Web Application Technologies

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1

The Windows Server 2003 family offers an improved developer experience with ASP.NET and IIS integration. Microsoft® ASP.NET recognizes most ASP code while providing greater functionality for building enterprise-class Web applications that can work as a part of the Microsoft .NET Framework. Using ASP.NET allows you to take full advantage of the features of the common language runtime, such as type safety, inheritance, language interoperability, and versioning. IIS 6.0 also offers support for the latest Web standards, including XML, Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6.0).

ASP.NET -- New

ASP.NET is a unified Web application platform that provides the services necessary to build and deploy enterprise-class Web applications and XML Web services. ASP.NET is available and is installed, by default, on the operating systems in the Windows Server 2003 family.

Important

This feature is not available on Windows XP 64-Bit Edition and the 64-bit versions of the Windows Server 2003 family. For more information, see "Features unavailable on 64-bit versions of the Windows Server 2003 family" in Help and Support Center for Windows Server 2003.

ASP.NET offers a new programming model and infrastructure for more secure, scalable, and stable applications that can target any browser or device. ASP.NET is part of Microsoft .NET Framework, a computing environment that simplifies application development in the highly distributed environment of the Internet.

.NET Framework includes the common language runtime, which provides core services such as memory management, thread management, code security, and the .NET Framework class library, a comprehensive and object-oriented collection of types that developers can use to create applications. Note that ASP.NET is not supported by 64-bit systems.

Active Server Pages

You can create dynamic content by using server-side scripting and components to create browser-independent dynamic content. Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP) provides an easy-to-use alternative to Common Gateway Interface (CGI) and ISAPI by allowing content developers to embed any scripting language or server component into their HTML pages. ASP provides access to all of the HTTP request and response streams, as well as standards-based database connectivity and the ability to customize content for different browsers.

ADSI 2.0

ADSI 2.0 provides administrators and application developers the ability to add custom objects, properties, and methods to the existing ADSI provider, giving administrators even more flexibility in configuring their sites.

Wildcard Application Mappings

Wildcard application mappings provide administrators the ability to configure a Web site or virtual directory to run an ISAPI application at the beginning of every request to that Web site or virtual directory, regardless of the extension of the requested file.