What is ASP?
ASP stands for ‘Active Server Pages’ and is one of many different methods
for scripting code that is used in a web site. Unlike standard HTML
scripting, ASP was designed around the idea that the contents of a web
page should be produced dynamically instead of using static code such
as HTML. This allows a web server hosting a page written in ASP to deliver
website content regardless of what type of browser requests it.
When a page is coded in HTML the file code for the page is sent directly to a browser and the browser is able to translate the code into a useful content. The main difference between ASP and HTML is that ASP code is not sent directly to a browser but is instead processed on the web server itself and it is only after this processing takes place that anything is sent to a browser.
It is important to note that while it is possible to save an HTML file on almost any system and then open it using a web browser it is not possible to do this with an ASP page. The term ‘Active Server Page’, simply put, means that the server has an active role in the interpretation of the code and without a server translating ASP code in to a browser friendly format, you will be unable to view the code on your machine.
While this is all very interesting you may be asking yourself why you would use ASP when you can use HTML. The answer is not as simple as it seems but the key thing to remember is how ASP works as compared to HTML.
Because ASP is processed directly on the server instead of being sent to a browser to be processed this allows ASP to be interactive. By interacting directly with the server ASP is able to effectively interact with both the user and the servers resources, including database capabilities, in order to give the user a dynamic experience. HTML by comparison is downloaded completely to the users browser and what limited interaction it may allow must then be transmitted back to the server and processed.
If you’ve ever used a website that is owned and maintained by a large company then you have experienced the advantages of dynamic web pages. You should bear in mind that ASP is not just for extremely elaborate pages used by large companies. What is important is if the particular coding method you want will be able to make the page you wish to create.
The easy answer is that with ASP you can make any page you can possibly imagine because there are few if any limits on what a well-programmed page can do. The not-so-easy answer is that while you can use it to do almost anything this may require an extensive time investment learning the coding and create the page you want.