Introducing IIS Developer Express

Today, we announced the beta version of WebMatrix, which includes a developer-focused version of IIS called IIS Developer Express. You can learn and download WebMatrix using the following links:

http://www.microsoft.com/web/webmatrix/

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2010/07/06/introducing-webmatrix.aspx

 

In this first blog post, I’d like to help you understand IIS Developer Express better and point you to some existing resources. We’ll use the coming days to drill into various aspects of the product.

First, a bit about myself

I am a program manager with IIS and joined the team a short (but intense and exciting) 5 months ago. Have been with MS since Dec 2007, prior to which I spent 10+ years as a developer and lead in the San Francisco bay area. My last stop was with Intuit’s desktop payroll product team in Mountain View, CA. Back at HP, I was part of a group that built an embedded web server for the imaging and printing platform. I have been fascinated with the Web ever since and am relishing my role with IIS. I work on IIS Developer Express as well as other portions of the core IIS server.

 

Back to IIS Developer Express

The goal of WebMatrix (and IIS Developer Express) is make Web development a lot simpler and productive on the Windows platform. WebMatrix includes a few other components to deliver this promise (more information in the links above).

You can get a good overview of IIS Developer Express from Scottgu’s blog from last week. Note that Scott uses the unofficial name of the product (IIS Express). Also, please note that not all of the features Scott discusses in his blog posting and responses are implemented in Beta. In particular, the Beta version isn’t officially integrated with Visual Studio (this support will be added to VS10 later on), can’t be redistributed and doesn’t support all IIS7.x modules.

Here are some additional links to look at.

http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/868/iis-developer-express-overview/

http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/901/iis-developer-express-faq/

The first link will give you a 50-foot overview of IIS Developer Express and explain its relationship to IIS7.x. The second one is intended to help you better understand what is in the Beta release.

Check out WebMatrix and IIS Developer Express, and let us know if you have any questions.

6 Comments


  • Thanks, Slavo. We don't support a separate download as yet. This is something we are considering going forward. To make sure I understand, are you interested in redistributing the web server or is it that you don't care about the UI.


  • >>And I suspect Slavo has the same requirement as me - standalone server that we dump on the client's machine and that just works. Pl. give us a solution for our pain. :)

    This isn't officially supported or tested with the beta version but we are looking at making this easier going forward. The runtime is xcopy'able and there is a command line way to launch IIS Developer Express as described in the link below.

    http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/870/use-the-command-line-to-run-a-webmatrix-site-or-application/

    It might involve some experimentation but you should be able to package the binaries, configuration and your app and run them from the command line (although this isn't officially supported yet, as I mentioned). You'll need the correct .NET framework installed on the target machine, obviously.

  • All I get is the option to install IIS 5.1 on my XP Machine. What gives? Also, when will you have it integrated with VS 2010?

    Gareth


  • >>All I get is the option to install IIS 5.1 on my XP Machine. What gives? Also, when will you have it integrated with VS 2010?

    Gareth, are you installing WebMatrix from http://www.microsoft.com/web/webmatrix/? Can you email me the details about your steps and machine at vaidy.gopalakrishnan@microsoft.com?

    We will announce the VS 2010 date as soon as it is finalized. This still being worked on.

  • Is there a separate download for just IIS Express? I don't want any extra bells and whilstles, just IIS Express, installed with default settings. I've searched far and wide and don't seem to be able to locate a separate download for just IIS Express.

  • >>Is there a separate download for just IIS Express? I don't want any extra bells and whilstles, just IIS Express, installed with default settings.

    Check out the following page. It has instructions on how to install just IIS Express.
    http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/868/iis-express-overview/

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