Conclusion

This introduction to ISAPI extensions has opened up the world of high-performance, compiled solutions for Web applications. While none of these examples seriously strained the abilities of IIS and I have not done any rigorous benchmarking, the performance of the samples is outstanding. ISAPI also allows developers to take total control of the server with the ability to do virtually anything that the Win32 API allows.

The ability to enhance the performance of IIS using ISAPI to create new scripting components takes ISAPI extensions to a different level than most other tools for Web development. Creating a scripting environment so tightly integrated with the Web server in virtually any other environment is practically impossible .

Chapter 15 will use the capability of ISAPI to bring Web integration to traditional server-based applications. The ability to interact with browser clients while at the same time using all the abilities of Win32 allows ISAPI developers to perform operations and allow integration with other applications not easily possible with other tools.

Yet even with all this capability, there is another side to ISAPIISAPI filterswhich I'll cover in the next chapter. ISAPI extensions and ISAPI filters together provide a set of tools that allows you to create the most complex Web applications. Combined with ASP, the net result is the capacity to create the entire gamut of applications, from those that will scale for a lazy intranet site to world-class Internet sites ready to take on the world.