HTTP Handler

This is a tip I learnt from my recent project. We all know that to use a HTTP Handler we have to configure the ISAPI filter of the virtaul directory of IIS. We have to map the desired extension to a dll that will invoke our assembly. FOr example - if we need to use a .abc web extension, we need to map .abc to a dll (mostly aspnet_isapi.dll).

This can also be achieved without the ISAPI mapping in IIS. If you are not too particular about the extension that you would use for your web calls, then you can go for a .ashx extension for your HTTP handlers. .ashx is an inbuilt extension in IIS for HTTP Handlers. They are mapped to aspnet_isapi.dll by default. This saves you the hassle of manually configuring IIS and config file. This might come handy when deploying your HTTP Handlers on a remote web server where configuring IIS is a pain.