The ASPit Digest

ASPit Digest #4 - The move to .NET, PHP vs .NET, TableEditoR...

Tue, 21 Dec 2004 02:00:00 GMT

The ASPit Digest
Weekly ASP news, articles, tips and tricks!

Newsletter Archives - http://digest.aspit.net/
Advertising - http://www.aspit.net/advertising/
Contact - http://www.aspit.net/contact/

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In This Issue...

* Introduction: The move to .NET
* Editor's Perspective: PHP vs .NET
* What's New on ASP & ASP.NET
* Script of the Week: 2eNetWorX TableEditoR
* What's New on ASPit
* Closing Words

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Introduction: The move to .NET

Hello Subscriber,

Here is another issue of the ASPit Digest, filled with the latest news on ASP and ASP.NET, a script of the week and more.

It's Christmas in less than two weeks, and I've got quite a lot of planned for those couple of free days. For one, I finally want to start learning ASP.NET. It seems that more and more ASP websites are slowly moving to .NET, and of course ASPit cannot lag behind.

Once I've mastered ASP.NET, which hopefully shouldn't take too long, I'll start writing articles and publish them on ASPit. So keep an eye on ASPit, because you can expect several new articles soon. You might want to subscribe to the RSS feed to get automatically notified of any updates.

Of course I will also be enjoying my Christmas and New Year's Eve, so it isn't just all work. Here's to a good Christmas and a Happy New Year. Enjoy it!

Happy Reading!

Dennis Pallett
dennis@aspit.net

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Editor's Perspective: PHP vs .NET

There has been a lot of discussion in the past few years - ever since the release of .NET actually - about whether PHP is better or worse than .NET. Do a search on any random web-developer messageboard and you'll probably get several results, for example SitePoint Forums.

And what's even more funny about this discussion is that there never seems to be a definitive answer to this never-ending question. The PHP fans will argue until death that PHP is the best, and the same goes for the .NET crew.

I believe that both languages (.NET isn't really a language, but more a framework) are equally important and neither is better. It's simply a case of using the best tools for the job.

I wouldn't use .NET for a simple script that only needs to do something trivial. Likewise, I wouldn't use PHP for a major enterprise project, consisting of a dozen of developers. Each language has its own pros and cons, and both are suited for different tasks.

I tend to think of PHP as a 'simple' tool, that gets the job done. However, in really large projects, and I'm talking about huge projects with at least 10+ developers, and with a $500k budget or higher, I don't think PHP is really suited. That would be more the job for .NET. That may change in the feature, especially with PHP 5 and Apache 2 coming out, but for now, .NET is the enterprise tool.

The Oracle Technology Network recently compared PHP and .NET aswell, and their findinds can be read in this article. If you simple like to get a quick overview, have a look at the chart on The Tucows Developers' Hangout.

If you want to know more about the "PHP vs .NET" discussion, then all you need to do is a quick Google search. You could also start a new topic on one of the many web-developer topics, but it may be closed quickly, because it has been talked about so much.

If you have a really strong opinion about this discussion, I'm always interesting in your opinion. Drop me a note at dennis@nocertainty.com or simply reply to this e-mail.

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What's New on ASP & ASP.NET

In the past two weeks a lot of quality articles have been published, and here's a short list of the best of them.

Let's start of with 4GuysFromRolla. They have published two new articles. The first one, An Extensive Examination of the DataGrid Web Control: Part 17, is part of the datagrid series by Scott Mitchell. This part looks at how to create a fully-editable DataGrid.

The second article, A Look at WebCharts, a Free .NET Charting Control, looks at the WebChart .NET control and how to use it. Another great article, by Scott Mitchell, and definitely worth reading, if you're interesting in creating cool graphs.

Next, let's look at an article by ASP Free called ASP.NET application. This article is actually an excerpt from chapter two of ASP.NET in a Nutshell, by G. Andrew Duthie. (O'Reilly, 2003, ISBN: 0596005202). In this article you will read about extending classic ASP, using ASP.NET web services.

Another great article by ASP free is
The Real Basics of Functions in ASP. Basically, this article will show you how to effectively use functions in ASP and make your ASP scripts more modular. If you don't know the in's and out's of functions yet, then it might be useful to read this article.

ASP.net has published a few great articles as well. First of all, Choosing an ASP.NET Hosting Provider looks at how to choose a ASP.NET hosting provider. Unfortunately, ASP.NET webhosts are a lot harder to find than PHP/Linux webhosts, so this article by Scott Allen is really useful if you're looking for a good ASP.NET webhost.

Mastering ASP.Net DataBinding by Karl Seguin looks at databinding in ASP.NET. Databinding is one of the most frequently asked questions in the ASP.NET newsgroups, so this article is a very nice addition! If you still haven't mastered databinding, then you should really read through this article. In addition, you might also want to have a look at Digging Into Data Binding Expressions.

If you're looking for 'ASP.NET validation' then you might want to read Dynamic Creation of Validation Controls, published by MSDN and written by Callum Shillan. Instead of hard-coding the validation controls in your pages, you could have them dynamically created with ASP.NET. Read this article to know more about this.

Finally, ASP.NET has posted about the DataGrid as well. Updating all GridView's rows looks at how to make the DataGrid editable and updated, after a postback. This forum post seems similar to the article by 4GuysFromRolla.

DevX has also published a very useful article on ASP.NET Security. This article will show you 8 ways to avoid attack on your ASP.NET scripts. Things like cross site scripting, SQL injection and validation are discussed in this article. I think every developer should read these kind of articles, and you should definitely read it too (unless of course your scripts are already 100% secure...).

And of course MSDN has also published a few great articles, and do we expect any less from them? First of all, there is 10 Tips for Writing High-Performance Web Applications which looks at creating ASP.NET scripts that still perform wel under high loads. This article is perfect for writing scalable ASP.NET scripts, that need to hold up at the most critical moment.

MSDN has also published an article about custom callback functions in ASP.NET: Cutting Edge: Custom Script Callbacks in ASP.NET. The article includes downloadable code and good examples, so if you've got a few minutes spare, this article could be an interesting read.

And the last article of this issue, Multiple File Upload for Microsoft CRM: Sales Opportunity Attachments, talks about using an ASP.NET web form to upload files into a Microsoft CRM database. Perfect for businesses that use Microsoft CRM and ASP.NET.

That's it for this issue. Stay tuned for more great articles in the next issue!

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Script of the Week: 2eNetWorX TableEditoR

2eNetWorX TableEditoR is a Microsoft Access Database editor, very similar to aspAccessEditor. You cay browse your tables and queries, add, edit and delete records and execute SQL statements. In addition, TableEditoR is completely free, and can be downloaded at http://www.2enetworx.com/dev/projects/tableeditor.asp.

I downloaded a copy of TableEditoR, and gave it a try. Of course, I'm a bit biased, because I wrote aspAccessEditor, but I tried to be as objective as I could.

It was easy to setup, and I didn't have any real problems while I was using the editor. I did lack a few features here and there, and the interface seems somewhat clunky, but that's because I'm used to phpMyAdmin, which is developed by several different developers.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that any development is done any more. The last update was in 2002, and since then there hasn't been any updates, news or anything else. A bit of a shame, especially as this could be improved a lot, and made into a great script.

All in all, I guess 2eNetWorX TableEditoR is a pretty decent editor, and if you're looking for something, then you should definitely give it a try. But it's certainly not the best out there, and there are other editors, such as aspAccessEditor.

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What's New on ASPit

ASPit is looking for article writers! If you think you've got anything interesting to write, then e-mail me now at dennis@nocertainty.com. I'm looking for enthusiastic people who are willing to write content for ASPit. There are no requirements at all, and you can submit only one article if you want. Or you can submit one every day. There are no demands or requirements at all!

At the moment, ASPit gets about 350 unique visitors every day, which means your article will be read by at least 200 people every day. If you're looking for a good way to get your name out there, don't hesitate, and e-mail me now!

In other news, recently the 'Partner' links have been replaced by a new set of links. If you want to have your links there, you can e-mail me at advertising@aspit.net.

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Closing Words

That's all for this issue. If you want to submit content for the ASPit digest, or you'd like to see something in a future issue, then you can always e-mail me at dennis@nocertainty.com.

I've already received a great suggestion from a reader, and I'm trying to see if it's possible to include a new section in future issues of the ASPit Digest. Who knows, maybe in the next issue there will be a new section!

If you're interested in PHP/MySQL as well, you might want to subscribe to the PHPit Digest. The PHPit Digest is similar to this newsletter, except the main focus is PHP and MySQL, instead of ASP and ASP.NET. You can subscribe by clicking here or going to the PHPit homepage.

The next issue of the Digest, filled with ASP news, tricks and tips of course, will arrive in your inbox on January 4th 2005. So, see you in the new year, and enjoy all the festivities!

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If you want to receive the ASPit Digest through e-mail (either in HTML or Plain Text format), you can do so, by subscribing here.

ASPit Digest #3 - The Digest is back, ASP dead?, Snitz Forums...

Tue, 07 Dec 2004 02:00:00 GMT

The ASPit Digest
Weekly ASP news, articles, tips and tricks!

Newsletter Archives - http://digest.aspit.net/
Advertising - http://www.aspit.net/advertising/
Contact - http://www.aspit.net/contact/

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In This Issue...

* Introduction: The Digest is back!
* Editor's Perspective: Is ASP dead?
* What's New on ASP & ASP.NET
* ASP.NET Blogs
* Script of the Week: Snitz Forums 2000
* What's New on ASPit
* Closing Words

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Introduction: The Digest is back!

Hello Subscriber,

After a very long period of technical problems and lack of time, the ASPit Digest is back again. I am once again fully dedicated to bringing the latest ASP news to you.

As you might have noticed, the design of the Digest has significantly changed, and this will be the final design for the Digest (unless of course there is a need to make a change). If you have any suggestions or comments, you are always free to e-mail me.

If you would like to contribute to the Digest, by sending in an article, news fact, script or anything else, you are very welcome to do so. Of course you will be fully contributed and a link back to your own website.

In this issue you will find the latest ASP news, a script of the week (Snitz Forums this time) and a piece about the ASP.NET blogs. I have also written a short article about the 'death' of ASP. Is it really gone?

Happy Reading!

Dennis Pallett
dennis@aspit.net

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Editor's Perspective: Is ASP dead?

Every programming language has it. In fact, almost every computer program has it. Once a new �better� version is released, the older version slowly fades away. This fading away is different for each program. For example, the earliest version of MSN Messenger faded out very quickly, and hardly anyone uses them anymore. But earlier versions of web browsers (e.g. Netscape 4.0) are still used somewhat often.

The same is happening to ASP. It is slowly fading out, as ASP.NET is taking over. But when can we officially call ASP �dead�?

I think ASP is still far from dead. It is still being used in a lot of scripts, and to be honest, I haven�t seen ASP.NET used a lot yet; at least not like ASP is being used. In fact, ASP is probably still more popular than ASP.NET.

On the other hand, some web developer websites, like SitePoint, are not accepting articles about ASP anymore. Web developer Marcus Tucker had written an ASP article (which can now be found at 15Seconds.com), and sent it to SitePoint, but they declined it for the reason �they were no longer covering ASP�. A web developer website no longer covering ASP? That must mean ASP is dead, right?

Again, I don�t think so. Just because one website stops covering ASP, doesn�t mean it�s dead. 15Seconds.com did publish the article, and I bet many other ASP websites would (including ASPit). ASP is still being used to develop scripts, so there still needs to be articles and tutorials.

Many web developers haven�t made the switch to ASP.NET either (myself included), so they�re still looking for ASP articles, and writing ASP scripts.

ASP is not near death yet, and it will probably be at least a few more years (I�m guessing around 2007-2008) before it really fades away. That�s when most web developers will have switched already as well.

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What's New on ASP & ASP.NET

ASP Free has been really busy lately, posting several new interesting articles. If you like to follow all their articles, I strongly suggest you subscribe to their RSS feed at http://www.aspfree.com/index2.php?option=mos_rss&no_html=1. Anyway, on to their articles.

Their first article, XSL Transformations using ASP.NET, takes a good using ASP.NET to perform XSL transformations. If you do a lot of XML work, these can be very interesting. If you're looking to setup an AWS (Amazon Web Services) shop, this could be of interest as well.

Another article, The ADO Object Model, simply looks at the ADO Object. You know, the object that is used for databases. If you want to learn more about the ADO object, then this is surely an article you wouldn't want to miss.

As I said, ASP Free has been really busy, so I've got another great article for you: Databases and Cookies. As the title suggest, the article is all about using cookies and databases together. Of course a very interesting article, because databases and cookies are used in almost every ASP application.

That's enough for ASP Free. Let's look at what TrooBloo has published lately. First of all, they've got a very interesting article called "ASP.NET Screen Scraping". It should be pretty obvious what is about: how to screen scrape in ASP.NET. If you don't know what screen scraping is; it's automatically retrieving content from another website/page. Very neat, especially to create automatic update notifiers and such.

They've also got a (very) short article on ASP Error Handling. Always useful to read, if you don't know how to handle errors properly in ASP.

And finally, TrooBloo also links to an article on DevArticles, which has a very exciting title, namely
Calorie Counter Using WAP and ASP. A calorie counter in ASP? Funky! This article shows you how to create your own calorie counter, in ASP. Start losing weight now, thanks to ASP.

Of course, 4GuysFromRolla needs a mention as well. As usual, they have published several great articles. The one that really caught my eye is "Maintaining Scroll Position on Postback". Scott Mitchell, the owner of 4Guys, blogged about this article, so if you want to know more about it, read the blog entry.

Did you know that Scott Mitchell's wife also was a ASP developer? In fact, Creating a TextBoxLengthValidator Validator Control was created by his wife, Jisun Lee. The article shows you how to create your own TextBoxLengthValidator Validator Control. Neat!

That's it for this issue. There are dozens of great ASP articles more, but unfortunately, not everything can be included. Until next time!

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ASP.NET Blogs

Lately, blogs have been taken a rise in popularity and even BigCo's like Microsoft are getting aboard. In fact, Microsoft is already aboard, and probably already has more than 1500 employee blogs online.

Among these employee blogs are also ASP.NET developers, beta testers and others. I have looked for the best ASP/ASP.NET blogs on http://weblogs.asp.net/. The full list of blogs can be found at http://weblogs.asp.net/bloggers.aspx.

First of all, I found the 15Seconds WebLog, obviously related to the 15Seconds website. Their blog looked interesting, but they didn't posted very frequently. That was a bit of a shame.

I also found Datagrid Girl, which is the blog of Datagrid Girl, the website. It's run by Marcie Robillard, and seems like an interesting blog. As the name suggests, it's all about the ASP.NET Datagrid.

After that I had a look at Phil Winstanley's blog, who is a British Microsoft ASP.NET MVP & ASP Insider. His blog has some interesting entries, but he doesn't post very frequently, which is a shame.

Steven Smith's blog also seems very interesting, with several entries about ASP.NET and related topics. He has a few long entries with information, and short entries with links to other interesting ASP.NET topics. Pretty much like a normal blog.

I had a look at a few more ASP.NET blogs, but they also seems alike. One thing I really noticed was the fact that most, if not all, blogs on weblog.asp.net are updated very infrequently. This is a real shame, but I guess these people just don't have enough time to do any real blogging.

If you own a ASP or ASP.NET blog, let me know, so I can include you as well (and add you to my reading list!).

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Script of the Week: Snitz Forums 2000

Snitz Forums 2000 is a free ASP-based Internet Discussion Forum Software. At least, that's how Snitz themselves describe it. In normal terms, Snitz is a script to run your own bulletin board.

Having used Snitz myself, I can definitely say that Snitz is the best ASP bulletin board. It stands miles above the competition, and it's free as well.

It has a rich featureset, good support, and a whole user-community dedicated to Snitz. You can't really go wrong with Snitz.

If you're looking for good ASP BB software, then Snitz is the way to go. Don't waste your time with other scripts; just immediately go with Snitz.

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What's New on ASPit

Recently, ASPit has been given a new design, and backend script. ASPit is now even more versatile, and almost anything can be done. It is completely scalable, and ready for the future.

ASPit has also partnered with PHPit. PHPit is the PHP equivalent of ASPit. If you're looking for top-quality PHP articles and tutorials, have a look at PHPit.

What's in for the future of ASPit? I'm looking to increase traffic to ASPit, so I'm going to start trying to write more content for ASPit (after all, content is king). If you want to contribute to ASPit, feel free to e-mail me. If you have anymore suggestions for ASPit, you can also e-mail me.

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Closing Words

That's all for this issue. Hopefully you enjoyed reading this issue, after a long time of no ASPit Digest. Any suggestions or comments can also be e-mailed to me. Just reply to this e-mail or e-mail me at dennis@aspit.net.

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If you want to receive the ASPit Digest through e-mail (either in HTML or Plain Text format), you can do so, by subscribing here.

ASPit Digest #2 - Summer, The future of.NET, ASP PageMinder Review...

Tue, 27 Apr 2004 02:00:00 GMT

Screenshot of the MSDN Content Rater

Something that might be worth mentioning as well is a new blog entry by Scott Mitchell, on his blog; Scott on Writing. In the blog entry he discusses whether it's wise to use Code-Behinds in your ASP.NET applications. It's an interesting entry, all about the advantages and disadvantages of Code-Behinds.

Geekpedia has a very useful guide on how to setup your IIS server, so it can run ASP.NET applications as well. This guide will take you through the installation process of IIS, and then show you how to configure it for ASP.NET

And finally, DeveloperFusion has a short 7-step tutorial on how to deploy your ASP.NET applications. If you ever need to distribute ASP.NET apps, it may be useful to read through this article first!

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Review: ASP PageMinder

ASP PageMinder is a powerful component, by ASPaxis, that is designed to give classic ASP websites the capabilities of the ASP.NET DataGrid and DataList control. Using this component, you can very easily and quickly create displays of records. I have been using this component for the past few days, and I must say; I'm very pleased with it.

Before even installing a new component or such, I tend to check out any demos and documentation. The first thing I looked at were the demos on the website of ASPaxis. There are 3 demos, and each one demonstrates a different feature of ASP PageMinder. This already gave me a good first impression. I like it when a product has a clear demo.

After playing with the demos for a while, I decided to download it, and check it out myself. It might be worth mentioning that you can download the free edition, before you purchase the full version. This allows you to test it, and see if it suits your needs. Another positive point in my book (I prefer to try out things myself first).

When the download had finished, the first thing I wanted to check is the documentation, if there is any. Often, documentation is a forgotten thing, as developers tend to hate writing documentation. In fact, I'm guilty of it myself; aspAccessEditor has no documentation at all.

This is different with ASP PageMinder. I found a 30 page PDF file, crammed with information, tips and useful help. I doubt the documentation could be any better. Definitely another positive point. What's even more astonishing is the fact that the documentation also applies to the free edition. There's even specific information about the free edition in there. Excellent!

After browsing through the documentation for a while, I installed the component on my computer by following the instructions in the documentation. It took me less than one minute to install it.

One thing that may form a problem for most people is the fact that the component is a DLL, and so cannot be used on most shared web-hosts. Currently, ASPaxis is negotiating deals with a few big ASP web-hosts, but it will still be a problem for most people. However, this is nothing specific to ASP PageMinder, but generally a problem for any component. Before purchasing this component, it is wise to ask your web-host whether they allow installation of custom components (DLLs).

I quickly created a few scripts to test the capabilities of ASP PageMinder, and it worked perfectly in every script. Needless to say, I was very pleased with that, because often components fail or don't work properly (I can't count the hours I've spent trying to get a component to work).

Generally, ASP PageMinder seemed pretty fast as well. I didn't perform a timing test, but each script loaded pretty quickly, even when I was doing some heavy queries (e.g. selecting all records from a table with over 50,000 records).

The final thing worth mentioning is their support. One important aspect of a commercial product is, of course, the support behind it. ASPaxis seems to have this covered very well, and their support form is available for technical issues and questions.

In conclusion, ASP PageMinder is an excellent component, and I wish I had known about this before. It has extensive documentation, and very clear code examples. The component itself works without problems, and seems pretty fast as well (probably faster than regular ASP code). If you are looking for a DataGrid control for classic ASP, then ASP PageMinder should be top on your list.

Rating: 9.5/10

Price: Free/$175.00

Website: http://www.aspaxis.com

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Script of the Week: aspinfo()

aspinfo() is the equivalent of the popular PHP function, phpinfo().

The script shows you all kinds of information about your server, the ASP engine, and the local variables. If you ever need to debug some sort of server problem or an ASP bug, it is definitely worth looking into aspinfo() for all kinds of statistical information.

It is due to be upgraded soon, with ever more features, information and functions. Of course, aspinfo() will remain a very small script, so it's easy to upload to your server.

If you wish to download a copy of aspinfo() yourself, click here to get the code now! If you'd like to contribute anything or have a feature suggestion, feel free to e-mail me.

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What's New on ASPit

As always, I'm busy creating new content for ASPit. Though lately there has been a lack of noticeable updates, rest assured that I have been working hard to get new content. So, what's in the planning for the coming summer months?

Like I said in the last issue, I'm planning to launch hosted-services, such as formmail, mailing lists, and database tools (a hosted version of aspAccessEditor!). The past 2 weeks I have begun these projects, and I'm expecting to launch them very soon!

I'd like to add a lot more content to ASPit as well. I'm mainly looking for articles, tutorials and FAQs, but codesnippets are very appreciated as well. If you'd like to write an ASP piece for ASPit, don't hesitate to e-mail me! I don't have any real requirements, as long as your spelling and grammar is up to par, and I'm looking for at least 500+ words (but believe me, you're upto 1000 words in no time!). Of course, it's logical it should be written by yourself, and not copied from another website.

What will you get in return? Besides your name, biography and a link back to your site on ASPit, there are other perks for writers. But I'll keep those as a surprise. The only way to find out is to write an article!

Finally, I'm looking to sell advertising space on ASPit as well. Rest assured that there will NEVER be any flashing/annoying ads, like the "You've Won!" ads. I will be forming an advertising policy in the next coming weeks, but all ads are of course subject to approval by me, and I will only accept ads that are related to ASP and ASP.NET. If you own a company/website, and want to advertise on ASPit, feel free to e-mail me and we'll discuss details.

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Closing Words

That wraps up the second issue of the ASPit Digest. I hope you enjoyed reading it. Feel free to forward this issue to any friends or colleagues. If they like it, don't hesistate to give them the subscribe link (the ASPit homepage). If you've got any comments or questions, feel free to reply to this e-mail (it'll be directed to me). I will try to personally reply as fast as possible.

The next issue will be sent in about 2 weeks (slightly earlier), around Thursday May the 6th. Expect it to be filled with articles, tips and more on ASP & ASP.NET.

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If you want to receive the ASPit Digest through e-mail (either in HTML or Plain Text format), you can do so, by subscribing here.

ASPit Digest #1 - First issue, RSS, Amazon Web Services...

Tue, 13 Apr 2004 02:00:00 GMT

The ASPit Digest
Weekly ASP news, articles, tips and tricks!

Newsletter Archives - http://digest.aspit.net/
Advertising - http://www.aspit.net/advertising/
Contact - http://www.aspit.net/contact/

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In This Issue...

* Introduction: The first issue!
* Editor's Perspective: ASP & RSS
* What's New on ASP & ASP.NET
* Article Series: Using Amazon Web Services in ASP
* Script of the Week: aspAccessEditor
* What's New on ASPit
* Closing Words

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Introduction: The first issue!

Hello Subscribers,

I've been very busy the past week with the first issue of the ASPit Digest. I'm still currently busy with finalizing the design, but for now, this will do. It looks good in most e-mail clients and browsers.

This is the first issue, so there aren't any special interviews or reviews yet, but rest assured that future issues will contain unique content. I'm working hard behind the scenes to arrange this all! For now, enjoy the first issue, and if you've got any questions or comments feel free to e-mail me.

Happy Reading!

Dennis Pallett
dennis@aspit.net

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Editor's Perspective: ASP & RSS

RSS has been gaining a lot of popularity in the past few weeks, and every web-developer and their mum is talking about it.

What exactly is RSS? To describe it very shortly, it's a way to let your readers know of any updates on your websites. ASPit also has RSS feeds, because I believe it makes it a lot easier for people to follow updates on your websites. Before RSS, I never tracked updates on websites, and simply checked every now and then. Since using an RSS aggregator I've been able to follow more sites than ever, and more efficiently. I now track about 600 websites, and as soon as they update, I get notified within minutes. Couldn't be more perfect!

I believe ASP is an excellent tool to use in combination with RSS. In fact, there's a whole website dedicated to ASP and RSS, at ASPRSS.com (ASPit is listed there as well). As you can see on that website, 67 ASP websites are currently using RSS. Would you rather check each website every day, or simply get notified when anyone of those websites update?

Creating your own RSS feed is very easy to do, and countless articles and tutorials have been written about, including one on ASPit ("RSS & ASP: Easily Done!"). What's stopping you? I suggest you start right now (after finishing reading the rest of this Digest of course). RSS can never make you lose your visitors, but can definitely increase your traffic.

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What's New on ASP & ASP.NET

There has been a lot of excellent information posted on ASP and ASP.NET in the past few weeks and my RSS aggregrator has about 200 new items available.

MSDN is the leader with over 100 new items. There are some real gems, like two new parts of Scott Mitchell's "An Extensive Examination of Data Structures". Part 5, "From Trees to Graphs", talks about using a new kind of data structure, graphs. Very useful for generating dynamic graphs using ASP.NET. Part 6, "Efficiently Representing Sets", discusses data structures for data structures for implementing general and disjoint sets. A set is an unordered collection of unique items that can be enumerated and compared to other sets in a variety of ways.

Scott Mitchell has been really busy with publishing on MSDN lately, because there's yet another article by him on there. URL Rewriting in ASP.NET, talks about using ASP.NET to perform dynamic URL rewriting. URL rewriting is the process of intercepting an incoming Web request and automatically redirecting it to a different URL, also known as mod_rewrite in the Linux/PHP world.

A final thing worth mentioning that has been published on MSDN is Data with ASP.NET in Visual Studio 2005. Unlike a normal article, this is a video of Scott Guthrie talking about a few of the new data features with ASP.NET in Visual Studio 2005 (formerly known as "Whidbey").

4GuysFromRolla has, of course, published a few new articles on ASP.NET as well. Two articles by Scott Mitchell, and one by Paul Apostolos. Scott Mitchell writes about creating template-driven websites and getting the most out of Visual Studio .NET. The first one discusses using MasterPages, in ASP.NET, to create template-driven websites. The second on is rather self-explanatory, and simply talks about using Visual Studio .NET to the fullest. Paul Apostolos writes about creating an ad banner system in ASP.NET. If you want to start serving advertising banners on your websites, this might be quite a useful article to read through!

Apparently, using templates is a hot topic lately, because ASPAlliance has also published an article on it. "Speed up with Project Templates" talks about using 'code-templates' instead of html templates, to make development go faster. If you often find yourself copying+pasting code snippets, this might be worth a look.

Finally, DeveloperFusion has a piece about replicating GetRows in ASP.NET. This article shows you how to replicate the ever-so-popular GetRows function of classic ASP in ASP.NET.

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Article Series: Using Amazon Web Services in ASP

There's a new buzz: building websites completely based on Amazon's Web Services. Luckily for all you ASP developers, ASPit is running a complete series on using Amazon Web Services in your ASP websites.

Part 1, "The Beginning", has already been published a few weeks ago, and part 2 is due to be published in a few days

To give you a sneak peek, part focuses all on searching the Amazon database. In specific, part 2 looks at doing keyword searches, blended searches and so-called 'browse-node' searches. In a few days you'll know all about these searches and how to implement them yourself

If you've already got an ASP-based AWS websites, please e-mail me to be showcased in one of the articles (one part will showcase a few ASP-based AWS websites.

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Script of the Week: aspAccessEditor

aspAccessEditor is a web-based database tool, specifically created for Microsoft Access (all versions). If you ever wanted to quickly edit your database on the web, but never been able to, then it's time to have a look at aspAccessEditor. Managing your database is no longer a problem at all. Using aspAccessEditor's advanced graphical interface you can quickly browse through your Access database, changing any aspect you'd like

Currently, aspAccessEditor is very versatile and contains many features, but even now it is not yet complete. Therefore, a new version is already being written and should be released very soon. This new version will be packed with even more features, and will be up to par with phpMyAdmin.

If you wish to stay updated on any changes related to aspAccessEditor, feel free to subscribe to the low-traffic mailing list now, by clicking here. This mailing list is completely free, and your e-mail address will never be viewed by 3rd parties. You will never receive more than one e-mail per week either (though it's more like one e-mail every 2-3 months).

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What's New on ASPit

I'm constantly improving and changing things at ASPit. At the moment I'm adding new codesnippets daily, and writing new articles and tutorials as fast as I can. I also try to add new features to ASPit, like a rating feature (to be rolled out very soon!).

I'm looking at the possibility of adding hosted services, most of them free-of-charge, to ASPit. Some ideas include a hosted "formmail", mailing lists, database tools and more. In the next following weeks I'll be looking if this is worthwhile, and if they are, get them released as soon as possible. In the next newsletter I will have more news about this.

Lately, small things have also changed at the ASPit forums. I've added new features, and removed a few un-used ones. If you haven't registered there yet, feel free to do so by clicking here.

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Closing Words

That wraps up the first issue of the ASPit Digest. I hope you enjoyed reading it. Feel free to forward this issue to any friends or colleagues. If they like it, don't hesistate to give them the subscribe link (the ASPit homepage). If you've got any comments or questions, feel free to reply to this e-mail (it'll be directed to me). I will try to personally reply as fast as possible.

The next issue will be sent in two, around Tuesday April the 27. Expect it to be filled with articles, tips and more on ASP & ASP.NET. I will also try and get a unique special, like an interview with a .NET expert or Microsoft employee (if you'd like to suggest someone, e-mail me!).

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If you want to receive the ASPit Digest through e-mail (either in HTML or Plain Text format), you can do so, by subscribing here.