Microsoft WebMatrix

Microsoft WebMatrix

Screenshot of Microsoft WebMatrix, v7.1.1042.1 published on 8 January 2011
Developer(s) Microsoft
Stable release 7.1.1042.1 / 8 January 2011; 13 months ago (2011-01-08)
Operating system Windows 7
Windows Vista
Windows XP
Windows Server 2003
Windows Server 2008
Windows Server 2008 R2[1]
Platform Intel x86 - 32bit and .NET Framework
Size 8 MB[1]
Available in English, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Spanish[1]
Type Website builder and HTML editor
License Freeware[1]
Website www.microsoft.com/web/webmatrix/

Microsoft WebMatrix is a free tool released by Microsoft, allowing developers to build websites capable of running on Windows or Linux platforms. It's notable in that it allows developers to use free open source web applications written in either PHP or ASP.NET.

Another Microsoft tool, ASP.NET Web Matrix (which was released in 2003 and later discontinued) should not be confused with Microsoft WebMatrix. While the names of the two tools are similar, the name of the latter is inspired by the former.[2]

Contents

Overview

WebMatrix is a bundle of software running on the developer's machine, with the aim of simplifying the process of web application development using Windows. The bundle includes the IIS Express web server, the SQL Server Compact database engine and the ASP.NET Web Pages framework. The ASP.NET Web Pages framework contains the 'Razor' syntax for inline coding of C# and VB within HTML. WebMatrix also integrates the Web Application Gallery and Web Application Installer from Microsoft, enabling developers who use PHP, MySQL or other web development components to download, install and configure these components directly from WebMatrix.[3][4]

WebMatrix claims to simplify the website development process because it:

ASP.NET Web Matrix (2003)

The original ASP.NET Web Matrix was a free tool released by Microsoft for the rapid development of web applications running on servers which support ASP.NET. It is a managed application written in the programming language C#.[5][6]

ASP.NET Web Matrix grew out of a pet project started by Nikhil Kothari. It was originally conceived as a test bed for working with ASP.NET controls in a designer environment. The ASP.NET team saw a number of benefits for a tool of this type, and used it to try out a variety of additional ideas for creating an Integrated development environment that could act as a lightweight alternative to Visual Studio. The project was developed into a product (originally code-named "Saturn") that was released in the summer of 2002 as free download on the www.asp.net Web site, without official support (only community support) and with only word-of-mouth marketing. The original release supported only Microsoft SQL Server, which was bundled with Web Matrix in the form of MSDE, a desktop version of the database engine. A subsequent release of Web Matrix ("Web Matrix Reloaded") in June 2003 included support for Microsoft Access .mdb files, which simplified deployment.

Web Matrix included a number of features that made it an appealing alternative to Visual Studio 2003:

Many of these features were incorporated into Visual Studio 2005, and the WebMatrix style of web application development became the default. The success of the Web Matrix project, both in terms of features and in the appeal to the community of a free IDE with a limited feature set, also helped the Visual Studio team decide to release Microsoft Visual Studio Express 2005 - Visual Web Developer Express Edition for Web development, and similar Express versions of Visual Basic, C#, and SQL Server.[7]

Visual Studio Express

While ASP.NET Web Matrix provided a number of firsts and innovations that made their way into the Visual Studio product line, it lacked important features required by professional web developers, such as IntelliSense, integration with the debugger, an integrated compiler for developing class libraries, and support for the ASP.NET code-behind page model.

Microsoft Visual Studio Express 2005 did include most of these features, and the Web Matrix's role has been taken by Visual Web Developer Express Edition.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Download details: Microsoft WebMatrix". Microsoft Download Center. Microsoft Corporation. 11 January 2011. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=5b9510a1-bc42-4323-90ab-adf4daaaa2f0. Retrieved 28 January 2011. 
  2. ^ WebMatrix beta version announcement - Introducing WebMatrix - Scott Guthrie's blog (with reference to same name being re-used, in the replies Tuesday, July 06, 2010 6:51 PM and Tuesday, July 06, 2010 6:52 PM)
  3. ^ WebMatrix beta version announcement - Introducing WebMatrix - Scott Guthrie's blog
  4. ^ Michael Calore, "Meet WebMatrix, Microsoft’s New Suite For Painless Web Development," WebMonkey, July 7, 2010 http://www.webmonkey.com/2010/07/meet-webmatrix-microsofts-new-suite-for-painless-web-development/
  5. ^ Microsoft ASP.NET Web Matrix Project Help at the Wayback Machine (archived June 30, 2007)
  6. ^ About the Microsoft ASP.NET Web Matrix Project at the Wayback Machine (archived July 7, 2007)
  7. ^ a b Visual Studio 2005 Express Developer Center - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) - questions 23 to 35, especially question 28 at the Wayback Machine (archived April 6, 2008)

External links

Open source
Scintilla-based
Freeware
Commercial software
Discontinued
Web-based