ASP and ASP.net are request/response technologies which means the server only runs code in response to a client request. This makes scheduled jobs etc not really possible with asp.net. A scheduled job is code that runs at a certain time, not code that runs due a client request.

If you want something to happen at a certain time (send an e-mail, get some database reports etc) there are various ways around it depending what technology you have at your disposal.

If you have control over the web server itself then the best way to accomplish this is by writing your own Windows service. That's a little outside the scope of this post however. Next easiest is to use the Windows Scheduler to execute an app you have compiled. If your aim is to run a certain web page then that can also be handled via the scheduler.

Below is some code that will send an e-mail and request a web page. We'll then schedule this code to run at a certain time.

Create a new c# Console application and add a reference to System.Web. Now add these to the using list;

using System.Net;

using System.Web.Mail;

Update the Main function like so;

static void Main(string[] args)
{

    MailMessage m = new MailMessage();

    m.From = "[email protected]";
    m.To = "[email protected]";
    m.Subject = "Automated mail";
    m.Body = "This is an automated e-mail message.";

    SmtpMail.SmtpServer = "smtp.yoursmtpserver.com";
    SmtpMail.Send (m);

    WebRequest myRequest = WebRequest.Create("http://localhost/MyWebSite/MyScheduledPage.aspx");

    // If you want to request the page as a certain user, or if your target
    // url does not have enonymous access you can set the credentials as below.
    //myRequest.PreAuthenticate = true;
    //myRequest.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("username", "password", "domain");

    WebResponse myResponse = myRequest.GetResponse();
    myResponse.Close();

}

You'll need to amend the e-mail code to provide your own e-mail addresses and SMTP server. Compile and run the code to make sure it is working. If you want to process the response from the web page in some way then you can add code to do that; the above sample just requests the page which will cause the code on it to run but does nothing with the results.

Now open the Control Panel and select Scheduled Tasks->Add scheduled task. This will open the Scheduled Task Wizard. Click the Next button to continue then click Browse and browse for your compiled exe. You will be given a choice as to when to run it, so select Daily then click Next. Now you can select a time the task will be run at. Enter your desired time then click Next. Now you will be asked for the username and password of the NT user the task will be run as. Enter then and click Next. That is the task set up and you can click Finish, or optionally check the box that will open the task's properties for you. You should check the box so you can look at the kind of control you can exert over your scheduled task.

Now when your task runs it will execute your code.

If you don't have access to the server and can't set up scheduled tasks etc then your options are limited to an asp.net only solution. You can try the approach followed in this article;

But be aware that if your site is inactive for a long time asp.net will end up shutting your components down.