Web Applications

These days, "Web application" is almost as broad a term as "application." If you think of applications in terms such as "single-user," "multiuser," "client/server," or "distributed," you can add the term "Web application" to any one of those. Using a Web-based client for a distributed or client/server application is becoming more common. In fact, the Island Hopper News sample includes examples of both Web-based and Windows-based clients (see The Island Hopper News Sample in Chapter 3 for more information).

You can use Visual Studio tools to build any kind of Web application, from your own family Web site, to an intranet for your workgroup, all the way to a company Web site on the Internet. Visual Studio tools make it easy for you to create powerful Web solutions by combining your development skills with the latest Web technologies. Two of the technologies that you have probably heard about are Active Server Pages (ASP) and Dynamic HTML (DHTML).

Active Server Pages

Active Server Pages (ASP) is a server-side scripting environment that you can use to create dynamic Web pages or build powerful Web applications. ASP pages are files that contain HTML tags, text, and script commands. ASP pages can call ActiveX^® components to perform tasks, such as connecting to a database or performing a business calculation. With ASP, you can add interactive content to your Web pages or build entire Web applications that use HTML pages as the interface to your customer.

For More Information   See the following topics online in MSDN Library Visual Studio 6.0.

• Introducing Active Server Pages
• Using Scripting Languages
• Writing Simple Scripts
• ASP Applications

Dynamic HTML

Dynamic HTML is a set of innovative features included in Microsoft^® Internet Explorer 4.0 and later to provide authors with the power to dynamically change the rendering and content of a document. With Dynamic HTML, authors can create visually outstanding HTML documents that interact with the user without the burden of relying on server-side programs or complicated sets of HTML pages to achieve special effects.

You can use Dynamic HTML to easily add effects to your documents that were previously difficult to achieve. For example, you can:

• Hide text and images in your document and keep this content hidden until a given time elapses or the user interacts with the page.
• Animate text and images in your document, independently moving each element from any starting point to any ending point, following a path that you choose or that you let the user choose.
• Create a ticker that automatically refreshes its content with the latest news, stock quotes, or other data.
• Create a form, and then instantly read, process, and respond to the data the user enters in the form.

For More Information   See Dynamic HTML, online in MSDN Library Visual Studio 6.0.