Using the ASP Intrinsics

The ASP intrinsics are a set of COM objects supplied by ASP to the objects running in an Active Server Page. They let your Active Server Object access information that reflects the messages passing between your application and the Web browser, as well as a place to store information that is shared among Active Server Objects that belong to the same ASP application.

To make these objects easy to access, the base class for your Active Server Object surfaces them as properties. For a complete understanding of these objects, see the Microsoft documentation. However, the following topics provide a brief overview.

Application

The Application object is accessed through an IApplicationObject interface. It represents the entire ASP application, which is defined as the set of all .asp files in a virtual directory and its subdirectories. The Application object can be shared by multiple clients, so it includes locking support that you should use to prevent thread conflicts.

IApplicationObject includes the following:

IApplicationObject interface members

Property, Method, or Event	Meaning
Contents property	Lists all the objects that were added to the application using script commands. This interface has two methods, Remove and RemoveAll, that you can use to delete one or all objects from the list.
StaticObjects property	Lists all the objects that were added to the application with the <OBJECT> tag.
Lock method	Prevents other clients from locking the Application object until you call Unlock. All clients should call Lock before accessing shared memory (such as the properties).
Unlock method	Releases the lock that was set using the Lock method.
Application_OnEnd event	Occurs when the application quits, after the Session_OnEnd event. The only intrinsics available are Application and Server. The event handler must be written in VBScript or JScript.
Application_OnStart event	Occurs before the new session is created (before Session_OnStart). The only intrinsics available are Application and Server. The event handler must be written in VBScript or JScript.

Request

The Request object is accessed through an IRequest interface. It provides information about the HTTP request message that caused the Active Server Page to be opened.

IRequest includes the following:

IRequest interface members

Property, Method, or Event	Meaning
ClientCertificate property	Indicates the values of all fields in the client certificate that is sent with the HTTP message.
Cookies property	Indicates the values of all Cookie headers on the HTTP message.
Form property	Indicates the values of form elements in the HTTP body. These can be accessed by name.
QueryString property	Indicates the values of all variables in the query string from the HTTP header.
ServerVariables property	Indicates the values of various environment variables. These variables represent most of the common HTTP header variables.
TotalBytes property	Indicates the number of bytes in the request body. This is an upper limit on the number of bytes returned by the BinaryRead method.
BinaryRead method	Retrieves the content of a Post message. Call the method, specifying the maximum number of bytes to read. The resulting content is returns as a Variant array of bytes. After calling BinaryRead, you can't use the Form property.

Response

The Request object is accessed through an IResponse interface. It lets you specify information about the HTTP response message that is returned to the client browser.

IResponse includes the following:

IResponse interface members

Property, Method, or Event	Meaning
Cookies property	Determines the values of all Cookie headers on the HTTP message.
Buffer property	Indicates whether page output is buffered When page output is buffered, the server does not send a response to the client until all of the server scripts on the current page are processed.
CacheControl property	Determines whether proxy servers can cache the output in the response.
Charset property	Adds the name of the character set to the content type header.
ContentType property	Specifies the HTTP content type of the response message's body.
Expires property	Specifies how long the response can be cached by a browser before it expires.
ExpiresAbsolute property	Specifies the date and time when the response expires.
IsClientConnected property	Indicates whether the client has disconnected from the server.
Pics property	Set the value for the pics-label field of the response header.
Status property	Indicates the status of the response. This is the value of an HTTP status header.
AddHeader method	Adds an HTTP header with a specified name and value.
AppendToLog method	Adds a string to the end of the Web server log entry for this request.
BinaryWrite method	Writes raw (uninterpreted) information to the body of the response message.
Clear method	Erases any buffered HTML output.
End method	Stops processing the .asp file and returns the current result.
Flush method	Sends any buffered output immediately.
Redirect method	Sends a redirect response message, redirecting the client browser to a different URL.
Write method	Writes a variable to the current HTTP output as a string.

Session

The Session object is accessed through the ISessionObject interface. It allows you to store variables that persist for the duration of a client's interaction with the ASP application. That is, these variables are not freed when the client moves from page to page within the ASP application, but only when the client exits the application altogether.

ISessionObject includes the following:

ISessionObject interface members

Property, Method, or Event	Meaning
Contents property	Lists all the objects that were added to the session using the <OBJECT> tag. You can access any variable in the list by name, or call the Contents object's Remove or RemoveAll method to delete values.
StaticObjects property	Lists all the objects that were added to the session with the <OBJECT> tag.
CodePage property	Specifies the code page to use for symbol mapping. Different locales may use different code pages.
LCID property	Specifies the locale identifier to use for interpreting string content.
SessionID property	Indicates the session identifier for the current client.
TimeOut property	Specifies the time, in minutes, that the session persists without a request (or refresh) from the client until the application terminates.
Abandon method	Destroys the session and releases its resources.
Session_OnEnd event	Occurs when the session is abandoned or times out. The only intrinsics available are Application, Server, and Session. The event handler must be written in VBScript or JScript.
Session_OnStart event	Occurs when the server creates a new session is created (after Application_OnStart but before running the script on the Active Server Page). All intrinsics are available. The event handler must be written in VBScript or JScript.

Server

The Server object is accessed through an IServer interface. It provides various utilities for writing your ASP application.

IServer includes the following:

IServer interface members

Property, Method, or Event	Meaning
ScriptTimeOut property	Same as the TimeOut property on the Session object.
CreateObject method	Instantiates a specified Active Server Object.
Execute method	Executes the script in a specified .asp file.
GetLastError method	Returns an ASPError object that describes the error condition.
HTMLEncode method	Encodes a string for use in an HTML header, replacing reserved characters by the appropriate symbolic constants.
MapPath method	Maps a specified virtual path (an absolute path on the current server or a path relative to the current page) into a physical path.
Transfer method	Sends all of the current state information to another Active Server Page for processing.
URLEncode method	Applies URL encoding rules, including escape characters, to a specified string