Classic ASP versus ASP.net

 

ASP (Active Server Pages) was for the first time was released in December 1996. Since then it has been through major changes and has grown and tailored to the new methods of developing web sites and applications for the internet over the period of time. There are two major forms of ASP:-

Classic ASP and ASP.Net

ASP.Net

In ASP.net major weight is on n-tier architecture in the application development and there is separation of data presentation, business logic and data access layers. In classic ASP these layers are mixed leading to the development of ineffective solutions with huge architecture that are difficult to sustain. The ASP.net offers object oriented approach for the software development where as ASP does not support classes. Only VBScript and Javascript were available for scripting in ASP where as, in ASP.net there are no such restrictions.

The .net compliant languages can be used with ASP.net like C# and VB.net, where both of them are server-sided languages where as in ASP only VBScript and Javascript are available as options to be used. Then the ASP pages are interpreted and the ASP.net Code is compiled .Traditional ASP can run only on- Microsoft platforms but ASP.net can be run on non- Microsoft platforms also. ASP runs under the inetinfo.exe IIS (Internet Information Server) process space and can lead to application crashes due to the start and stop process used by IIS. While ASP.net process is separate from inetinfo.exe and is not related to the IIS process isolation settings. The debugging process is easier in ASP.net.

In classic ASP the executable code cannot be separated from the HTML making the page difficult to read and maintain. The code block has to be placed when ever the output is to be shown. This limitation of code is overcome in ASP.net by the use of server controls. The HTML and Web Server Controls created on the server require a attribute to work. This attribute indicates that the page will be processed on the server. At the same time it implies that the enclosed controls can be accessed by server scripts. Validation Server Controls are a big advantage in ASP.net. It saves a lot of time and developers do not have to write their own functions as it is with ASP. Built-in validation increases the application reliability. Through this Double validation on client and server side can be performed.

The use of ASP.net pages gives a performance and security edge. It supports the usage of any .Net language. There is no restriction over the use of JavaScript or VB Script on your Web pages. Finally it can be said that ASP.net has opened up a whole new programming model with the blend and combination of web forms, server-side controls, data binding along with web services. ASP and ASP.net has just scratched the surface of the Microsoft Active Server Page technology, which will continue to improve in the coming years with the latest additions on the technology front.