Useful References and URLs 

Glossary of Terms and Acronyms 

The following glossary was taken from Beginning Active Server Pages 2.0.  

ADO 

ActiveX Data Objects. A series of ActiveX objects that are the preferred 

way to provide data access capabilities to any kind of data store, such as 

relational databases, message stores, etc. 

ASP 

Active Server Pages. A Microsoft server based scripting language that 

combines HTML and script code into a single file.  Can be used to create 

dynamic pages. 

CGI 

Common Gateway Interface.  A standardized interface exposed by most 

Web servers.  Allows script and executable programs to access the user 

requests and server responses in order to create dynamic pages 

COM 

Component Object Model. The Microsoft open standard that defines how 

components communicate.  Currently being extended as COM+, which adds 

extra features that make building component interfaces easier. 

DAO 

Data Access Objects.  A Microsoft data access technology with a complex 

multi level object model, introduced for use with MS Access and Office.  It 

is superceded by ADO now. 

DHTML Dynamic 

HTML. The overall moniker for the ability of the latest 

generation of browsers to change the contents of a Web page using script 

code, while it is loaded. 

DSN 

Data Source Name. A specification of all the information required to 

connect to and access a data store.  Used with ODBC and can also be stored 

as a file on disk (File DSN) OR WITH SYSTEM WIDE ACCESS (system 

DSN) 

HTML 

Hypertext Markup Language. The language of the Web. A way of 

inserting tags (elements and attributes) into a text page to add formatting, 

rich content, and other information) 

HTTP 

Hypertext Transfer Protocol. A protocol running over IP and designed for 

the World Wide Web. 

IE Internet 

Explorer.  Microsoft s Web browser. 

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