WEB SERVICES or ASP.NET-which one has more potencial?

[beginner1]

I'm just learning c# but I want to know what my options are if I decide to write internet applications.As far as I know I have two options:
-WEB SERVICES or ASP.NET(is that all?)
Here is my request:Can you write all the pros and cons for each of those options?Who should use ASP.net and who the other?Which one is the future of programming?How much more difficult is to learn one over the other...

Thank you for all your help!

 

[jfrost10]

Hey Beg1, how's it going?

Here's a little story to show you the difference between web services and web appliacations:

Web Service Story:
Mr. Yoko supplies 3 different sites with information regarding the Japanese Sumo-Wrestling Federation. He does this by emailing the 3 webmasters of hte sites every time a new story breaks. This started to get tedious after a while, so Yoko did something about it: he wrote a WEB SERVICE.

The 3 different sites were written in ASP.NET, and are all WEB APPLICATIONS. part of the web sites display the most recent news articles from the Japanese Sumo Wrestling Federation. But now, instead of having to retrieve emails from Yoko and formatting them, the ASP.NET WEB APPLICATION simply connects to Yoko's WEB SERVICE, retrieves the most recent articles, and displays them automatically, without anyone having to wait for emails or copying the text from emails to the web pages.

Moral of the story:
A Web Service is code that can be used by many different people for many different applications. Its like a DLL that is available on the internet.

A Web Application is a group of web pages (in our case, asp.net files) that do something.

So I answer your question with a question:
Do you want to write generic code that many people can use (ie News Services, Weather Services, etc)? Go the Web Services route
Do you want to write applications that users can use online to get work done? Go the ASP.NET route.

Wow, I've now written a novel, so I'll stop here.


If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.


Jack

 

[beginner1]

Wow,thank you so much.You have to understand I'm a total beginner,so...
-If I understood correctly,with ASP.NET and C# I could create an application similar to lets say outlook express that would basicly exist on a web and it's UI would be your browser?So would I be able to create any application similar to one which normaly runs on windows?
If so,on what platform would application exist?I imagine there has to be a platform on which application stands.
-And most importantly,where lies the money?If you're an average guy,where is your best shot(between those two)?

I know,you've already helped me so much with a novel and all,but just this once...

 

[jfrost10]

Novel Chapter 2


The new asp.net controls allow you to pretty much duplicate the interface of any windows app to the web. Pretty powerful stuff actually.

ASP.NET needs IIS to actually run. IIS can only run on Win2k, WinXPPro, or NT4.0. So the app will be on a Windows machine, but since browsers are platform independent, its totally conceivable that a user with Linux could use your app.

As far as money goes, I'm sure someone will blast my opinion, but here's my take on it:
If you can provide something that alot of people will be willing to pay for, then write a web service. Alot of the web services out there revolve around news gathering (like the example in my first post), but I'm sure that there are lots of other things that can be done.

However, asp.net now allows developers to develop REALLY BIG web apps that are on par with desktop applications. I'm developing an entire portal for our main client that they will use for pretty much ALL of their day to day functions. So you could make good coin just making apps

Of course, the best thing would be to learn the app side of things, and if a good opportunity comes along for a web service, take it. Best of both worlds.


Jack

 

[beginner1]

Thank you,it was a great read,though I don't think an average guy can master both ASP.NET and web services without sacrifising most of his personal life in months(years?)to come.Anyway,I really appreciate all your help.