For the last couple of weeks I had two MSDN article links on my desktop to read as soon as time permits. When I had two office days last week I read both of them and think that they are really excellent.
The first article by Dino Esposito is called The ASP.NET HTTP Runtime and covers the complete flow a request takes:
The last chapter covers some basic aspects about dynamic compilation and the file structure in the "Temporary ASP.NET Files" folder.
I used the article as a guided Reflector tour through the down-level classes of the System.Web namespace by reading a bit and then checking what I've read in the source code (and vice versa).
The second article called Use Threads and Build Asynchronous Handlers in Your Server-Side Web Code by Fritz Onion is not directly related with the first one but picks up some learnings from it. Basically, Fritz describes the typical problem that the main executing thread is waiting for an external resource causing it to be blocked thus resulting in bad scalability. He develops an async HttpHandler that starts a separate thread which does not belong to the ASP.NET thread pool. Pretty cool is the base class he provides that can be used as a replacement for System.Web.UI.Page for individual ASPX pages.
Both articles are very much worth reading.
I am still missing one aspect of ASP.NET written down in an article: dynamic code generation from ASPX markup language to C#/VB code (PageParser etc.). Does anyone know a good article covering this topic?
Disclaimer The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in anyway.
© Copyright 2008, Denis Bauer
