Chapter 11 -- The Web and Beyond

Chapter 11

The Web and Beyond

As more companies manage information such as expense reports, time reporting, sick leave, and vacation requests through e-mail and corporate intranets, the need for secure and robust Web database applications increases. With Active Directory, redundant databases can be eliminated, and with the security features of Microsoft Windows 2000, a "single sign-on" can be achieved so that a user can easily access information stored remotely. When you combine Active Directory, the robust security and authentication features in Windows 2000, and the capabilities of Active Server Pages (ASP), you can create useful applications that use a Web browser as a common client.

In this final chapter I want to apply what I've covered in this book to the ASP programming environment. Up till now, I've shown applications for Active Directory written in C++, Visual Basic, or VBScript. In this chapter, I'll take the VBScript Phone sample shown in Chapter 5 and move it to the ASP environment. Also in this chapter, I'll describe issues related to working with Active Directory on versions of Windows before Windows 2000 and then look ahead at what's up for Active Directory in the next release of Windows.