Is ASP really this 'sensitive'?

ASP newbie edited files in text editor and weird error happens

[tigertom]

Client has a site in .aspx and MSSQL. The coder is unhelpful. No admin interface, so if they want to change prices they have to enter SQL queries themselves. Not ideal.

They also wanted an on-site phone number changed. I tried editing the .aspx files in a text editor and a file called 'inner.master' and FTP'd them to the site.

One form field has a regex to check post-code. Previously, it displayed the user's sign-up _password_ on the second, sign-up screen: an error.

_After_ my text editing (find and replace telephone numbers), the script gave an 'invalid post-code' error.

So it was doing one odd error first and then a _different_ one later.

Then, when I re-uploaded the _backup_ files, the script exited immediately with a error message.

Q: I've edited PHP and Perl files for years, safely. Is there something different about .aspx files?

Q: Can .aspx files be edited and FTP'd safely in a text editor?

[topr8]

>>No admin interface, so if they want to change prices they have to enter SQL queries themselves. Not ideal.

well building an admin interface is expensive.
however you should at least write a stored procedure on the sqlserver which you can call to change prices, it's always a risk writing out new queries to run against the database each time you want to update it (incase there is an error in the query that causes an irreversible change.

[PCInk]

Then, when I re-uploaded the _backup_ files, the script exited immediately with a error message.

Check that it is being uploaded in the correct format (binary/ASCII) in your FTP client. It might be that the FTP program you use either doesn't recognise .aspx, perhaps only recognising .asp extensions.

Could be as simple as that?

[tigertom]

I used WinSCP. An older version, but it would surely recognise a .aspx file(?). Thanks for the tip.