Re: Visual representation of Active Server Pages

[Lou Quillio <quillio -at- gmail -dot- com>]

On Mon, 28 Mar 2005 10:00:03 -0800, Amanda_Abelove -at- toyota -dot- com
<Amanda_Abelove -at- toyota -dot- com> wrote:

> An ASP file contains both instructions to the server and the HTML mark up.
>  It pulls and populates from the selected database.  It also references
> and includes other server-side files to execute or executed by the VB
> script.

That's generally right, but not exactly right.

> An ASP file contains both instructions to the server and the HTML mark up.

Maybe.  You can `Response.Write()` everything, including what's
thought of as the static content and markup.  When starting out with
server-side script, the usual pattern is to begin with a static HTML
file and substitute VBscript for the dynamic parts.  In large
applications (just a big collection of ASP scripts), the entire page
is often VBscript, and should be.

> It pulls and populates from the selected database.

Maybe.  Database interaction is one reason to use server-side script,
but it's not sine qua non.

> It also references
> and includes other server-side files to execute or executed by the VB
> script.

Maybe.  Again, this is one of the things you *can* do with server-side script.

I make these clarifications only because a scripted web environment is
a little odd to contemplate at first, but it's quite simple once you
get the basic idea.  Unlimited programmatics are possible but not
required.  A static HTML file can be named `filename.asp`, in which
case IIS will find no VBscript to pre-process and will simply serve
the page.

Having a local webserver makes everything clear; I recommend it.  You
can then make a page named, say, `hello.asp`, containing, say,

  <p>Hello, world.</p>

Put it on an IIS server.  View it in a browser *via HTTP*, something
like `http://localhost/hello.asp`.  You'll see what you expect.  Now
substitute this for the snippet above:

  <% Response.Write("<p>Hello, world,</p>") %>

Reload the page in your web browser.  It's the same.  View source in
your web browser.  There's no VBscript in there, just HTML, same as
before.  The server pre-processed the VBscript.  Your browser knows
nothing about it and doesn't need to.

Then you might add programmatics, a la:

  <%
    if (Weekday(date) = 1, "<p>Hello, world.  It's Monday.</p>")
  %>

Again, the web browser only gets the output, in this case conditional
output based on what the server understands the variable `date` to
mean at the time the page is requested.  Transparent to the user.

> This can be a nightmare to reverse engineer for a web service, especially
> if all the business logic is in the ASP pages and not a middle-tier...

Yes, if your task is to document code.  But that's true of any code. 
If your task is to document the web application from a user
perspective, you can completely ignore the ASP genesis of the pages
and simply deal with the output.  I *think* that's what John's been
asked to do.  What's thrown him off is that he's been given ASP
source, when what he needs is the working application.

LQ

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