ASP.

NET Page Life Cycle

This article describes the ASP.NET Page Life Cycle from the moment the URL is hit from
the web browser till the HTML code is generated and sent to the web browser.
Introduction
This article describes the life cycle of the page from the moment the URL is hit from the web
browser till the HTML code is generated and sent to the web browser. Let us start by looking
at some keywords that are involved in the life cycle of the page.
Background
IIS: IIS (Internet Information Server) is a complete Web server that makes it possible to
quickly and easily deploy powerful Web sites and applications. It is the default web server
used with .NET. When a Web server (for ASP.NET applications, typically IIS) receives a
request, it examines the file-name extension of the requested file, determines which ISAPI
extension should handle the request, and then passes the request to the appropriate ISAPI
extension. (By default, ASP.NET handles file name extensions that have been mapped to it,
such as .aspx, .ascx, .ashx, and .asmx.)
Note:
a. If a file name extension has not been mapped to ASP.NET, ASP.NET will not receive
the request. It will be handled by the IIS. The requested page/image/file is returned
without any processing.
b. If you create a custom handler to service a particular file name extension, you must
map the extension to ASP.NET in IIS and also register the handler in your
application's Web.config file.
ASPNET_ISAPI.DLL: This DLL is the ISAPI extension provided with ASP.NET to process
the web page requests. IIS loads this DLL and sends the page request to this DLL. This DLL
loads the HTTPRuntime for further processing.
ASPNET_WP.EXE: Each worker process (ASPNET_WP.EXE) contains an Application Pool.
Each Application Pool can contain any number of Applications. Application Pool is also called
as AppDomain. When a web page is requested, IIS looks for the application pool under which
the current application is running and forwards the request to the respective worker process.
HTTP Pipeline: HTTP Pipeline is the general-purpose framework for server-side HTTP
programming that serves as the foundation for ASP.NET pages as well as Web Services. All
the stages involved from creating HTTP Runtime to HTTP Handler is called HTTP Pipeline.
HTTP Runtime: Each AppDomain has its own instance of the HttpRuntime classthe entry
point in the pipeline. The HttpRuntime object initializes a number of internal objects that
will help carry the request out. The HttpRuntime creates the context for the request and fills
it up with any HTTP information specific to the request. The context is represented by an
instance of the HttpContext class. Another helper object that gets created at such an early
stage of the HTTP runtime setup is the text writerto contain the response text for the
1
browser. The text writer is an instance of the HttpWriter class and is the object that
actually buffers any text programmatically sent out by the code in the page. Once the HTTP
runtime is initialized, it finds an application object to fulfill the request. The HttpRuntime
object examines the request and figures out which application it was sent to (from the
pipeline's perspective, a virtual directory is an application).
HTTP Context: This is created by HTTP Runtime. The HttpContext class contains objects
that are specific to the current page request, such as the HttpRequest and HttpResponse
objects. You can use this class to share information between pages. It can be accessed with
Page.Context property in the code.
HTTP Request: Provides access to the current page request, including the request headers,
cookies, client certificate, query string, and so on. You can use this class to read what the
browser has sent. It can be accessed with Page.Request property in the code.
HTTP Response: Provides access to the output stream for the current page. You can use
this class to inject text into the page, to write cookies, and more. It can be accessed with
Page.Response property in the code.
HTTP Application: An application object is an instance of the HttpApplication classthe
class behind the global.asax file. HTTPRuntime uses HttpApplicationFactory to create the
HTTPApplication object. The main task accomplished by the HTTP application manager is
finding out the class that will actually handle the request. When the request is for an .aspx
resource, the handler is a page handlernamely, an instance of a class that inherits from
Page. The association between types of resources and types of handlers is stored in the
configuration file of the application. More exactly, the default set of mappings is defined in
the <httpHandlers> section of the machine.config file. However, the application can
customize the list of its own HTTP handlers in the local web.config file. The line below
illustrates the code that defines the HTTP handler for .aspx resources.
<add verb="*" path="*.aspx" type="System.Web.UI.PageHandlerFactory"/>
HttpApplicationFactory: Its main task consists of using the URL information to find a
match between the virtual directory of the URL and a pooled HttpApplication object.
HTTP Module: An HTTP module is an assembly that is called on every request that is made
to your application. HTTP modules are called as part of the ASP.NET request pipeline and
have access to life-cycle events throughout the request. HTTP modules let you examine
incoming and outgoing requests and take action based on the request. They also let you
examine the outgoing response and modify it. ASP.NET uses modules to implement various
application features, which include forms authentication, caching, session state, and client
script services. In each case, when those services are enabled, the module is called as part of
a request and performs tasks that are outside the scope of any single page request. Modules
can consume application events and can raise events that can be handled in the Global.asax
file.
HTTP Handler: An ASP.NET HTTP handler is the process that runs in response to a
request that is made to an ASP.NET Web application. The most common handler is an
ASP.NET page handler that processes .aspx files. When users request a .aspx file, the request
2
is processed by the page handler. We can write our own handler and handler factory if we
want to handle the page request in a different manner.
Note: HTTP modules differ from HTTP handlers. An HTTP handler returns a response to a
request that is identified by a file name extension or family of file name extensions. In
contrast, an HTTP module is invoked for all requests and responses. It subscribes to event
notifications in the request pipeline and lets you run code in registered event handlers. The
tasks that a module is used for are general to an application and to all requests for resources
in the application.
Life Cycle of Page
1. Web page request comes from browser.
2. IIS maps the ASP.NET file extensions to ASPNET_ISAPI.DLL, an ISAPI extension
provided with ASP.NET.
3. ASPNET_ISAPI.DLL forwards the request to the ASP.NET worker process
(ASPNET_WP.EXE or W3P.EXE).
4. ISAPI loads HTTPRuntime and passes the request to it. Thus, HTTP Pipelining has
begun.
5. HTTPRuntime uses HttpApplicationFactory to either create or reuse the
HTTPApplication object.
6. HTTPRuntime creates HTTPContext for the current request. HTTPContext internally
maintains HTTPRequest and HTTPResponse.
7. HTTPRuntime also maps the HTTPContext to the HTTPApplication which handles
the application level events.
8. HTTPApplication runs the HTTPModules for the page requests.
9. HTTPApplication creates HTTPHandler for the page request. This is the last stage of
HTTPipelining.
10. HTTPHandlers are responsible to process request and generate corresponding
response messages.
11. Once the request leaves the HTTPPipeline, page level events begin.
12. Page Events are as follows: PreInit, Init, InitComplete, Preoad, oad, Control
events (Postback events), Load Complete, PreRender, !a"e!tateComplete, Render
and #nload.
13. HTTPHandler generates the response with the above events and sends back to the IIS
which in turn sends the response to the client browser.
3
Events in the Life Cycle of Page
PreInit: All the Pre and Post events are introduced as part of .NET Framework 2.0. As the
name suggests, this event is fired before the Init method is fired. Most common
functionalities implemented in this method include:
a. Check the IsPostBack property
b. Set the master page dynamically
c. Set the theme property of the page dynamically
d. Read or Set the profile property values
e. Re-create the dynamic controls
Init: This event is raised after all controls in the page are initialized and any skin settings
have been applied. This event is used to read or initialize control properties. It can be used to
register events for some controls for which the events are not specified in the aspx page.
Ex: $nClic% event of the Button can be registered in the Init rather than specifying in the
$nClic% property of the Button in the aspx page.
InitComplete: Use this event for processing tasks that require all initialization to be
complete.
PreLoad: Use this event if you need to perform processing on your page or control before the
oad event. After the Page raises this event, it loads view state for itself and all controls,
and then processes any postback data included with the Request instance.
Load: The Page calls the $noad event method on the Page, then recursively does the same
for each child control, which does the same for each of its child controls until the page and all
controls are loaded. Use the $noad event method to set properties in controls and establish
database connections.
Control events: Use these events to handle specific control events, such as a &utton
control's Clic% event or a Text&ox control's TextChanged event.
LoadComplete: Use this event for tasks that require that all other controls on the page be
loaded.
PreRender: This is the last event raised before the HTML code is generated for the page.
The PreRender event also occurs for each control on the page. Use the event to make final
changes to the contents of the page or its controls.
SaveStateComplete: Before this event occurs, 'ie(!tate has been saved for the page and
for all controls. Any changes to the page or controls at this point will be ignored.
Use this event to perform tasks that require view state to be saved, but that do not make any
changes to controls.
Render: This is the stage where the HTML code for the page is rendered. The Page object
calls the Render method of each control at this stage. All ASP.NET Web server controls have
a Render method that writes out the control's markup that is sent to the browser.
4
UnLoad: This event occurs for each control and then for the page. In controls, use this event
to do final cleanup for specific controls, such as closing control-specific database
connections.For the page itself, use this event to do final cleanup work, such as closing open
files and database connections, or finishing up logging or other request-specific tasks.
5
6