Windows Services

Overview

The Windows Services Enabler allows you to use ASP and ASP.net on your domain. Our system will process these files correctly only after you enable the appropriate service on your domain.

If you have an SSL certificate installed on your domain, you can also enable secure services using the Windows Services Enabler.

ASP(Active Server Pages

Microsoft Active Server Page (ASP) is a server-side scripting technology that can be used to create dynamic and interactive Web applications. An ASP page is an HTML page that contains server-side scripts that are processed by a web server before being sent to the user’s browser. You can combine ASP with Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) to create powerful interactive Web sites.

ASP is a feature of the Microsoft Internet Information Server. Since the server-side script is building a regular HTML page, it can be served to almost any browser. An ASP file can be created by including a script written in VBScript or JScript in an HTML file.

Definition of ASP.net

Microsoft's ASP.net is a server-side scripting technology that can be used to create dynamic and interactive Web applications. An ASP.net page is an HTML page that contains server-side scripts that are processed by a web server before being sent to the user’s browser. You can combine ASP with Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) to create powerful interactive Web sites. ASP.net coding is more compact than ASP code; the scripts required to perform a given function are shorter in ASP.net than they are in ASP.

Since the server-side script is building a regular HTML page, it can be served to almost any browser. An ASP.net file can be created by using any text editing tool, such as notepad.

Enabling a standard service

In order to enable a Windows service, place your ASP, ASP.net files anywhere inside your website's public directory. Then open the Windows Services Enabler and select the appropriate tab. E.g.: if you have just uploaded ASP.net files to your public directory, then you need to look under the ASP.net tab to activate the service.

Once you have selected the appropriate tab, you will find two checkboxes. If you have never used this service before, both checkboxes will have a red X in them. An X indicates the service is currently disabled, while a green checkmark indicates the service is active. To activate the service, click once on the checkbox the Standard service. To continue using the example above, in order to enable your ASP.net service, you would click once on the checkbox beside Standard ASP.net.

Once you have made a request to enable a service, it will be listed as queued. A queued service will be listed as enabled as soon as the provisioning process has been completed. This process usually is completed after an hour, but may take as long as one business day.

Note: You can run secure and standard services at the same time.

Enabling a Secure Service

To enable a secure service, you must first enable the standard version of this service.

In order to enable a Windows secure service, place your ASP, ASP.net files anywhere inside your website's "/secure" directory. Then open the Windows Services Enabler and select the appropriate tab. E.g.: if you have just uploaded ASP.net files to your secure directory, then you need to look under the ASP.net tab to activate the service.

Once you have selected the appropriate tab, you will find two checkboxes. If you have never used this service before, both checkboxes will have a red X in them. An X indicates the service is currently disabled, while a green checkmark indicates the service is active. To activate the service, click once on the checkbox beside the "Secure" service. To continue using the example above, in order to enable your ASP.net secure service, you would click once on the checkbox beside Secure (SSL) ASP.net.

Once you have made a request to enable a service, it will be listed as queued. A queued service will be listed as enabled as soon as the provisioning process has been completed. This process usually is completed after an hour, but may take as long as one business day.

Please note: Because ColdFusion and ColdFusion MX files both use the .cfm extension, it is not possible to have both services enabled at the same time.

Note: You can run secure and standard services at the same time.

Disabling a service

To disable a service, simply go to that service's tab, click the Disable this service check box beside the standard and/or secure versions of the service, and click the Apply button. It may take up to one business day to deactivate the service.

Please note: While a service is queued to be enabled, you will not be offered the option of disabling the service. Please note that although the service is immediately listed as disabled, it may take up to one business day to disable the service. During this period of time, the service will continue to run as usual. If you wish to immediately discontinue the service, you should remove the associated files from your website. For example, after disabling Secure (SSL) ASP, remove all your ASP files from your /secure directory to immediately discontinue the service.

Windows Services file locations

ASP, ASP.net files can be stored anywhere within a domain's "/public" directory for standard service, or "/secure" directory for secure (SSL) service. It does not matter if the files are in subdirectories. It is important that the files have the proper extensions.

Windows Services file Extensions

In order for the web server to correctly identify and parse ASP, ASP.net files, they should use the following extensions:

ASP files should use .asp.

ASP.net files end with .aspx

More information on Windows Services

More information concerning ASP can be found at the following URLs:

Microsoft article on ASP and scripting

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/techart/msdn_viscript.htm

Microsoft ASP tutorial

http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/server/asp/asptutorial.asp

Microsoft ASP.net information

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/nhp/default.asp?contentid=28000440