Editing APG Scripts

Editors

APG scripts can be edited in any text editor, including notepad. Microsoft Visual InterDev 98 is the preferred editor and debugger. The NT Option Pack Script Debugger works well for debugging APG scripts, but it can not be used for editing. Allaire HomeSite and Sapien PrimalSCRIPT can be used as APG script editors, but they must be manually configured to enable syntax highlighting on .APG files.

To enable syntax highlighting in HomeSite 4.0 or 4.5, go into Options | Settings, and choose the "Color Coding" tab or icon. Add the string "apg;" to the extensions for the ASP-VBScript Scheme (or, add the apg extension to the ASP-JScript Scheme, if you prefer JScript). Next, choose the "File Settings" tab or icon, and add the ";apg" string to the Web Documents field. Click OK to finish.

If Microsoft Visual InterDev 98 is installed before APGen is installed, the VI registry settings are modified so syntax highlighting works for .APG files. This improves the experience of editing and debugging APG scripts in Visual InterDev.

APG Scripts with a Different Extension

If you prefer to edit APG scripts with a .htm (or other) extension, you can do so. The .htm extension will allow you to use your HTML editor of choice.

The .APG extension gives APG scripts extra functionality in Windows Explorer and in a Command Prompt. APG scripts without the .APG extension will not have this functionality. See Executing APG Scripts for more details.

Creating a New APG Script

There are two easy ways to create a new APG script:

Choose File | New in your editor, and save the file with the .apg extension.
Right click on the right pane of Windows Explorer, and choose New | Active Page Generator Script. Then, rename the file to <filename>.apg.