Web site vs Web Application Project

[nyhetsgrupper]

Hi,
Which project type do you prefer? Is the web site or web application
project the best solution? The application I am about to write is
completly new so migrating from vs 2003 is not an issue, but it has to
be easy to deploy the application (precompiled, I don't want to give
away my source)

 

[Ray Costanzo]

Originally, Visual Studio 2005 did not offer a Web app project. The reason
for this is that it was just a big PITA and totally illogical. When I first
used VS2005 and saw this changed behavior in working with a Web site, I just
about cried out in joy over this. To me, the whole Web app behavior in
VS2003 was absolutely infuriating and totally asinine. But, here's (link
below) a good breakdown of both options. Perhaps this is just because of a
subconscious bias in my head, but I swear this article is rallying against
the Web app project.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa730880(vs.80).aspx

Ray at work

 

[Guest]

Hi,
Which project type do you prefer? Is the web site or web application
project the best solution? The application I am about to write is
completly new so migrating from vs 2003 is not an issue, but it has to
be easy to deploy the application (precompiled, I don't want to give
away my source)

Comparing Web Site Projects and Web Application Projects
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa730880(VS.80).aspx

 

[Peter Bradley]

But...

In VS2005, if you create a new web site at the start of your project,
VS2005 - in its wisdom - puts the solution file in a different file system
tree from the project file. This makes a mess of source control if you're
using VSS 6.0 or Subversion (so presumably CVS and many other source control
sysems as well).

The solution is either to use the VS2003 Web application template; or
(alternatively) to create a new, blank solution and to add a new Web site to
the blank project. You then get everything in the "right" place (from my
POV, anyway) i.e. with the project folders nested inside the solution
folder.

Having to do this is a pain and is probably a major contributing reason as
to why so many people yelled at MS until they put the Web application
template back.

For the record, I create an blank solution and then add a VS2005 Web site to
it - because I agree that in all other respects, VS2005 Web sites seem to be
superior.


Peter

 

[Mark Rae]

Originally, Visual Studio 2005 did not offer a Web app project. The
reason for this is that it was just a big PITA and totally illogical.
When I first used VS2005 and saw this changed behavior in working with a
Web site, I just about cried out in joy over this. To me, the whole Web
app behavior in VS2003 was absolutely infuriating and totally asinine.

I disagree totally!

I cannot abide the web site model, and was overjoyed when the WAP add-on for
VS.NET 2005 was released.

 

[Alvin Bruney [MVP]]

Avoiding the fiery debate, it's important to point out that microsoft is
committed to supporting both models going forward.

--
Regards,
Alvin Bruney
------------------------------------------------------
Shameless author plug
Excel Services for .NET is coming...
OWC Black book on Amazon and
www.lulu.com/owc
Professional VSTO 2005 - Wrox/Wiley

 

[Ray Costanzo]

I personally like that the SLN is elsewhere. When I setup projects in
source control, I do not include the SLN file. To me, an SLN is a personal
thing. When you're working on an application that has 30 projects, it
should be up to each developer to create his own solution (or multiple
solutions depending on which hat he's wearing that day) and just add the
projects he needs from source control. Nothing's more annoying than working
on a project with just 4 or 5 files, but having to open 30 projects to do so
because of a communal SLN!

Ray at work

 

[Ray Costanzo]

I guess that's the reason they offered the add-in. Each of us has his own
preference. :] Thanks MS!

Ray at work

 

[Laurent Bugnion, MVP]

Hi,

I disagree totally!

I cannot abide the web site model, and was overjoyed when the WAP add-on for
VS.NET 2005 was released.

The simple fact that the WAP was pushed very much by Scott Guthrie
should be enough to make one think that this is really the way to go.
This guy is my personal hero.

OTOH, I imagine that he was supervising the team that came with the
website model too, so...

Greetings,
Laurent

 

[Laurent Bugnion, MVP]

Hi,

Hi,
Which project type do you prefer? Is the web site or web application
project the best solution? The application I am about to write is
completly new so migrating from vs 2003 is not an issue, but it has to
be easy to deploy the application (precompiled, I don't want to give
away my source)

IMHO, the web site model is good for websites, and the web application
model is good for web applications. I guess it all depends how you
consider what you write. The website model is nice if you want to update
only certain files (including source code) without changing the whole
rest. I think that web developers nowadays, however, work rather on web
applications, where the whole "package" must be tested and released
consistently.

Ask yourself: Do you want to version your site as a whole? If the answer
is yes, then you're probably rather writing a web application, and
should use the WAP.

Greetings,
Laurent

 

[Mark Rae]

I personally like that the SLN is elsewhere. When I setup projects in
source control, I do not include the SLN file. To me, an SLN is a personal
thing. When you're working on an application that has 30 projects, it
should be up to each developer to create his own solution (or multiple
solutions depending on which hat he's wearing that day) and just add the
projects he needs from source control. Nothing's more annoying than
working on a project with just 4 or 5 files, but having to open 30 projects
to do so because of a communal SLN!

Ah, now there I totally agree with you!

I never add the .sln files to SourceSafe either...

 

[Mark Rae]

I guess that's the reason they offered the add-in.

They offered the add-on because of the massive outcry in the ASP.NET
development community when VS.NET 2005 was first released...

As soon as they realised what an awful mistake they'd made, the rushed the
release of the WAP add-on...

I'd be *very* surprised if the website model lasts more than one major
version...

 

[Mark Rae]

Avoiding the fiery debate, it's important to point out that microsoft is
committed to supporting both models going forward.

Are you sure about that...?

 

[Cowboy \(Gregory A. Beamer\)]

Based on what you have pointed out, either will work. With the website
template, you can use the publish option to remove your source code and
precompile the site. The big difference is the number of DLLs you end up
with.

 

[Peter Bradley]

Each to his own, I suppose. I hate having it squirrelled away somewhere
else. A problem associated with being an ex-librarian, I suspect

Just because the .sln file is in the same file system doesn't mean you have
to include it in your list of source controlled files. However, VSS 6.0
does so by default (or it did for us) and creates a Byzantine directory
system in its repository (Again, this was just our experience. We could
have been doing something wrong). We've now moved to Subversion - which
asks you to specify what files you want under source control. So it's easy
to leave a .sln file out, but having it in the solution folder makes it
accessible if you want it.


Peter

 

[Mark Rae]

However, VSS 6.0 does so by default (or it did for us)

VSS 6.0d really doesn't work very well with VS.NET 2005

VSS 2005, however, works perfectly...

 

[nyhetsgrupper]

In one of my projects I use the ajax control toolkit. To get this work
you have to add the AjaxControlToolkit.dll to the bin folder of the
web site (add reference), but this reference is not stored anywhere,
because in the web site model you don't have a project file to store
it in. I find it strange to include this dll file in source controll,
so I don't. If I later try to download this project from sourcecontrol
on another machine and try to build it I will obviously be missing
AjaxControllToolkit.dll. If I run the web site model I will get a lot
of errors because of the missing dll, but there is nothing telling me
which dll is missing (the errors will have something to do with ajax
so I can hopefully guess it), but if I run the web application project
model I will instantly see which dll is missing because it is part of
the project file. Any opinions on this?

 

[Mark Rae]

Any opinions on this?

It's one of the many reasons not to use the website model...

 

[Jon Paal [MSMD]]

Web sites should be web sites ....

I think this says it all:

Note: Web application projects do not work with Visual Web Developer Express Edition.

 

[Alvin Bruney [MVP]]

Yes, see eric gunnerson's blog.

--
Regards,
Alvin Bruney
------------------------------------------------------
Shameless author plug
Excel Services for .NET is coming...
OWC Black book on Amazon and
www.lulu.com/owc
Professional VSTO 2005 - Wrox/Wiley