I think I can count WebAPI out, but WebForms, WebPages, and MVC are all possibilities.
I want to create an asp.net web site that is primarily static content and links to other sites. The only “fancy” bit will be a Bing map with pushpins that I add – but even these are static. And there will be a photo gallery. Oh, and ads, too.
And, finally, it needs to work well on phones and tablets as well as desktop browsers.
Which asp.net technology “flavor” is most suited for this type of web site?
UPDATE
In VS 2012, Web Pages projects are not available beneath Templates | Visual C# | Web.
What is there:
ASP.NET Empy Web Application
ASP.NET Web Forms Application
ASP.NET MVC 3 Web Application
ASP.NET MVC 4 WebApplication
ASP.NET Dyanmic Data Entities Web Application
Does this mean that Web Pages are passe, or that Web Pages and Web Forms are the same thing?
5
It’s easy to discard WebForms because you’re not accepting user data, no MVC because, well, your model isn’t going to be substantial. That leaves WebPages.
But let’s look at this from another perspective: what happens when the requirements change? Are you looking forward to doing much of what you’ve already done over again because your site needs added functionality, because suddenly there IS supposed to be heavy user interaction, data being pushed back to the server, a model that will influence your view?
Don’t be too quick to choose the easy way out because more often than not, that means closing the door on flexibility and scalability. More often than not, at some point, sailor-like swearing will ensue.
Go with MVC. We don’t live in an era of a static web anymore.
As far as multi-device goes: that’s mainly a CSS-related endeavor, should have very little to do with ASP.NET in itself. If you design it well from the start, that is.
Maybe consider something like Nancy, it’s lightweight and aims to get out of your way as much as possible. As @Wim Ombelets says you really don’t need the overhead of WebForms and both the Model and Controllers are probably also more than you’ll require which means you probably wont need the MVC framework either.