A simple ASP page: <% %> denote server side script

Results of the script:

The ASP development framework includes a number of objects, called intrinsic objects, that developers use to control the application. Since an ASP application, by Microsoft's definition, "consists of a collection of loosely related files," persistence and maintenance of user state must be managed by the developer through script. The SESSION and APPLICATION objects are used to do this. Other intrinsic objects include the REQUEST and RESPONSE objects and are used to access low level HTTP session information.

The ASP applications heavily rely on Active Server Components. A number of these components ship with ASP to provide fundamental application functionality such as access to storage mechanisms. Microsoft also expects most application logic to reside in custom-built Active Server Components. Many custom components are available from ISVs and third party vendors. Corporate developers build their own using C++ and other low level programming tools.

Of the Active Server Components that ship with ASP, the most functional are the Active Data Object (ADO), the Collaborative Data Object (CDO - formerly Active Messaging) and the Content Linking Component. The Active Data Object is an important component because IIS/ASP does not contain an integrated storage mechanism other than the file system. The basic CDO for Windows NT Server that ships with IIS, provides simple SMTP sendmail capability. Rich messaging capability requires the CDO 1.2 that ships with the Exchange 5.5 server. CDO 1.2 provides ASPs the ability to access Exchange mail & calendaring services and the Exchange data store. It also contains Rendering Objects that create the HTML necessary to display Exchange data in a table or calendar format. The Content Linking Component is the object interface required to build and maintain a view of Web pages residing in the IIS file system. Developers access this object to manipulate links for pages to be displayed in a view (e.g. a summary page in a News application containing links to news stories.) The Content Linking Component requires the developer to manage and maintain these links manually.

The Microsoft Transaction Server 2.0 (MTS) adds the capability to create a transacted Web page. A transacted Web page is an Active Server Page containing multiple transactions to one or more systems. If any one of the transactions on the page fail, then all the transactions on the page are rolled back. Microsoft uses an airline reservation system example; Consider an ASP which has been scripted to reserve a seat for a customer only after checking that there is a seat available and that the customer has sufficient credit. If either transaction fails - reserving a seat or charging the credit card - then the other must be rolled back. MTS 2.0 ships as an application that is part of the NT Option Pack. Currently, the only backend shipping with a resource manager for MTS is Microsoft's SQL server. Other vendors have resource managers planned.

Infrastructure requirements for ASP applications