Using Drumbeat to learn ASP
As you probably know, Drumbeat 2000 is the fastest, easiest way to build Web applications using ASP. What you may not know is that Drumbeat is also a great way to learn ASP programming.
Building Web Applications in Drumbeat:
In Drumbeat, you build your Web application by applying Point-and-Click Interactions to a set of SmartElements. Smart Elements are Web components such as HTML and DHTML tags, ActiveX and COM objects, ASP objects, Design-Time Controls and Scriptlets. As you design pages in Drumbeat, you position SmartElements on the layout.
You can assign interactions to elements on the layout by selecting any combination of SmartElements. Drumbeat then offers a list of the appropriate interactions among those elements as plain-English phrases. Interactions can be any sort of client or server-side behavior such as DHTML multimedia effects, streaming media control, forms validation, database queries, filters or sorts, and so on. You apply the interaction and Drumbeat automatically generates the code.
Drumbeat as a Learning Tool:
Once you have assigned the interaction, you can view the code that Drumbeat will generate, and you can learn how to write it yourself in ASP. Depending on your site preferences, you can either view the JavaScript version or the VBScript version of your code, and you can switch back-and-forth between them.
To view the code for any part of your site, simply select one of the participating SmartElements, right-click and choose "Edit Script." Then chose the event that triggers the interaction, such as server() or onClick(). The script center will open, and you can see the code that Drumbeat generates. Server-side code (read ASP) will usually be under the server() or the BeforeOpen() event.
You can also write and edit your own script within the center. The Script Editor supports both VBScript and JavaScript to enable advanced users to construct scripts by referencing the properties, events and methods of the specific objects on each page. The entire ASP object model is available for drag-and-drop use in the Script Tree.
If you are comfortable writing your own code, you can turn your scripts into point-and-click interactions so that you can re-use them in any site with a few clicks of your mouse.
If you haven't already tried Drumbeat 2000, you may either take the free Multimedia Quick Tour, or download a trial version if you have more time to explore.
