What's the usual term for a local IIS/web application with services?

Question

I've inherited a multi-technology project which comprises a Flash user interface contained in a web-browser-like host and has an ASP.NET piece which provides web services to the Flash UI, background/watchdog services plus a web application for administration of the system.

Our transatlantic project conference calls are getting confusing due to the various terms people use to describe the ASP.NET piece. Indeed, ASP.NET has its' own project terminology including 'Web Site' and 'Web Application' to both of which one can add a 'Web Service'.

Is there any commonly-used name for this ASP.NET multi-purpose project piece?

Answer 1

I think in your case you'd be better off less focused on those terms and rather refer to the Flash portion as the UI/View and the ASP.NET backend as the model.

Answer 2

I don't think there is a general term that describes this. "Web Site" as you mentioned is related to the Web Site Project template type within Visual Studio and relates to the way deployment is completed. "Web Application" relates to the Web Application project template that has a different deployment, compilation process.

I don't see a need for a name, as typically situations like this, the collective would be called by some project name, or maybe even the url. Then the pieces identified by their function.

To expand on this a bit from your comments in regards to the usage for the name.

In a normal situation, I would see what you have noted broken out into three sections.

• Services
• Administration Interface
• Web Services

This would be a minimal dividing line, but as I noted in the comments, I don't see that your folder name in source control should be something that has to be 1000% descriptive, you should have other documentation as well that explains the architecture, especially when you have mixed technologies as you do.

Answer 3

You might be able to just call it the "Server Side." Your Flash app would be the "Client Side." Otherwise, it would probably be okay to call it the "(ASP.NET) Web Application," or "Web/Service Layer." "Web Site" might not be the best, because that might just imply that it's just a web site, which may not make it clear that it also encompasses web services.