ASP (Active server pages)

ASP stands for Active Server Pages, a technology developed by Microsoft in 1996 to create dynamic pages for servers. To create pages with ASP technology, the website is written using the Visual Basic Script or Jscript language (which is very similar to Javascript, but is a Microsoft version).

ASP is a server-side language, meaning that it is executed on the web server just before the page is sent over the Internet to the device that requested it.

Likewise, pages that run on the server can access databases, network connections and various tasks to compose the page that will be displayed to the client. From this page, only the HTML code resulting from the execution of the ASP page and being HMTL can be interpreted by any web browser.

1. common tasks in ASP

Through ASP, servers can run several complex tasks, which makes it easier to create very complete, high-quality web-oriented applications. Some of the most common ASP tasks and features include:

• Dynamic graphics generation.
• Development based on web forms.
• Accessing the server’s file system.
• Advanced searches on different databases.
• Access to network services (HTTP/HTTPS).
• Error correction/debugging system.

2. History of ASP

The first version of ASP released by Microsoft in 1996 was free. At the time, the basis of ASP was VBScript (Visual Basic Script Edition), a language also developed by Microsoft for script development, which was based on its most popular programming language at the time: Visual Basic.

But the evolution of ASP means that it can be used in a variety of programming languages, such as Python, JavaScript or Pearl.

The different versions of ASP net have improved this web development technology for servers, until it has become one of the most widely used for creating dynamic websites.

3. Current usage of ASP, ASP.NET

ASP has evolved into its latest version, ASP.NET, a free web framework for creating websites and web applications using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. It is also possible to create Web APIs and use real-time technologies such as Web Sockets.

ASP.NET offers three frameworks for creating web applications: Web Forms, ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Web Pages. Each of these frameworks enables the creation of Web applications and is designed for different development styles.

Depending on our development experience, as well as the type of application we want to create and the development approach with which we are familiar, we should choose one or the other framework:

• Web Forms, for developers with experience in Windows Forms, WPF or .NET. It offers a fast development style with a rich library of controls that encapsulate HTML tags.
• ASP.NET MVC, for developers with experience in Ruby on Rails and .NET. It focuses on total control over HTML, separate code and tags, and easy-to-prepare tests. The best option for mobile and single page applications (SPA).
• Web pages, for developers with experience in classic ASP and PHWeb pages, for developers with experience in classic ASP and PHP. It’s geared towards HTML tags and code together in the same file.