How to create VDF Web Applications
How to create VDF Web Applications page under construction
Introduction
Getting started
To be able to develop ASP pages , then you need Internet Information Server. The most easy way to get that these days is to grab Microsofts Web Platform installer here :
http://www.microsoft.com/web/channel/products/WebPlatformInstaller.aspx (note that it is in beta right now)
This tool will provide you with a full stack for developing asp related things. It will also keep track of certain things you need to enable on Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.
The overall idea about Active Server pages and vdf
asp pages are about creating HTML markup for serverside code in an easy way .
This means that asp is not a real programming language - it is about creating html to got together with serverside components you develop in Visual DataFlex (VDF). If you have problems you need to solve , then the best idea is to try solve them in Visual DataFlex (or another programming language for that matter) .
If you are coming from the visual dataflex world on windows, then you are probably used to writing code that can respond to events immediately.
Here in the web world you have to consider the fact that you are in a web browser that will have to talk to the server before getting an answer (or at least getting an answer that involves data and logic on the server). This means that you cannot run vdf code on the client inside the browser (not yet). When you develop ASP pages using vdf then you develop COM compents that run on the serverside and are 'glued' together using a scripting language like
- vbscript
- jscript (jscript is microsofts version of Javascript )
VDF on the serverside
- Web Business Process (these things gets registered and you can access them in asp)
- Global.asa (this is where your code is stackup up. check the list of WBP's there)
Web development primer
The basics
You should always make sure that any html/javascript/css you do validates to the current standards. It will save you time in the long run.
- HTML ( validate here: [1] )
- Cascading Style Sheets ( validate here: http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/ )
- Javascript ( validate here: http://www.jslint.com/ )
Advanced
Before doing more advanced stuff on the clientside of things, you should take the time to familiarize yourself with the material on quirksmode.org. It provides a great overview on how things operate on the different browsers out there.
