NEWBIE: ASP.NET Questions

[kwilliams]

I'm going to be converting all of my applications from ASP to ASP.NET, but I have a few questions about this process. I'm also going to be using XML in the future, so some of these questions are related to both. Here they are:

1) Should I use ASP.NET and XML together, or one over the other?
2) What about all of the apps that I've created with ASP. Will simply changing the file extension from ".asp" to ".aspx" correct this issue, or sill some of my applications still not work?
3) We are getting a new IIS 6.0 webserver with ASP.NET. Will ASP pages still work after this migration? If not, what will I need to do to get them to work?
4) What language is best to use with ASP.NET, VB.NET or JScript?
NOTE: I know JScript but not VB.NET. But I want to go with the language that will have the most resources available to me.

I'm really nervous about this process, as I've never received training in ASP.NET. Everything that I've learned so far has been from w3schools tutorial and online forums, so I don't feel like I have a solid grasp on what does need to be changed with this migration, and what I can wait to do at a later time. Any & all help will be appreciated. Thanks.

[PeOfEo]

xml and asp.net are different things. Xml its self is not really a server side language, there are no scripts. Infact xml is a markup language... extensible markup language. I use xml with asp.net, but I use xml mainly for configuration. Xml can also be used for data storage, rss, soap, etc etc etc.

Canging a .asp extention to a .aspx extention will fail. Asp and asp.net run differently, they are fundamentally different. For instance all of the languages used to do asp.net are oo, none of the languages used to code asp are oo. Asp.net can not be done in vbscript, its done in vb.net. But asp and asp.net can run side by side so you do not neccessarily need to change all of the files at one time.

They should still work just fine.

jscript cannot even be used to do asp.net. Jscript.net is available, but the support (you will not find many articles) for that is very lousy because it is not a commonly used language. I would say c# is your best bet because it is very popular and has a similar syntax.

w3schools cannot help you anymore, atleast not for asp.net. W3schools does not talk a lot about code there, their asp.net section is lousy. I love their asp section and their html and css stuff, but their asp.net is basically nothing. A good site to go to is www.4guysfromrolla.com , they have tons of good stuff. Their articles are very very well written.

[kwilliams]

Hello PeOfEo,

Thanks for all of the great information. I got all of those ideas about ASP.NET from w3schools, so that makes sense that I'd be wrong on a few of them.

I'm somewhat nervous about switching to a completely new syntax by using C# instead of JScript, but I understand what you're saying about support. So I think that it will eventually be the best thing for me and my users.

But I have a few more questions that I wanted to ask concerning your statement:

But asp and asp.net can run side by side so you do not neccessarily need to change all of the files at one time.

...so what you're saying is that we can move our site onto the new IIS 6.0 server with ASP.NET, but the ASP code will all still work properly. I can then go into each of the applications at my leisure, and change them from ASP to ASP.NET without any problems. Am I understanding that right? Do I need to change the file extensions for all of those pages to ".aspx", or should I keep them as ".asp" until they're changed to ASP.NET?

Thanks for your help...it's greatly appreciated!

[PeOfEo]

Keep them as asp while you are using asp, when a page is redone with asp.net change the extention to .aspx. The extention difference tells the server what to do, asp and asp.net run very differently. You do not even need to switch whole applications over to asp.net at one time, you should be able to keep some pages in an application asp and some asp.net and still be able to pass some variables inbetween them with hidden inputs and query strings. I do not believe (but have not tried) to move cookies or session values between the two though.

[Cstick]

Kwilliams,

I thought you should take a look at the tutorials section of www.asp.net. They cover basic syntax for vb.net as well as the basics of ASP.net in multiple langauges vb, c#, and jscript. I still go back to it from time to time to refresh my memory. 4guysfromrolla is an great site, especially once you know the basics.

[Ribeyed]

Hi,
here is a good artical for showing you what old asp code would need changing to migrate your page to asp.net

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...sptoaspnet.asp

[kwilliams]

Thanks for the referenced article. It looks like it will help me to get a good start on the eventual conversion from ASP to ASP.NET. I appreciate all of your suggestions & help