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ASP
Active Server Page (ASP) is a Microsoft scripting language that allows web pages to perform functions similar to desktop applications. This functionality includes database transactions and dynamic content delivery. An ASP based website can customize itself and perform a variety of services to meet the needs of individual users. Business people can manage their enterprise and access their business data online from any location in the world.
VirtualNerds has developed the majority of our systems in ASP, but we are expanding our service offering to include .NET.
.NET
The .NET (pronounced "dot net") is the latest Microsoft web technology designed to bring desktop applications and the Internet closer together.
Traditional web technologies have used "interpreted" programming languages. This means that the computer reads the coded instructions just like a human would, converts those instructions into machine language and executes them.
The primary advantage of .NET is ability to use "compiled" functions in web applications. Compiled instructions have been converted from human readable documents to machine language by a tool called a compiler. Compiled instructions are faster, more stable, and more secure than the older interpreted scripting languages like ASP and Perl/PHP. VirtualNerds is rapidly expanding our service offerings in this exciting new technology.
CFML
Cold Fusion Markup Language (CFML) is an interpreted scripting language designed to compete with Active Server Page and Perl/PHP.
"Interpreted scripting languages" are written in a format very similar to common English, and the instructions remain human readable. The computer reads the coded instructions just like a human would, converts those instructions into machine language and executes them.
CFML is popular for use on smaller systems that need to connect a website with a database.
VirtualNerds has developed a few systems in CFML when specifically requested. However, we do not recommend it as a standard solution.
SQL Server
Microsoft's SQL Server is their enterprise level database product, and the foundation for most of the systems designed by VirtualNerds.
This database will hold 32 Tera-bytes of data before requiring a parallel database to be installed. This massive storage capacity offers plenty of room for a small business to grow, and the stability required by larger firms.
Some small businesses start off using databases developed in Microsoft Access, but Access is not always suitable for a high traffic web application with hundreds of users. Microsoft SQL Server offers big database power and performance including stored procedures, triggers, and tools necessary to manage a growing business for the long term.
XML
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is the answer to the classic problem of data exchange between differing database systems.
Until recently, anyone wishing to exchnge or transfer data between systems had to agree on a standard format;. This process usually required extensive programming and testing on both sides to insure that everything matched the standard.
XML changed all of that by creating a new universal standard format that uses "tags" to identify individual data fields. Each data field in a file begins with an "open" tag that looks like this "", and the data is followed by a "close" tag that looks like this "".
Example:
<FirstName>Robert</FirstName><LastName>Jones</LastName>
All of the characters between the tags are the data to be imported into the receiving database. In the example, the receiving system would import "Robert" and "Jones".
VirtualNerds has used XML to facilitate data transfers for several projects. In each case, the output was received from a legacy mainframe system, and imported into a Microsoft SQL Server database for use in the cliet's web application.
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