It was first released in January 2002 with version 1.0 of the [[.NET Framework]] and is the successor to Microsoft's [[Active Server Pages]] (ASP) technology. ASP.NET is built on the [[Common Language Runtime]] (CLR), allowing programmers to write ASP.NET code using any supported [[List of CLI languages|.NET language]]. The ASP.NET [[SOAP]] extension framework allows ASP.NET components to process SOAP messages.
Microsoft briefly marketed [[ASP.NET Core]] as ASP.NET's successor, however beginning August 2022 it reverted back to the old ASP.NET name.<ref>{{Cite web |title=ASP.NET {{!}} Open-source web framework for .NET |url=https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/apps/aspnet |access-date=2023-06-24 |website=Microsoft |language=en-US}}</ref> This new version is a re-implementation of ASP.NET as a modular [[web framework]], together with other frameworks like [[Entity Framework]]. The new framework uses the new open-source [[.NET Compiler Platform]] (codename "Roslyn") and is [[cross platform]]. [[ASP.NET MVC]], ASP.NET Web API, and ASP.NET Web Pages (a platform using only [[ASP.NET Razor|Razor]] pages) have merged into a unified MVC 6.<ref name="asp.net">{{cite web|title=Introduction to ASP.NET 5 — ASP.NET 0.0.1 documentation|url=http://docs.asp.net/en/latest/conceptual-overview/aspnet.html#unify|work=asp.net|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200508045123/https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/?view=aspnetcore-3.1|archive-date=May 8, 2020|access-date=May 11, 2020}}</ref>
