difference between Web-Site and Web-Application-Project

[Hafner Avi]

Hi,



I am trying to find out what is the difference between Web-Site and
Web-Application-Project in Visual Studio 2005 ?



People – what do you recommend ?



Thanks



Avi

 

[Mark Fitzpatrick]

The Web Site project is compiled on the fly. You end up with a lot more DLL
files, which can be a pain. It also gives problems when you have pages or
controls in one directory that need to reference pages and controls in
another directory since the other directory may not be compiled into code
yet. Another problem can be in publishing. If VS isn't told to re-use the
same names constantly, it will come up with new names for the dll files
generated by pages all the time. That can lead to having several close
copies of dlls containing the same class name, which will generate plenty of
errors. The Web Site project was introduced with VS 2005, but has turned out
not to be extremely popular.

The Web Application Project was created as an add-in and now exists as part
of SP 1 for VS 2005. The main differences are the Web Application Project
was designed to work similar to the Web projects that shipped with VS.net
and VS 2003. It will compile the application into a single dll at build
time. In order to update the project it must be recompiled and the dll
published for changes to occur. Another nice feature of the Web Application
project is it's much easer to exclude files from the project view. In the
Web Site project, each file that you exclude is renamed with an exclude
keyword in the filename. In the Web Application Project, the project just
keeps track of which files to include/exclude from the project view without
renaming them, making things much tider.

 

[Cowboy \(Gregory A. Beamer\)]

I will add, and adjust, some of what Mark has stated.

The web site template is included with VS 2005. There are two compilation
methods, depending on how you do things:

1. Compile on the fly - default if you simply copy the bits to a server.
Each page is compiled into its own assembly
2. Compile ahead - You still have quite a few DLLs, but directories can be
compiled together

The web applications template is downloaded from www.asp.net. It compiles
into a single DLL like ASP.NET 1.x.

If you want to be able to change a single page, the web site template is
better if you use compile on the fly. The precompile option does not help
much.

I am less concerned than Mark about the multiple DLLs, as the publish option
will package everything necessary in a folder of your choosing. I do find
the .exclude to be a royal pain, however.

For me, I would use the web applications template, as it is cleaner and has
nice options not available in the web site template. The exception is if you
are going to update single files (and keep full source on the site), which I
would not recommend in most situations.

--
Gregory A. Beamer
MVP; MCP: +I, SE, SD, DBA

*********************************************
Think outside the box!
*********************************************

 

[Cowboy \(Gregory A. Beamer\)]

Mark:

I just reinstalled and do not see the web applications template in the mix.
I was going to download it for my work. If someone does a fresh install, is
there a trick?

--
Gregory A. Beamer
MVP; MCP: +I, SE, SD, DBA

*********************************************
Think outside the box!
*********************************************

 

[Mark Fitzpatrick]

Gregory,
Did you install SP1 yet? The pre-sp1 add-in is still available at:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/asp.net/aa336618.aspx Note: before you
install it you'll need this update for VS
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...00-9554-4733-8725-3CA89DD9BFCA&displaylang=en