is it possible to issue dynamic include in asp-classic?

Question

I mean, like php\'h include...

something like

my_file_to_be_included = \"include_me.asp\"

-- >

for what I\'ve seen so far, there are a couple

Answer 1

I am building a web site where it would have been convenient to be able to use dynamic includes. The site is all ajax (no page reloads at all) and while the pure-data JSON-returning calls didn't need it, all the different html content for each different application sub-part (window/pane/area/form etc) seems best to me to be in different files.

My initial idea was to have the ajax call be back to the "central hub" main file (that kicks the application off in the first place), which would then know which sub-file to include. Simply including all the files was not workable after I realized that each call for some possibly tiny piece would have to parse all the ASP code for the entire site! And using the Execute method was not good, both in terms of speed and maintenance.

I solved the problem by making the supposed "child" pages the main pages, and including the "central hub" file in each one. Basically, it's a javascript round-trip include.

This is less costly than it seems since the whole idea of a web page is that the server responds to client requests for "the next page" all the time. The content that is being requested is defined in scope by the page being called.

The only drawback to this is that the "web pieces" of the application have to live partly split apart: most of their content in a real named .asp file, but enough of their structure and relationship defined in the main .asp file (so that, for example, a menu item in one web piece knows the name to use to call or load another web piece and how that loading should be done). In a way, though, this is still an advantage over a traditional site where each page has to know how to load every other page. Now, I can do stuff like "load this part (whether it's a whole page or otherwise) the way it wants to be loaded".

I also set it up so each part can have its own javascript and css (if only that part needs those things). Then, those files are included dynamically through javascript only the first time that part is loaded. Then if the part is loaded repeatedly it won't incur an extra overhead.

Answer 2

No you can't do a dyanmic include, period.

Your best shot at this is a server.execute and passing whatever state it needs via a Session variable:-

Session("callParams") = BuildMyParams() 'Creates some sort of string
Server.Execute(my_file_to_be_included)
Session.Contents.Remove("callParams")

Answer 3

Improved version (v2.0):

<%
' **** Dynamic ASP include v.2.0

function fixInclude(content)
   out=""   
   if instr(content,"#include ")>0 then
        response.write "Error: include directive not permitted!"
        response.end
   end if     
   content=replace(content,"<"&"%=","<"&"%response.write ")   
   pos1=instr(content,"<%")
   pos2=instr(content,"%"& ">")
   if pos1>0 then
      before= mid(content,1,pos1-1)
      before=replace(before,"""","""""")
      before=replace(before,vbcrlf,""""&vbcrlf&"response.write vbcrlf&""")
      before=vbcrlf & "response.write """ & before & """" &vbcrlf
      middle= mid(content,pos1+2,(pos2-pos1-2))
      after=mid(content,pos2+2,len(content))
      out=before & middle & fixInclude(after)
   else
      content=replace(content,"""","""""")
      content=replace(content,vbcrlf,""""&vbcrlf&"response.write vbcrlf&""")
      out=vbcrlf & "response.write """ & content &""""
   end if
   fixInclude=out
end function

Function getMappedFileAsString(byVal strFilename)
  Dim fso,td
  Set fso = Server.CreateObject("Scripting.FilesystemObject")
  Set ts = fso.OpenTextFile(Server.MapPath(strFilename), 1)
  getMappedFileAsString = ts.ReadAll
  ts.close  
  Set ts = nothing
  Set fso = Nothing
End Function

execute (fixInclude(getMappedFileAsString("included.asp")))
%>

Answer 4

Just as an additional note. I was getting weird ASCII characters at the top of the pages that were using dynamic includes so I found that using an ADODB.Stream object to read the include file eliminated this issue.

So my updated code for the getMappedFileAsString function is as follows

Function getMappedFileAsString(byVal strFilename)
  Dim fso
  Set fso = CreateObject("ADODB.Stream")

  fso.CharSet = "utf-8"
  fso.Open
  fso.LoadFromFile(Server.MapPath(strFilename))

  getMappedFileAsString = fso.ReadText()

  'Response.write(getMappedFileAsString)
  'Response.End

  Set fso = Nothing
End Function

Answer 5

I'm a bit rusty on classic ASP, but I'm pretty sure you can use the Server.Execute method to read in another asp page, and then carry on executing the calling page. 15Seconds had some basic stuff about it - it takes me back ...

Answer 6

Sure you can do REAL classic asp dynamic includes. I wrote this a while back and it has opened up Classic ASP for me in a whole new way. It will do exactly what you are after, even though people seem to think it isn't possible!

Any problems just let me know.