ASP.NET State Management Comparison

The following is a chart that I often use in ASP.Net classes to compare State Management options.

	Where?	What?	Who can see	Life span	Issues	New in	Notes
Cookies Request.Cookies Response.Cookies	User's browser or disk	strings	current user	current browser session or set expire date	limited data size (typically 4096 bytes), cookie limit (typically 20 per site)user can disable	ancient history!
Hidden HTML fields	browser	strings	current user	one page postback (one round trip)	limited to text and visible as Page Source text	ancient history!	Easy to hack!
Application	web server RAM (1)	objects	all sessions	until server is restarted	limited by RAM	Classic ASP
Session	web server RAM (1)	objects	current user	end of user's session (Session.Abandon or timeout [default 20 minutes])	limited by RAM	Classic ASP
ViewState	hidden INPUT in page	objects	current user	one page postback (one round trip)	bandwidth and slower page load <i>and</i> post times	ASP.Net 1.0	Can be disabled by the developer (per page, web.config or code)
ControlState	in ViewState	objects	current user	one page postback (one round trip)	Not as simple to use as ViewState	ASP.Net 2.0	Cannot be disabled by the developer using the control
Cache (2)	web server RAM	objects	all sessions	Until: - Expires - a dependency changes - RAM is needed	You must always check to see if the object still exists as cached items are both automatically deleted and are deleted when RAM runs low.	ASP.Net 1.0	Can be used as an Application object that can expire

 

(1) State can be stored in local server RAM (InProc), another server's RAM (StateServer), SQL Server (SQLServer) or a custom destination. For any option other than InProc all objects must be serializable.

(2) Cache is not usually mentioned in lists of state options, but is nearly identical to Application with the addition of expiration.

Which Conference or Event to Attend in 2008?

Too many choices! So little time and money... DevConnections? April 20-23 Orlando, FL 5 shows in 1! SharePoint Connections, ASP.Net Connections, SQL Server Connections, Architect Connections, Visual Studio & .Net Connections. http://www.devconnections.com/ Microsoft Office System developer conference? Feb 10-13 2008 San Jose, California https://microsoft.crgevents.com/ODC2008/ SharePoint Conference 2008 March 2-6 Seattle, Washington http://mssharepointconference.com Can't decide between Office Developer Conference 2008 vs. SharePoint Conference 2008? Check out this SharePoint Product Group blog SharePoint Information Worker Conference 2008 Feb 2-6 Nashville, TN http://sharepointsolutions.com/sharepoint-conferences/sharepoint-conference.html TechEd 2008 Orlando, FL Oh No! There are two of them this year! Tech·Ed U.S. 2008 Developers June 3-6, 2008 Tech·Ed U.S. IT Professionals June 10-13, 2008 http://www.microsoft.com/events/teched2007/default.mspx Microsoft Office Visio Conference 2008 Feburary 5-6 Redmond, WA http://www.msvisioconference.com/

.Net Links - web resources

Some of the links I have collected for .Net - no particular order or grouping...

Why things were changed between 1.1 and 2.0 (very interesting blog) http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2005/08/21/423201.aspx

New in 3.0 http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/8/6/5868081c-68aa-40de-9a45-a3803d8134b8/csharp_3.0_specification.doc http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa700830.aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/data/ref/linq/

.Net history (video) http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=44084 http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=44940

Dot Net Security Whitepaper: Improving Web Application Security: Threats and Countermeasures http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnnetsec/html/ThreatCounter.asp

Spelling checker add-in for Visual Studio 2005 http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2006/04/18/Spell-Checker-Plug_2D00_in-for-VS-2005-for-ASP.NET-and-HTML-Pages.aspx

2.0 Generics overview: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnvs05/html/csharp_generics.asp

IIS Lockdown Tool http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/tools/locktool.mspx

"Security Smack Down" http://www.devcity.net/PrintArticle.aspx?ArticleID=50

Defend Your Code with Top Ten Security Tips Every Developer Must Know http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/02/09/SecurityTips/default.aspx

ASP.NET Security Overview http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q306590

Ajax / Atlas article: http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/06/07/AtlasAtLast/

Want to see what's in the ViewState collection? Go to this link and search for "ViewState decoder" http://pluralsight.com/blogs/fritz/archive/2004/07/01/472.aspx

Other languages for dotnet! (I count nearly 50, some with multiple sources) http://www.dotnetpowered.com/languages.aspx

Web Parts tutorial http://www.ondotnet.com/pub/a/dotnet/2005/05/23/webparts_1.html

Tutorial: Developing a templated control designer in ASP.NET 2.0 http://blogs.infosupport.com/wouterv/archive/2005/09/15/Developing-a-templated-control-designer-in-ASP.NET-2.0-_2800_5-parts_2900_.aspx

How to store the web part catalog in an XML file http://www.carlosag.net/Articles/WebParts/catalogPartSample.aspx Application Blocks, patterns and practices http://msdn.microsoft.com/practices/

2003 -> 2005 issues / solutions... Visual Studio 2005 Web Application Projects (Released May 8, 2006) http://msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/reference/infrastructure/wap/default.aspx Update to the Web Project Conversion Wizard The Web Project Conversion Wizard in Visual Studio 2005 has been updated to handle newly discovered conversion issues. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=7cecd652-fc04-4ef8-a28a-25c5006677d8&displaylang=en Upgrade from ASP.NET 1.x info http://msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/reference/migration/upgrade/default.aspx

Memory in .NET - what goes where http://www.yoda.arachsys.com/csharp/memory.html ASP.NET 2.0 Security Practices at a Glance http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnpag2/html/PAGPractices0001.asp Newsgroups: (can be searched at http://groups.google.com) microsoft.public.dotnet microsoft.public.dotnet.academic.* microsoft.public.dotnet.csharp.general microsoft.public.dotnet.datatools microsoft.public.dotnet.distributed_apps microsoft.public.dotnet.faqs microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.* microsoft.public.dotnet.general microsoft.public.dotnet.internationalization microsoft.public.dotnet.jscript.general microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.* microsoft.public.dotnet.myservices microsoft.public.dotnet.samples microsoft.public.dotnet.scripting microsoft.public.dotnet.security microsoft.public.dotnet.vb.general microsoft.public.dotnet.vjsharp microsoft.public.dotnet.vsa microsoft.public.dotnet.xml Google Newsgroup searches list of all MS dotnet groups: http://groups.google.com/groups/dir?q=microsoft.public.dotnet start of a top level search: http://groups.google.com/groups?&as_ugroup=microsoft.public.dotnet.*

General Sites: Microsoft .NET http://www.microsoft.com/net/ DotNetSlackers: ASP.NET News For Lazy Developers http://www.dotnetslackers.com/ DotNetJunkies.com - Tutorials, news, sample code, user contributed code and web services directory http://www.dotnetjunkies.com/ GotDotNet: The Microsoft .NET Framework Community http://www.gotdotnet.com/ ASP.NET http://www.asp.net/ .NET Rocks! is a weekly Internet audio talk show for .NET Developers. http://www.dotnetrocks.com/ MSDN: ASP.NET - ASP and ASP.NET 2.0, as well at Atlas and Visual Web Developer http://msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/ ASP.NET QuickStart Tutorials http://samples.gotdotnet.com/quickstart/aspplus/ 411 ASP.NET Directory http://www.411asp.net/ ASP.NET.4GuysFromRolla.com http://aspnet.4guysfromrolla.com/ 123aspx.com ASP.NET Resource Directory http://www.123aspx.com/

SQL Injection http://www.spidynamics.com/whitepapers/WhitepaperSQLInjection.pdf http://www.spidynamics.com/whitepapers/Blind_SQLInjection.pdf http://www.imperva.com/application_defense_center/white_papers/blind_sql_server_injection.html and more... http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=sql+injection+white+paper