ASP IN A NUTSHELL A Desktop Quick Reference ASP IN A NUTSHELL A Desktop Quick Reference A Keyton Weissinger Beijing • Cambridge • Farnham • Köln • Paris • Sebastopol • Taipei • Tokyo ASP in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference by A Keyton Weissinger Copyright © 1999 O’Reilly & Associates, Inc All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Published by O’Reilly & Associates, Inc., 101 Morris Street, Sebastopol, CA 95472 Editor: Ron Petrusha Production Editor: Clairemarie Fisher O’Leary Printing History: February 1999: First Edition Nutshell Handbook, the Nutshell Handbook logo, and the O’Reilly logo are registered trademarks of O’Reilly & Associates, Inc The association of the image of an asp and the topic of Active Server Pages is a trademark of O’Reilly & Associates, Inc Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks Where those designations appear in this book, and O’Reilly & Associates, Inc was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps ActiveX, JScript, Microsoft, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Visual Basic, Visual C++, Windows, and Windows NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein ISBN: 1-56592-490-8 [M] [1/00] Table of Contents Preface xi Part I: Introduction to Active Server Pages Chapter 1—Active Server Pages: An Introduction The Static Internet The Dynamic Internet Part I: CGI Applications The Dynamic Internet Part II: ISAPI Active Server Pages and Active Server Pages 2.0 ASP: A Demonstration The ASP Object Model 3 6 Chapter 2—Active Server Pages: Server-Side Scripting 12 Client-Side Scripting Server-Side Scripting ASP Functions Scripting Languages 12 15 19 22 Chapter 3—Extending Active Server Pages 23 Part II: Object Reference Chapter 4—Application Object 27 Comments/Troubleshooting 28 v ASP in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference, eMatter Edition Copyright © 2000 O’Reilly & Associates, Inc All rights reserved About the Author Keyton Weissinger is a technical manager with USWeb/CKS in Atlanta, Georgia Before that, he worked for Arthur Andersen as the senior engineer for the Business Consulting KnowledgeSpace Colophon The animal appearing on the cover of ASP in a Nutshell is an asp, which is a term applied to various venomous snakes, including the depicted asp viper (Vipera aspis) of Europe as well as the Egyptian cobra (Naja haje), thought to have been the means of Cleopatra’s suicide Needing to eat at least 5–6% of their body weight in food per week, European asp vipers hunt by lying in wait for approaching prey After grabbing and biting a small rodent or other prey, they release it and wait several minutes for it to stop moving; the generally sluggish viper rarely chases prey Vipers know their home territory very well, which allows quick escape from their asp-kicking natural enemies, serpent eagles and hedgehogs This trick hasn’t helped them escape from their greatest threat, the expansion of human civilization, which frequently wipes out large sections of their territory The chemical composition of asp viper venom can vary from one population to the next, hampering initial antivenin development until 1896, but few viper bite fatalities occur in Europe today Clairemarie Fisher O’Leary was the production editor for ASP in a Nutshell Sheryl Avruch was the production manager; Jeff Liggett, Norma Emory, and John Files provided production support and quality assurance Mike Sierra provided tools support Seth Maislin wrote the index Edie Freedman designed the cover of this book using a 19th-century engraving from the Dover Pictorial Archive The cover layout was produced with QuarkXPress 3.32 using the ITC Garamond font The inside layout was designed by Nancy Priest and implemented in FrameMaker by Mike Sierra The text and heading fonts are ITC Garamond Light and Garamond Book The illustrations that appear in the book were created in Macromedia Freehand 7.0 and screen shots were created in Adobe Photoshop 4.0 by Robert Romano or Rhon Porter This colophon was written by Nancy Kotary The production editors for ASP in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference, eMatter Edition were Ellie Cutler and Jeff Liggett Linda Walsh was the product manager Kathleen Wilson provided design support Lenny Muellner, Mike Sierra, Erik Ray, and Benn Salter provided technical support This eMatter Edition was produced with FrameMaker 5.5.6 ... distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks Where those designations appear in this book, and O’Reilly & Associates, Inc was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed... the Business Consulting KnowledgeSpace Colophon The animal appearing on the cover of ASP in a Nutshell is an asp, which is a term applied to various venomous snakes, including the depicted asp viper... O’Reilly & Associates, Inc The association of the image of an asp and the topic of Active Server Pages is a trademark of O’Reilly & Associates, Inc Many of the designations used by manufacturers and