ASP.NET 2.0

A common question by asp.net developers is what project model should I use for asp.net application? Web Site project (which introduced with VS 2005) or Web Application project (which delivered as add-in for VS 2005 and built-in within VS 2005 SP1)?

There is no thumb rule. Every project model has it's own advantages (and diss-advantages off course...). I hope this post will help you to understand better the differences between 2 of them.

Web Application project model

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Provides the same Web project semantics as Visual Studio .NET 2003 Web projects.

Has a project file (structure based on project files).

Build model - all code in the project is compiled into a single assembly.

Supports both IIS and the built-in ASP.NET Development Server.

Supports all the features of Visual Studio 2005 (refactoring, generics, etc.) and of ASP.NET 2.0 (master pages, membership and login, site navigation, themes, etc).

Using FrontPage Server Extensions (FPSE) are no longer a requirement.

Web Site project model

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No project file (Based on file system).

New compilation model.  (Read here or here for more details) and ...

Dynamic compilation and working on pages without building entire site on each page view.

Supports both IIS and the built-in ASP.NET Development Server.

Each page has it's own assembly.

Defferent code model.  (Read here for more details)

Ok, all is great, but you want to create your web site Now. Which model should you use?

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You need to migrate large Visual Studio .NET 2003 applications to VS 2005? use the Web Application project.

You want to open and edit any directory as a Web project without creating a project file? use Web Site project.

You need to add pre-build and post-build steps during compilation? use Web Application project.

You need to build a Web application using multiple Web projects? use Web Application project.

You want to generate one assembly for each page? use Web Site project. 

You prefer dynamic compilation and working on pages without building entire site on each page view? use Web Site project. 

You prefer single-page code model to code-behind model? use Web Site project. 

 

Additional Reference:
        http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa730880(VS.80).aspx

Reference:

http://maordavid.blogspot.com/2007/06/aspnet-20-web-site-vs-web-application.html