ASP.NET / Global Assembly Cache / Local config

[John Wallace]

Hi,
I have an initial build of an ASP.NET/C# application (based around a
"custom control" with some supporting webforms) that contains the
usual mix of:

1) ASP files
2) A single DLL (containing all the classes and code-behind I believe)
3) A supporting folder structure
4) Some data/config files used by the app.

This app will be accessed by multiple sites (each with its own IP
address, etc.), running on one IIS installation i.e. each site will
contain pages that use the custom control (and therefore all the
supporting stuff mentioned above).

I want to minimise the disk space and memory requirements on the
server - so I
thought that installing the app in the Global Assembly Cache is the
way to go
(rather than installing it on each site). Is this correct? I
understand that the DLL goes into the GAC but what about the
"front-end" ASP pages?

In the list above, I want items 1 & 2 to be "shared" but items 3 & 4
to exist
independantly on each IIS site. How can I ensure that, although each
IIS site is effectively using the same code, that each instance only
references its own local folder structure and data/config files. I
kindof assumed that if I reference my data files via a URL that this
would all sort itself out e.g.

....
XmlDocument objConfig = LoadSystemConfigFile("/myappdata/config.xml");
....

Then I just need to create "/myappdata/config.xml" on the root of each
site?

One other "assumption" was that each site would get its own memory
process and that static & instance type variables would be entirely
separate for each instance? Is that right? Hope so :)

Thanks for any help at all!