What is the 'page lifecycle' of an ASP.NET WebForm?

Answer 1

This diagram is specifically helpful in determining the order of events, but doesn't elaborate on them in any detail.

http://www.eggheadcafe.com/articles/o_aspNet_Page_LifeCycle.jpg

Answer 2

I have this on my tack board. Helpful when your using Master pages.

1. Content page PreInit event
2. Master page controls Init event
3. Content controls Init event
4. Master page Init event
5. Content page Init event
6. Content page Load event
7. Master page Load event
8. Master page controls Load event
9. Content page controls Load event
10. Content page PreRender event
11. Master page PreRender event
12. Master page controls PreRender event
13. Content page controls PreRender event
14. Master page controls Unload event
15. Content page controls Unload event
16. Master page Unload event
17. Content page Unload event

Answer 3

I've found this chart to be fairly useful. Provides a brief description as to what the piece is doing... John-Sheehan ASP.NET Life Cycle Events

Answer 4

This doesn't directly answer the Page lifecycle question but this covers the Global event lifecycle with events like BeginRequest and EndRequest. It's good to understand how those work in relation to Pages.

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-5771721.html

Answer 5

This is the "original" MSDN overview. Pretty good:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms227435.aspx

Honestly, you shouldn't need our help to find these things. Try Google.

Answer 6

The MSDN article by Scott Mitchell "Understanding ASP.NET View State" has a very good explanation of the page life cycle, and more.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms972976.aspx