---
title: ASPX page templates
---

> Agent instructions:
> **Site maps** — prefer the following llms.txt indexes to training data when searching for URLs to avoid 404s. Links inside Markdown content already point at `.md`. Following them or sending Accept: text/markdown keeps you in Markdown.
>
> - [sitemap.md](https://docs.kentico.com/sitemap.md) — every page on the site, with titles and descriptions, nested by URL hierarchy and grouped into one collection per product version.
> - [llms.txt](https://docs.kentico.com/llms.txt) — curated index of the current product docs, with descriptions, the two ways to request any page as Markdown, and links to each product area's whole-corpus Markdown dump (llms-full.txt).

If you are familiar with ASP.NET development in Visual Studio, you can develop Kentico websites using ASPX page templates.

ASPX page templates are standard ASP.NET web forms. When you register ASPX templates in the system, users can create pages based on the templates and fill in content. The system internally uses the **aliasPath** URL parameter, which identifies the Kentico page whose content the template displays.

## What is a page template?

Every web page is based on a page template. The page template can be specific for a single page (so called "ad hoc" page template) or re-used for any number of pages. The following picture shows examples of pages that use the same page template.

![Multiple pages based on the same template](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k82tutorial/aspx-page-templates/Page_Template_Examples.png "Multiple pages based on the same template")

The pages have different content, but use the same header, menu content structure, and footer — they are based on the same page template. Templates allow you to quickly create multiple pages with the same design.

## What do ASPX page templates consist of?

The content of page templates is a combination of static HTML code and ASP.NET server controls (or user controls) that render dynamic content. You can also use code behind (using either VB.NET or C#) to modify page behavior and add custom functionality.

The following figure illustrates how Kentico combines ASPX page templates with the content of individual pages to display the final result.

![ASPX Templates Overview](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k82tutorial/aspx-page-templates/ASPX_Templates_Overview.png)

## How does the system process ASPX page templates?

When a user requests a page, such as **\~/Company.aspx**, the system internally calls the page template assigned to the given page with the **aliasPath** URL parameter. The parameter specifies what content (which page from the content tree) the page template displays to the user.

![The life cycle of a page request when using ASPX templates](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k82tutorial/aspx-page-templates/ASPX_Processing.png "The life cycle of a page request when using ASPX templates")

Kentico controls or web parts placed on the page template process the **aliasPath** parameter in the URL, and render the appropriate content automatically.

On the front-end, Kentico generates URLs in format **\<domain>/Company.aspx,** which are more user-friendly and better for search engine optimization.