ASP Development Tools

ASP is not one single "product," there are many tools in the market that can help you create ASP applications. We present here the products that are exclusively built for ASP application development. You can also check the following categories for other tools that can help you in your ASP projects.

Editor's Pick - Visual Interdev 6
by Manohar Kamath

Well what can I say, Visual Interdev 6 is the best tool to create ASP applications. Creating ASP applications, especially database applications is so easy. Of all the features, we like the following the best:

• You can work in the local mode, which means you don't have to connect to your web host till you have finished

• Intellisense feature that gives you the arguments to functions, and methods and properties of objects so you don't have to look up the programmer's reference every time. This is available for both VBScript and JavaScript.

• Ability to switch from server-side to client-side records with just one flip of a select box

• Tight integration with Visual SourceSafe.

And there are many other features that we just won't be able to fit into one page. To read more about the features, visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/vinterdev/

However, there is one caveat - you need to know your ASP to a certain extent before you use this. I say this because, the tool, while provides many wizards, still need some "deciphering" from the user. If you are a beginner, get a book on Visual Interdev before you use it. You can find some good books on Visual Interdev in our books section.

Drumbeat 2000
by Manohar Kamath

Honestly, I haven't used this product. A friend of mine, who is a beginner to ASP, did and he absolutely loved it. He says he could use the product the next day he bought it. He even put up a pretty good site for his company's extranet. I will put more comments once I have used it.