Frontpage and ASP.NET

[Phillip Blake]

I'm a little confused/frustrated over the huge differences
between classic ASP and ASP.NET. I note, FrontPage has
partial support for ASP.NET but gets rather upset when
using the Database Interface Wizard to connect to an
established ODBC data source living on a remote server.
It seems to want the database to live within the FrontPage
web site. This also seems to be the case when coding with
Web Matrix. As I have opted to use MySQL for financial
reasons, I have a major dilemma with this kind of
limitation.

I'm wondering whether the next version of FrontPage will
in fact be FrontPage.NET.? Perhaps it will amalgamate Web
Matrix.

Does anyone have any information about using ODBC
compliant data sources with ASP.NET? Also, would someone
be prepared to hazard a guess as to the future of classic
ASP? Will there be future releases?

Cheers,
Phil

 

[MD Websunlimited]

I do believe that the next release of FP will be more geared to ASPX.

I do not believe there will be a future release of ASP.

 

[Phillip Blake]

Thanks so very much, Andrew.

Sorry for the late reply. I'll get on with reviewing all
of the references you gave me. Thanks again, mate!

Phil

-----Original Message-----
Philip-

Classic ASP has been around for awhile now, and will not

die immediately even though Microsoft wishes it would.
There are plenty of websites out there with help & how-
tos. See:

http://www.asp101.com/

http://www.4guysfromrolla.com/webtech/index_asp.shtml
(look at the older articles first, the newer ones are mostly ASP.NET)

Microsoft's ASP FAQ:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx? scid=/Support/ActiveServer/faq/script/111.asp
(that should be all together, no spaces)

That said, ASP Classic *is* on the way out, though it'll

be around for awhile yet. Microsoft has said they will
definitely *not* release any updates. So eventually,
you're going to have to make the move. This is very
similar to the VB6 vs. VB.NET issue- in fact it's
related, as ASP Classic is VB6-based, and ASP.NET is
(mainly) VB.NET based, although you can write ASP.NET
code in C#.

I have a question for you, though- if you're using ASP,

why are you mucking around with ODBC? That's an older,
slower, more error-prone technology. Why not go straight
the the newer, superior OLE-DB? There is an OLE-DB
provider for MySQL available- see the links below. I
think that might help you quite a bit. Have a look at the
following page, which discusses the relative merits of
ODBC vs. OLE-DB:

http://www.asp101.com/misc/link.asp?URL=http://www% 2Eactiveserverpages%2Ecom%2Flearn%2Fdbopen%2Easp
(that should be all one line, no spaces)

And this one, which explains how to create all types of ADO connection strings:
http://www.asp101.com/articles/john/connstring/default.as p

And this one, which tells how to connect to MySQL using

OLE-DB, and has a link to the OLE-DB provider for MySQL:

http://www.sharppower.com/products/raptier/doc/UserGuide/ CreatingNewProject/MySQLNewProject.htm

again, that's all one line, no spaces. Note that the

above page shows how to create a UDL file; once the file
is created, you can press SHIFT, right-click it, choose
OPEN WITH... and open it in Notepad (or just open Notepad
and browse to it); you'll find within the file a perfect
OLE-DB connection string you can copy and plunk directly
into your ASP file- or better yet, put it in its own .ASP
file in a protected directory, then #include it in
any .ASP file that needs to connect to your database.
That's much more secure, & less error-prone.

 

[Robert Weatherford]

Hi Phil,

For two years, I thought how great it'd be if I could either move FrontPage
webs over to ASP.NET, or better yet, use FrontPage and VS.NET together on a
web project. Well, after finally deciding to take matters into my own hands,
I just released a VS.NET add-in called PagePorter. Check it out at
http://www.pageporter.com. I hope you'll find it to be useful!

Regards,
Robert

 

[chris leeds]

That's very interesting Robert,
You should see about putting it on the MS download center as well. I was
just snooping around there yesterday. it appears to provide great exposure
to new items.

Nice job btw. How did you rig your installer?

--
Chris Leeds,
Microsoft MVP FrontPage

The email address on this posting is a "black hole". I got tired of all the
spam.
Please feel free to contact me here:
http://nedp.net/contact/

 

[Robert Weatherford]

Thanks. Which MS download center are you referring to? www.asp.net? I've
submitted on that and www.123aspx.com. If you know of others, please let me
know. Although I'm not new to software development by any means, I'm rather
new to the marketing end. My new running joke with my friends is, "Now that
the project is done, the real work begins!"

What's your specific queston about the installer? I'll be happy to answer
your question when I understand it better ;-)

Robert

 

[chris leeds]

sure Robert,
http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/downloads/addin/default.asp

good luck.
I'm in a similar situation where I've got a really great script made which
was fairly difficult and expensive. I'm now fording the task of rigging it
up in an installer somehow. I'd like to make it so that the installer will
install the files (a web site template and "web component" add-in) into the
correct directories for FrontPage 00,02, and 03.
It appears the same would be true for me about the task at hand being done
and a more difficult one being the reward. ;-)

TIA

--
Chris Leeds,
Microsoft MVP FrontPage

The email address on this posting is a "black hole". I got tired of all the
spam.
Please feel free to contact me here:
http://nedp.net/contact/

 

[Robert Weatherford]

Well, I'm not sure I"ll be of much help -- since PagePorter was written in
Visual C# .NET, I used their "deployment project" to create most of the
installation, and added a few cusom functions. You'll probably need to use
the "naked" Windows installer, and I'm afraid I don't have much direct
experience with it.

Robert

 

[chris leeds]

I've found a couple of things. I've downloaded the installer sdk (for my
vacation reading) and have been looking at this:
http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php

I'm sure it's not insurmountable and I'm just getting the standard static
when delving into something foreign.

Thanks,

--
Chris Leeds,
Microsoft MVP FrontPage

The email address on this posting is a "black hole". I got tired of all the
spam.
Please feel free to contact me here:
http://nedp.net/contact/

 

[clintonG]

The QUE MCAD 70-315 Training Guide explains how to create
various types of installation projects noting the focus is on using
Visual Studio.NET 2003.

--
<%= Clinton Gallagher, "Twice the Results -- Half the Cost"
Architectural & e-Business Consulting -- Software Development
NET (e-mail address removed)
URL http://www.metromilwaukee.com/clintongallagher/

 

[chris leeds]

Thanks! I'll check it out.

--
Chris Leeds,
Microsoft MVP FrontPage

The email address on this posting is a "black hole". I got tired of all the
spam.
Please feel free to contact me here:
http://nedp.net/contact/