Summary

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ASP.NET applications are compiled programs that deliver data and services to clients over a simple protocol called the Hypertext transfer protocol. These applications might deliver HTML data over HTTP to a browser but can also exchange data and services with any program ”running locally or remotely ”that also uses non-proprietary XML standards for sharing data.

HTTP is a stateless protocol responsible for sending data over a lower level network protocol called TCP/IP (a.k.a. "The Internet Protocol"). As a client communicates with an ASP.NET application, ASP.NET uses cookies stored on the client's machine and/or query strings (variable data appended onto hyperlinks ) to manage the client's session state in between each request and response. This data is embedded in each HTTP request and response so that our application can uniquely identify and manage each client's session.

The global.asax file handles events for the Application and Session Objects. We store data for each client session by declaring variables within the Session object's events. We store data that is shared across all clients with variables scoped within the Application Object's events.

The web.config file allows an ASP.NET application developer to programmatically define the system and application level settings for their program. It can include everything from authentication to managing web farms. In the past, even if it were a possibility, most of these items would have to be done manually by the server's administrator.

ASP.NET applications are compiled into assemblies that contain all of the files and configuration data one needs to deploy their application on any ASP.NET capable system. Even if your ASP.NET application is dependent on a COM-based external DLL, it is included in the assembly and automatically installed and configured properly.

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