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ASP, PHP, ASP.net

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by sygazelle

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

A web designer is building a website for my company. He proposes ASP because his folks know it and it is easy to maintain the site.

The site will include videos and video clips of the product, and a place for news, whitepapers, articles, etc. that will change from month to month. There will be no ecommerce on the site.

Should I care whether he uses ASP, PHP, JSP, ASP.net or another option?

Any recommendations?

Thanks in advance

Steve

12 replies

by mjcrown

Hello,

Both appications are effective. High end sites like
www.printronix.com are populated by databases, both
of these applications work fine. What is more important
is the situation where you want to change web
designers... will the code to drive the site go to you?

by kim

Hi,

You should care which development environment is used. This will determine:
1) Who can work on the site. (Not all ASP developers know PHP and visa versa)
2) Your hosting options.
3) Database environment options.

I have developed using ASP, ASP.Net and PHP. From a developers perspective, I prefer PHP, although any of them will deliver the goods.

by jojo-1

At the risk of putting your web designer out of a job, the site you propose could easily be put together using an open source CMS (try www.mamboserver.com). It's written in PHP and therefore can be hosted on Linux which is cheaper than hosting on Windows. It's easy to use and easy to add in your own template.

Even if you don't use that, ASP will probably be phased out soon enough as people are now only interested in .NET and PHP. Go for something that's going to be around in the future and won't involve having to recode your site.

PHP recommended by me - an ASP web developer who much prefers PHP ;)

by tomislav

Well, I think this is a dead end question because you'll hear a lot of diferrent answers. I think that you should look to the web designer's portfolio and evaluate his works. If he's good, then you should not worry which language does he use.

by bpatin

I have worked in ASP, ASP.NET, Perl CGI, and a smattering of PHP and Java, and must say that:
1. ASP is going away, don't start anything new in it.
2. The .NET platform is much easier to maintain,
and won't be hard for an ASP programmer to get into, with appropriate tutorials. It is even portable to Linux, now, to some extent.
3. PHP is also easy, although I've heard of security problems.
4. JSP is not easy to get started into.

by dan cooperstock

I have used both ASP and JSP a lot.

I admit that I'm a programmer, not primarily a web designer, but I have to say that although both are fine, I really prefer JSP for sites that require much code (which the original writer's site here may not require).

To me the good thing about JSP is that usually, only one server-side language is required - Java. You use Java both for the bits of code you embed in pages, and for back-end code modules in JavaBeans. (EJBs are an option, but not required except for really major, very high-volume sites, IMHO.)

With ASP, you will be using either JScript or VBScript for the in-page code, then you have to go to something else (such as VC++ or VB) to create COM objects for any serious code modules.

I also just find that Java is more of a "real" programming language than VBScript or JScript, so I find it is more expressive and powerful. That's not to say you can't do everything you need to do in an ASP web site - of course you can.

Another advantage of JSP, of course, is that it isn't tied to Microsoft. :)

by bking - it business analyst

I agree (w/Flame) - passionate programming alegence aside, your first considerations should not be programming language. Rather, focus first on issues of business continuity and cost of ownership of your new site. Realizing the strategic value of this site to your business, you must make decisions of internal/external hosting with comfortable service level terms for the support of your site (looking past the development). If your developer works for a company and you look for your site to be a significant revenue generator for your business - you'd do well to focus more on gaining confidence in their service capabilities and financial health than what language they propose to use(e.g. D&B financial report). You question is more applicable if you have decided to host the site internally - then the question of language make a BIG difference in your cost of onwership, security, availability, etc. as it drives hardware, OS and other considerations. Don't swet the language - at the level it appears you are investing - it's a non-issue if you trust your partners capability to deliver.

by bucky kaufman (mcsd)

It's tough to give a correct answer to an incorrect question. Before asking what tool to use, you'd be wise to define the task.

If you don't it's a sure bet that the project will go nowhere and cost much.

by goboslayer

This question is answered best by Bucky. Clearly define your task and cost before choosing. Being an ASP.NET developer myself, I realize that the .NET Framework brings to ASP.NET an enormous amount of power. But a large hammer will pound a small nail in the same way a small hammer will.

As far as ASP.NET and COM goes, with ASP Classic, yes the tough stuff had to be done with
COM components. However, since ASP.NET has nearly all (if not all) of the .NET Framework available to it, you're possibilities are quite limitless (even w/out COM) since you're starting from scratch. Java/JSP will give you much the same range in capability, so who wins? Simple: the $.

Define the scope/scale of the project, research which technology may already have much of the work done for you (commercial components/modules/freeware/etc.), time frame for turn-around, host plans, staff, then make your decision based on the TCO of the above mentioned items.

Apart from a cost analysis, it's really Apples to Oranges

by smeeds

At the core of your problem is implementation and life-cycle issues. Total Cost of Ownership includes difficulties or benefits in both. ASP.NET and PHP are reasonably easy to develop and maintain, and there is (and not expected to be) no shortage in finding programmers for either of them. Both are reasonably secure and provide sufficient performance. JSP would work as well, depending on the overall direction you intend to go for your organization.

Unless there is an overriding consideration, you should have a developer use whatever language you intend to maintain, even if it is your intent the site be maintained by someone else. These plans tend to change.

The consideration of using a single language for all parts of a multi-tier web application is probably not appropriate. C++ still provides the fastest and most complete language for common-use modules and a few other uses, and back-end databases will probably encompass some SQL in any case.

Where performance is an issue (and sooner or later it will be), you will need to optimize it by incorporating native DBMS functionality, and quick function libraries, etc. That currently means using SQL, C++, and either ASP.NET, PHP, or JSP for the front end, separating presentation from coding. I've programmed in all of them, and my preference is probably PHP (but that intellisense in ASP.NET can be handy). These languages all can work with modules or objects programmed in other languages, so whatever you choose should work.

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