Designing Active Server Pages provides an important tool for often-overworked ASP programmers: a set of techniques for making the wisest use of the technology in a production environment. Targeting an audience of readers who already are seasoned in ASP, author Scott Mitchell explores techniques for producing "reusable and robust ASP applications."

Presentation and example compose the approach here, with concise tables of information and descriptions that make the book a fast read. Mitchell explores the benefits of the VBScript 5.0 scripting engine, and illustrates how to exploit the new RegExp object fully and build object-oriented code by using VBScript classes--another welcome addition to the coding platform. ASP programmers will find techniques for which they've been longing, such as centralized error-handling pages and reusable database administration forms.

Creation of and best practices for implementing COM components, useful standard components (like the Content Linker and AdRotator), and third-party components (such as ASPEncrypt and SA-FileUp) are discussed. Designing Active Server Pages doesn't stop with mere descriptions of these components, but also provides solutions for common needs, such as uploading files to binary fields in Microsoft SQL Server and sending encrypted e-mail.

With its advanced techniques and practical perspective, this book is perfect for those who look to stay on the cutting edge of ASP programming. --Stephen W. Plain

Topics covered:

• Choosing a server-side scripting language
• Exception handling
• Regular expressions
• Building reusable forms
• Reusable database administration pages
• COM overview
• Lesser-known Microsoft COM components
• Important third-party COM components

Customer Reviews

Great Reference Book, October 18, 2000
Reviewer: water_monkey) from La Crescenta, Ca USA
It seems O'Reilly Publishing has developed a niche for providing no-nonsense books for the intermediate to advanced user, this book is no exception.

If you are looking for your next book in ASP, to take you to the next level, this is your book. If you don't know anything about ASP, buy this book to read after you have read an introductory book.

Good for all levels, October 18, 2000
Reviewer: robsaker from Omaha, NE USA
As a web developer, I've been using ASP for a couple years and would consider myself and intermediate ASP programmer. I've built up a collection of books on the topic, mostly referring to WROX books for their reference quality.

ASP isn't my primary function at my job, so I don't get to work daily on developing and using my skills. I've recently been looking to improve my ability in this area, and inject some new ideas into the way I accomplish things in code. This book was the perfect answer!

If you're new to ASP or programming, you'll appreciate the emphasis on structure and conventions. If you're experienced with ASP, you'll appreciate the ideas presented here. I especially like the work on code reusability.

This is definitely one of the best ASP books I've seen in a long time.

Not a bad read, but too generic to be useful, October 27, 2000
Reviewer: nsrpgmiv from Belmont, ca USA
I personally found chapter 4 to be most useful. With the new version of MS scripting runtime, you no longer need to write custom verfication to emulate the power of regular expression. And now you are able to use Class in VB Script to encapsulate functionality and build prototype system to be migrated over to VB COM later on.

While chapter 5 demonstrates a very good way for code reuse (in the light of validating forms using ASP+), it really cannot be used in commerial ecommerce system simply because the validation schema is included in the form tag itself. Malicious users can just examine your HTML source and build one of their own to remove or tweak your RegExp checks. This is the same problem developers faced when using client side form validation scripts.

Chapter 6 - Database reuse, which demonstrates how to write codes for administration interface, is just too generic to be useful. While the code itself is smart enough to get value from table for foreign keys, many times there are so many different business rules that get into the way and you cannot simply present a web-base enterprise manager to the user.

Materials in chapter 7 & 8 can be found virtually in every single ASP book and internet resources out there, why include them in this "for experienced developer" book?

Being a fan of 4guys, I was so eager when this book is out because the average ASP book out there only touch upon the techical aspect of the platform without going into the design issues of building a complete system. (If you are or have been working on designing enterprise ecommerce solution, you'll know what I mean if you have read <VB Developer's Guide to E-Commerce with ASP & SQL Server> & <Beginning E-Commerce with Visual Basic, ASP, SQL Server 7.0 and MTS>) But it really disappointed me when I finished the book within 3 hours when I get a hold of it, and to found out only 20% of the ideas presented in the book are valuable.

Anyway it's probably one of the scarce good books out there for ASP developers.