I just got off stage at TechEd Europe in Berlin where I announced the availability of the final beta of WebMatrix and MVC 3!  What a blast!  If you haven’t checked out WebMatrix or MVC 3 yet, now is a great time to do it. 

WebMatrix Beta 3

I had the pleasure of giving the “Lap Around WebMatrix” talk and show off a bunch of new features available in this, the last beta for v1.  It is amazing to think that development really started in earnest just this year, the first beta was just a few months ago and here we are nearing feature complete.  My hat is off to the team for innovating so quickly and working so hard to bring such an awesome product to market.  My talk was almost all demos, but here are some highlights:

• You can download beta 3 of WebMatrix and learn more about the product here: http://www.microsoft.com/web/webmatrix
• WebMatrix beta 3 features enhanced publishing support including
  • Import publishing profile from XML (hosting providers can now send you a pre-configured account!)
  • Application compatibility checks for .NET version, PHP and MySQL compatibility
  • Download from hosting server – you can now sync your Web site both ways, from local development to server and from server back to local development! (this is super cool)
• The updated ASP.NET Web Pages now includes support for NuGet, an open source packaging and distribution system for libraries and helpers
  • Browse to http://localhost/_admin to activate your ASP.NET Web Pages control panel, browse NuGet modules and install them
  • There are now almost a dozen new helpers for ASP.NET Web Pages including support for PayPal, Twitter, Facebook and more!
• The built-in templates are now richer with more functionality
• Enhanced configuration settings allow you to choose and activate specific ASP.NET and PHP versions
• The built-in editor now supports HTML tag completion and better formatting
• and much, much more!

Here are a few pics:

The Welcome Screen

WebMatrix can sync files and database from your desktop to server and back:

WebMatrix checks compatibility of your site on the server and can even set the right version of .NET Framework for you.

The new ASP.NET Web Pages panel makes it easy to find and install helpers that make Web development easier than ever before.  Already included are helpers for twitter, paypal, facebook, odata and more!  Just browse to http://localhost/_admin on any ASP.NET Web Page site to activate the panel – no install required!

MVC 3 Release Candidate

MVC 3 now includes Razor tooling support inside Visual Studio for both Razor-based views as well as ASP.NET Web Pages.  Install MVC 3 with a new update to WebPI v3 beta now, and look for a blog post from ScottGu and Phil Haack coming soon.   To tide you over, here are some image previews of Razor tooling in VS:

File –> New –> Web Site

Content, Empty, Layout and Web Page in “Add New Item” dialog