How to set up web development platform?

BANGALORE, INDIA: Developing a web application on Windows using its tools is a lot simpler than we think it could be. .NET, Visual Studio etc. all help in increasing the productivity of a developer and put you on the right track quickly. However, it sometimes is difficult to remember what all is required to be installed to get productive quickly. This is where these two new tools from Microsoft can really help you out.

You can choose to install the complete set, a set that lets you develop on ASP.NET or a custom set. The custom set is most useful as it has a number of choices that you can obviously customize and takes care of non-ASP.NET developers too.

The first tab here called “New” shows you a list of new and cutting edge modules, SDKs or tools that you can use. In the current release, you have a number of IIS 7 extensions, SilverLight tools for VS and the latest beta of ASP.NET MVC release. The next tab called “Web Server” allows you to select and install the components of IIS7 that you need for a particular type of development and there are a number of templates – like Default, ASP.NET Development, PHP Development - that are included. Choosing a template (say PHP Development) changes the set of modules you need installed (for instance CGI/FastCGI support for PHP). The next tab – Tools and Framework – gets you the latest version of .NET (3.5sp1), SQL Express 2008, Visual Web Developer Express 2008, drivers for PHP, and some more. The final two tabs let you select all or view updates for any of the installed stuff.

Once you have selected the items you wish to install, you can proceed and review the list. When you proceed, you will be given the license terms to agree to and then it downloads the required software and installs and configures it for you automatically. So getting to a productive state is very easy on a new computer – and remember that all the Microsoft software it downloads is completely free.

Web Application Installer
This is the second tool from Microsoft that lets you install web based applications. It includes both ASP.NET and PHP, free or open source applications and is configured automatically to work on Windows.

When you run the WAI file, you are shown a number of different applications that you can install. Some of these require PHP and MySQL to be installed on IIS beforehand. (Note: currently the Web Platform Installer doesn't install these, but the next release is expected to automate this as well.) If you have run the WPI and installed PHP and MySQL, you can choose from the list of Web applications shown.

Once you have chosen the application you wish to install and proceed, you will be first prompted for the web site on the local machine and the virtual directory name you wish to assign. Proceeding further, you will need to give the specific configuration that the chosen application needs – for instance, database information, usernames and passwords and more. Proceeding further will let the tool check the system to see if it meets the compatibility required. If it doesn't, it informs you of the same so that you can correct the errors and proceed. When it does, it downloads the Web application, and configures the database and application accordingly. Once it completes, you are presented with a fully installed and configured version of the application you chose – whether it is on ASP.NET or PHP/MySQL on Windows.

Currently the two tools have a limited number of things they install – but this number is expected to grow each time they update the catalog. Installing the free Microsoft web platform and tools as well as a number of free or open source web applications running on both ASP.NET and PHP/MySQL on Windows is now a breeze. If you're a Web developer, these two tools can help you get productive very, very quickly.