LOOKING AT HOW ASP.NET HANDLES PAGE REQUESTS

Before starting on some of the items you can do to your applications to help with performance, it is first important to understand how ASP.NET handles page requests. ASP.NET compiles your ASP.NET pages (.aspx) as they are referenced (for example, by an end user in the browser).

When an ASP.NET page is referenced in the browser for the first time, the request is passed to the ASP.NET parser that creates the class file in the language of the page. It is passed to the ASP.NET parser based on the file's extension (.aspx) because ASP.NET realizes that this file extension type is meant for its handling and processing. After the class file has been created, the class file is compiled into a dynamic link library (DLL) and then written to the disk of the web server. At this point, the DLL is instantiated and processed, and an output is generated for the initial requester of the ASP.NET page. Figure 2-1 shows the details of this process.