11.0.0- Active Server Pages Components

Active Server Pages Components

Most web site designers have similar basic goals for their site, including:

• A technique to navigate through their web site
• A way to manage advertisements on the site
• Molding pages to accommodate the capabilities of the visitor's browser

It would be inefficient for all web masters to spend time writing the code to achieve these common goals. Far better, then, for a single team of experts to develop, troubleshoot and optimize the code, then make it available for everyone. Microsoft has done just this with a set of tools that automate these common tasks, called Installable Components for ASP. In this chapter we will cover the general concept, then look at four components:

• The Server Object and how to use Server Components – the basics of the techniques.
• The Advertisement Rotator Component – A tool used to display advertisements on your site.
• The Content Linker – A tool to allow the website manager to link together a series of pages, for example to create a tour of the site or to step through the pages of a tutorial.
• The Browser Capabilities Component – a tool to determine what features, like tables, scripting and frames, your visitor's browser supports. With that knowledge you can build pages that take advantage of every feature available, but do not rely on unsupported functions.