Creating custom headers and footers in Application level events using global.asax

Introduction

This is a very simple example that shows how to use global.asax file to create custom header and footers for all your pages.

Background

Global.asax file contains a number of events that happens when any asp.net application is running. In this example I am using "Application_BeginRequest" and "Application_EndRequest" events to show how to create custom header and footers. Application_BeginRequest is getting fired whenever the asp.net page is getting a new request to handle. It happens before any page, web service, or any HTTP handler gets the opportunity to process the request. Therefore, I am using it to create my custom Header here. Application_EndRequest is getting fired whenever the request is complete. We can control the application response before handling the event to HTTP handlers. Therefore, I am using it to create my custom footer.

Code

The code is very very simple. Therefore, I don't botter to include my test application. Basically, do the following steps: 1- Create a new asp.net application using c#. 2- Visual Studio creates the global.asax file for you. 3- Replace to code of Application_EndRequest and Application_StartRequest events as with the code bellow.

protected void Application_BeginRequest(Object sender, EventArgs e)
{

Response.Write("<H1> Welcome to my website! </H1>" );
Response.Write(" This is my header that comes from Application level " );
Response.Write("<HR>");

}

protected void Application_EndRequest(Object sender, EventArgs e)
{
int yearDate ;
string dateStr;
yearDate = System.DateTime.Now.Year;
dateStr = yearDate.ToString();
Response.Write("<HR>");
Response.Write("Copyright 2002-" + dateStr );
Response.Write("This is my customer footer that  from Application level" );
Response.Write("<HR>");

}

That is it. Of course don't forget to keep the layout of your form to "FlowLayout". Run it and you get the custom header and footer as the image above.However, nothing is stopping you of creating a very fancy header and footer and replacing my code.