These are technical references required to make a flexible and reliable page path management, one of areas where common CMSes stumble.

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The VirtualPathProvider class provides a set of methods for implementing a virtual file system for a Web application. In a virtual file system, the files and directories are managed by a data store other than the file system provided by the server's operating system. For example, you can use a virtual file system to store content in a SQL Server database.

You can store any file that is processed on request in a virtual file system. This includes:

  • ASP.NET pages, master pages, user controls, and other objects.

  • Standard Web pages with extensions such as .htm and .jpg.

  • Any custom extension mapped to a BuildProvider instance.

  • Any named theme in the App_Theme folder.

You cannot store ASP.NET application folders or files that generate application-level assemblies in a virtual file system. This includes:

  • The Global.asax file.

  • Web.config files.

  • Site map data files used by the XmlSiteMapProvider.

  • Directories that contain application assemblies or that generate application assemblies: Bin, App_Code, App_GlobalResources, any App_LocalResources.

  • The application data folder, App_Data." (MSDN)

 

"One of the leading causes of dissatisfaction among the users of the MSDN Library online is that every so often, a lot of URLs break. This is such a problem that the 404 handling page is one of the most common entry points for visitors arriving at MSDN. On the surface, this seems like a simple problem to solve. After all, how hard can it be to keep links to a collection of documents—even a really big collection— stable over time? The answer, it turns out, is that it can be very hard, as you'll come to understand once you learn how the existing MSDN Library is built." (Inside MSDN)

 

"This month, we will discuss how to extend ASP.NET by providing virtual access to content and files for compilation in ASP.NET 2.0. This feature can be used to create applications similar to Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server, where the content is stored in a database instead of on the physical file system. In this article, we will build a sample where the content of the requested Web form page is stored in a Microsoft SQL Server database." (MSFT Knowledge Base)