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 Server-side scripts
• Scripts that are processed on the Web server
• Used to create dynamic Web pages that retrieve and
display database data and modify data records
 Active Server Pages
• Microsoft-specific Web pages containing server-side
scripting commands to process user inputs and create
dynamic Web pages that display database data
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Figure 8-1:
Web site
architecture
using a
server-side
script
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 Active Server Page (ASP)
• Text file that has an .asp extension and contains server-
side script commands that can perform a variety of
tasks
• Usually contains HTML commands for creating a
formatted Web page
 Netscape has a server-side scripting technology
called LiveWire that is similar to Active Server
Pages
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 Since ASPs are processed on a Web server,
ASP files must be stored and run from a folder
on the Web server
• They cannot be displayed from a folder on the user’s
workstation using a file URL
• Programmers often store program files in folders that
are named “bin” or have the word “bin” as part of the
folder name
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 Access privileges that are available in Personal Web
Server (PWS) include:
• Read, which only allows users to view HTML documents
• Execute, which allows users to run Web pages that contain
executable programs as well as scripts
• Scripts, which allows users to run Web pages that contain
scripts, but do not run Web pages that contain executable
programs
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 When creating an ASP, it is good practice to:
• First create a static HTML Web page template file that
contains all of the HTML tags and formatted text that
you want to have displayed on the formatted Web page
that is generated by the ASP
• Then, add the script code for the dynamic components
and be certain that the page’s HTML formatting will be
correct
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 The main difference between ASP files and
HTML document files is ASP files contain ASP
script code lines along with HTML commands in
the Web page body
• Script commands like HTML commands, can span
multiple lines
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 The beginning and ending points of ASP script
code lines are signaled by script delimiter tags
• The opening script delimiter tag is an opening angle
bracket and a percent sign (<%)
• The closing script delimiter tag is a percent sign and a
closing angle bracket (%>)
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 To create an ADO database connection object, you
must create a server object
• Memory area on the Web server that stores the
variables and other information needed to process the
ASP
 Every time the ASP is executed, a new server
object must be created
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 In the code to open an ODBC connection
• You must specify the name of the server object, and use
the Open method to specify that the object is to be
opened
• Specify the database type and database location; for an
Access database, the database location is the drive
letter, folder, path, and database filename
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Figure 8-5: Code to open an Access database connection object

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 When finished using a database connection
object, close the database connection; this
makes its resources available to other Web
server processes
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 In a Web page with server-side scripts:
• All of the server-side commands enclosed in <%…%>
script delimiter tags are removed by the Web server
when the Web page is processed
• Only the finished HTML commands are sent to the
user’s browser for display
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 URL parameter
• Parameter passed to a target ASP as part of the ASP’s
URL
• Each URL parameter consists of a name/value pair,
which consists of:
 The name of parameter variable
 An equal sign (=)
 The current parameter value
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 Note the parameter list is separated from the
ASP filename with a question mark (?)
 If there are multiple URL parameter
name/value pairs, each pair is separated from
the next by an ampersand (&)
 Often, the URL parameter variable value is a
value that must be inserted within the
hyperlink tag
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 To retrieve the value of a variable that is passed as a
URL parameter, use the Request object
• An object within an ASP that stores information that is sent
from a user’s browser to the Web server
 The Request object has a Querystring property, which
contains the name of the variable whose value will be
retrieved as a URL parameter
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 It can be tricky to create SQL queries that
use URL parameters - You must concatenate
text strings, blank spaces, and variable
values together so that the variable string is
formatted correctly
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 Whenever creating a SQL query in an ASP that
requires concatenating variable values together
so that the variable string is formatted
correctly, it is good practice to:
• Create a string variable
• Then assign the text that constitutes the query to the
string variable
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 The common errors of forgetting to save a
modified ASP file, or displaying a cached version
of a previous file, apply to ASPs as well as client-
side scripts
 When calling an ASP from another Web page and
passing URL parameter values, always confirm
the parameter name/value pairs are passed
correctly by viewing the URL of the hyperlink that
calls the ASP
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 A common error in ASP scripts occurs when inadvertently
omitting an opening or closing script delimiter tag

Figure 8-16: Source code with omitted script delimiter tag

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Figure 8-17: Error message resulting from omitted script delimiter tag
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 When looking for causes of errors, always look at the
code lines immediately before the line reported in the
error message
 If you cannot locate the error visually, the next step is
to systematically locate the code line that is causing
the error
 In an ASP, you can track script execution by adding
debugging messages
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 Web applications with multiple pages usually
share data values
 One approach is to pass data values from one
Web page to a second Web page as URL
parameters
 A second way to share data values among
ASPs is to use form parameters
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 Form parameters
• Similar to URL parameters in that they consist of
name/value pairs, and each name/value pair is separated
from the next parameter name/value pair by an
ampersand (&)
• More convenient to use than URL parameters for
passing form input values from one Web page to another
• A problem with passing parameters either as URL
parameters or as form parameters is that it forces the
pages to be viewed in a certain order to ensure that the
correct parameters are always passed
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 To determine if a recordset contains data
records, use the recordset beginning-of-file
(BOF) and end-of-file (EOF) properties
 Recordset pointer - indicates the position of the
current record in the recordset that is available
for processing
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 The BOF recordset property is true when the recordset
pointer is before the first recordset record
 The EOF property is true when the recordset pointer
is beyond the last record in the recordset
 If the recordset does not contain any records, both the
BOF and EOF properties are false, and the recordset
pointer is pointing to a valid recordset record
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 Preprocessing the ASP
• Use client-side scripts within ASPs so that when the
user clicks a button on an HTML form, the form runs a
client-side script that is embedded within the HTML
code on the ASP
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 To find the value of the currently selected
option button of an HTML form, use a client-
side script to write script code that:
• Searches all of the form fields
• Locates the form elements if the option button is
selected
 When a code finds an option button, it checks
to see if the option button is selected
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 In referencing properties of HTML form elements
in a client-side script, the property attribute can
reference the following values:
• Length, which returns the total number of form
elements
• Name, which references the name of an individual form
element
• Checked, which determines if a form radio button is
selected
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 To insert new data records using Jet recordset
commands, you must create a Web server object that
is a recordset
 The advantage of using Jet recordset commands is
that when you insert a new record in a table where the
primary key is an AutoNumber data type, you can
then immediately retrieve the value of the system-
generated primary key
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 Parameters used by the recordset Open method
command:
• Data source
 A text string
• Connection name
 Name of the ADO connection used to connect to
the database
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 Parameters used by the recordset Open
method command (cont.):
• Cursor type
 Numerical value that specifies how records in the
recordset can be viewed
 By default, the cursor type value is the number 0, which
specifies the cursor is forward-only
 When updating records in a recordset, set the cursor type
value to 1, which specifies that the cursor is a keyset
cursor
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 Parameters used by the recordset Open
method command (cont.):
• Lock type
 Specifies how the recordset records are locked
 When this value is set to the number 1, the recordset is
read-only
 When the lock type value is set to 2, pessimistic
locking is enabled
 When the lock type value is set to 3, optimistic
locking is enabled
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 Advantage of using SQL commands
• Allows your Web application to be used with databases
other than Access
 Disadvantage of using SQL commands
• There is no easy way to insert a new record into an Access
database table that uses the AutoNumber data type for the
record’s primary key, and then immediately retrieve the
value of the new primary key into an ASP variable for
further processing
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 When a Web server requests a browser to create a
cookie, this message must be sent in a header
message to the browser
• This arrangement is required because the request to
create a cookie must be the first command that the
browser receives from the Web server when it sends a
Web page to be displayed
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 To send a header message instructing a browser to
create a cookie name/value pair, the Web page
output must be buffered
• This means that as the ASP commands are executed, all
of the output is stored on the Web server, and then is
sent to the browser as a single unit after all of the script
commands have been executed to the Web server
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 HTML forms have two primary methods for
sending inputs to a Web server:
• The default method, also called the GET method
• The POST method
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 After receiving form inputs, a GET request is
passed as an environment variable to the
program processing the request
• An environment variable is a variable that is stored on a
workstation and is available to any program running on
the workstation
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 Two problems with the GET method
• Parameter values are displayed in the URL address
• Environment variables typically are limited to 255
characters
 HTML forms in Web applications should use the
POST method to hide form parameters
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 Server-side scripts are processed on the Web
server and are used to create dynamic Web
pages
 Microsoft’s technology for supporting server-
side scripts is called Active Server Pages
(ASPs)
 An ASP must be stored in a folder on the Web
server
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 To pass data values from one ASP to another,
you can pass a URL parameter
 When an HTML form is submitted to the Web
server, the values for all of the form elements
are passed as form parameters
 Data values can also be shared using cookies
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 You can preprocess and ASP using client-side
script commands embedded within the HTML
commands generated by the ASP by enclosing the
client-side script commands in <SCRIPT>…
</SCRIPT>tags in the ASP heading section
 To insert database records using an ASP, you can
insert the records using Jet recordset commands or
SQL commands
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 When a Web server requests a browser to
create a cookie, this request message must be
sent in a header message to the browser
 To suppress form parameter values from
appearing as part of the URL displayed in the
browser’s Address box, you can submit HTML
forms using the POST method