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beginner question - porting from ASP/IIS to Apache::ASP

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dgoodwin at cisco

Oct 12, 2004, 11:56 AM

Post #1 of 8 (2854 views)
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beginner question - porting from ASP/IIS to Apache::ASP

Hi,

I searched through the FAQs and list archive and I haven't been able to
find an answer to a very basic question I have.

First, I have been able to get Apache::ASP installed and working on my
server, and sample code works.

The reason I was investigating using Apache::ASP is that I was led to
believe that I could take ASP pages from a Win2k / IIS server and put
them on our Unix-based Apache web server. However, looking at the
errors in the error_log of the web server when I try unsuccessfully to
bring up one of these pages copied from the IIS server, it seems like
the scripting in the Apache::ASP page must be written in Perl... that's
also what I am starting to believe from the terse info available on the
Intro page at http://www.apache-asp.org/

So my question is, what does Apache::ASP actually have to do with the
ASP code for IIS? Anything at all?

If I am barking up the wrong tree to try making these ASP / IIS scripts
work here, is there a tool or library other than Apache::ASP that would
be able to make these scripts work on an Apache web server?

Thanks in advance for your time, sorry to ask a question this basic.
:-)

-Dave

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concept at conceptonline

Oct 12, 2004, 12:10 PM

Post #2 of 8 (2705 views)
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Re: beginner question - porting from ASP/IIS to Apache::ASP [In reply to]

Dave,

> Hi,
>
> I searched through the FAQs and list archive and I haven't been able
> to find an answer to a very basic question I have.

Well, this basic question is asked once or twice every month in this
list :-)

> First, I have been able to get Apache::ASP installed and working on my
> server, and sample code works.
>
> The reason I was investigating using Apache::ASP is that I was led to
> believe that I could take ASP pages from a Win2k / IIS server and put
> them on our Unix-based Apache web server. However, looking at the
> errors in the error_log of the web server when I try unsuccessfully to
> bring up one of these pages copied from the IIS server, it seems like
> the scripting in the Apache::ASP page must be written in Perl...

Yes. And actually this IS in the main FAQ:

"*VBScript or JScript supported?* Yes, but not with this Perl module.
For ASP with other scripting languages besides Perl, you will need to go
with a commercial vendor in the UNIX world. Sun and Stryon have such
solutions. Of course on Windows NT and Windows 2000, you get VBScript
for free with IIS."

> that's also what I am starting to believe from the terse info
> available on the Intro page at http://www.apache-asp.org/
>
> So my question is, what does Apache::ASP actually have to do with the
> ASP code for IIS? Anything at all?

Well, Apache::ASP _looks_very_much_like_ ASP, but it uses Perl.
In other words: nothing, really :-) IMHO it is just a "similar concept"
or "similar architecture": if you already know ASP, and also know perl,
then you can start programming in Apache::ASP in five minutes.

From the website:
"Apache::ASP provides an Active Server Pages port to the Apache Web
Server with Perl scripting only, and enables developing of dynamic web
applications with session management and embedded Perl code. There are
also many powerful extensions, including XML taglibs, XSLT rendering,
and new events not originally part of the ASP API!"

> If I am barking up the wrong tree to try making these ASP / IIS
> scripts work here, is there a tool or library other than Apache::ASP
> that would be able to make these scripts work on an Apache web server?

Read the FAQ :-))

- Csongor

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chicks at chicks

Oct 12, 2004, 12:23 PM

Post #3 of 8 (2671 views)
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Re: beginner question - porting from ASP/IIS to Apache::ASP [In reply to]

On Tue, 12 Oct 2004, Dave Goodwin wrote:
> First, I have been able to get Apache::ASP installed and working on my
> server, and sample code works.

Good good.

> The reason I was investigating using Apache::ASP is that I was led to believe
> that I could take ASP pages from a Win2k / IIS server and put them on our
> Unix-based Apache web server. However, looking at the errors in the error_log
> of the web server when I try unsuccessfully to bring up one of these pages
> copied from the IIS server, it seems like the scripting in the Apache::ASP
> page must be written in Perl... that's also what I am starting to believe
> from the terse info available on the Intro page at http://www.apache-asp.org/

You're correct.

> So my question is, what does Apache::ASP actually have to do with the ASP
> code for IIS? Anything at all?

You can write Perl-based ASP which is portable between Windows and
UNIX/Linux. I'm not sure whether the Windows side requires Apache or is
compatible with IIS.

> If I am barking up the wrong tree to try making these ASP / IIS scripts
> work here, is there a tool or library other than Apache::ASP that would
> be able to make these scripts work on an Apache web server?

Not that I'm aware of. I guess porting to something portable is out of
the quesiton? Running an IIS-based web server may be popular, but its
really not a good idea.**

It sounds like you've let Microsoft lock you in. That makes Microsoft
money and costs you money.

> Thanks in advance for your time, sorry to ask a question this basic. :-)

Its nice to have some easy questions so that I can help out and give an
answer. :)

** Our Windows boxes are purely game machines. Desktops and servers are
all Linux now. Our servers have been all Linux for a long time. We have
run desktop and server Windows in the past though and I support folks who
are doing both still, so I'm speaking from experience -- whether its
relevant to you is up to you.

--
</chris>

Westheimer's Discovery:
"A coupla months in the laboratory can save a coupla hours in the library."

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dgoodwin at cisco

Oct 12, 2004, 1:10 PM

Post #4 of 8 (2700 views)
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Re: beginner question - porting from ASP/IIS to Apache::ASP [In reply to]

Thanks Chris and Fagyal,

To be clear, I'm inheriting the old IIS scripts to try and move onto
the Unix Apache server so that the Windows web server can be
decommissioned.

Since we're not looking to spend money on this other than man-hours, I
guess I'll be looking at trying to port the IIS scripts to PHP by hand
(since I don't speak Perl).

Thanks again for the time.

-Dave

On Oct 12, 2004, at 3:23 PM, Christopher Hicks wrote:

> On Tue, 12 Oct 2004, Dave Goodwin wrote:
>> First, I have been able to get Apache::ASP installed and working on
>> my server, and sample code works.
>
> Good good.
>
>> The reason I was investigating using Apache::ASP is that I was led to
>> believe that I could take ASP pages from a Win2k / IIS server and put
>> them on our Unix-based Apache web server. However, looking at the
>> errors in the error_log of the web server when I try unsuccessfully
>> to bring up one of these pages copied from the IIS server, it seems
>> like the scripting in the Apache::ASP page must be written in Perl...
>> that's also what I am starting to believe from the terse info
>> available on the Intro page at http://www.apache-asp.org/
>
> You're correct.
>
>> So my question is, what does Apache::ASP actually have to do with the
>> ASP code for IIS? Anything at all?
>
> You can write Perl-based ASP which is portable between Windows and
> UNIX/Linux. I'm not sure whether the Windows side requires Apache or
> is compatible with IIS.
>
>> If I am barking up the wrong tree to try making these ASP / IIS
>> scripts work here, is there a tool or library other than Apache::ASP
>> that would be able to make these scripts work on an Apache web
>> server?
>
> Not that I'm aware of. I guess porting to something portable is out
> of the quesiton? Running an IIS-based web server may be popular, but
> its really not a good idea.**
>
> It sounds like you've let Microsoft lock you in. That makes Microsoft
> money and costs you money.
>
>> Thanks in advance for your time, sorry to ask a question this basic.
>> :-)
>
> Its nice to have some easy questions so that I can help out and give
> an answer. :)
>
> ** Our Windows boxes are purely game machines. Desktops and servers
> are all Linux now. Our servers have been all Linux for a long time.
> We have run desktop and server Windows in the past though and I
> support folks who are doing both still, so I'm speaking from
> experience -- whether its relevant to you is up to you.
>
> --
> </chris>
>
> Westheimer's Discovery:
> "A coupla months in the laboratory can save a coupla hours in the
> library."

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chicks at chicks

Oct 12, 2004, 2:20 PM

Post #5 of 8 (2696 views)
Permalink

Re: beginner question - porting from ASP/IIS to Apache::ASP [In reply to]

On Tue, 12 Oct 2004, Dave Goodwin wrote:
> Thanks Chris and Fagyal,

Gladly.

> To be clear, I'm inheriting the old IIS scripts to try and move onto the Unix
> Apache server so that the Windows web server can be decommissioned.

Some inheritance!

> Since we're not looking to spend money on this other than man-hours, I guess
> I'll be looking at trying to port the IIS scripts to PHP by hand (since I
> don't speak Perl).

If you know PHP, learning Perl is a pretty short putt, but its a far
better programming langauge IMNSHO. We started using Apache::ASP to have
a PHP-like environment that didn't require PHP. I've stuck with it
because its powerful enough to let you define your own tags and we were
able to build out a poorly speced site in miraculous time. I've worked in
dozens of different langauges/environments for doing web development and
Apache::ASP is one of the few that don't cause me to say "ok, I get it,
but there's got to be a better way". That's not to say its perfect, but
its definitely mighty fine. (I had avoided looking at it because of my
anti-ASP bias. I'm glad somebody poked me into getting past that.)

--
</chris>

Westheimer's Discovery:
"A coupla months in the laboratory can save a coupla hours in the library."

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josh at chamas

Oct 12, 2004, 9:50 PM

Post #6 of 8 (2711 views)
Permalink

Re: beginner question - porting from ASP/IIS to Apache::ASP [In reply to]

Christopher Hicks wrote:
>
> able to build out a poorly speced site in miraculous time. I've worked
> in dozens of different langauges/environments for doing web development
> and Apache::ASP is one of the few that don't cause me to say "ok, I get
> it, but there's got to be a better way". That's not to say its perfect,
> but its definitely mighty fine. (I had avoided looking at it because of
> my anti-ASP bias. I'm glad somebody poked me into getting past that.)
>

I love the praise for the environment, but am wondering in what ways
could you see it improved?

Thanks,

Josh

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josh at chamas

Oct 12, 2004, 10:02 PM

Post #7 of 8 (2704 views)
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Re: beginner question - porting from ASP/IIS to Apache::ASP [In reply to]

Dave Goodwin wrote:
> ...
> The reason I was investigating using Apache::ASP is that I was led to
> believe that I could take ASP pages from a Win2k / IIS server and put
> them on our Unix-based Apache web server. However, looking at the errors
> in the error_log of the web server when I try unsuccessfully to bring up
> one of these pages copied from the IIS server, it seems like the
> scripting in the Apache::ASP page must be written in Perl... that's also
> what I am starting to believe from the terse info available on the Intro
> page at http://www.apache-asp.org/
>
> So my question is, what does Apache::ASP actually have to do with the
> ASP code for IIS? Anything at all?
>

I apologize for the confusion on this issue. Active Server Pages was
originally defined as an object + events model for web applications,
with scripting languages possible being VBScript, JScript, PerlScript, ...
What I did was port the IIS/PerlScript implementation to Apache under mod_perl
for performance, scalability & security.

Unfortunately, over time people ended up equating Active Server Pages
to mean VBScripted pages, so this has been a point of confusion for many
who did not otherwise know better. I try to explain this clearly in
the first line of introducing Apache::ASP, and do not think I can do
more than that.

Regards,

Josh

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CShang at Argoneng

Oct 13, 2004, 1:30 PM

Post #8 of 8 (2706 views)
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RE: beginner question - porting from ASP/IIS to Apache::ASP [In reply to]

There will always be tweeking when moving between platforms. Write your ASP code with perlscript as the serverside code and you'll have a lot less tweeking to do.
-Cynthia

-----Original Message-----
From: Christopher Hicks [mailto:chicks [at] chicks]
Sent: Tue 10/12/2004 3:23 PM
To: Apache::ASP mailing list; Dave Goodwin
Cc:
Subject: Re: beginner question - porting from ASP/IIS to Apache::ASP

On Tue, 12 Oct 2004, Dave Goodwin wrote:
> First, I have been able to get Apache::ASP installed and working on my
> server, and sample code works.

Good good.

> The reason I was investigating using Apache::ASP is that I was led to believe
> that I could take ASP pages from a Win2k / IIS server and put them on our
> Unix-based Apache web server. However, looking at the errors in the error_log
> of the web server when I try unsuccessfully to bring up one of these pages
> copied from the IIS server, it seems like the scripting in the Apache::ASP
> page must be written in Perl... that's also what I am starting to believe
> from the terse info available on the Intro page at http://www.apache-asp.org/

You're correct.

> So my question is, what does Apache::ASP actually have to do with the ASP
> code for IIS? Anything at all?

You can write Perl-based ASP which is portable between Windows and
UNIX/Linux. I'm not sure whether the Windows side requires Apache or is
compatible with IIS.

> If I am barking up the wrong tree to try making these ASP / IIS scripts
> work here, is there a tool or library other than Apache::ASP that would
> be able to make these scripts work on an Apache web server?

Not that I'm aware of. I guess porting to something portable is out of
the quesiton? Running an IIS-based web server may be popular, but its
really not a good idea.**

It sounds like you've let Microsoft lock you in. That makes Microsoft
money and costs you money.

> Thanks in advance for your time, sorry to ask a question this basic. :-)

Its nice to have some easy questions so that I can help out and give an
answer. :)

** Our Windows boxes are purely game machines. Desktops and servers are
all Linux now. Our servers have been all Linux for a long time. We have
run desktop and server Windows in the past though and I support folks who
are doing both still, so I'm speaking from experience -- whether its
relevant to you is up to you.

--
</chris>

Westheimer's Discovery:
"A coupla months in the laboratory can save a coupla hours in the library."

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For additional commands, e-mail: asp-help [at] perl

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