Global.asa is often used to initialize variables.
The example below shows how to detect the exact time a visitor first arrives on a Web site. The time is stored in a Session variable named "started", and the value of the "started" variable can be accessed from any ASP page in the application:
sub Session_OnStart
Session("started")=now()
end sub
</script>
Global.asa can also be used to control page access.
The example below shows how to redirect every new visitor to another page, in this case to a page called "newpage.asp":
sub Session_OnStart
Response.Redirect("newpage.asp")
end sub
</script>
And you can include functions in the Global.asa file.
In the example below the Application_OnStart subroutine occurs when the Web server starts. Then the Application_OnStart subroutine calls another subroutine named "getcustomers". The "getcustomers" subroutine opens a database and retrieves a record set from the "customers" table. The record set is assigned to an array, where it can be accessed from any ASP page without querying the database:
sub Application_OnStart
getcustomers
end sub
sub getcustomers
set conn=Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
conn.Provider="Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0"
conn.Open "c:/webdata/northwind.mdb"
set rs=conn.execute("select name from customers")
Application("customers")=rs.GetRows
rs.Close
conn.Close
end sub
</script>
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