In-process Mode in asp.net
In-process mode simply means using ASP.NET session state in a similar manner to classic ASP session state. That is, session state is managed in process and if the process is re-cycled, state is lost. Given the new settings that ASP.NET provides, you might wonder why you would ever use this mode. The reasoning is quite simple: performance. The performance of session state, e.g. the time it takes to read from and write to the session state dictionary, will be much faster when the memory read to and from is in process, as cross-process calls add overhead when data is marshaled back and forth or possibly read from SQL Server.
In-process mode is the default setting for ASP.NET. When this setting is used, the only other session config.web settings used are cookieless and timeout.
If we call SessionState.aspx, set a session state value, and stop and start the ASP.NET process (iisreset), the value set before the process was cycled will be lost.
asp.net session configuration
Below is a sample config.web file used to configure the session state settings for an ASP.NET application:
cookieless="false"
timeout="20"
sqlconnectionstring="data source=127.0.0.1;user id=
server="127.0.0.1"
port="42424"
/>
The settings above are used to configure ASP.NET session state. Let's look at each in more detail and cover the various uses afterward.
* Mode. The mode setting supports three options: inproc, sqlserver, and stateserver. As stated earlier, ASP.NET supports two modes: in process and out of process. There are also two options for out-of-process state management: memory based (stateserver), and SQL Server based (sqlserver). We'll discuss implementing these options shortly.
* Cookieless. The cookieless option for ASP.NET is configured with this simple Boolean setting.
* Timeout. This option controls the length of time a session is considered valid. The session timeout is a sliding value; on each request the timeout period is set to the current time plus the timeout value
* Sqlconnectionstring. The sqlconnectionstring identifies the database connection string that names the database used for mode sqlserver.
* Server. In the out-of-process mode stateserver, it names the server that is running the required Windows NT service: ASPState.
* Port. The port setting, which accompanies the server setting, identifies the port number that corresponds to the server setting for mode stateserver.
Shrinking Session State in asp.net
ASP.NET provides two default options for storing session state across a Web farm: a session-state provider that invokes an out-of-process session-state server, and a session-state provider that stores data in a Microsoft SQL Server database. Because both options involve storing state information outside a Web application's worker process, session state has to be serialized before it is sent to remote storage. Depending on how much information a developer saves in session state, the size of the serialized data can grow quite large.
ASP.NET 4 introduces a new compression option for both kinds of out-of-process session-state providers. When the compressionEnabled configuration option shown in the following example is set to true, ASP.NET will compress (and decompress) serialized session state by using the .NET Framework System.IO.Compression.GZipStream class.
sqlConnectionString="data source=dbserver;Initial Catalog=aspnetstate"
allowCustomSqlDatabase="true"
compressionEnabled="true"
/>
With the simple addition of the new attribute to the Web.config file, applications with spare CPU cycles on Web servers can realize substantial reductions in the size of serialized session-state data.
More Control Over Auto-Generated IDs in asp.net
In ASP.NET pages, using the same ID for two server controls isn't allowed. If this happens, the page won't compile -- period. In HTML, though, it is possible for two or more elements to share the same ID. In this case, when you make a search for an element via document.getElementById, you'll simply get an array of DOM elements. What about nested ASP.NET controls?
Most data-bound, template-based controls generate their output by repeating an HTML template for every data-bound item. This means that any child control defined with a unique ID in the template is being repeated multiple times. The original ID can't just be unique. For this reason, since the beginning, the ASP.NET team defined an algorithm to ensure that every HTML element emitted by an ASP.NET control could be given a unique ID. The ID resulted from the concatenation of the control ID with the ID of the naming container. Furthermore, in case of repeated controls (i.e., templates), a numeric index was added for disambiguation. For years, nobody really cared about the readability of the auto-generated ID, and strings like the following became fairly common:
ctl00$ContentPlaceHolder1$GridView11$TextBox1
Simple Spark Expressions
At its core, Spark is a template engine that allows developer to quickly and cleanly express their intent inside of views. Two of the most common scenarios in view development are if/else conditionals and looping.
Spark provides a very easy-to-learn syntax for conditional statements. The syntax is so-self describing that HTML fluent designers can identify the intent while modifying HTML. In the following example, a Product is tested to see how much it is and the result will change upon the price of the product.
This is expensive.
This is not too bad.
This is a DEAL!
The snippet above illustrates that the if element construct is readable within the HTML, and the intent is easily discernible. There is no need to explain what is happening since the code is seamless with the surrounding HTML.
A similar syntax exists for conditional evaluation as well. The test element construct has the exact same functionality as the if element construct but with different syntax. The following is identical in functionality to the example above.
This is expensive.
This is not too bad.
This is a DEAL!
Note the enclosing test element and self-closing else elements.
A third and final method of conditional evaluation exists as an inline attribute. The functionality below renders the same output as above, but with inline if and elseif attributes.
This is expensive
This is not
too bad.
This is a DEAL!
Looping within Spark can take on many forms; however, the most commonly used method is to use the each attribute that can be decorated on any HTML element. The each attribute is used verbatim as shown below (so it must have the type, variable name, the “in” keyword and the collection).
Name: ${product.Name}
Price: ${product.Price}
Hosting ASP.NET Pages
Hosting ASP.NET pages locally through the ASP.NET Development Web Server has a number of advantages:
* Testing can be done while offline-Because the request from your browser is being directed to your own personal computer, you don’t need to be connected to the Internet to test your ASP.NET pages.
* It’s fast-Local requests are, naturally, much quicker than requests that must travel over the Internet.
* Advanced debugging features are available-By developing locally, you can use advanced debugging techniques, such as halting the execution of an ASP.NET page and stepping through its code line-by-line.
* It’s secure-The ASP.NET Development Web Server allows only local connections. With this lightweight web server, you don’t need to worry about hackers gaining access to your system through an open website.
The main disadvantage of hosting ASP.NET pages locally is that they can be viewed only from your computer. That is, a visitor on another computer cannot enter some URL into her browser’s Address bar that will take her to the ASP.NET website you’ve created on your local computer. If you want to create an ASP.NET website that can be visited by anyone with an Internet connection, you should consider using a web-hosting company.
Web-hosting companies have a number of Internet-accessible computers on which individuals or companies can host their websites. These computers contain web servers that are accessible from any other computer on the Internet. Hour 24, “Deploying Your Website,” explores how to move an ASP.NET website from your personal computer to a web-hosting company’s computers. After a website has been successfully deployed to a web-hosting company, you, or anyone else on the Internet, can visit the site.
