ASP and ComponentOne WebChart Basics

Ideally, an Internet site should be accessible to a variety of browsers, with differing capabilities. Server-side development allows processing to occur in a controlled environment. Output can be tailored to each client as it is requested, based on each client's needs and capabilities.

Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP) are server-side applications that can be viewed on a number of different browsers. The output of any .ASP file is HTML. ASP pages run on the server. When a client requests a page, the ASP scripting code is evaluated dynamically and HTML is generated at that time.

ASP supports VBScript and JavaScript, using Microsoft Visual InterDev, a programmer can supplement VBScript or JavaScript with ASP objects and components, such as ComponentOne WebChart. WebChart allows you to add charts quickly and easily to your web pages.

Just as ComponentOne Chart works in a Microsoft Windows environment to display virtually any type of chart, from simple bar charts to complex 3D projections, ComponentOne WebChart gives you the same power in an ASP environment. ComponentOne WebChart can generate different types of output (for example, a .PNG file or a .JPG file), depending on the abilities of the requesting browser.

Using Microsoft Visual InterDev, you can load the ComponentOne WebChart component and immediately create charts for your ASP pages. Modifying chart properties is simple – you can use WebChart’s Property Editor, thus removing the need to hard code properties.