Classic ASP Web Design

When taking ASP web design into consideration, I always take the following approach:

 

1. Decide on a style

I'm more of a programmer than a graphic artist. Therefore,when starting new websites from scratch, I like to either work with a graphical designer, or encourage the client to browse through website templates from other 3rd party providers, and pick a style that works best for them. This will impact the appearance throughout the entire website.

 

2. Design the Databse

Although I prefer Microsoft SQL Server, I'm open minded to using other databases as well. The important part is to thoroughly plan ahead on the overall structure of the database, adhering strictly to relational database design best practices the entire way. Occationally, for larger databases, a counter-intuitive approach can become necessary to increase performance. In either case, its best to plan ahead for these things at the beginning stages, and not later on down the road.

3. Implement a framework

I'll usually keep it simple. I'll have a global functions file so as not to keep having to rewrite code over and over again. I'll use a common header and footer file to impact the overall appearance of the entire website, so as to be able to make changes across the entire website from one centrally shared file. I'll also use CSS to impact the style across the site as well. For the front-end-marketing pages, I'll use the error 301 or 401 redirect hack to create SEO optimized pages on-the-fly without having to manually edit HTML for each newly added page to the site. For the other interactive pages, having more to do with functionality than marketing, I'll try to keep the ASP code completely separate from the HTML and javascript portions. This makes for easier understandability later on down the road.

4. Keep it Clean

I like to keep my code neatly and evenly tabbed, indented, and spaced. I leave comments everywhere possible, leaving as readable and understandable legacy behind as is possible. I stick to the same capitalization pattern all along the way.

If this sounds like the stable, well planned, and clean type of forethought you'd like to see in your ASP development project, contact me today. Lets discuss how we can keep things done the right way the first time, just as they should be.