Creating a "web service" using ASP.net - what's in the DLL?
<p>All,</p>

<p>Sorry in advance - I'm a <strong>total novice</strong> when it comes to ASP.net.</p>

<p>I'm working on a project that's fairly simple. I have single HTML page that collects input from the user. When the input is complete - the html page uses AJAX to post the data to a web service. That service receives the data, does some processing on it, then sends back a response.</p>

<p>The "client" part of this app is pure HTML/Javascript (not ASP.net), and is complete and works perfectly.</p>

<p>The "service" part of this app (MyHandler.ashx) is built using ASP.net. Technically - what it does is receive data from the AJAX post. It then uses <code>Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel</code> to open an Excel spreadsheet, pass the users' inputs <strong>into</strong> that spreadsheet, then retrieve several calculated values <strong>from</strong> the spreadsheet, and returns those values in the response to the AJAX post.</p>

<p>Using Visual Studio VS I've got this whole process running locally on my PC.</p>

<p>When I "publish" the project - VS creates a ton of files. I sent those files to the team that manages the server; they deployed them, and voilà - it works. (The necessary Office interop libraries are installed on the server).</p>

<p>So - my question - as I make a few modest changes (e.g., validation, error handling) to the handler - MyHandler.ashx - which of those published files actually change? If i want to reploy - do I simply need to resend an updated version of MyHandler.ashx? Or, do simple coding changes to that file require changes to the DLL?</p>

<p>I guess my question is, generally - what's <strong>in</strong> the DLL? (E.g., is it a compiled version of MyHandler.ashx?)</p>

<p>More specifically - publishing my project creates the following files that I don't really understand:</p>

<ul>
<li>Web.config</li>
<li>Global.asax (in my project, there's not much in here)</li>
<li>bin/MyProject.dll</li>
</ul>

<p>So, if I make changes to MyHandler.ashx - can I simply reploy THAT file? Or, do I need to "publish", then "redeploy" thd dll? (By changes - I mean simple code changes, not decisions to include/exclude other external dependencies).</p>

<p>Sorry - this question must seem like nonsense to knowledgeable ASP.net developers. But, with other technologies I've used, things were clear:</p>

<ul>
<li>If you're developing a Flash project, you write source code in .FLA files, then compile, then deploy the resulting .SWF files.</li>
<li>If you're developing an HTML/JavaScript/PHP project, you write those files, then deploy those same files</li>
</ul>

<p>I'd trying to get a better understanding of what's what with ASP.net.</p>

<p>Thanks again.</p>
