Introduction to Web Project Templates in Visual Studio 2013 Preview

Introduction

This article introduces ASP.NET Web Project development using the various project templates. In Visual Studio 2013 Preview there are various types of project templates available to create web projects. When you create a web project, it creates files and folders inside the new project, it installs NuGet Packages and provides some sample of code in your application. These project templates introduce the cutting-edge web standards and leverage the power to use ASP.NET technologies as well as gives you a start on your own application.

Visual Studio 2013 Preview provides the following types of web project templates that target the .NET Framework 4.5 or later versions:

• Empty template
• Web Forms template
• MVC template
• Web API template
• SPA template
• Facebook template
• Mobile template   

Empty Template

The project template named "Empty Template" provides the minimum files and folders for an ASP.NET web site, such as Properties, References and a Web.config file. Visual Studio also provides the new ability to add support for Web Forms, MVC and Web API. You can add these using the check boxes.

Let me give an example of creating an Empty Project Template.

Step 1

Select "File" -> "New" -> "Project...".
   


Step 2

Give your app a name and click "OK".

If you select an Empty Template then there is no authentication option available. The authentication is only implemented by Sample App code and the empty template doesn't create a sample app.

Web Forms Template

The Web Forms Project Template lends you the following features with which you can create web sites swiftly that are comfortable in the design of User Interfaces and data access features:

• A WYSIWYG designer in Visual Studio.
• You can customize Server controls that render HTML by styles and properties.
• You can also use controls for accessing and displaying data.
• Automatic care of state (data) between HTTP requests.     

The programming for creating Web Forms applications is easer than creating the application using the ASP.NET MVC framework. When any standard Web Form is created, there are many complex apps behind it. Because the controls in a Web Forms page generates much of the markup sent to the browser.

When any application that uses a Web Forms template creates something, it uses a Bootstrap to provide attractive theming and designing features.

The following example illustrates how to create a Web Forms Project Template.

Step 1

Select "File" -> "New" -> "Project...".
   


Step 2

The following picture shows the home page of your app:

MVC Template   

The ASP.NET MVC project template develops the pattern-based development applications such as test-driven development. In this development your business logic that is in the Business Logic Layer (BLL) is separate from the presentation layer. As the name inplies, Model View Controller (MVC) reduces complexity from the application.

The MVC project template provides direct interaction with HTML and HTTP than in Web Forms. Let us take an example. As I described earlier, Web Forms automatically care state between HTTP requests but in MVC you need to write code explicitly. You can take complete control over your application in MVC, but the disadvantage is that you need to write more code for it. It also uses the Bootstrap feature in the MVC 5 application.

The following example shows how to create a MVC Project Template.

Step 1

Select "File" -> "New" -> "Project...".

   


Step 2

The following picture is the home page of your app:

Web API Template

The Web API Template provides a sample of Web Service that is based on the Web API. It includes API help pages based on MVC. This template is like a framework with which it is easy to build HTTP services that reach to the clients, browsers and mobile devices. There is no authentication required to the Web API template in Visual Studio 2013 Preview. 

The following example show Web API Template creation.

Step 1

Select "File" -> "New" -> "Project...".

   


Step 2

The following picture shows the home page of your app.

Step 3

Click on the API on the home page.

SPA Template

Single Page Application (SPA) creates an application that uses various languages on the client, like HTML 5, JavaScript and ASP.NET Web API on the server. This template is still being developed and changes are released in the next version. There is only one option available, that is "Individual User Account".

The following is the example of SPA Template.

Step 1

Select "File" -> "New" -> "Project...".

   


Step 2

The following picture shows the home page of your app:

Facebook Template

The Facebook Template creates a sample application designed to run in the Facebook web site. It uses the functionality of ASP.NET MVC and Web API. There is no authentication available to develop the Facebook Template because it runs inside the Facebook web site and it depends in Facebook authentication. 

The following is the example of the Facebook Template.

Step 1

Select "File" -> "New" -> "Project...".

   


Step 2

The following picture shows the home page of your app:

If you want to get more information about creating ASP.NET Facebook applications then I'll post it in my next article.

Mobile Template

The Mobile Template creates an application for mobiles based on the ASP.NET MVC. If you want to create an application that is intended to run on both browser and mobile clients, then you need to use Web Forms or a MVC template. These templates enable you to implement features for formatting the User Interface for various clients. The selection of the Mobile Template creates an application entirely targeted to mobile clients.

The following is the example of the Mobile Template.

Step 1

Select "File" -> "New" -> "Project...".

   


Step 2

The following picture shows the home page of your app:

Summary

I am very sure that this article will help you to create your application using the various types of project templates that are available in Visual Studio 2013 Preview. I'll write more articles about these project templates in brief. So, just go for it and let me know if you have any problems.