Chapter 6. Web Site Projects vs. Web Application Projects

Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2010 Express is a powerful tool for developing all types of web applications. In this lesson you learn about the different types of projects that you can build using Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2010 Express.

Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2010 Express provides two types of projects to build web applications: Web Site projects and Web Application projects. It is important to understand the difference between these two types of projects. In all of the preceding lessons I have used Web Site projects, however, in most of the remaining lessons I use Web Application projects. The reason for this is that Web Site projects are perfect for doing small applications and simple demonstrations, but they are not as robust as Web Application projects.

From the File menu you have the option to either create a New Project or a New Web Site, as shown in Figure 6-1.

FIGURE 6-1

Figure 6.1. FIGURE 6-1

Note

On the File menu, New Project refers to a new Web Application project and New Web Site refers to a new Web Site project.

WEB SITE PROJECTS

Web Site projects (WSP) use a folder-based approach to web development. Every file that is in the folder or subfolders of the project is part of the application. Applications built with Web Site projects are compiled dynamically when a user first requests a page. This means that you do not ...

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