Filewatcher in global.asax

I needed to watch for files changing in the root of my site. Specifically I was doing this as I had an XML file with all my routing information defined. So if this XML file changed I needed to reload the routes and add all the changes.

You can do this by using the FileSystemWatcher Class and adding it to the System.Web.HttpApplication within your Global.asax.

The Code

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
private FileSystemWatcher _fsw;

protected void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
	string monitorPath = Server.MapPath("");

	Application.Add("fileWatcher", new FileSystemWatcher(monitorPath));
	_fsw = (FileSystemWatcher)Application["fileWatcher"];
	_fsw.EnableRaisingEvents = true;

	_fsw.Changed += OnWatchFileChanged;
}

protected void Application_End(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
	FileSystemWatcher fileWatcher = (FileSystemWatcher)Application["fileWatcher"];
	Application.Remove("fileWatcher");
	fileWatcher.Dispose();
}

private void OnWatchFileChanged(object source, FileSystemEventArgs e)
{
	// Do required stuff
	string requiredstuff = "";
}  

Filewatcher in global.asax.

The Code