Introducing the ASP.NET Web Matrix - Testing Your Pages, Database Server
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When working on your ASP.NET scripts, you are going to want to periodically test that the pages work in the manner you intend. If you have IIS installed you can save files in your Inetpub folder and view them through your browser manually, but the Web Matrix can automate this process for you and have a virtual root created by IIS in which to store your pages; the browser is then launched and the page is viewed automatically. If you don’t have IIS installed, don’t worry because the Matrix ships with its own fully integrated personal web server specifically for viewing the pages you create! All this can be achieved simply by pressing the play button on the toolbar.
One thing the application doesn’t have integrated with it is a database server for use with the data page templates. This in itself does not provide too much of a challenge, however, because the Web Matrix contains full information on how to download and install the Microsoft Desktop Engine, a lightweight database server that allows you to view, retrieve and modify data stored in SQL databases. This is another application that is provided by Microsoft completely free of charge.
Some of the information you need to install the Microsoft Desktop Engine is online rather than in the program help files (in fact, the help files themselves are online), and you will need to venture into a command prompt to fully install the database server, but it is well documented and I’m sure it could be installed fairly easily by somebody who had never even used a database server before. If you would rather use an Access database instead, the Web Matrix provides a built in method of doing this too, and uses a step-by-step wizard to create either type of database and connect to it for you.
In addition to connecting to databases, the Web Matrix also provides a model for editing the data held within your database table(s) or editing the structure of the table(s). This provides an easy method for managing the data that is held.
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