Today we
will have a look at ASP.NET. First we will see what is ASP?, the problems available
with current release and then go to ASP.NET.
ASP is Active Server Pages. It has 6-7
major objects like response, request, session, Application, server etc. These
objects gives us the functionality of output, input from user, maintaining some
variables across the connected session and so on. But apart from these objects
the language which we can use for ASP is vbscript or javascript with HTML. This
means what we are using here is just scripting code. Now I think one can
understand the reason. If we are supposed to write 200 lines of code for a
simple web application in ASP, see what a mess it will be. Some part is HTML,
then some functions in any scripting language and calls to ASP objects in those
functions. When display and business logic is mixed to this extent, it is
difficult to change one without changes in another.
This tight coupling between the two is another problem. On top of all these mixers, the code is interpreted. You know by
now the problems in hand when we say code is interpreted.
Aspplus now renamed as ASP.NET is
a solution to many of these problems. There are radical enhancements to this
version and have a look at two major points which gives ASP.NET many other
features.
- Built on the Services Framework. So applications can be authored in any CLR compatible language.
This means now we can code using any language which supports CLR i.e. VB.NET, C# etc
- Additionally, the entire platform is available to any ASP.NET application.
Now let us discuss the main features of ASP.NET.
- Web Forms
- Web Services
- Built-in Session State Functionality
- Application level Event Handling
- Code Compilation
- Deployment Enhancements
- Security
Web Forms
These Web Forms framework creates an abstraction of the traditional browser-web server interaction.
They can run on any browser. Depending on the request a ASP.NET page can be converted to WML or HTML automatically.
Web Services
This is an excellent service provided by .NET platform. This service enables us to expose functionality though Internet Protocols. This enables applications to exchange information using standard protocols and tools like HTTP and XML messaging.
These standard protocols can be called from any language and any operating system. So with the help of Web Services we can make popular functions available across net.
Built-in Session State Functionality
It provides built-in session state functionality to ASP.NET.
So creating shopping card kind of applications, which maintain
data across different pages, will not be difficult.
Application level Event Handling
This allows application level event handling code, which can give many advantages for creating web pages having similar functionality.
Also gives better event handling as compared to ASP.
Code Compilation
As discussed earlier, code is now not interpreted it is compiled. Compilation gives lots of advantages to catch on different kinds of errors.
Once this code gets compiled, the CLR compiles it further to native code, providing dramatically improved performance.
Deployment Enhancements
Xcopy deployment is available here also. The compiled files need not be registered.
Security
ASP.NET provides default authorization and authentication schemes for Web applications.
Schemes can even be altered based on specific requirements.
The author, Ms. Vaishali is
Director Fands Infotrainers and can be reached at
vaishali@fandsindia.com