ASP.NET has a match for the Classic ASP global.asa file and that is (following with .aspx tradition - Global.asax. If you remember what global.asa does, you pretty much have sorted what global.asax does. This article will go over that as well as explain some of the new and extended features that it comes with.

Overview of Global.asax

Global.asax is a file that resides in the root directory of your application. It is inaccessible over the web but is used by the ASP.NET application if it is there. It is a collection of event handlers that you can use to change and set settings in your site. The events can come from one of two places - The HTTPApplication object and any HTTPModule object that is specified in web.confg or machine.config. We will be covering both here.

In Global.asax there are a lot more events to work with (and you can create your own) than there are in global.asa which gives you a lot more customization when it comes to your application.