OK, this must be a very very simple question for ASP programmers to answer.
After I have gathered all the information I want from the user and after
the user has clicked on a submit button, how do I make an operating system
style call on the server.

Now, I have already figured out how to create a function call in the ASP
development environment that is called when the user clicks on the submit
button.

So my qesttion is to how to create a system level command through ASP.

Specifically, I am using ASP.NET. Let me explain further. I have just completed
a program that is very simular to the #3 AJAX demo that Joe Strgner has made on
http://asp.net/learn/ajax-videos/ where he gets users to select from a group
of "CascadingDropDown" control extender classes. When the user has selected
from the third drop down control, a label is custom formatted and displays the
group of selected options.

What I want to do is this. After this is done, I want to have a "submit" button
on this page which, when the user presses it, a call is made on the server side
that will include the users selections as parameters.

Something like this, for example:

"CALL SOMEPROGRAM.EXE " selection_1, selection_2

I think I will ask this question in a simpler way.
Notepad is a program that can be launched from the command line.
I can open a CMD window (dos window) and on the command line,
I can type "notepad" and the notepad execuatble will launch and I will
see that program. So, how would I do that inside asp.net and
specifically inside the Default.aspx.cs file which will get called
when the user clicks on the send button in the function

protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
}

 Is there some sort of "run" command in asp.net like "run notepad"?


I also need to have some information specific to the user included in the submit.
We are on an intranet and each user has an alias. How do I snag this information?

In order to run a process you use the System.Diagnostics.Process.

One fundamental problem you may encounter is that you can not run "interactive" programs from ASP.NET. The program will be launched on the server under the authority of the IIS user so you may be limited with what you can do and access. Any user interface the program has will be hidden and not usable so you are basically limited to programs that can be run purely at the command prompt and without any user prompting. I realize that you may have been using notepad as an example, but I have seen people ask similar questions with the expectation that notepad would start on the user's computer. So I want to be clear.

-Peter
peterlanoie.blog