Choosing the right Web site template

The New Web Site dialog box in VWD contains different web site templates, each one serving a distinct purpose.

ASP.NET Web Site

This template enables you to set up a basic ASP.NET web site. It contains a number of files and folders to jump start the development of your site.

This template is a good starting point once you start developing real-world ASP.NET web sites.

ASP.NET Empty Web Site

The ASP.NET Empty Web Site template gives you nothing but single configuration file (web .config).

The ASP.NET Empty Web Site template is useful if you have a bunch of existing files you want to use to create a new web site or when you want to create your site from scratch. You use this template as the basis for the sample web site you build in the book and add files and folders as you progress through the site.

WCF Service

This template enables you to create a web site containing one or more WCF Services. A WCF Service is somewhat similar to a web service in that it enables you to create methods that are callable over a network. However, WCF Services, or Windows Communication Foundation Services go much further than simple web services and offer you a lot more flexibility.

Dynamic Data Web Sites

The two templates for Dynamic Data enable you to create a flexible yet powerful web site to manage data in a database without a lot of manual code.

Although it seems you have to make a clear choice up front for the right web site template, this isn’t really the case. Because an ASP.NET web site in VWD is essentially just a reference to a folder, it’s easy to add types from one template to another.

For example, it’s perfectly acceptable (and very common) to add a web service file to a standard ASP.NET Web Site or an ASP.NET Empty Web Site.