ASP.
NET - Life Cycle
What Is ASP.NET?
ASP.NET is a server-side technology used for developing dynamic websites and web
applications. It enables developers to create web applications using HTML, CSS,
and JavaScript.
ASP.NET is the latest version of Active Server Pages, which Microsoft developed to build
websites. It is a web application framework released in 2002 and has an extension of .aspx.
Some of the major companies that use ASP.NET are:
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Email
Youtube
ASP.NET life cycle specifies, how:
ASP.NET processes pages to produce dynamic output
The application and its pages are instantiated and processed
ASP.NET compiles the pages dynamically.The ASP.NET life cycle could be divided
into two groups:
Application Life Cycle
Page Life Cycle
Application Life Cycle
The Life Cycle of ASP.NET is divided into two categories:
1. Application Life Cycle
2. Page Life Cycle
1. Application Start
The webserver executes the application start when a user requests an application for access.
In this method, it sets all global variables to default.
2. Object Creation
Object creation holds all the HTTP Context, HTTP Request, and HTTP Response by the
webserver. It also contains information about the request, cookies, and browsing information.
3. HTTP Application
HTTP Application is an object created by the webserver. It helps to process all the
subsequent information that is sent to the user.
4. Dispose
Dispose is an event that is called before the application is destroyed. It also helps to release
manually unmanaged resources when the objects are no longer needed.
5. Application End
Application End is the last stage of the application life cycle. It helps to unload the memory .
ASP.NET Page Life Cycle
When a page is requested, it is loaded into the server memory, processed, and sent to the
browser. Then it is unloaded from the memory. At each of these steps, methods and events
are available, which could be overridden according to the need of the application. In other
words, you can write your own code to override the default code.
The Page class creates a hierarchical tree of all the controls on the page. All the components
on the page, except the directives, are part of this control tree. You can see the control tree by
adding trace= "true" to the page directive. We will cover page directives and tracing under
'directives' and 'event handling'.
The page life cycle phases are:
Initialization
Instantiation of the controls on the page
Restoration and maintenance of the state
Execution of the event handler codes
Page rendering
Understanding the page cycle helps in writing codes for making some specific thing happen
at any stage of the page life cycle. It also helps in writing custom controls and initializing
them at right time, populate their properties with view-state data and run control behavior
code.
Following are the different stages of an ASP.NET page:
Page request - When ASP.NET gets a page request, it decides whether to parse and
compile the page, or there would be a cached version of the page; accordingly the
response is sent.
Starting of page life cycle - At this stage, the Request and Response objects are set. If
the request is an old request or post back, the IsPostBack property of the page is set to
true. The UICulture property of the page is also set.
Page initialization - At this stage, the controls on the page are assigned unique ID by
setting the UniqueID property and the themes are applied. For a new request, postback
data is loaded and the control properties are restored to the view-state values.
Page load - At this stage, control properties are set using the view state and control
state values.
Validation - Validate method of the validation control is called and on its successful
execution, the IsValid property of the page is set to true.
Postback event handling - If the request is a postback (old request), the related event
handler is invoked.
Page rendering - At this stage, view state for the page and all controls are saved. The
page calls the Render method for each control and the output of rendering is written to
the OutputStream class of the Response property of page.
Unload - The rendered page is sent to the client and page properties, such as Response
and Request, are unloaded and all cleanup done.
ASP.NET Page Life Cycle Events
At each stage of the page life cycle, the page raises some events, which could be coded. An
event handler is basically a function or subroutine, bound to the event, using declarative
attributes such as Onclick or handle.
Following are the page life cycle events:
PreInit - PreInit is the first event in page life cycle. It checks the IsPostBack property
and determines whether the page is a postback. It sets the themes and master pages,
creates dynamic controls, and gets and sets profile property values. This event can be
handled by overloading the OnPreInit method or creating a Page_PreInit handler.
Init - Init event initializes the control property and the control tree is built. This event
can be handled by overloading the OnInit method or creating a Page_Init handler.
InitComplete - InitComplete event allows tracking of view state. All the controls turn
on view-state tracking.
LoadViewState - LoadViewState event allows loading view state information into the
controls.
LoadPostData - During this phase, the contents of all the input fields are defined with
the <form> tag are processed.
PreLoad - PreLoad occurs before the post back data is loaded in the controls. This
event can be handled by overloading the OnPreLoad method or creating a
Page_PreLoad handler.
Load - The Load event is raised for the page first and then recursively for all child
controls. The controls in the control tree are created. This event can be handled by
overloading the OnLoad method or creating a Page_Load handler.
LoadComplete - The loading process is completed, control event handlers are run,
and page validation takes place. This event can be handled by overloading the
OnLoadComplete method or creating a Page_LoadComplete handler
PreRender - The PreRender event occurs just before the output is rendered. By
handling this event, pages and controls can perform any updates before the output is
rendered.
PreRenderComplete - As the PreRender event is recursively fired for all child
controls, this event ensures the completion of the pre-rendering phase.
SaveStateComplete - State of control on the page is saved. Personalization, control
state and view state information is saved. The HTML markup is generated. This stage
can be handled by overriding the Render method or creating a Page_Render handler.
UnLoad - The UnLoad phase is the last phase of the page life cycle. It raises the
UnLoad event for all controls recursively and lastly for the page itself. Final cleanup is
done and all resources and references, such as database connections, are freed. This
event can be handled by modifying the OnUnLoad method or creating a Page_UnLoad
handler.
