Designing Active Server Pages
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Description
Designing Active Server Pages provides an important tool for often-overworked ASP programmers: a set of techniques for making the wisest use of the technology in a production environment. Targeting an audience of readers who already are seasoned in ASP, author Scott Mitchell explores techniques for producing "reusable and robust ASP applications." Presentation and example compose the approach here, with concise tables of information and descriptions that make the book a fast read. Mitchell explores the benefits of the VBScript 5.0 scripting engine, and illustrates how to exploit the new RegExp object fully and build object-oriented code by using VBScript classes--another welcome addition to the coding platform. ASP programmers will find techniques for which they've been longing, such as centralized error-handling pages and reusable database administration forms. Creation of and best practices for implementing COM components, useful standard components (like the Content Linker and AdRotator), and third-party components (such as ASPEncrypt and SA-FileUp) are discussed. Designing Active Server Pages doesn't stop with mere descriptions of these components, but also provides solutions for common needs, such as uploading files to binary fields in Microsoft SQL Server and sending encrypted e-mail. With its advanced techniques and practical perspective, this book is perfect for those who look to stay on the cutting edge of ASP programming. --Stephen W. Plain Topics covered: - Choosing a server-side scripting language
- Exception handling
- Regular expressions
- Building reusable forms
- Reusable database administration pages
- COM overview
- Lesser-known Microsoft COM components
- Important third-party COM components
Book Description
Developers of Active Server Pages often reinvent the wheel, creating a distinct ASP page each time they think they need one. Often times, these pages are functionally similar. With intelligent planning, an ASP developer stands to save a great deal of time by creating reusable ASP pages. Designing Active Server Pages is tailor-made for these developers. There is currently a plethora of Active Server Pages books. However, the vast majority of these books are either technical references or how-to books for beginners. Our book is designed for the intermediate to advanced user. Furthermore, nearly every other book on ASP focuses on using VBScript, even though ASP supports an array of scripting languages, including JScript and PerlScript. Designing Active Server Pages shows how to start using these other languages. Designing Active Server Pages is for developers who have already mastered the basics of ASP application development and are ready to take the next logical step. It is sure to become an indispensable part of every web developer's library.
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0 out of 6 people found the following review helpful:
DisappointingSunday, January 04, 2004
I am sorry. In my opinion this book is a waste of paper. I have
tried to find some answers to simple questions
about ASP in this book. Things concerning little
things one might forget and you want to look up.
After a few times using the book in this way it's clear this book tells us little useful things. Even free (digital/psd) manuals on ASP are a lot more useful. After
buying this book from amazon it went quite quickly to a dump shop, sorry...
1 out of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent BookMonday, December 09, 2002
Scott Mitchell is an excellent author. I love his articeles on 4GuysFromRolla.com. I am freelance internet consultant and have used most of the examples in this book in one form or another.
Highly recommended for up and coming "Advanced" ASP developers.
Excellent work, but please organize the sample codeWednesday, July 10, 2002
This VERY young author has done something seasoned technical writers twice his age have not often done: written an extremely useful, information and well thought out book, with plenty of implementable examples, and all in a book of less than 350 pages. It so often seems that these kinds of books suffer from "mission creep", and hence bloat into the 1500-page monsters we so often see. Because he was able to keep the scope of his task clearly in mind, he also provides a thorough "Further Reading" section at the end of each chapter, where he provides links to a number of on-line articles. (Yes, you could find these yourself, but how great that a professional in the field has taken the time to find them seek them out for you -- and I was glad all that extra stuff wasn't in the book itself.)
The one complaint I have is that the source code for this book, which you can download from the O'Reilly site, is a chaotic, inextricable mess of files with arbitrary names that are impossible to link to any specific examples in the book (I wouldn't mind that the file names are arbitrary, if he told you in the book which file a given example was associated with -- but no luck there). Really inexcusable.
2 out of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Program Design for ASPSunday, February 24, 2002
I have around 20 titles in my personal library which focus directly or indirectly on ASP. This is simply the best. It isn't an introduction to the language -- there are several good ones for that -- it is more about using sound program design methodology to accomplish some of the more complex tasks facing ASP programmers, such as content management systems, reusable forms, and eCommerce.
If you have any programming experience in other languages and are moving to ASP, get this book. If you are just learning what an Active Server Page is, then it is not for you, but if you plan to do anything more than fairly simple pages in ASP, get it, even if you don't think you're ready for advanced stuff.
Scott gives good examples, clear explanations, and lays out methodology that will help you no matter what your level of experience. It's one of the best bargains out there in technical books.
1 out of 2 people found the following review helpful:
once you know the basics, get this bookThursday, January 10, 2002
This book is basically about ASP programming techniques.
Most ASP books out there teach you the basics of ASP, or
working with something specific in ASP. Once you know how
to program ASP, this book will teach you how to be a GOOD
ASP programmer. Read the Wrox books on ASP, then once you
can write code, read this book.
I found the chapter on Windows Script Components particularly
helpful.