Question

Passing variables between ASP Include files

Asked by: jen4950

I am trying to make my site easier to maintain, and want to use include files. The idea here is have each segment of code in an include file, and select what page it is for navigation etc. with a simple index number. I have the sitemap in a spreadsheet that exports the case function in ASP, so updating the site will be a breeze.
So how do I get the passing of that variable between these different navX.asp pages to make this concept work?

As you can see, the main page becomes very easy to maintain- Navigation, nav-crumbs across the top, page titles, links etc. are all maintained in my spreadsheet and called with 1 number. This page works fine when it is all put together in one file.. -> http://vacorp.com/common/demo1.asp

I posted the question in the [H]ardforum- been a member there a long time, you can see the post there : http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1032603666#post1032603666 -the formatting makes it easier to digest. 

Main Page:
[CODE]
<!--#include virtual="/common/nav1.asp"-->
 
NavIndex = 7
 
<!--#include virtual="/common/nav2.asp"-->
<!--#include virtual="/common/body1.asp"-->
<!--#include virtual="/common/body2.asp"-->
        	
<div id="mainContent">
           <h1> Main Content </h1>
                <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.</p>
                <p>Quisque ornare risus quis  ligula.< /p>
            <h2>H2 level heading </h2>
                <p>Lorem ipsum dolor amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.</p>
</div>
            
<!--#include virtual="/common/body3.asp"-->
[/CODE]
 
nav1.asp:
[CODE]<%
DIM siteMapLocation, sideNavIndex, NavIndex, topLinks, currentDate
[/CODE]
 
nav2.asp (truncated the CASE options for brevity, there are about 30 options):
[CODE]currentDate = FormatDateTime(date(), 1)
currentTime = FormatDateTime(now(), 3)
 
 
SELECT CASE NavIndex
	CASE 1
	topLinks = "<a href=""/index.asp"">Home</a>"
	sideNavIndex="n01"
	CASE 2
	topLinks = "<a href=""/index.asp"">Home</a> > <a href=""/CS/index.asp"">Customer Service</a>"
	sideNavIndex="n09"
	CASE 3
	topLinks = "<a href=""/index.asp"">Home</a> > <a href=""/CS/index.asp"">Customer Service</a> > <a href=""/CS/Individuals/index.asp"">Individuals</a>"
	sideNavIndex="n09"
	CASE 4
	topLinks = "<a href=""/index.asp"">Home</a> > <a href=""/CS/index.asp"">Customer Service</a> > <a href=""/CS/Dealers/index.asp"">Dealers</a>"
	sideNavIndex="n09"
END Select %>
[/CODE]
 
body1.asp (HTML Header information):
 
[CODE]
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> 
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
 
	<head>
		<title>Vehicle Acceptance Corporation - VACorp.com</title>
		<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../screenstyles.css" media="screen"/>
        	<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../printstyles.css" media="print"/>
        
		<script type="text/javascript" src="../jquery.js"></script>
		<script type="text/javascript" src="../sliding.js"></script>
        <script type="text/javascript" src="../bookmark.js"></script>
        <script type="text/javascript" src="../date.js"></script>
        
        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />        
[/CODE]
 
body2.asp (side navigation, images, some CSS styling for the side navigation):
 
[CODE]
		<style type="text/css" media="screen">	
			div#bottomLocation {position:relative; left: 0em; top:8em; height:4em; Z-INDEX: 10;}
			ul#sideNavList li.navLink div.<%response.Write(sideNavIndex)%> a {color:#FF0000;}
	        	ul#sideNavList li.navLink div.<%response.Write(sideNavIndex)%> a:hover {color:#FF0000;} 
			ul#sideNavList li.navLink div.<%response.Write(sideNavIndex)%> a span.{color:#FF0000;}
			ul#sideNavList li.navLink div.<%response.Write(sideNavIndex)%> a span.current{color:#FF0000;}
	        	ul#sideNavList li.navLink div.<%response.Write(sideNavIndex)%> a:hover span.current {color:#FF0000;}
		</style>
        
        <style type="text/css" media="print">
			div#bottomLocation {position:relative; left: 0em; top:8em; height:4em; Z-INDEX: 10;}
			ul#sideNavList li.navLink div.<%response.Write(sideNavIndex)%> a {color:#FF0000; background-color:#FFCC33; font-weight:bold;}
	        	ul#sideNavList li.navLink div.<%response.Write(sideNavIndex)%> a:hover {color:#FF0000; font-weight:bold;} 
			ul#sideNavList li.navLink div.<%response.Write(sideNavIndex)%> a span.{color:#FF0000;}
			ul#sideNavList li.navLink div.<%response.Write(sideNavIndex)%> a span.current{color:#FF0000;}
	        	ul#sideNavList li.navLink div.<%response.Write(sideNavIndex)%> a:hover span.current {color:#FF0000;}
		</style>
        
        
	</head>
	<body class="bodyStyle">
    <div id="headerContainer"> 
        	<div class="Logo"><img src="/images/Common/VACLogo_Web.gif" alt="" width="188" height="150" /></div>
            <div class="LogoTail"><img src="/images/Common/VACLogo_WebTail.gif" alt="" width="100%" height="150"/></div>
            <div class="GradientTop"><img src="/images/Common/Gradient_top.jpg" alt="" width="100%" height="180"/></div>
            <div class="VAC"><img src="/images/Common/VAC.gif" alt="Vehicle Acceptance Corporation"/></div>
        	<div class="VACPrint"><img src="/images/Common/VACTopPrint.jpg" alt="Vehicle Acceptance Corporation" width="750"/></div>
            <div class="VACMotto"><img src="/images/Common/CashandServiceSolutions.gif" alt="" width="300" height="47" /></div>
        </div>
        
    	<div class="GreyNavBar"><div class="topNav"><span class="topNavTimestamp"><%response.Write(currentDate)%> - <%response.Write(currentTime)%> - </span><a onClick="window.print()" href="#">Print</a> - <a href="../EMailPage.asp" target="_blank">E-Mail this page</a> - Navigation: 
      <%response.Write(topLinks)%></div>
    </div>
        
<div id="bodyContainer">
            
            <div id="sideNavBlock">
              <ul id="sideNavList">
                    <li class="navLink"><div class="n00"><a>HOME</a></div></li> 
                    <li class="navTitle">For Customers</li>
                    <li class="navLink"><div class="n01"><a href="/contact/index.htm">Update Your Information<span>Provide VAC updates to your current contact or vehicle information.</span></a></div></li>
                    <li class="navLink"><div class="n02"><a href="/payment/index.htm">Make Your Payment<span><img src="file:///E|/Users/jneubauer/Documents/Websites/Vehicleacceptance.com/Current_VAC_Website/Website_05012008/images/common/CC_Small.gif" alt="Visa, Mastercard, AMerican Express, Discover Credit and Debit Cards Accepted" width="70%" height="70%"/>Arrange payments via online ACH, Online Credit or Debit Cards, Pay-By-Phone or Western Union</span></a></div></li>
                    <li class="navLink"><div class="n03"><a href="/payment/index.htm">Request Your Payoff<span>Request the current amount due to payoff your note</span></a></div></li>
                    <li class="navTitle">For Businesses</li>
                    <li class="navLink"><div class="n04"><a href="/repair/index.htm">Repair Industry Services<span>Find out how VAC can help your repair business convert economically challenged traffic into sales</span></a></div></li>
                    <li class="navLink"><div class="n05"><a href="/advance/index.htm">BHPH Cash Advance<span>Independent businesses receive an advance of 3 to 9 months of payments on your notes, while retaining ownership</span></a></div></li>
                    <li class="navLink"><div class="n06"><a href="/servicing/index.htm">BHPH Note Servicing<span>Independent dealers retain ownership of your receivables while allowing us to collect payments and service your contract for you.</span></a></div></li>
                    <li class="navLink"><div class="n07"><a href="/purchasing/index.htm">BHPH Bulk Purchasing<span>Learn more about our bulk note purchasing program</span></a></div></li>
                    <li class="navTitle">For Everyone</li>
                    <li class="navLink"><div class="n08"><a href="/contact/index.htm">Customer Service</a></div></li>
                    <li class="navLink"><div class="n09"><a href="/locations/index.htm">Locations</a></div></li>
                    <li class="navLink"><div class="n10"><a href="/locations/index.htm">VAC News</a></div></li>
                    <li class="navLink"><div class="n11"><a href="/online/index.htm">Online Solutions</a></div></li>
                    <li class="navLink"><div class="n12"><a href="/about/index.htm">About Us</a></div></li>
                    <li class="navTitle">Interactive</li>
                    <li class="navLink"><div class="n13"><a href="/locations.htm">Login</a></div></li>
                </ul>
            </div>
        [/CODE]
 
body3.asp (bottom feedback form, links etc. end of HTML) :
 
[CODE]
            <!-- Bottom set of navigation options, disclaimer, etc.. -->
                        
...
 
            <!-- END OF Bottom Navigation Set -->
            </div>	
		</div>       
</body>
</html>[/CODE]
                                  
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Asked On
2008-06-11 at 19:37:19ID23478173
Tags

ASP

,

All

,

http://vacorp.com/common/demo1.asp

Topics

Server Side Includes (SSI)

,

Active Server Pages (ASP)

,

Miscellaneous Web Development

Participating Experts
2
Points
250
Comments
9

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Answers

 

by: dosthPosted on 2008-06-12 at 00:27:27ID: 21766874

declare all variables in global.asa file

 

by: _Stilgar_Posted on 2008-06-12 at 00:32:57ID: 21766900

Or use Session variables, or just declare a variable in the head of your page, and reference it in the include files (for this you will have to make sure it is declared before each file including those files).

Stilgar.

 

by: jen4950Posted on 2008-06-12 at 07:40:44ID: 21769955

So can I declare a session variable in the nav1.asp, and have it utilized in nav2.asp, body1,asp etc?

 

by: dosthPosted on 2008-06-12 at 07:52:26ID: 21770089

yes, the session variable needs to be in the top leve page so you can call it any page

 

by: jen4950Posted on 2008-06-12 at 08:55:55ID: 21770834

Sorry for being a noob here, but is this what the global.asa file would look like? And what happens when a user has cookies disabled? Is an application variable a better solution? And finally, how do I call the variable in my include files, where typically is would be: "SELECT CASE NavIndex" or "<%response.Write(sideNavIndex)%>"

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="VBScript" RUNAT="Server"> 
 
Sub Application_OnStart 
 
application("activevisitors")=0 
 
End Sub 
 
Sub Application_OnEnd 
End Sub 
 
Sub Session_OnStart 
application.lock 
application("activevisitors")=application("activevisitors")+1 
application.unlock
 
session("siteMapLocation")=""
session("sideNavIndex")=""
session("NavIndex")=""
session("topLinks")=""
session("currentDate")=""
session("currentTime")=""
 
End Sub 
 
Sub Session_OnEnd 
application.lock 
application("activevisitors")=application("activevisitors")-1 
application.unlock 
End Sub 
 
</SCRIPT>
                                              
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by: dosthPosted on 2008-06-12 at 09:06:45ID: 21770961

yes global.asa look like this only.

session will work

<%response.Write(session("NavIndex"))%>

 

by: jen4950Posted on 2008-06-12 at 09:13:17ID: 21771012

Last question- do I have to worry about functionality if the user has cookies disabled?

Thanks so much for your help!

 

by: dosthPosted on 2008-06-12 at 09:21:56ID: 21771097

no, session is server side

 

by: jen4950Posted on 2008-06-12 at 09:22:41ID: 21771104

Excellent, Thank you so much!

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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