Get Web Platform Installer and get all the latest web related Tools/Programs

Web Plagtform Installer (Web PI) is a free tool and a treasure house for those interested in developing for the web. It is the source to get some of the free stuff for Microsoft Web Platform components like Internet Information Services, SQL Server Express, .NET Framework, Web Matrix
and a host of other development related resources including third party/Open Source programs. It is well suited for blogging, content management, learning and you can use the Windows Web Application Gallery.

Get Web Platform Installer 5.0 from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/web/downloads/platform.aspx

When you install the Web Platform Installer (wpilauncher.exe) you always get the latest version. You can get it in the language of your choice from among 14 languages:

• English, German, French, Spanish, Italian,
• Czech, Polish, Portuguese-Brazil, Russian,
• Chinese Simplified, Japanese,  Korean, Chinese, Traditional, Chinese,  Turkish

It has a tiny foot print but does great thingswith this size. The program requires one of the following OS plus connection to the Internet:

• Windows 8
• Windows 7
• Windows Vista with SP2
• Windows Server: 2003 with sp2+, 2008, 2008R2 and 2012

Even Windows XP is listed but support for XP does not exist. You also need administrative rights to the computer/server.

 

 

I recently installed WebMatrix3 from the installer:

MsftWebMatirx3.png

During this installation I could install many more items besides WebMatrix to have a complete set of tools/programs to build and maintain web sites, database applications etc. These applications are in spotlight:

MsftWebMatirx4.png

These are products available. Click on the navigation items in the left to review the details:

 MsftWebMatirx5.png

You can have a host of other programs (Drupal, Joomla, WorkPress, etc.). You can pick and choose:

 MsftWebMatirx6.png

Good luck!

LightSwitch - A developer tool for dummies

Beta will be available on Aug 23, 2010 for the General Public. The MSDN subscribers have started using it and there were 70 postings on its forum the last time I visited and asked a question.

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/lightswitchgeneral/threads

This is a product for real dummies and for those who are averse to writing code. Being template based it must be all Microsoft Wizardry, a RAD tool at its best (I hope). Small business owners take heart. You don't need to hire arrogant developers you can develop apps your self.

I read somewhere that while WebMatrix is for those who love HTML, LightSwitch is for those who like Silverlight.

It can be integrated with SharePoint, Silverlight, Microsoft Office, Windows Azure, SQL Azure and Windows and perhaps others in the future. Both VB and C# are OK.

I hope this will turn Microsoft into a Growth Stock.

(Web)Matrix Reloaded

Microsoft has resurrected WebMatrix the free tool for developing web pages. The latest WebMatrix includes ASP.NET Extensions and IIS Express - a free developer tool. The new tool also supports creating ASP.NET MVC and or ASP.NET Web Pages. This is how this new feature 'Razor' is explained by Scot Guthrie in his blog [http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2010/07/02/introducing-razor.aspx].
The design goals for this upgraded WebMatrix are,

Compact, Expressive, and Fluid (looks like this has been achieved)
Easy to Learn
Is not a new language (corollary to the above)
works with any Text Editor
Has great intellisense
Unit Testable

Appears to be an all round improvement. The replacement for 'cassini' may be a more robust web server in the form of IIS Express.

Here is the trick to using Razor

<%=name%/> is replaced by @name
<%=productID%/> is replaced by $productID

You get the picture. Six characters replaced by a single character. Quite a saving if you had had a great big page and you don't need to handle those awkward angles (sigh! I have so gotten used to them).

There are more examples in Scott's blog, make sure you look it up.

I went back to take a look at an article I created in 2006 on the previous version. Even back then it was quite interesting.