CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#asp.netinstance
LordCat
LordCat

Reputation: 518

Passing data between instances of ASP.NET programs. Have I got the right idea?

I am a little confused as to how ASP.NET works. To my understanding, each time a webpage is created, it is an instance of the ASP.NET program. First of all, is this correct? For my website I have a class called 'Control' which inherits from System.Web.UI.Page, from which every other class (e.g. the aspx pages and their code behind pages) inherits. I need to maintain a list of customers etc. somewhere where it can be accessed by every user of the website (currently accessing it) and thought that this may be a good place, but if every user is accessing a different instance of the program, this list will be different for every user (as only they will be communicating with it).

If my thoughts are correct, to keep this list updated would I have to synchronize it in every instance of the program some how (possibly using threading)? Or would I have to connect to an external program which maintains this list? Or am I wrong about everything?

Thanks in advance, and sorry if this sounds like a load of nonsense; I am very confused!

Edit: Thank you to all who have answered. I already have a database to which this data is being stored, but I also wanted to represent some of the data in the program.

I am making a booking system and have a big input form, and my plan is to load the data into objects (bookings, customers etc.) when it comes into the program (so that I don't lose the data during successive post backs), get these objects to write it to the database (it is a requirement of my client to write all data to the database as soon as it comes in to the program to minimize loss if the system goes down), and to then retain those objects software side as the program has to put constrains on what users can book (check that these services are available to them) and this would require some logic which would be easier with objects instead of having to back to the database a lot.

I therefore had the idea of storing this data in a place which was accessible to every website instance, and this is what I was confused about how to do.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 127

Answers (2)

Johnny Graber
Johnny Graber

Reputation: 1467

You want to store your data in an external place like a database. Your application can then for every user load the data needed to display from the same database. Your application will grow and if you have to edit the data to a later point in time you already have all the needed pieces in place.

Upvotes: 0

field_b
field_b

Reputation: 698

It sounds like you are looking for the Cache property of the HttpContext class. The Cache shares data across the application domain, as opposed to the Items collection, which is per request. See msdn. Note that you will still need to store the data in a database as commented above.

Upvotes: 1

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