'Microsoft.AspNet.Web.Optimization' vs 'Microsoft.AspNet.Web.Optimization.WebForms'

Question

What is the difference between these two libraries:

https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.AspNet.Web.Optimization/1.1.0
https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.AspNet.Web.Optimization.WebForms/1.0.30506

Answer 1

After checking out Microsoft.AspNet.WebOptimization.WebForms in a decompiler, it looks to me like it is responsible for loading WebForms specific bundles referenced by a Bundle.config file in the root of a WebForms website. If you create a new WebForms website using visual studio 2012, it will include the Microsoft.AspNet.WebOptimization.WebForms package and Bundle.config file by default. In a sample that I had created, the bundle.config file includes references to jquery ui and files in the /Content directory. One of my few gripes with the Nuget system is that the documentation package descriptions can be pretty sparse at times. In this case some clarification would definitely aid developers because there is some guess work involved here.

Answer 2

So basically the webforms package provides a control that can be used similar to the Styles helper. Primarily it was created for the Visual Studio designer surface to be able to locate the CSS to use for the page.

You could use the control at runtime as well, but it only supports style bundles, so its fairly limited in use.