Hi Lee,

Amazing how explaining stuff to someone else helps you get a better handle on what you are doing.

To gain access to Session_Start in versions over 4.5 (maybe lower as well) simply delete the app_Global.asax.dll from the Bin folder. Add a global.asax to the project root, delete all the handlers except Session_Start and add inherits="umbraco.Global" to the header line, eg.

<%@ Application Language="C#" Inherits="umbraco.Global"%>

<script runat="server">
    void Session_Start(object sender, EventArgs e) 
    {
        // Code that runs when a new session is started
        Session["test"] = "hello";
    }
</script> 

This works fine and allows us to set up and initialise session variables. I don't know what umbraco.Global does in the other handlers so I have deleted them from my version as it is only Session_Start I want access to and umbraco.Global doesn't use it.

It may be you can cover them by calling the base handlers first, eg.

<%@ Application Language="C#" Inherits="umbraco.Global"%>

<script runat="server">

    void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e) 
    {
        // Call Global base class first
        base.Application_Start(sender, e);

        // Bespoke code that runs when the application is started
        Application["test"] = "hello";
    }

    void Session_Start(object sender, EventArgs e) 
    {
        // Code that runs when a new session is started
        Session["test"] = "hello";
    }
</script>
 

I haven't tried this but it should work I think. I hope this is useful to others who have found quite a lot of conflicting material running across several versions.

Regards

Roger