Fasthosts ASP scripting examples Page 1 of 17

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2 Introduction Sending from your web server JMail walkthrough JMail full code CDO Scripting with Access databases Using ADO with ASP to connect to an Access database on your website Scripting SQL with ASP Using ADO to connect to a MS SQL database Further reading Fasthosts ASP scripting examples Page 1 of 17

3 Introduction Whilst many of the code examples provided in this guide are applicable to any Windows based web server, the information provided is designed for customers using Fasthosts web servers; some parameters may not be valid on other hosting platforms. Important: You are responsible for the misuse of any scripts on your website. Unfortunately we are unable to provide and telephone support for scripting, but you ll find a wealth of information about ASP at: Fasthosts ASP scripting examples Page 2 of 17

4 Sending from your web server Before we go into detail on how to get your form working, let's look at some ground rules that will ensure your mail isn't blocked: Fasthosts redirects all web based mail to an SMTP Filter System. s must have either a valid "from" or "to" address which is a mailbox hosted with Fasthosts. Any that does not fulfil this criterion will not be delivered. If you are sending to a customer who has given you his address, you need to use the domain name of your website. Fasthosts' SMTP Filter System rate limits outgoing mail from any domain, to prevent bulk ing. Our limits are set to allow normal form-based activity to pass unhindered, but stop any persistent attempt to send bulk mail. The SMTP Filter System will prevent mass ing (spam). All attempts to send bulk s are logged and may result in the unfortunate suspension of your website, in accordance with our misuse policies. Fasthosts ASP scripting examples Page 3 of 17

5 JMail walkthrough The first thing to do is to make sure your form in the submitting page is correct. In its simplest form it should look like this: <form action="jmail.asp" method="post" name="mailform"> <input name=" " type="text" size="40"> <input name=" _submit" type="submit" value="send mail"> </form> Now to the real scripting (using the example form above, we re now talking about the code in the jmail.asp file). First initialise the variables. Although this isn't strictly necessary, it is good programming practice to do so. dim JMail, intcomp, strreferer, strserver, strclientip, strserverip, blnspam Next set up the JMail object: Set JMail = Server.CreateObject("JMail.SMTPMail") Now obtain some information about the website using the request.servervariables object. Note that we get the referrer page here. This is the page that carried out the page post operation. strreferer = request.servervariables("http_referer") strserver = Replace(request.servervariables("SERVER_NAME")," strclientip = request.servervariables("remote_addr") strserverip = request.servervariables("local_addr") Fasthosts ASP scripting examples Page 4 of 17

6 Note: Users behind firewalls, like Norton Personal Firewall, might experience problems with the execution of this script. In these cases, the ("HTTP_REFERER") value is usually stripped out by the firewall, causing the script to fail at this step. Next, use this information to check that the posting page is on the same website as the script. This prevents other people from using your script for bulk ing. intcomp = instr(strreferer, strserver) If intcomp > 0 Then blnspam = False Else ' Spam Attempt Block blnspam = True End If Next, populate the JMail object with the correct data. Note that the server information is used to set up the sender and the SMTP server. The recipient is obtained from the request object. JMail.ServerAddress = "smtp." & strserver & ":25" JMail.Sender = "noreply@" & strserver JMail.Subject = "JMail Example" & " " & now() JMail.AddRecipient request.form(" ") JMail.Body = "This test mail sent from: " & strserverip & " using the JMail component on the server." JMail.Priority = 3 JMail.AddHeader "Originating-IP", strclientip The following code checks that the referrer is correct, and if so, sends the to the SMTP server: If NOT blnspam Then JMail.Execute strresult = "Mail Sent." Else strresult = "Mail Not Sent." End If Fasthosts ASP scripting examples Page 5 of 17

7 After outputting whatever text you d like to use to tell the client that the job is done, clean up the objects we have used. set jmail=nothing That's it! Important: If you don't protect your scripts by checking the referrer, they will be open to abuse by bulk mailers. If this happens your website will be at risk of being suspended in accordance to our misuse policies. JMail full code <!-- ASP Code Section --> <% 'initialise objects and variables dim JMail, intcomp, strreferer, strserver, strclientip, strserverip, blnspam Set JMail = Server.CreateObject("JMail.SMTPMail") 'code to check if this page is being called from a another page on the server strreferer = request.servervariables("http_referer") strserver = Replace(request.servervariables("SERVER_NAME"), " "") strclientip = request.servervariables("remote_addr") strserverip = request.servervariables("local_addr") intcomp = instr(strreferer, strserver) If intcomp > 0 Then blnspam = False Else ' Spam Attempt Block blnspam = True End If ":25" ' This is my local SMTP server JMail.ServerAddress = "smtp." & strserver & ' This is me... JMail.Sender = "noreply@" & strserver Fasthosts ASP scripting examples Page 6 of 17

8 JMail.Subject = "JMail Example" & " " & now() ' Get the recipients mailbox from a form (note the lack of a equal sign). JMail.AddRecipient request.form(" ") JMail.Body = "This test mail sent from: " & strserverip & " using the JMail component on the server." JMail.Priority = 3 JMail.AddHeader "Originating-IP", strclientip 'send mail If NOT blnspam Then JMail.Execute strresult = "Mail Sent." Else strresult = "Mail Not Sent." End If %> <!-- HTML Output Section --> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <title>xtreme Test</title> </head> <body topmargin="0" leftmargin="0" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 8pt"> <br> <%=strresult%><br> SMTP Server: <%=JMail.ServerAddress%><br> SenderIP: <%=strclientip%><br> ServerIP: <%=strserverip%><br> Server: <%=strserver%><br> Referer: <%=strreferer%><br> Receiver: <%=request.form(" ")%><br> Sender: <%=JMail.Sender%><br> <br><br> page</a> <a href="jmail.htm">return to <% %> set jmail=nothing </body> </html> Fasthosts ASP scripting examples Page 7 of 17

9 CDO Quick tip: We recommend you deliver direct to our main SMTP server cluster for speed and efficiency rather than the local MS SMTP server. To do this you need to use the CDOSYS object rather than the CDONTS object. The code below demonstrates how to use this object and the CDO configuration object to send mail. The first thing to do is to make sure your form in the submitting page is correct. In its simplest form it should look like this: <form action="cdonts.asp" method="post" name="mailform"> <input name=" " type="text" size="40"/> <input name=" _submit" type="submit" value="sendmail"/> </form> Now to the real scripting (using the example form above, we re now talking about the code in the cdonts.asp file). First initialise the variables. Although this isn't strictly necessary, it is good programming practice to do so. dim ocdomsg, ocdoconfg, strreferer, strserver, strclientip, strserverip, blnspam Next set up the CDO object. set ocdomsg = server.createobject("cdo.message") Now obtain some information about the website using the request.servervariables object. Note that we get the referrer page here. This is the page that carried out the page post operation. Fasthosts ASP scripting examples Page 8 of 17

10 strreferer = request.servervariables("http_referer") strserver = Replace(request.servervariables("SERVER_NAME"), " "") strclientip = request.servervariables("remote_addr") strserverip = request.servervariables("local_addr") strfrom = "noreply@" & strserver Next, use this information to check that the posting page is on the same website as the script. This prevents other people from using your script for bulk ing. intcomp = instr(strreferer, strserver) If intcomp > 0 Then blnspam = False Else ' Spam Attempt Block blnspam = True End If Next populate the CDO object with the correct data. Note that we use the server information to set up the sender and the SMTP server. The recipient is obtained from the request object. ocdomsg.to = request.form(" ") ocdomsg.from = strfrom ocdomsg.subject = "CDO Test Mail" ocdomsg.textbody = "This test mail has been sent from server " ocdomsg.textbody = ocdomsg.textbody & request.servervariables("local_addr") & " via CDO mail objects." The next section sets CDO to use our main SMTP server cluster rather than the local MS SMTP Service. We recommend using our main SMTP servers. strmsschema = " Set ocdoconfg = Server.CreateObject("CDO.Configuration") ocdoconfg.fields.item(strmsschema & "sendusing") = 2 ocdoconfg.fields.item(strmsschema & "smtpserver") = "smtp.fasthosts.co.uk" ocdoconfg.fields.update Set ocdomsg.configuration = ocdoconfg Fasthosts ASP scripting examples Page 9 of 17

11 The following code checks that the referrer is correct, and if so, sends the mail through CDO to the local SMTP server queue. If NOT blnspam Then ocdomsg.send strresult = "Mail Sent." Else strresult = "Mail Not Sent." End If response.write strresult After outputting whatever text you d like to tell the client that the job is done, clean up the objects we have used. set ocdomsg = nothing set ocdoconfg = nothing That s it! Important: If you don't protect your scripts by checking the referrer, they will be open to abuse by bulk mailers. If this happens your website will be at risk of being suspended in accordance to our misuse policies. Fasthosts ASP scripting examples Page 10 of 17

12 Scripting with Access databases Whilst the following code examples are applicable to any Windows based web server, the information provided is designed for customers using Fasthosts web servers; some parameters, such as the methods used to derive file paths, may not be valid on other hosting platforms. Our ASP scripts are written in VBS; we do not provide JScript equivalents. However, we do provide Perl equivalents using the same technologies. Perl users should use the same OLE objects. The current version of ADO installed on our servers is MDAC 2.8. Detailed component information can be obtained from Microsoft or one of the many scripting sites on the web. Tip: Search on Google for "recordset.movenext" or similar. Before looking at the code, the following points should be considered when using Access databases in a shared hosting environment: All scripts run on a shared server, and thus what happens on one website has an effect on the stability of certain components on other websites on the same server. Access ADO is such a component. It is a shared resource, and should therefore be programmed correctly. The Jet access engine has a limited set of resources. Once these are exhausted, the script will generate errors. These are normally temporary in nature and can occur when server loading is very heavy. These are operating system limitations, and cannot be extended or isolated by us. Fasthosts ASP scripting examples Page 11 of 17

13 You should only use Access 2000 or higher databases. If you use Access 97 you may receive the following error:- [Microsoft][ODBC Microsoft Access Driver] Cannot open database '(unknown)'. It may not be a database that your application recognizes, or the file may be corrupt. This is due to an issue in MDAC 2.5 and greater, and is only resolved by using a newer version of Access. Use as few connections as possible. If you are using session and application based objects, use a single application based connection. Otherwise, use one per script, explicitly opening the connection at the start of the script, and then closing it at the end of the script. Always use OLEDB connection strings instead of DSN connections. The provider to use for Access is "MICROSOFT.JET.OLEDB.4.0". See the connection string used below. Fasthosts ASP scripting examples Page 12 of 17

14 Using ADO with ASP to connect to an Access database on your website Now to the code. First initialise the variables. This isn't strictly necessary, but it's good programming practice to do so. dim conn, strsql, rsuser, strmdbpath set conn=server.createobject("adodb.connection") set rsuser=server.createobject("adodb.recordset") Next set up the database connection. Always explicitly open the connection. Do not use a connection string with objects such as a command or a recordset object. These implicitly open a database connection which they then leave open to time out after the script closes. This connection accesses the Northwinds database which is stored in the PRIVATE directory below the website root folder. Note the use of the Server.MapPath method to derive the correct path on the server. strmdbpath = Server.MapPath("..\private\northwind.mdb") conn.open "PROVIDER=MICROSOFT.JET.OLEDB.4.0;DATA SOURCE=" & strmdbpath Now open the recordset using the current connection. In this case we are querying the customer table. strsql = "select top 10 (city) from customers" rsuser.open strsql,conn,1,2 With the recordset now open, we iterate through it and output the results to the page. Note that we don't need to use the movefirst method as the recordset points to the first record by default when opened. With an empty recordset, the loop exits immediately without errors. Do while not rsuser.eof response.write rsuser("city") & "<br>" rsuser.movenext Loop Finally, we close the objects used. Fasthosts ASP scripting examples Page 13 of 17

15 rsuser.close conn.close set rsuser=nothing set conn = nothing Fasthosts ASP scripting examples Page 14 of 17

16 Scripting SQL with ASP Whilst the following code examples are applicable to any Windows based web server, the information provided is designed for customers using Fasthosts web servers; some parameters, such as the methods used to derive file paths, may not be valid on other hosting platforms. Our ASP scripts are written in VBS; we do not provide JScript equivalents. However, we do provide Perl equivalents using the same technologies. Perl users should use the same OLE objects. Before going into details on the scripts, there is some general information about MS SQL databases and their use in a shared hosting environment, that you need to understand: Use as few connections as possible. If you are using session and application based objects, use a single application based connection. Otherwise, use one per script. Explicitly open the connection, and close it at the end of the script. Although we support ODBC connections, we recommend using DSNless OLEDB connections to any database. These are more efficient, and are demonstrated in the code example below. Fasthosts ASP scripting examples Page 15 of 17

17 Using ADO to connect to a MS SQL database Now to the code. First initialise the variables. This isn't strictly necessary, but it's good programming practice to do so. dim conn, strsql, rsuser set conn = server.createobject("adodb.connection") set rsuser= server.createobject("adodb.recordset") Next set up the database connection. Always explicitly open the connection. Do not use connection strings with objects such as a command or a recordset object. These implicitly open a database connection which they then leave open to time out after the script closes. This accesses the database PUBS on server using the username and password provided. conn.open "PROVIDER=MSDASQL;DRIVER={SQL Server};SERVER= ;UID=nnnnnnn;PWD=xxxxxxxx;DATABASE= pubs" Now open the resordset using the current connection. In this case we are querying the titles table. strsql = "select title from titles" rsuser.open strsql,conn,1,2 With the recordset now open, we can iterate through it. Note that we don't need to use the movefirst method as the recordset points to the first record by default when opened. With an empty recordset, the loop exits immediately without errors. Do while not rsuser.eof response.write rsuser("title") & "<br>" rsuser.movenext Loop Finally we close the objects used. rsuser.close conn.close set rsuser=nothing Fasthosts ASP scripting examples Page 16 of 17

18 set conn = nothing Further reading Unfortunately we are unable to provide and telephone support for scripting, but there is a range of information available online to help you along the way. Microsoft articles on ASP Active Server Pages Tutorial 25+ Tips to improve performance and style Active Server Pages: Frequently asked questions ASP Conventions ASP Troubleshooting tips and techniques Microsoft scripting home page Fasthosts ASP scripting examples Page 17 of 17