[thelist] ASP/open source/static/dynamic sites pro's and con's

Tony Crockford tonyc at boldfish.co.uk
Mon Jan 14 15:25:48 CST 2002


>I really think we need more information about their demands and
>expectations in order to provide any decent 'advice' ... but what the
>heck, I'll take a stab at it anyway.   ;-)


Thanks for trying, it was helpful...........

I'll be more specific:

The project requirement is to create a web site that will:

allow 6 different levels of presentation material, dependent on user
selection (learning depth, basically, from pre-school to researchers)

over nine different themes (pathways or trails)

to end up accessing over 6,000 digitised images / video / sound and 3d
models etc.


They are suggesting using ASP to deliver pages based on user selection,
dynamically.

I can't see why they need to, since the information will not be changing
once created in the database, just growing as they add to it.

I like to keep things simple.

I already have a system based on GDIdb Pro (http://www.gdidb.com) that will
work with a database (e.g Access) and build a static site that can be
browsed heirarchically and searched with a site search engine.

Categories and sub categories, (which are relational - an object can belong
to multiple categories and sub categories) are used to structure the web of
pages produced - different templates used to give different look and feel to
each pathway and level.

I'm looking for sensible reasons why they should avoid ASP and go with my
solution.

So far I have:

Pro's of my system:

The database is never online and therefore never exposed to hackers.
The static site should be faster, and can be indexed by Internet Search
engines.
Any web server can be used.
Hosting is limited to html and any CGI scripts they might want (feedback
etc)

Con's of ASP:

Security issues (what are the main ones?)
Possible proprietory problems in the future (Microsoft licensing?)
Dynamic pages can't be indexed by Internet search engines.




So the choice is:

an offline system that produces a static web site according to data entered
and metadata describing it (can be automated to ftp only changes to server)

Or an online ASP system building pages on the fly.


Any ideas as to why I should go out and hire an ASP guy to do this - is
there a big advantage that I can't see yet?

Advice welcomed.

Thanks

Tony









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