FP98: Cannot Use Search Component With Active Server Pages

When you click the Search button on an Active Server Page (ASP), the results of your search are returned, but the ASP script on your page does not run. In some cases, you receive the following error message in your Web browser: The Uniform Resource Locator (URL) in the Address box in Internet Explorer resembles this where <myserver> is the location of your Web and <myfile> is the name of the file you are previewing.

You cannot use the Search Form on an Active Server Page.

When an ASP page is requested on a server, Asp.dll parses it. It finds any script specified to run on the server, runs it, and displays the results.

When you conduct a search using the Search Form, Shtml.dll parses the search page and the results of the search are expanded into the search file and displayed in the browser.

When a search is performed using the Search Form on an ASP page, Shtml.dll cannot parse the file because Asp.dll is already parsing it. Because Shtml.dll fails, it outputs the message described in the "Symptoms" section.

When using Microsoft Index Server, the Search Form does not use Shtml.dll. Instead, the action for the form points to the .idq file associated with the file.

To resolve this behavior, use one of the following methods:

Method 1: Install Microsoft Index Server

Install Microsoft Index Server on the Web server hosting your Web. For more information about how to obtain and install Microsoft Index Server, visit the following Microsoft Web site:


For additional information about how to use Index Server with FrontPage, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Method 2: Use .htm or .html Instead Of .asp Pages With the Search Form

Do not use Active Server Pages with the Search Form. Use .htm or .html pages only.

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.