Now, if all of that web.config stuff was just a bit too much then you don't have to live with it. If you check the IIS mappings tab you will see that there is a file extension - .ashx this extension is the extension for a HTTPHandler File. This takes out all of that lovely web.config stuff and IIS config that you have to do.

For example here is time.ashx -

<%@ WebHandler Class="HttpModHan.SampleHandler" %> Imports System Imports System.Web Namespace HttpHanMod Public Class SampleHandler : Implements IHttpHandler Public Sub ProcessRequest(ByVal context As HttpContext) Implements IHttpHandler.ProcessRequest Dim thetime As DateTime = DateTime.Now.Subtract(New TimeSpan(12, 0, 0)) Dim gmtplus As Double = CInt(context.Request.QueryString("gmtplus")) thetime = thetime.AddHours(gmtplus) context.Response.ContentType = "text/xml" context.Response.Write("<time>") context.Response.Write("<GMT>") context.Response.Write(thetime.ToString()) context.Response.Write("</GMT>") context.Response.Write("</time>") End Sub Public ReadOnly Property IsReuseable() As Boolean Implements IHttpHandler.IsReusable Get Return True End Get End Property End Class End Namespace

Live Demo

You may also notice that if you add ?gmtplus=xxx (where xxx is hours past GMT) it adds it to the answer.

If you check the documentation for ASHX files, you will find nothing on them.

Summary

This article has shown you how to create and use HTTPHandlers, both in Assemblies and in ASHX files. Be sure that there will be more articles on HTTPHandlers (hence the "Getting Started" in the title), but in the mean time check out the Related Articles for more information on this whole ASP.NET Pipeline.