How to embed an ASP.NET Web Application into another?

Question

Providing web features through a custom HttpHandler such as in Elmah is extremely handy for ASP.NET Web Applications, because the handler can be embedded into any ASP.NET web app. It perfectly fits as a simple way to extend an existing web app.

Now, developing any significant set of features through a custom handler is a very tedious process. I am wondering if it is possible to directly embed an ASP.NET Application into another one through a custom handler (as opposed to cut and pasting the whole app in a sub directory).

Here is a small list of embedded web app that would be fit for such a purpose:

• Health monitoring console.
• Provisioning console (for cloud web app with auto-scaling).
• App settings management console (considering a scheme IoC-settings-stored-in-DB).

Each one of those web parts could be provided as an HttpHandler; but again implementation is really tedious.

Does anyone know how to do that or how to achieve an equivalent behavior?

Answer 1

Do you usually put your features in a business logic DLL and just reference it from as many applications as need the business logic? What are you trying to reuse that this wouldn't work for?