Re: what is global.asa

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Ok, Kamaoleone, although I'm pretty sure somebody explained it to a certain
extent awhile back, let me see if I can give you an answer that satisfies
you.

ASP (Active Server Pages) is a Microsoft server-side programming technology
that creates HTML documents dynamically using programming (scripting
actually, usually using VBScript). ASP is actually an ISAPI (Internet Server
Application Programming Interface), an application that runs on the web
server, and handles requests for ASP pages (pages with a .asp extension).

ASP is designed, of course, to work in an HTTP environment. It is an
application that is defined as far as scope is concerned by a hierarchy of
ASP files that exist in or under a given web server folder. The application
itself is configured using Internet Information Services, and defined by
defining the top-level folder for that application. Any requests that are
made to the web server for .asp files in or under that folder are handed off
to the ASP application that has that scope. That top-level folder is
referred to as the "application root."

The ASP application itself is started when the first request for an ASP page
inside its folder structure is received. Because HTTP is stateless (there is
no memory on the web server of previous page requests), ASP provides its own
state (memory) management. The ASP application itself is the host for all of
the ASP pages inside it, and has a memory space called, appropriately,
"Application." This is a Collection into which global data can be stored and
retrieved by any ASP page inside that application. It also provides a more
specific Collection for each User Session. A User Session is defined as the
pages visited (requested) by a single browser client during a specific
Session. The Session is defined in terms of time as beginning with the first
request for a page by the client, and ending 20 minutes after the last
request for an ASP page by that client. The ASP application keeps track of
who the client is by sending a Session cookie containing a unique identifier
back to the client browser at the beginning of the Session. When the Session
ends, the cookie expires. Hence, the next time the user visits that site, a
new Session is started.

Hokay, now how does all this background stuff figure in with the global.asa
file? Well, as you can imagine, I was just getting to that. The ASP
application has certain events that are fired at certain times. Without
going into all the gory details, I will give you the highlights. For
example, there is an event fired (Application_OnStart) when the application
starts, and one fired (Application_OnEnd) when it stops. There are also
similar events that fire at the beginning and end of each Session.

The global.asa file is the file that contains the scripting for the event
handlers that handle these "global" events. There are certain things you may
want your ASP application to do at the beginning and/or end of the
Application or client Session, such as storing a global database Connection
String. FrontPage, in fact, uses the Application_OnStart event to do just
that, when you create a FrontPage Database whatever component in your web.

--
HTH,

Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
..Net Developer
Ambiguity has a certain quality to it.



"Kamaoleone" <Kamaoleone@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:09718F60-E85F-4C54-A3F0-7B1146642B92@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> What is this? Can't anyone give this guy a straight answer. The asa file
> more
> than likely was created along with the fpdb folder. You really don't want
> to
> modify the asa file,( you might replace the a with an s). Anyway this is
> my
> first time here hopefully it gets better!
>
>
> "Kevin Spencer" wrote:
>
>> > I wish that was all that I am missing Kevin...but I'm pretty sure
>> > there's
>> > lots more!! :-)
>>
>> Why, if you knew what you were missing, you probably wouldn't even miss
>> it!
>> I used to miss my brain, but I've long since forgotten what it was.
>>
>> --
>> HTH,
>>
>> Kevin Spencer
>> Microsoft MVP
>> ..Net Developer
>> Ambiguity has a certain quality to it.
>>
>> "Joe Rohn" <joerohn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>> news:uPBZvVbdFHA.2688@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> > "Kevin Spencer" <kevin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>> > news:uo$4j%23YdFHA.3048@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> >>> Maybe I am missing something though?!?!
>> >>
>> >> ... a global.asa file?
>> >>
>> >> --
>> >> ;-),
>> >
>> > I wish that was all that I am missing Kevin...but I'm pretty sure
>> > there's
>> > lots more!! :-)
>> >
>> > --
>> > Joe
>> >
>> > FrontPage Users Forums:
>> > http://www.timeforweb.com/frontpage
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>>


.

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