Database Reference
In-Depth Information
code has been compiled, the .NET CLR will further compile the ASP.NET code to native code, which
provides improved performance.
Web pages serve the purpose of a user interface for your web application. ASP.NET adds
programmability to the web page. ASP.NET implements application logic using code, which will be sent
for execution on the server side. ASP.NET web pages have the following traits:
• They are based on Microsoft ASP.NET technology, in which code that runs on the
server dynamically generates web page output to the browser or client device.
• They are compatible with any language supported by the .NET common language
runtime, including Microsoft Visual Basic and Microsoft Visual C#.
• They are built on the Microsoft .NET Framework. This provides all the benefits of
the framework, including a managed environment, type safety, and inheritance.
The web page consists of application code that serves requests by users; to do so, ASP.NET compiles
the code into the assemblies.
Assemblies
are files that contain metadata about the application and have
the file extension
.dll
. After the code is compiled, it is translated into a language-independent and CPU-
independent format called
Microsoft Intermediate Language
(MSIL), also known as
Intermediate
Language
(IL). While running the web site, MSIL runs in the context of the .NET Framework and gets
translated into CPU-specific instructions for the processor on the PC running the web application.
Understanding the Visual Studio 2012 Web Site Types
Visual Studio 2012 offers various ways of creating a web project or web site. Though web sites are meant
only for the Internet or intranets, Visual Studio 2012 has three types, based on location that can serve as
a foundation for any web site that web developers are working on. The purpose of having these options
is that they really simplify the system requirements on the developer's machine.
If you have ever worked with classic ASP applications (not ASP.NET), recall the days of Visual Studio
6.0, when developers were required to use Internet Information Services (IIS) to work with and test an
ASP web application. This issue has been resolved with the evolution of Visual Studio; now you can
develop a web site without having IIS installed on your machine.
Note
IIS is a flexible, secure, and easy-to-manage web server for Windows to host anything on the Web. IIS
provides a complete web administration facility to the web applications hosted inside it.
A new web site project can be built in the Visual Studio 2012 IDE by accessing File
New
Web
Site.
Let's take a look at the types of web sites offered by Visual Studio 2012.
Note
In the following section, I have selected ASP.NET Empty Web Site in the available project template list.
The following sections (about file system, HTTP, and FTP web sites) apply to all the web site templates available in
the list, as shown in Figure 16-1.
