You might many times hear the words �project templates� and �project system� from time to time, I though it would be worth while to talk about the differences between the two from a web developer stand point�
Web developers using Visual Studio use either File �> New �> Project or File �> New �> Web site as shown below to create new Web projects as shown below:
The new project dialog for Web Developers looks as below:
and the new web site dialog looks as below:
What is probably interesting to note is that all the options that you see inside any of these dialog boxes above are just �Project Templates� and what that really means is that they are underlying the same project system but just wrapped with different set of start up files for easy project development�
In reality there are only two major Project Systems for Web Developers
- Web Application Projects (WAPs) which are accessible via File �> New �> Project �> Web
- Web Site Projects (WSPs) which are accessible via File �> New �> Web Site
What is also interesting to note is that WAPs and WSPs have different code bases (with reasonable set of shared components)� I will eventually write a post on real differences between WAPs and WSPs but today let us focus on Project Systems vs Templates�
A Project system like WAP or WSP actually takes care of building, compiling, debugging, managing source control, deploying, hooking up references, intellisense etc etc for a project� In essence the major code for functionality of the web project like commands, hot keys, content menus, toolbars etc are all specific to a project system and they remain the same across all the project templates of a single project system�
A Project template on the other hand is simply a bunch of files bundled together to allow a person to easily start developing a certain type of project� The project templates can have specific files like .svc or .aspx with boiler plate code in it� Each project template can choose to include its own set of references or code files� Behind the scene the project system invoked to do all the magic remains the same� For example ASP.NET Web Application and WCF Service Application are just two different templates for �Web Application Project System�� Similarly there are a bunch of project templates for �Web Site Project System��
The key Project templates for Web Application Projects (WAP) are:
- ASP.NET Web Application
- Empty ASP.NET Web Application
- ASP.NET Web Service Application
- WCF Service Application
- Dynamic Data Linq to SQL Web Application
- ASP.NET MVC Web Application (MVC is a customized Web Application Project system, we call it Flavor of WAP, so it is not necessarily a project template only�)
- Dynamic Data Entities Web Application
Similarly, the key Project templates for Web Site Project (WSP) are:
- ASP.NET Web Site
- Empty Web Site
- WCF Service
- ASP.NET Reports Web Site
- Dynamic Data Linq to SQL Web Site
- Dynamic Data Entities Web Site
Hence many a times there are features which work for one project system but do not work for other� A classic example is App_Code directory which works great with Web Site projects but not as seamlessly with Web Application Projects� Recently I wrote a blog post on Why App_Code does not work as well with WAPs�
Anyways, I hope this gives an idea on how the project systems and project templates for Web Developers work within Visual Studio�
-Vishal
Update Contact :
No Wa/Telepon (puat) : 085267792168
No Wa/Telepon (fajar) : 085369237896
Email : Fajarudinsidik@gmail.com
No Wa/Telepon (puat) : 085267792168
No Wa/Telepon (fajar) : 085369237896
Email: Fajarudinsidik@gmail.com
atau Kirimkan Private messanger melalui email dengan klik tombol order dibawah ini :
