Global.asax On_Start Variables resetting

[Israel Ordonez Jr]

Hi everybody,
I am having a problem with an ASP.NET application i am working on. I new to
ASP.NET so I'm not sure if I'm doing this right.

I am working on a website that has an oil price listed throught several
pages. In the global.asax file i have the following code.

Sub Application_Start(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e
As EventArgs)
' Fires when the application is started
Application("OilPrice") = "1.14"
Application("PrePay") = "1.14"
End Sub

I reference these variables on other pages. Everything works correctly up to
this point. I have another page were the price can be changed. Once a new
price is changed it reflects on all pages. The problem is after a few hours
or the next day. The price always resets to the "1.14" in the global.asax
file. It was my understanding that the Application_Start event only occurs
once, the first time the application is accessed.

Is my assumption correct? If so what could be causing the variables to be
reset? Thanks!

 

[Alvin Bruney]

Any number of things can cause the application to reset. In your case, I
suspect it may be the idle time causing the recycle event. After an idle
period the app recycles. This is controlled in the machine config file and
IIS management. One easy suggestion is to place code in the application_end
event to store the data to disk , in the registry, in a cookie or somewhere
persistent. In the application_start event, you would first set the default
value, then check the store to see if it contains valid data, setting the
value if it is other than the default value.

One other suggestion, application object is provided for backward
compatibility so you should try to avoid it's use. You may use a static
variable or better yet wrap the variable in a class which knows how to store
and retrieve values during application recycle events. The class approach is
better because sooner or later, you may want other long lasting objects as
well.

regards