Explanation of a .asp page on a website

[JasonRise]

Please provide me with an explanation of the pros and cons of having a site set up with .asp pages

[OBonio]

Pros :

Allows delivery of dynamic, database driven content
Easy development using VBScript
Allows use of compiled COM objects

Cons :

Script is interpreted on each request giving a higher execution overhead
Debugging is a pain in the neck (especially when using COM)
Requires browser to have cookies enabled for session tracking purposes

[JasonRise]

Am I right in assuming that I cant track users within my website properly if the site is set up as .asp or is that an old wifes tale?

[OBonio]

How do you mean track? As in report on user sessions from the log files or handle user logins to a site?

[JasonRise]

Report on user sessions

I am being told that because of the way the site has been set up with .asp pages, they can only report back on specific sections and not all pages. I think that is wrong

If I placed a tag on each page would that be able to provide me with reporting if I had it supported by Webtrends or something similar?

Thanks

[OBonio]

If WebTrends was installed properly for ASP, you should be able to report on user sessions, yes. It installs an ISAPI dll which tracks a user's route through a site using cookies. You also need to change the logging options for the site to output all data (especially the Cookie option!).

[JasonRise]

Thanks very much for your help

It now allows me to go and kick my agency's backside after all of the lies they have told me