What is the aspnet_client folder in my ASP.NET website?

Question

I inherited a website and see that folder in the web root. I'm trying to clean out the old crap, and wondering if I can delete it.

What is this folder used by? Is it auto generated? Is it a cache? What creates it?

Answer 1

It is generated by the ASPNET_regiis /c command. Most websites I use have ended up including this in the distribution because the sys admins always forgot to install it. It contains the client side JavaScript libraries required by .NET1.x to handle the postback eventing model on the client side.

You can delete it if you have upgraded to .NET 2 which uses a different handler for the scripts (or if you are prepared to recreate it.) But check first that there aren't additional files added there by the author as sometimes I have seen it used for extra stuff.

Answer 2

That folder is used to store auto-generated validation scripts when you add client side validation to your server controls.