What is the use of VIRTUAL PATH PROVIDER?
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It Stores the custom pages in the content db
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It abstracts the details of file system
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It abstracts the details of where the page files are stored away from the asp.net runtime
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It is a pluggable component to abstract the filesystem pages.
Virtual Path Provider is a mechanism in SharePoint that allows ASP.NET to serve pages from non-file system locations (like the content database) by abstracting the physical storage location from the runtime.
A VirtualPathProvider in ASP.NET sits between the runtime and the physical file system, letting the application serve pages and resources from a source other than the literal file system — such as a database or embedded resource — while the ASP.NET runtime remains unaware of where the files actually physically reside. This abstraction is what enables scenarios like storing custom pages in a database while still letting standard ASP.NET page-handling machinery process them normally.