
	Understanding Object Collections .............................................	47
	Introducing the File Object .........................................................	52
	The File Object Properties ......................................................	53
	The File Object Methods ........................................................	54
	A File Object Example ............................................................	54
	Introducing the TextStream Object ............................................	56
	Writing to a Text File ...............................................................	57
	Reading from a Text File .........................................................	59
	ASP MadLibs—Working with ASP Objects ...............................	61
	The Game Data Input Form ....................................................	61
	The MadLib Processing Page .................................................	63
	The Save Feature: Storing Your ASP MadLibs
	to a Text File ............................................................................	67
	Summary .....................................................................................	69
C H A P T E R
	Working with ASP Components 71
	What Are ASP Components? .....................................................	72
4	Working with the Content Linking Component ........................	73
	The Content Linking Component—An Example ..................	74
	Working with the Ad Rotator Component .................................	76
	The Ad Rotator Component—An Example ...........................	77
	Working with the Content Rotator Component ........................	79
	The Content Rotator Component—An Example ..................	80
	Working with the Page Counter Component ............................	81

	The Page Counter Component—An Example ......................	81
	Summary .....................................................................................	81
C H A P T E R
	Database Access with ADO	83
	Understanding ADO ....................................................................	84
5	The ADO Object Collection ....................................................	85
	Creating a Data Source Name (DSN) ........................................	86
	Introducing SQL ..........................................................................	88
	The SELECT Statement ..........................................................	92
	The INSERT Statement ...........................................................	97
	The UPDATE Statement .........................................................	99
	The DELETE Statement ........................................................	102
	The Counting Magician: Working with Recordsets ................	103
	Summary ...................................................................................	105
C H A P T E R
	Using Forms	109
	The Memory Game ...................................................................	110
6	Form Essentials: The Response and Request Objects ...........	111
	Reading and Manipulating Form Data ................................	113
	The Memory Game: A Design Overview ................................	115
	The Memory Database .............................................................	116
	Establishing Database Permissions
	with Windows 2000 ..............................................................	119
	Programming the Memory Game ...........................................	120
	Random Number Generation, Part I ....................................	120
	Random Number Generation, Part II ...................................	124
	Understanding the Entire Memory Game Code .....................	126
	The Memory_Home.asp Page ..............................................	126
	The Memory_Process.asp Page ...........................................	127
	The Memory_Process.asp Page: Random Number
	Generation ........................................................................	138
	The Memory_Process.asp Page: Winning the Game ....	138
	Summary ...................................................................................	141

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xiv

Contents

C7H A P T E R

C8H A P T E R

Essential Programming Logic,
Part I		143
The Fortune Teller Game ..........................................................		144
Fortune Teller Basics .................................................................		145
Creating an ODBC Connection for the Fortune.mdb
Database ................................................................................		146
Creating the Fortune_Info.asp Data Input Page .................		148
Working with the If...Then Statement ......................................		149
Using the If...Then...	Else Statement ....................................	149
More Examples of If	...Then...Else ........................................	150
Working with Loops ..................................................................		151
Building the Fortune Teller Wizard ..........................................		154
Creating the Fortune_Process.asp Page .............................		154
Fortune_Process.asp—Defining the Page Header
Information ............................................................................		156
Fortune_Process.asp—Reading Previous Fortune Entries 156
Fortune_Process.asp—Generating the Magic Number
for the New Fortune	..............................................................	157
Fortune_Process.asp—Displaying a New Fortune .............		158
Summary ...................................................................................		159
Essential Programming Logic,
Part II		161
Introducing Arrays: Why Do You Need Them? .......................		162
Zero-Based Arrays ................................................................		164
Useful Array Functions .........................................................		165
UBOUND() .........................................................................		165
ERASE() .............................................................................		166
ISARRAY() .........................................................................		166
Useful VBScript Functions ...................................................		167
The Convert Functions .....................................................		167
Mathematical Functions ...................................................		168
The Is Functions ................................................................		169
Time and Date Functions .................................................		173
Programming the ASP War! Game .........................................		174

	Analyzing the Code ...............................................................	179
	Summary ...................................................................................	188
C H A P T E R
	Formatting Processed Output	189
	HTML Formatting—Beyond the Basics ...................................	190
9	Creating Dynamic Form Elements .......................................	194
	Creating Dynamic Hyperlinks and QueryStrings ...............	197
	Another Look—ASP MadLibs ...................................................	202
	Improving ASP MadLibs!: Integrating with a Database ....	207
	Improving ASP MadLibs!: Dynamic Page Formatting .......	209
	Summary ...................................................................................	213
C H A P T E R
	ASP and HTML Scripting with
	FrontPage 2000	215
10Building a FrontPage Web ........................................................		216
	Naming a FrontPage Web ....................................................	216
	Adding New Pages to Your Web .........................................	218
	FrontPage 2000 Basics ..........................................................	220
	Creating Your First Web Page ..................................................	221
	Placing and Formatting Text ................................................	221
	Inserting Graphics .................................................................	223
	Adding Tables to Organize Your Information .....................	226
	Formatting Tables .................................................................	227
	Adding Text and Graphics to Your Tables ...........................	230
	Working with FrontPage Components ................................	231
	Saving Your Web Pages .......................................................	234
	Validating Forms .......................................................................	234
	Determining Required Form Fields .....................................	235
	Testing Form Validation in a Browser .............................	237
	Validating Other Form Elements .........................................	239
	Utilizing the FrontPage 2000 Database Results Wizard .........	240
	Viewing the Automatically Generated ASP Code ..............	243
	Integrating Forms with the Database Results Wizard ............	244

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xvi

Contents

	Creating a Database Results Wizard Form
	Processing Page ....................................................................	246
	Working with Frames in FrontPage .........................................	249
	Saving Frame Pages .............................................................	252
	Understanding Frame Page Mechanics ..............................	253
	Integrating E-mail with FrontPage Webs ................................	255
	Working with DHTML Effects ...................................................	256
	Summary ...................................................................................	258
C H A P T E R
	Looking Back and
	Looking Forward	261
11Configuring Your System for ASP ...........................................		262
	Working with ASP on the Personal Web Server ................	262
	Working with ASP on the Internet Information Server ......	262
	Working with Other ASP-Related Tools ..............................	263
	Programming ASP Pages with VBScript .................................	263
	Integrating Your ASP Web Pages with a Database ................	264
	Looking Ahead—ASP+ ..............................................................	264
	The Philosophy of Indispensability—Viewing the Web
	as an Automobile ..................................................................	264
	The Promise of ASP+ ............................................................	265
	Internet Information on ASP+ ..............................................	266
	Summary ...................................................................................	266
A P P E N D I X
	VBScript Variable Reference	267
	VBScript and ASP Essentials ....................................................	268
A	VBScript Variable Subtypes ......................................................	269
	Working with String Functions ................................................	269
	Concatenating Strings ..........................................................	269
	Searching and Replacing Strings ........................................	270
	Comparing One String to Another ......................................	272
	Extracting Strings .................................................................	274
	Replacing Strings ..................................................................	275
	Working with Date and Time Functions ..................................	275

ABP P E N D I X

	SQL Reference	277	xvii
	The SELECT Command ............................................................	278	C
	The INSERT Command	278	on
			t
	The UPDATE Command	279	e
			n
			t
	The DELETE Command	280	s
	Logical Operators ......................................................................	280
	The IS NULL Operator ..........................................................	280
	The BETWEEN Operator .......................................................	281
	The IN Operator ....................................................................	281
	The LIKE Operator .................................................................	282
	Useful Data-Sorting Functions .................................................	283
	The COUNT Function ............................................................	283
	The SUM Function ................................................................	283
	The AVG Function .................................................................	284
	The MAX Function ................................................................	284
	The MIN Function .................................................................	284

A P P E N D I X
	Access Essentials	285
	Creating an Access Database ...................................................	286
C	Creating Tables in Design View................................................	287
	Entering Data into a Table via the Datasheet View .................	292
	Modifying a Table That Contains Data ....................................	293
	Inserting a New Field into an Existing Table ......................	293
	Deleting a Field from an Existing Table ..............................	295
	Modifying a Field Data Type ................................................	296
	Using the Access 2000 Simple Query Wizard .........................	297

Index

301

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Introduction

Welcome to ASP Programming for the Absolute Beginner. By developing an interest in Active Server Pages (ASP), you stand at the threshold of a very exciting programming adventure. When first introduced, ASP offered the promise of an easy, powerful method of breaking through the functional

shackles of the Common Gateway Interface (CGI)—it has delivered on that promise. Now, several years into its history, ASP technology has become a central component of the Microsoft development strategy. Moreover, it has become the scripting language of choice for literally thousands of programmers, so you are in good company in wanting to learn more.

Although ASP is relatively easy to learn, it does require some degree of general programming knowledge to best utilize its power. Additionally, ASP allows for easy integration of data sources (Access, SQL Server, and so on), so an understanding of basic database development comes into play. Finally, because ASP is, at its core, a Web scripting language, you should have some basic knowledge of HTML to better understand how ASP can be used to bring a previously unleashed power and functionality to your Web pages.

This book does assume that you have some working knowledge of HTML. You’ve probably created a few Web pages, perhaps using a development tool such as Microsoft FrontPage or Macromedia HomeSite. Maybe you’ve also added some advanced functionality to said Web pages, perhaps by adding tables, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and forms. Maybe you’re familiar with another type of scripting language, such as JavaScript.

If you have done this level of Web development, you can build on this experience while learning to work with ASP. Even if you haven’t done much Web development (again, aside from having a general understanding of HTML), you can still learn to work with ASP—and have fun in the process. Don’t be intimidated by the programming aspect of ASP. Yes, you do have to learn some programming to most effectively work with ASP. However, I’m assuming from your purchase of this book that you are willing and ready to dive into the exciting and rewarding world of ASP development. This book shows you how to do just that.

Why Learn ASP, and What Can You Do with It?

If you’ve purchased this book or are thinking about purchasing it, you probably have some interest in advanced Web development. As already mentioned, you don’t need any prior programming experience to read and learn from this book. However, I am going to assume that although you might not know much about programming (yet),