(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Reinforcing its investment in the Microsoft Web Platform, Microsoft has released a beta version of WebMatrix (www.microsoft.com/web/webmatrix), a free tool for building, customizing and deploying websites in one common, straightforward experience for developers of all skill sets.
According to Microsoft’s Tuesday announcement, WebMatrix is designed to provide developers with what they need to build and run websites and applications on Windows. WebMatrix complements the other elements of the Microsoft Web Platform including the Web Application Gallery and the Web Platform Installer.
Scott Guthrie, vice president of the Microsoft Developer Division, said in a blog post that WebMatrix is a lightweight web development tool that “makes it even easier for people to get started with web development using ASP.NET.” WebMatrix also integrates new web development technologies including IIS Developer Express, SQL Server Compact Edition, and the new “Razor” view engine for ASP.NET.
Guthrie continued, “This tool is free, provides core coding and database support, integrates with an open source web application gallery, and includes support to easily publish/deploy sites and applications to web hosting providers.”
WebMatrix is a 15MB download (50MB including .NET 4) that includes a lightweight development tool, IIS Express, SQL Compact Edition, and a set of ASP.NET extensions. This lets users create standalone ASP.NET pages using the new Razor syntax, as well as a set of easy to use database and HTML helpers to address common web-tasks. WebMatrix can be installed side-by-side with Visual Studio 2010 and Visual Web Developer 2010 Express.
“WebMatrix is a task-focused tool that is designed to make it really easy to get started with web development.” Guthrie stated. “It minimizes the number of concepts someone needs to learn in order to get simple things done, and includes and integrates all of the pieces necessary to quickly build websites.”
Depending on feedback, a final version is expected to be released before the end of the year.
A ZDNet article notes that the original incarnation of ASP.Net WebMatrix died in 2003, but Microsoft has taken steps so that this version will not suffer a similar fate. This release will benefit from knowledge gained throught the previous release, however, unlike the earlier one, this one will benefit from being a fully supported Microsoft product.
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