Developing ASP Components

Microsoft's Active Server Pages (ASP) technology has become very popular with Web developers. However, the techniques for developing custom ASP components, not to mention the inevitable snags and pitfalls, are not well documented. What's more, the successful ASP component developer must be a jack-of-all-trades, with some knowledge of COM and COM+, threading models, and the ASP object model, as well as a mastery of one or more language tools and development environments. That's where this text comes in. Its first section explores the topics everyone needs to know to develop effective ASP components: configuring the ASP development environment; ASP components and the Component Object Model (COM); ASP components and threading models; ASP components and Component Services, which provide a variety of services to ASP components; the objects, properties, methods, and events available in the ASP object model; an integrating ASP components and scripted Active Server Pages; ASP components are language independent, and developers increasingly tend to use more than a single language tool. Thus the remainder of the book focuses on ASP component development using one of two major development tools- Microsoft Visual Basic and Microsoft Visual C++ (with the ActiveX Template Library) - along with a number of other languages, such as Perl and Delphi. Each section focuses on the issues that concern the ASP component developer using that particular development environment. These issues include: accessing ASP's intrinsic objects; accessing data using ADO; creating n-tier web applications with VB; and handling persistence using MFC along with Visual C++/ATL; It's this strong focus on two major development environments, along with a thorough grounding in essential ASP topics, that should make "Developing ASP Components, 2nd Edition" a valuable resource for the ASP application and component developer.

Table of Contents:
Preface 1. Writing ASP Components The Role ASP Components Play Why Use ASP Components? COM+ Services and ASP Components Accessing Data with ASP Components Windows 2000 Technologies Accessible from ASP Components A Rose by Any Other Name: Programming Language Choice What About ASP.NET? 2. Setting Up the ASP Development Environment Configuring the IIS Environment Remote Administration of IIS Using ADSI to Administer IIS Programmatically IIS Admin Object Overview The IIS Base Admin Objects 3. ASP Components and COM Overview of COM for ASP Component Developers How COM Is Implemented Notable COM Interfaces COM Datatypes 4. ASP Components, Threads, and Contexts What Are Threads? Threads and Apartments The Threading Models What Are COM+ Contexts? 5. COM+ Services and ASP Components and Applications Developing Component-Based Systems The COM+ Interfaces Porting MTS Packages to COM+ Applications Activating COM+ Applications COM+ Services 6. ASP Interaction: Scripting and ASP Components Scripting Language Support Within ASP Instantiating Components COM+ Datatypes and Script/Component Interaction Passing Arrays as Parameters Error Handling Between Component and Script 7. Creating a Simple Visual Basic ASP Component Creating an In-Process or Out-Of-Process Component Component Instancing Component Execution and Threads Creating an ASP Project Creating Component Methods Generating, Registering, Installing, and Testing the Component Adding Support for COM+ Services Converting MTS Components for Use with COM+ Accessing the ASP Built-in Objects Error Handling Debugging Performance Issues 8. Creating ASP/ADO Components Accessing ADO from a VB Component Creating a Simple ADO Component The ADO Model File and Directory Access with ADO Streams and the Record Object Persisting Data 9. Creating an ASP Middle Tier with ADO How Separate Should the Layers Be? Creating ADO Data Wrappers Defining Business Objects Other Data Integrity Issues 10. Server-Side XML Through VB ASP Components XML Basics Formatting XML Working with XML in ASP Applications XML and ADO: Saving Recordsets as XML 11. Take a Message: Accessing CDO from ASP Components A Brief Overview of CDO The CDO Object Model Send This URL to a Friend Working with the Message Body Retrieving and Reading Messages 12. Working with Active Directory from ASP Applications A Brief Overview of Active Directory in Windows 2000 Setting Up an Isolated Active Directory Environment A Refresher on ADSI Binding to Active Directory Objects Using the Active Directory Services Viewer Manipulating Containers Searching Active Directory with ADO ASP Example: Add and Manage Users Through the Web 13. Working with MSMQ Components MSMQ/ASP Basics Working with Queues Working with MSMQ Messages Using Transactions Journaling A Brief Word on Message Security 14. Creating C++ ASP Components ATL or MFC Using ATL AppWizard to Generate the Basic ASP Component Project Adding an ATL Object Code Changes Based on Adding a New Object Adding Methods to the Interface Adding Support for COM+ Services Converting MTS Components for Use with COM+ Accessing the ASP Built-in Objects Error Handling 15. Adding Data Access to C++ Components with ADO ADO Access in Visual C++ The ADO Object Model The Connection Object The Recordset Object The IADORecordBinding Interface The Command Object Stream and Record Objects 16. The CDO Interfaces from C++ Components Accessing CDO Interfaces in C++ Creating and Sending a Message Retrieving and Reading Messages 17. Accessing Active Directory from C++ Components Binding to Active Directory Objects ADSI Helper Functions Filtering Collections Creating and Removing Active Directory Objects Using ADSI Searching Active Directory with IDirectorySearch 18. Accessing MSMQ from C++ ASP Components Adding Support for MSMQ to the C++ Project Working with Queues Searching for a Specific Queue Working with MSMQ Messages Using Transactions 19. Persistence with ASP Components Using ATL and MFC Combining MFC and ATL File Access from ASP Components Creating a Serializable Class Persistence Through Object Serialization 20. ASP Components Created with Java Creating Java Components Invoking a COM Object in a Java Component Working with COM+ Services The ASP Built-in Object and Helper Interfaces Accessing ADO from Java Components 21. Creating ASP Components with Delphi Using the COM Wizards to Create ASP Components Manually Adding Support for COM+/ASP Working with the ASP Objects Working with ADO Working with Windows 2000 Functionality: CDO 22. Perl-Based Components Using ActiveState's PDK Setting Up PDK Building a Basic Perl Component Accessing the ASP Built-in Objects Working with Data Working with the Win2K Environment 23. Creating Scripting Language Components The Windows Script Components Architecture Elements of a WSC File Script Components and ADO The WSC Wizard Creating Script Components with JScript Accessing Windows 2000 Functionality A. ASP Built-in Object Quick Reference B. The Weaver Database Index