[thelist] Requesting ASP/DB/CF advice

[aardvark]

> From: "List Member" <lists at nynjdesign.com>
[...] 
> hair-pulling & cursing.  I understand that ASP is probably the better
> thing for me to learn in terms of making my skills more marketable but
> it just looks soooooo icky/scary (CF looks & feels more like HTML, so
> it doesn't seem as bad). Even Javascript still gives me headaches if I
> have to use it for anything more complex than mouseovers & browser
> detection or basic DHTML DOM's.

that's all a matter of perspective... they're all the same, although i 
can't use CF (easily) because it's tag-based... it's just counter-
intuitive to me... part of the reason my transition to XML is so 
difficult, although much easier than i thought given its syntax...

> So to get to the point, I'm putting together a test db in Access and
> getting ready to dive into experimenting with ASP--is it considered
> bad form to combine the three (i.e. ASP, CF & HTML)?  I mean I realize
> that HTML is part of the picture regardless, but should all files have
> the .asp extension?  Is it gonna look unprofessional if some of the
> files have .htm/.hmtl or .cfm extensions?

you really should choose between ASP or CF... you really can't run 
both at once and expect things to work... as it is, no, you won't 
look unprofessional if you mix .html and .asp... .html are just static 
and never get parsed... however, one of the advantages to any 
server-side language is its ability to create templatized pages, 
allowing you to maintain all your navigation and design through one 
template...

> Any other advice or warnings regarding ASP/DB's/CF & dynamically
> generated pages would be greatly appreciated.  I'm afraid the
> "relational" part of how DB's work & interact with ASP/CF is gonna be
> hard for me to grasp...

what are you going to use to code the DB code?  doing it by hand 
from a tutorial?  using a tool like Interdev or Ultradev?  borrowing 
someone's code and changing some basic info?  knowing how you 
plan to do it, and what you need to do, will of course help...