In ASP.NET, we have something that is usually overlooked that is called Generic Handlers. I see a lot o f people using pages to process AJAX requests when we can use this much less expensive endpoint. This is an completely worked out Generic Handler that truly knows how to handle your http (AJAX and not) requests.

For a long time I used plain Generic Handlers (ASHX files) to handle my AJAX requests but it felt stupid and painful. I mean, the functionality was there but the whole process of handling the requests wasn't straight forward. So I made a list of the things I would like to have and now it's already a lot more than that.

• What's a .net Generic Handler?
• Advanced Controller Functionalities
• Code Samples
• Performance Tests
• Version History