Classic ASP with Server-Side Javascript, calling function in a different file

Question

I've got a page X that is supposed to have hyperlinks to pages A, B, and C if certain conditions are met. What I'm hoping to do is (on the server as the page is being built) is prune out hyperlinks that don't meet my conditions. The way I would like this to be structured is that in the Javascript function that is building the HTML for the links on X, eval a function that exists in A, B, and C where a true/false is returned which tells me whether or not to include the link.

I've written it so far so that X dynamically pieces together the name of the appropriate function to call in A, B, and C based off of their names and uses eval. The problem is that eval doesn't seem to know where the functions are located.

Since this is server-side, I don't believe that I can use the tag because I think that's for client-side code. I don't want to use the at the top because I want X to be loosely coupled with A, B, and C.

This is Javascript in ASP pages running on IIS.

Any suggestions as to how I can make the eval locate the function on the server is appreciated.

mj

[edit]

function shouldLink(filename)
{
    filename = "a.asp";
    var splits = filename.split(".");
    var file = splits[0].toUpperCase() + "_ShouldLink()";  // A_ShouldLink() function name built here

    var exec = "<!--#include virtual=\"a.asp\" -->";
    exec += "eval( " + file + " );";

    try{
            return eval( exec );
    } catch( err ){

    }

    return true;
}

Basically at the eval here I want the function named A_ShouldLink() to be called (which resides in a.asp).

The syntax is an IIS feature, not a JScript one... so you may find the entire contents of a.asp are being included in your script at that point, or (more likely) you'll find it just doesn't work at all... — Dylan Beattie, Sep 26 '11 at 22:01

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 19 '11 at 21:31

1

I don't quite understand what you want to do, but if you are naming functions based on dynamic data, it seems you could step back and rewrite the functions to work dynamically through parameters, etc. Any chance you can post some code?

answered Sep 19 '11 at 21:31

Michael C. Gates

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Because it's server-side, you have to post back in order to run the script. Does a.asp have JavaScript, or server-side JavaScript? What does the function do? – Michael C. Gates Sep 19 '11 at 21:43

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 19 '11 at 23:48

I may be wrong but I don't think you can use include files in this manner. I have never seen include files dynamically added this way.

Try

function shouldLink(filename)
{
    filename = "a.asp";
    var splits = filename.split(".");
    var file = splits[0].toUpperCase() + "_ShouldLink()";  // A_ShouldLink() function  name built here

   Server.Execute(fliename) 
   var exec =  "eval( " + file + " );";

   try{
          return eval( exec );
   } catch( err ){

   }

   return true;

}

You will obviously need to be careful with the path for your file name.

I used this article for inspiration

Classic ASP with Server-Side Javascript, calling function in a different file

2 Answers2