What Are .NET Framework - based Applications?

.NET Framework - based applications (Framework applications) are programs that require the.NET Framework to run. For the purposes of this book we will refer to these applications as Framework applications.

The elements of a Framework application are generally split into multiple logical layers which handle the different pieces of functionality. Those logical layers can generally communicate with each other on the same computer, or over the network. Exactly how you map logical layers to the physical tiers of your solution will depend on a combination of security, scalability, and performance issues.

Note

Some Framework applications make use of Web services to connect to other applications or services. These are often given the name .NET-connected applications, but as they are a subset of Framework applications, you will not see that term used in this guide.

You can create Framework applications using a variety of development environments, but for the purposes of this book, we assume that you are using Visual Studio .NET 2003.