Active Server Pages in the CML

The Internet Server Application Programming Interface (ISAPI) is a Microsoft interface for writing in-process extensions to IIS. Active Server Pages (ASP) is an ISAPI extension. ASP is a server-based scripting language that combines HTML and script code into a single file. ASP is often described as the glue that holds components together. The CML application ASP pages contain HTML syntax, client-side script, and server-side script logic. See Designing the CML User Interface and Coding the CML User Interface for detailed information on the ASP pages that make up the CML application.

ASP enables CML Web developers to:

• Easily create dynamic Web server pages by freely intermixing HTML with inline script.
• Separate Web content from business logic.
• Use any scripting language.
• Use any HTML authoring tool.
• Target any browser.
• Invoke ActiveX® components to run business logic.

The following objects are available to ASP:

• ASP server objects. Application, Session, Request, Response, Server, and ObjectContext are the built-in objects of ASP. The CML application uses most of the methods, properties, and collections of the ASP server objects. CML Features discusses the implementation of ASP server objects.
• ASP scripting objects. The scripting objects Dictionary, FileSystem, and TextStream are provided by a library file implemented in scrrun.dll. Intrinsic Objects discusses the use of the Dictionary object in the CML application. For example code, see TableMgr.asp. The FileSystem and TextStream objects are not used in the application. ASP scripting objects are only available on the server.
• COM components. ASP includes COM components designed to do useful tasks such as data access. The CML application uses only the ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) component. ADO in the CML Application describes the use of ADO.

The CML application ASP pages also use Visual Basic® components. These components implement application business logic. The COM Components and Objects topic describes the CML components in detail.