Migrating
to ASP.NET: Key Considerations
Host: Sonali Gogate - .NET Evangelist, Microsoft India
June
20, 2002
KunalS_MS: Good afternoon to all present
KunalS_MS: Welcome to MSDN India Online Expert Chat
KunalS_MS: Today's chat topic is - Migrating to ASP.NET: Key Considerations
KunalS_MS: and our expert of the day is - Sonali Gogate - .NET Evangelist,
Microsoft India
KunalS_MS: Thank you Sonali for taking time out and joining us in
this chat session
SonaliG[MS]: Hello and good afternoon everyone
Moderator: (Murali) For large application, to make huge data entry,
is there any special grid like data grid is available?
SonaliG[MS]: Data grid is available
Moderator: (Karu) Is there any tool available for converting asp code
to asp.net code?
SonaliG[MS]: No - no tool that would convert the code
SonaliG[MS]: but there are guidelines available
SonaliG[MS]: it is difficult to have a tool
SonaliG[MS]: since the asp pages had html and code all
intermingled and many a times you had multiple language scripts on
same pages
Moderator: (Murali) The Data Grids generally not used over Internet
application, since it needs to get download at the client side, also
got security risk? Any alternate easy way suggested like .htc files
pl?
SonaliG[MS]: No Murali, datagrid does not need to be
downloaded
SonaliG[MS]: it will work as server control
SonaliG[MS]: and datagrid as such does not add to your
risk
Moderator: (valan) How do i go about in transferring State information
from one page to another page?
SonaliG[MS]: Do you mean how you would manage session
state?
SonaliG[MS]: that can be done in 3 diff ways - either
inproc (like asp apps), Stateserver or SQLserver
Moderator: (Karu) If I am using some third party component (dll) in
my asp page, can i keep using it in with .net ?
SonaliG[MS]: well - if it is a com component, then you
can still use it, but you'll have to understand that basically you
would be doing interop in this case and the performance will not be
as good as using a .NET comp
SonaliG[MS]: For all those who are considering migrating
from ASP to ASP.NET, you should check this out -
Moderator (Nilesh) We have migrated to ASP.NET but while redirecting
the .aspx pages through SSL i.e. https we are getting some error
SonaliG[MS]: I don't see why
Moderator: (Nilesh) It gives a configuration error, any suggestion?
SonaliG[MS]: Not based only on this description. Please
share some more details on the error.
Moderator: (Kumar) Assuming our ASP.NET application has to use a COM
component, we tag it with "aspcompat". What's performance gains/hits
will the application get?
SonaliG[MS]: There is some overhead involved while using
COM interop - though it will not be a major problem
SonaliG[MS]: You can also decide whether you want to
use the early binding or late binding model
Moderator: (Kumar) What's the state of the application when we specify
"aspcompat" ? Is it running in true ASP mode or emulating ASP?
SonaliG[MS]: Your asp.net application?
SonaliG[MS]: It is running in managed mode and doing
interop with the COM component
SonaliG[MS]: it is not emulating asp
Moderator: (Kumar) So, does that mean "aspcompat" is just to indicate
that we want to use COM components?
SonaliG[MS]: it will also ensure that your app will run
in the STA mode
SonaliG[MS]: as opposed to MTA mode - which is default
for asp.net apps
Moderator: (Gurneet) Is Microsoft coming up with any tool for Migration
from ASP to ASP.NET?
SonaliG[MS]: Nothing in immediate future.
Moderator: (Karu) After upgrading my IIS, i found that performance
of my asp page is reduced particularly when i am using filesystem
object of vbscript, any idea?
KunalS_MS: Karu, since the chat is focussed on ASP to ASP.NET migration,
we shall take your question if time permits. Sorry for the same.
SonaliG[MS]: Well, not really - it might be something
to do with the system configuration - but IIS upgrade would not really
affect performance in this way
Moderator: (Gurneet) When migrating to ASP.NET what about the DataAcess
(I mean we use ADO in ASP) so if we keep using ADO as it is what is
the performance hit on the application?
SonaliG[MS]: What would give you best performance is
really ADO.NET!
SonaliG[MS]: So if you are migrating your app, it makes
a lot of sense to start using ADO.NET library
Moderator: (Kumar) "Classic" ASP was inproc to IIS while ASP.NET runs
as an out-of-proc process. Was the stability, against crash management
and hence getting robust in this context, the only reason ASP.NET
was redesigned in this manner?
SonaliG[MS]: I am not sure I understand your question
- what do you mean by ASP was inproc to IIS?
SonaliG[MS]: and that ASP.NET runs as out-of-proc process?
SonaliG[MS]: both ASP and ASP.NET need a web server to
host them
SonaliG[MS]: ASP.NET app configuration is not in IIS
anymore
SonaliG[MS]: there are a lot more differences -
SonaliG[MS]: ASP.NET runs in compiled mode and also in
managed mode - as opposed to ASP
SonaliG[MS]: it is possible to custom configure your
ASP.NET app
Moderator: (Kumar) That's true.. but my question still goes: ASP,
as implemented previously, was implemented as a Win32 DLL that was
executed in-process to the main IIS process. ASP.NET, on the other
hand, executes as a separate process to IIS.
Moderator: (Kumar) Was this design decision done only to make to more
resistant to in-process crashes to which classic ASP was prone?
SonaliG[MS]: no - the design decision was part of the
complete .NET vision
SonaliG[MS]: XML web services is a big part of ASP.NET
SonaliG[MS]: ASP.NET is a much richer class library,
working in managed environment
SonaliG[MS]: so making it possible to create good web
apps and xml web services easily, while enhancing the UI look was
among the goals
Moderator: (Karu) Is it true ado.net give best performance with SQL
Server? If yes should I keep using ado (and not ado.net) if I am using
database other than SQL Server?
SonaliG[MS]: what you have for SQL server, is a separate
class library - and so yes, it gives you better performance with SQL
server than any other db
SonaliG[MS]: but that does not mean you should continue
to use ADO
SonaliG[MS]: since ADO has generic code for all databases,
it does not necessarily give you better performance for other databases
Moderator: (Rohit) Can we share session states between ASP and ASP.NET?
If not, what do you suggest to interop existing ASP with new ASP.NET
applications?
SonaliG[MS]: You can not share session state between
ASP and ASP.NET apps
SonaliG[MS]: depending on what you are doing in your
apps, you might have to either write your own mechanism to share session
state
SonaliG[MS]: or you can duplicate the info in both the
ASP and ASP.NET app
Moderator: (Gurneet) When upgrading to ASP.NET are there any special
considerations to be made for Netscape (I mean I understand its server
side but still if there are any)
SonaliG[MS]: Nope not really
Moderator: (Karu) Is there any way I can maintain state information
in my web service?
SonaliG[MS]: I am not too sure what you really want to
do.
Moderator: (Karu) I'm losing values of my variables across method
calls when calling a webservice. How can I avoid it?
SonaliG[MS]: XML Web services created using ASP.NET have
access to the same state management options as other ASP.NET applications
when the class implementing the XML Web service derives from the WebService
class. The WebService class contains many of the common ASP.NET web
service class session and application objects
Moderator: (Kumar) To what extent are the server side control compatible
in producing code consistent across IE and Netscape?
SonaliG[MS]: What is sent across is HTML - so it is as
consistent as the diff browsers are in rendering the html
Moderator: (Rohit) What are the best practices to deploy an ASP.NET
application?
SonaliG[MS]: as compared to an asp app? - manage your
session state out of proc - if you are using a web farm
SonaliG[MS]: add the right configuration info in the
config file
SonaliG[MS]: Separate out the code from the UI
KunalS_MS: We have come to the end of today's expert chat session
KunalS_MS: I would like to thank Sonali for taking time out and nearly
missing her flight
KunalS_MS: Also thank you to all of you for joining in
KunalS_MS: Also, if there any questions we have not been able to take
up, please post them at the MSDN India Online Forums - www.microsoft.com/india/onlineforums
