Just the Facts

• IIS is no longer a strict requirement for developing ASP.NET applications, as Visual Studio .NET 2005 incorporates a local, mini Web server to be used only for testing during the development cycle.

• Visual Studio .NET 2005 supports multiple ways to open Web sites. In addition to using FPSE, you can access your source files by using FTP, IIS, and even the file system path.

• Visual Studio .NET 2005 supports standalone file editing and doesn't require a project to edit a single file on disk.

• An ASP.NET 2.0 application can be made of folders that receive special treatment from the ASP.NET runtime for example, App_Code for classes, App_Themes for themes, and App_GlobalResources for satellite assemblies.

• Even though you can use the local Web server to test pages, be aware that it doesn't offer a realistic test scenario (such as having different accounts, different settings, and so forth). Don't rely on it to determine conclusively that your application works as expected.

• ASP.NET supports two forms of site precompilation: in-place precompilation and deployment precompilation.

• In-place precompilation applies to deployed applications and simply precompiles all pages to save the first-hit compilation delay.

• Precompilation for deployment creates a file representation of the site made of assemblies and static files. This representation can be generated on any machine, and it can be packaged to MSI and deployed.

• Precompilation for deployment doesn't leave source files on the production server, thus it preserves your intellectual property