Web Designers ISPG Perspective

A central feature of Instant Server Pages (ISPG) is the separation of HTTP request computing code from the formatting of the HTTP response, usually as HTML code. The computing phase of the HTTP request is preparing a set of variables with data that will:

• Substitute placeholders in the HTML code, or
• Determine if some sections of the HTML code will be placed in the final response, or not.
• Control how many times to repeat parts of the HTML code containing data placeholders, e.g. while presenting variables containing tabular data.

These constitute a set of dynamic content formatting commandsincluded in the HTML code. They take as operands variables from the computing phase and are delimited in the HTML code by <% and %> script markers. The page content depends on computed data stored in those variables.

To help visualize web pages, the ISPG IDE allows to create Data model files, with sample data being placed in each variable. When browsed, these files will skip the request processing phase and proceed directly with the formatting phase.

A second set of static content formatting commands are delimited in HTML code by <%# and #%> (or %>). They are used to control some form of inclusion in the HTML code, such as:

• Template inclusion, which merges the contents of the current file with HTML code from a template file.
• File inclusion, eventually conditioned by a comparison operator, based on current file name, path or extension.
• Parameters for template files and included files.
• URL processing commands.
• Special placeholder replacements, such as parts of the file path,  

A special Layout editing mode, in ISPG IDE, helps visualize the web page with all static inclusion done. In this mode, only a part of the window may be editable, corresponding to HTML code in the currently edited file. In this mode, javascript and links are active, and you can navigate back and forth in the web site, and edit pages.