Can anyone tell me what each of these are doing?
<%call buildBanner()%>
What I think this one is doing is calling a Method But I'm not that familiar with ASP.
Dim nInstallID : nInstallID = getParam("InstallID")
This I'm not quite sure, But from What I gathered it's a string. But I'm not sure what the ":" does or is doing.
The "call buildBanner()" is calling a function from somewhere else in your code. The function could be on the same page or it could be in an "include" file.
The ":" is just a way to separate commands on the same line. Normally you would put the two parts on two separate lines, but this is a shortcut way to use one line. Some people like to declare and initialize the variable on the same line - something you can't do in a single statement in Classic ASP.
Related
I have the following line of code in ASP.Net (VB)
Response.Write("<td class=""tblRow""><strong>" & ITServiceRow.NAME & " </strong><br>" & funcRAGColour(ITServiceRow.RAGSTATUS) & Environment.NewLine)
This should output the Name from ITServiceRow.NAME followed by the result of the function funcRAGColour.
However this is not the case. ASP.Net is outputting the value of the function funcRAGColour. first followed by the value of ITServiceRow.NAME.
Just trying to understand why this might be happening? If I replace the function with static text it executes fine, but when I put the function in it outputs the function result immediately before the name.
The image here, in yellow shows the full output that comes from the function, it is shown before everything else?
Am I missing something obvious here?
Try using String.Format instead to guarantee placement.
Response.Write(string.Format("<td class=""tblRow""><strong>{0}</strong><br />{1}{2}</td>",funcRAGColour(ITServiceRow.RAGSTATUS),Environment.NewLine))
Always do whatever you can to avoid string concatenation. String concatenation is tough on a system and uses much more memory and resources to be garbage collected than you think because it's actually far more complicated. String.Format and StringBuilder help get around this.
I am very suspect of the function funcRAGColour() itself though and think that is the problem. My guess is the function is not returning the output as a string, but instead is using Response.Write() to output it's result. That would cause it's value to appear first since it is called while the string is being assembled.
Keep in mind, Response.Write is NOT the way to do things in ASP.Net. It was need in classic ASP, but ASP.Net has HtmlTextWriters that can be used during the rendering process, controls for result placement, etc.. It's the old school, non object-oriented way of doing things that can get into trouble.
i was used with php to use printf to build my strings, but i cannot find anything similar with asp and i end up writing crap like:
WrapTag="<"&Tag&">"&Text&" </"&Tag&">"
instead i would liek to write something more readable, like:
WrapTag=String.Format("<{0}>{1}</{2}>",Tag,Text,Tag)
as it was shown with this url:
http://idunno.org/archive/2004/07/14/122.aspx but it is not working.
Can anyone help me on that?
The code that you show is correct.
You don't have to send in the tag name twice, you can use the same value twice in the format:
WrapTag = String.Format("<{0}>{1}</{0}>",Tag,Text)
I am currently in a situation where I have to make some additions to an application written in classic ASP using server-side JScript on IIS.
The additions that I need to make involve adding a series of includes to the server-side code to extend the application's capabilities. However, the inc files may not exist on the server in all cases, so I need the application to fall back to the existing behavior (ignore the includes) if the files do not exist, rather than generating an error.
I know that this can't be accomplished using if statements in the JScript code because of the way that SSI works, and have not come across any ways of dynamically including the code on the server side, where the files may not exist.
Does anyone know of a way to accomplish this in classic ASP? Any help would be much appreciated.
Here's a script to dynamically include asp files:
<%
' **** Dynamic ASP include v.2
function fixInclude(content)
out=""
if instr(content,"#include ")>0 then
response.write "Error: include directive not permitted!"
response.end
end if
content=replace(content,"<"&"%=","<"&"%response.write ")
pos1=instr(content,"<%")
pos2=instr(content,"%"& ">")
if pos1>0 then
before= mid(content,1,pos1-1)
before=replace(before,"""","""""")
before=replace(before,vbcrlf,""""&vbcrlf&"response.write vbcrlf&""")
before=vbcrlf & "response.write """ & before & """" &vbcrlf
middle= mid(content,pos1+2,(pos2-pos1-2))
after=mid(content,pos2+2,len(content))
out=before & middle & fixInclude(after)
else
content=replace(content,"""","""""")
content=replace(content,vbcrlf,""""&vbcrlf&"response.write vbcrlf&""")
out=vbcrlf & "response.write """ & content &""""
end if
fixInclude=out
end function
Function getMappedFileAsString(byVal strFilename)
Dim fso,td
Set fso = Server.CreateObject("Scripting.FilesystemObject")
Set ts = fso.OpenTextFile(Server.MapPath(strFilename), 1)
getMappedFileAsString = ts.ReadAll
ts.close
Set ts = nothing
Set fso = Nothing
End Function
execute (fixInclude(getMappedFileAsString("included.asp")))
%>
The last line (the one starting with "execute") is equivalent to an "include" directive, with the difference that it can be included inside an "if" statement (dynamic include).
Bye
If you are really brave, you can read the contents of the file and then Eval() it.
But you will have not real indication of line numbers if anything goes wrong in the included code.
As a potentially better alternative: Can you not create some sanity check code in global.asa to create the include files as blanks if they do not exist?
Put simply, no. Why would the files not exist? Can you not at least have empty files present?
What you could do is something like this:
Use Scripting.FileSystemObject to detect the presence of the files
Use Server.Exeecute to "include" the files, or at least execute the code.
The only problem is that the files cannot share normal program scope variables.
The solution to this turned out to be to use thomask's suggestion to include the files and to set a session variable with a reference to "me" as per http://www.aspmessageboard.com/showthread.php?t=229532 to allow me to have access to the regular program scope variables.
(I've registered because of this, but can't seem to associate my registered account with my unregistered account)
I am working on adding a mulit-language feature to an asp classic site. I was trying to do this by using if else statements to select the include I want to load. After a bit of research I found out that includes files are loaded up before any code is handled.
How can I get around this issue and load up the proper include files? Is there a better way of doing this?
Thanks!
You can't, as you've discovered, dynamically choose includes. Includes are handled statically before any script is executed.
The next best thing is Server.Execute. You can use logic to choose what additional files to execute, however whether this fits with your solution is another matter. What do your includes currently contain?
Another approach would be place your "multi-language" choices in some data format such a set of CSV files or XML files. Your code would then load the appropriate "language file".
After countless hours I think I finally came up with a solution. I create xml files for each language (en.xml, fr.xml) with a super simple structure (just a label element with an id and value).
By using an attribute that has a similar name to the label I want to replace I can figure out where everything needs to go, and just pull the value.
I'm not sure if this idea helps, but you could dim the language string variables in one ASP file and then set the variables in separate ASP functions. Then your if statements can call the proper function to set the ASP language string variables. You would not be breaking out the language string into separate files, but it might accomplish what you are trying to achieve.
For example:
dim str1, str2
sub SetLangX
str1 = "String val 1 for lang X"
str2 = "String val 2 for lang X"
end sub
sub SetLangY
str1 = "String val 1 for lang Y"
str2 = "String val 2 for lang Y"
end sub
It can be done - just use include virtual instead of file
edit
I stand corrected - obviously i tried too hard to forget those dark ages.
Years ago i worked on a project where we would create a "container page" for every language version an then include the respective portion of constants.
A working spinoff is still running and if you check the page source of this site you can get an idea how we plugged the pages together.
Some of the included scripts identified by their SVN id tags even included more scripts and maintaining this slowly turned into a nightmare.
I'm sorry i was wrong about the conditional include and there should be a better solution than the one mentioned above.
I mean, like php'h include...
something like
my_file_to_be_included = "include_me.asp"
-- >
for what I've seen so far, there are a couple of alternatives, but every one of them has some sort of shortcoming...
what I'm trying to figure out is how to make a flexible template system... without having to statically include the whole thing in a single file with a loooooong case statement...
here there are a couple of links
a solution using FileSysmemObject, just lets you include static pages
idem
yet another one
same thing from adobe
this approach uses Server.Execute
but it has some shortcomings I'd like to avoid... seems like (haven't tried yet) Server.Execute code runs in another context, so you can't use it to load a functions your are planning to use in the caller code... nasty...
same thing
I think this one is the same
this looks promising!!!
I'm not sure about it (couldn't test it yet) but it seems like this one dinamycally handles the page to a SSDI component...
any idea???
No you can't do a dyanmic include, period.
Your best shot at this is a server.execute and passing whatever state it needs via a Session variable:-
Session("callParams") = BuildMyParams() 'Creates some sort of string
Server.Execute(my_file_to_be_included)
Session.Contents.Remove("callParams")
Improved version (v2.0):
<%
' **** Dynamic ASP include v.2.0
function fixInclude(content)
out=""
if instr(content,"#include ")>0 then
response.write "Error: include directive not permitted!"
response.end
end if
content=replace(content,"<"&"%=","<"&"%response.write ")
pos1=instr(content,"<%")
pos2=instr(content,"%"& ">")
if pos1>0 then
before= mid(content,1,pos1-1)
before=replace(before,"""","""""")
before=replace(before,vbcrlf,""""&vbcrlf&"response.write vbcrlf&""")
before=vbcrlf & "response.write """ & before & """" &vbcrlf
middle= mid(content,pos1+2,(pos2-pos1-2))
after=mid(content,pos2+2,len(content))
out=before & middle & fixInclude(after)
else
content=replace(content,"""","""""")
content=replace(content,vbcrlf,""""&vbcrlf&"response.write vbcrlf&""")
out=vbcrlf & "response.write """ & content &""""
end if
fixInclude=out
end function
Function getMappedFileAsString(byVal strFilename)
Dim fso,td
Set fso = Server.CreateObject("Scripting.FilesystemObject")
Set ts = fso.OpenTextFile(Server.MapPath(strFilename), 1)
getMappedFileAsString = ts.ReadAll
ts.close
Set ts = nothing
Set fso = Nothing
End Function
execute (fixInclude(getMappedFileAsString("included.asp")))
%>
Sure you can do REAL classic asp dynamic includes. I wrote this a while back and it has opened up Classic ASP for me in a whole new way. It will do exactly what you are after, even though people seem to think it isn't possible!
Any problems just let me know.
I'm a bit rusty on classic ASP, but I'm pretty sure you can use the Server.Execute method to read in another asp page, and then carry on executing the calling page. 15Seconds had some basic stuff about it - it takes me back ...
I am building a web site where it would have been convenient to be able to use dynamic includes. The site is all ajax (no page reloads at all) and while the pure-data JSON-returning calls didn't need it, all the different html content for each different application sub-part (window/pane/area/form etc) seems best to me to be in different files.
My initial idea was to have the ajax call be back to the "central hub" main file (that kicks the application off in the first place), which would then know which sub-file to include. Simply including all the files was not workable after I realized that each call for some possibly tiny piece would have to parse all the ASP code for the entire site! And using the Execute method was not good, both in terms of speed and maintenance.
I solved the problem by making the supposed "child" pages the main pages, and including the "central hub" file in each one. Basically, it's a javascript round-trip include.
This is less costly than it seems since the whole idea of a web page is that the server responds to client requests for "the next page" all the time. The content that is being requested is defined in scope by the page being called.
The only drawback to this is that the "web pieces" of the application have to live partly split apart: most of their content in a real named .asp file, but enough of their structure and relationship defined in the main .asp file (so that, for example, a menu item in one web piece knows the name to use to call or load another web piece and how that loading should be done). In a way, though, this is still an advantage over a traditional site where each page has to know how to load every other page. Now, I can do stuff like "load this part (whether it's a whole page or otherwise) the way it wants to be loaded".
I also set it up so each part can have its own javascript and css (if only that part needs those things). Then, those files are included dynamically through javascript only the first time that part is loaded. Then if the part is loaded repeatedly it won't incur an extra overhead.
Just as an additional note. I was getting weird ASCII characters at the top of the pages that were using dynamic includes so I found that using an ADODB.Stream object to read the include file eliminated this issue.
So my updated code for the getMappedFileAsString function is as follows
Function getMappedFileAsString(byVal strFilename)
Dim fso
Set fso = CreateObject("ADODB.Stream")
fso.CharSet = "utf-8"
fso.Open
fso.LoadFromFile(Server.MapPath(strFilename))
getMappedFileAsString = fso.ReadText()
'Response.write(getMappedFileAsString)
'Response.End
Set fso = Nothing
End Function