jedatu: The Blog

If you are making updates to your site and want to keep the users at bay with a polite notice then look no futher than the app_offline.htm file.

Create an HTML file called app_offline.htm, drop it in the root directory of your web, and your site will be offline with style.

Very early in the request cycle, ASP.NET 2.0 looks for the app_offline.htm file. If the file exists, ASP.NET stop processing requests for that application, unload it, and route all incoming requests to the app_offline.htm where your custom message awaits.

One handy side effect is the fact that this releases any locked resources such as databases in the app_data directory.

When finished, delete or even rename the app_offline.htm file to return users to their regularly scheduled browsing.

It seems like I am always looking this up so here it is.

Table 1. Page Lifecycle methods

Method	Active
Constructor	Always
Construct	Always
TestDeviceFilter	Always
AddParsedSubObject	Always
DeterminePostBackMode	Always
OnPreInit	Always
LoadPersonalizationData	Always
InitializeThemes	Always
OnInit	Always
ApplyControlSkin	Always
ApplyPersonalization	Always
OnInitComplete	Always
LoadPageStateFromPersistenceMedium	PostBack
LoadControlState	PostBack
LoadViewState	PostBack
ProcessPostData1	PostBack
OnPreLoad	Always
OnLoad	Always
ProcessPostData2	PostBack
RaiseChangedEvents	PostBack
RaisePostBackEvent	PostBack
OnLoadComplete	Always
OnPreRender	Always
OnPreRenderComplete	Always
SavePersonalizationData	Always
SaveControlState	Always
SaveViewState	Always
SavePageStateToPersistenceMedium	Always
Render	Always
OnUnload	Always