The document describes the life cycle of an ASP.NET application and page. The application life cycle involves initializing objects when a request is received. The page life cycle involves loading a requested page into memory, processing it through various stages like initialization, load, validation and rendering, before unloading it from memory. Key events that can be handled at each stage of the page life cycle are also outlined.
Life cycle ofASP.NET
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:
1. Application Life Cycle
2. Page Life Cycle
3.
ASP.NET Application LifeCycle
The application life cycle has the following stages:
User makes a request for accessing application resource, a
page. Browser sends this request to the web server.
An unified pipeline receives the first request and the following
events take place:
An object of the class ApplicationManager is created.
An object of the class HostingEnvironment is created to provide
information regarding the resources.
Top level items in the application are compiled.
4.
Response objectsare created. The application objects such
as HttpContext, HttpRequest and HttpResponse are
created and initialized.
An instance of the HttpApplication object is created and
assigned to the request.
The request is processed by the HttpApplication class.
Different events are raised by this class for processing the
request.
APP LIFE CYCLE
CONTINUES..
5.
ASP.NET Page LifeCycle
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. we can see the
control tree by adding trace= "true" to the page directive.
6.
The page lifecycle 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.
7.
Different stages ofan 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.
8.
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.
9.
ASP.NET Page LifeCycle 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.
10.
The page lifecycle 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.
11.
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.
12.
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.
13.
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.