What actually causes Session_Start to be called?

Question

In a little demo application that I\'m building I put code to initialize the database in the Global.Session_Start() event. However, I notice that this event does not fire w

Answer 1

Hmm..ok. Maybe it would make sense to put the code in BeginRequest() but is there a way to put a handler at EndRequest() at which I can close the database file?

The issue is that you can never rely on these events to fire, because the ASP.NET runtime decides whether they are fired or not, because they might not even be necessary and can be skipped to save resources.

For example, a Response.Redirect cancels the whole processing of a request by using a ThreadAbortException, and the page/control lifecycle events after that will not be fired at all, that's why for example there is no End_Request or something similar.

I would consider moving your logic to a different layer (independent of ASP.NET), and maybe initialize the database when it's actually requested from a page? Then you can close the database file within the same method that you needed the information, this would make you much more independent of the state the application/session is in.

Not sure if this is the info you were looking for though :)