Sep 21st, 2014 at 04:35 PM

What are HTTP handlers in ASP.NET?

HTTP handlers, as the name suggests, are used to handle user requests for Web application resources. They are the backbone of the request-response model of Web applications. There is a specific event handler to handle the request for each user request type and send back the corresponding response object. Each user requests to the IIS Web server flows through the HTTP pipeline, which refers to a series of components (HTTP modules and HTTP handlers) to process the request. HTTP modules act as filters to process the request as it passes through the HTTP pipeline. The request, after passing through the HTTP modules, is assigned to an HTTP handler that determines the response of the server to the user request. The response then passes through the HTTP modules once again and is then sent back to the user. You can define HTTP handlers in the <httpHandlers> element of a configuration file. The <add> element tag is used to add new handlers and the <remove> element tag is used to remove existing handlers. To create an HTTP handler, you need to define a class that implements the IHttpHandler interface.