General Q & A

Microsoft Visual InterDev 6.0 is the latest version of the leading tool for developers building dynamic Web applications. Support for Active Server Pages, middle-tier components written in any language, Dynamic HTML, and integrated database design and programming tools make Visual InterDev the ideal tool for building dynamic, data-driven Web sites.

Yes. Visual InterDev 6.0 enables developers to build applications accessible from any platform running a standard Web browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. The Visual InterDev development environment itself runs on Microsoft Windows 95 or Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 or later.

The key innovation of Dynamic HTML is a programming model that lets Web page developers modify pages on the Web client without a server round trip, giving them the same level of functionality as traditional client/server programming, minimizing bandwidth requirements, and allowing developers to build more interactive, faster-responding pages.

Visual InterDev 6.0 has a full-featured, visual Web page editor that includes support for a wide range of client-side technologies, including support for embedding any ActiveX control or Java applet in a page. In addition to making it easy to add and script against client-side Java applets developed in any Java tool, Visual InterDev features tight integration and the same development environment (IDE) as Microsoft Visual J++™ 6.0. Visual InterDev 6.0 also enables the easy integration of server-side Java components.

Visual InterDev is a Web development tool designed for programmers, while Microsoft FrontPage« is a Web authoring tool designed for non-programmers. Microsoft FrontPage is a member of the Microsoft Office family, and looks and works like other Office applications. Visual InterDev is a member of the Microsoft Visual Tools family, and looks and works like other Microsoft visual development tools, including Microsoft Visual C++«, Microsoft Visual J++™, Microsoft Visual FoxPro« and Microsoft Visual Basic«.

Because most Web sites are created by teams of people, including both programmers and non-programmers, Visual InterDev and Microsoft FrontPage interoperate so that teams of people with different sets of skills can work together on the same Web site. Webmasters, technical developers, database administrators, and MIS personnel would require Visual InterDev. On the other hand, content publishers - such as sales, marketing, graphic arts, and finance - would need FrontPage.

Visual InterDev is the tool in Visual Studio that developers use to rapidly build data-driven Web applications based on HTML and script. These applications can easily integrate components created in any of the other tools within Visual Studio, including Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual J++ and Visual FoxPro.

Developers can use Visual InterDev and Visual Basic together to build scalable, enterprise-ready applications that run on any browser and connect to any database. Visual InterDev provides the page and site design and management tools. Visual Basic provides server-side programming of middle-tier business objects, and development of ActiveX Controls for use in Web pages themselves.

Absolutely. Visual InterDev 6.0 makes it easier to add server components to a project (just drag and drop them in) and deploy projects with components (automatically register components on the client or server). In addition, Visual InterDev supports the creation of COM components out of HTML and script, called Scriptlets, which are programmed just like any other COM component. Visual InterDev will also support high-performance access to virtually any database using Universal Data Access, including ADO, ODBC and OLE DB.

Active Server Pages, or ASP, is the programming model for Internet Information Server. ASP enables developers to build rich Web applications quickly by combining programming logic (written in the script language of their choice) with HTML pages. ASP pages are typically used to provide security for a Web site, access databases, and call business logic encapsulated in COM objects. The ASP engine on the server compiles and runs the script. The browser receives only the resulting HTML pages that are constructed from the server-side script. ASP script can be programmed in either JScript or VBScript.

Visual InterDev requires the Active Server Pages scripting engine on the server. ASP is included as a feature of Microsoft Internet Information Server, although a third-party ASP add-in is available from ChiliSoft to provide ASP on other servers, including Lotus Domino, Netscape, O'Reilly, and others.