Static pages, that is, Web pages
that have the same content each time we view them, are more and more becoming
a thing of the past. To encourage the development of your Web community
and to get visitors to revisit your site, you must provide them with a
reason to come back. Probably the most compelling reason a person has
for returning to your site is that you offer dynamic Web content.
Dynamic Web pages can change every time they are viewed. Examples of
dynamic pages are pages that display the current weather, show today's
sales items, or show how stocks are moving right now. Each time the visitor
revisits the page, the site displays the most current information. Active
Server Pages are the means for creating dynamic Web pages.
Active Server Pages allow us to combine standard HTML elements like tables,
text and titles with scripting language elements like database fields,
date/time information and personal customization to produce a webpage
that is dynamically generated every time your page is requested from a
browser. The browser requests the Active Server Page, which is then processed
by your Internet Information Server (IIS). IIS then runs your VB Script,
turning it into standard HTML tags and text. The resulting page contains
none of your code and is viewable by virtually any browser like Internet
Explorer, Netscape Navigator, or AOL's browser.
