ASP.NET website - default namespace

Because of the way ASP.NET Web Sites are distributed and compiled, there is no reason for a default namespace because each ASP.NET file is dynamically compiled and turned into its own DLL the first time the page is loaded (the "old way" of doing ASP.NET).

However, with a Web Application, a bunch of codebehind files (and potentially other code files) are precompiled into a single DLL, which then creates a situation where it is a Good Idea to put all of that into a single namespace.

You can think of it as a Web Site is a collection of Web Pages, but a Web Application is a unified whole.

I am using websites and I needed a way to access the BundleConfig, IdentityConfig, and RouteConfig classes and modules from with in my Global.asax file. I was able to put these files into the "App_Code" folder which allows you to put namespaces around the classes and modules.

Here is an example:

Namespace TCEmpSite
    Public Module RouteConfig
        Sub RegisterRoutes(ByVal routes As RouteCollection)
            Dim settings As FriendlyUrlSettings = New FriendlyUrlSettings()
            settings.AutoRedirectMode = RedirectMode.Permanent
            routes.EnableFriendlyUrls(settings)
        End Sub
    End Module
End Namespace

Then in the Global.asax file I was able to do this:

Private Sub Application_Start(sender As Object, e As EventArgs)
        ' Code that runs on application startup
        TCEmpSite.RouteConfig.RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes)
        TCEmpSite.BundleConfig.RegisterBundles(BundleTable.Bundles)
        TCEmpSite.IdentityConfig.ConfigureIdentity()
    End Sub

Hope this helps someone!

Website will not create a dll but web app will create. To create a dll for website,use web_deploy project.