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A session starts when an user browses a site and stays open until he leaves the site (with timeout period) or closes his browser. An application starts when the particular iis site is started. On iis a site can be an iis application or a virtual directory. Global.asa file (stays on the root directory) is important (although optional) as it can hold subroutines that executes when an application or session is started or stopped. These functions can perform routine tasks when the user visits the site or when a site is started.

Session , application and global.asa file

In the first example we are setting values to session and application variables. Please note that session and application variables are different.

<%
'Set session variable. These values will be available as long as the browser or site is open.

 Session("name")= "jerry"
Session("age")= 4
Session("count")= 1

'Add a number to session value
Session("count")= Session("count")+1
%>

<hr>

Session name is: <%=Session("name")%><br>
Session age is<%=Session("age")%><br>
Value of counter is now: <%=Session("count")%><br>

<hr>

<%
' Similarly the values can be stored in an application variable, which will beavailable as long as the website is running.

Application("name")= "jerry"
Application("age")= 4
Application("count")= 1

'Add a number to application value
application("count")= application("count")+1
%>

Application name is: <%=Application("name")%><br>
Application age is<%=Application("age")%><br>
Value of Application counter is now: <%=Application("count")%><br>

Here are the functions inside a global.asa file. We are just initializing some variables. You can also write other functions an subroutines and call them from these functions.

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=VBScript RUNAT=Server>


Sub Application_OnStart
  Application("name")= "jerry"
  Application("age")= 4
  Application("count")= 1
End Sub

Sub Application_OnEnd
  Application("name")= ""
  Application("age")= 0
  Application("count")= 0
End Sub

Sub Session_OnStart
  Session("name")= "jerry"
  Session("age")= 4
  Session("count")= 1
End Sub

Sub Session_OnEnd
  Session("name")= ""
  Session("age")= 0
  Session("count")= 0
End Sub


</script>

 

[Download Sample Code]