title: What is the App_Data folder used for in Visual Studio?
body: <p>When creating a new ASP.NET application in Visual Studio, a couple of files and folders are created automatically. One of those folders is called <code>App_Data</code>.</p>
  
  <p>Also when publishing a website by selecting the menu option <code>Build-&gt;Publish</code> a checkbox is available <code>Include files from the App_Data folder</code>.</p>
  
  <p>Am I right assuming that the files put in this file and its sub-folders are not going to be accessible through the web? For example, would it be safe to put in that folder resources that I only intend to be used by the application code? </p>
  
  <p>What is the real intended use of the <code>App_Data</code> folder?</p>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT:</strong></p>
  
  <p>Thank you for all the answers. From the answers received so far I am interested mostly in two points mentioned: </p>
  
  <ol>
  <li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/528858/what-is-the-appdata-folder-used-for-in-visual-studio/528876#528876">App_Data is essentially a storage point for file-based data store</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/528858/what-is-the-appdata-folder-used-for-in-visual-studio/528872#528872">It should not be viewable by the web and is a place for the web app to store and read data from</a></li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>Would someone be able specify how the "not viewable by the web" is ensured? 
  Can I rely on that fact when performing standard deployment, or do I need to check some IIS settings on the server as well.</p>
  
  <p>In the situation when I have a set of pdf files that I want to be accessible only from the application. Would App_Data folder be the right place to use, or should I create a separate folder and manually set IIS to ensure that it is not accessible by Web?</p>