ASP.NET - Dynamically register an HttpHandler in code (not in web.config)

Question

Is there a way I can dynamically register an IHttpHandler in C# code, instead of having to manually add it to the system.web/httpHandlers section in the web.config.

This may sound crazy, but I have good reason for doing this. I'm building a WidgetLibrary that a website owner can use just by dropping a .dll file into their bin directory, and want to support this with minimal configuration to the web.config.

Answer 1

Here's an article about dynamically altering a web.config file through code

http://highoncoding.com/Articles/119_Writing_in_Web_config_file_dynamically.aspx

Answer 2

I don't believe it's possible to modify the registered HttpHandlers once the AppDomain is running because the available handlers is read directly from the web.config file then cached in a private data structure.

If you knew upfront which extensions you wanted to allow, you could do is map these extensions to a single HttpHandlerFactory and then return a handler of your choice (by using dynamic assembly loading and reflection). For example:

<add path="*.ch1,*.ch2,*.ch3" verb="*" 
    type="MyHandlers.MyHandlerFactory, MyHandlers" />

Modifying the web.config at runtime would cause the AppDomain to restart.