I. What is WinASP

WinASP is a desktop run-time environment for the ASP (VBScript or JavaScript) programs. If you have a Web application for the IIS Web server, then you will be able to run it locally with this product. WinASP is an extension of an IE browser. In addition to the Browser role it inherits from IE, WinASP can also interpret and execute the ASP code. In other words, it is IE plus IIS in one .

If you download the code from this place: http://www.yamabay.com/download, you will get this run time environment as well as a sample Scholl enrollment ASP project. Yes you can run it locally without setting up any server, as if you are running against a remote Web server.

II. Why run Web application locally ?

Well, web computing environment are wonderful, you can run Web application any time, any where with just a web browser from any platform. But realistically, Web Applications have the following weakness:

• Availability: to run Web applications, at least three things need to up and running: local computer, web server, and the internet. There are times you need to run web applications but they are not available.
• Response and reliability: for some web applications like data entry and content editing, users expect immediate response, and they can't afford the interruption in the middle of the lengthy process caused by the down time of the internet and the web server.
• Tasks Distribution: Web applications run all tasks by itself. In general it is not a perfect design. A good computing environment shoud strike the balance between the Browser/Client and the Web/Server.

III. Why WinASP ?

Admitting the usefulness of Web application running locally, then what are the benefits of using WinASP ? Well, WinASP will benefit software developers as well as the end users. The software developers will have their local version of the Web Application available with virtually no change of their code, and the end users will be able to run the applications just like they are running this applications on the Web.

Let me list some of the applications WinASP are perfectly suitable for:

3.1. Develop Off-line version of the Web Application.

We all know web Applications are everywhere and anytime. But that is the ideal case. What if internet is down or web server is down at some time ? With exactly the same code, the user can run the web application locally without the Web. It is very cost effective for the users and the developers. For developers, no or minimal additional cost for this feature. For the users, no additional training needed as the UI is exactly the same.

Yes, we do need to consider the synchronization issues between on-line and the off-line version. But the replication technology is there. and Lotus Notes has been using that for years.

3.2 Separate the works between on-line and off-line.

Not all applications are suitable for on-line web applications. For example, massive data entries, web page designs, lengthy web content compositions. For these applications, local is much more reliable and faster. I have been developing a web based Forecast System, the user finds out doing the data entry on-line is time consuming and risky. In many cases the internet dies before he/she hits the submit button (oh, no !) I also have Instant-e-Store, the merchants hate to enter 100 products screen by screen on-line. They want
local first, then batch uploading to the Server.

3.3 Develop local applications.

For the IT people who needs to manage the local machine or intranet, he/she can write ASP code and run it from his/her desktop. Without this,  vbScript (.vbs) or batch file (.bat, .cmd) are the alternatives. The UI of both are poor. Yes, he can roll the sleeves to write the C++ or VB programs, but you need to buy the Dev Studio from Microsoft.

IV. Conclusions:

All in all, this WinASP solved a lot of problems we couldn't deal with before, and it solves these problems so elegantly that bothusers and the developers are happy. With this product, we effectively open a new window for the web applications, and provide a new dimension to the web working models.

Download WinASP

WinASP Detailed Information and User's Guide