Developing ASP.NET Web Applications - Three environments for developing ASP.NET applications
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Figure 1-8 shows three common ways to set up a development environment for coding and testing ASP.NET applications. As you’ll see, each setup has its advantages and disadvantages. The environment you choose will depend on your development needs and on the resources that are available to you.
The simplest development environment is a standalone environment. In this case, a single computer serves as both the client and the server. Because of that, it must run an operating system that supports ASP.NET development, and it must have the .NET Framework and Visual Studio 2008 installed. Because Visual Studio 2008 comes with its own development server for local testing, you don’t have to install IIS when you use a standalone environment. Also, since Visual Studio comes with SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (or just SQL Server Express), you don’t have to install a separate database product.
The second development environment works with separate client and server computers that are connected via a local area network. Here, the client computer has Windows, the .NET Framework, and Visual Studio 2008 installed, while the server runs Windows Server with the .NET Framework, IIS, and FrontPage Server Extensions (FPSE). FPSE provides the services that Visual Studio 2008 uses to communicate with a web site on a remote computer. In addition, the server uses SQL Server to handle database access. With this environment, more than one programmer can work on the same application, but all of the programmers are located at the same site.
With the third development environment, the client computers are connected to the server via the Internet rather than a LAN. This makes it possible to work with a web site that’s hosted on another server. This environment requires an FTP server, which is used to copy the files in a web site between the client computer and the server. The FTP server uses File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to perform the copy operations, and IIS can be configured to act as an FTP server as well as a web server. So if a web site is hosted on a server that you have access to, you can configure the server so remote users can access it using FTP.
Standalone development
Local area network development
Internet development
Description
When you use standalone development, a single computer serves as both the client and the server. Because Visual Studio comes with a scaled-back web server called the ASP.NET Development Server (or just development server), you don’t need to use IIS for testing web applications on your own PC. However, you do need to use IIS to test certain features of web applications.
When you use a local area network (LAN), a client computer communicates with a server computer over the LAN. With this setup, two or more programmers at the same site can work on the same application. This setup requires that FrontPage Server Extensions (FPSE) be installed on the server.
When you use Internet development, a client computer communicates with a server computer over the Internet. With this setup, programmers at different locations can work on the same application. This setup requires an FTP server on the server. The FTP server uses File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to transfer files between the client computer and the server.
Figure 1-8 Three environments for developing ASP.NET applications
Please check back tomorrow for the conclusion to this series.
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 This article is an excerpt from chapter one of Murach's ASP.NET 3.5 Web Programming with VB 2008, written by Anne Boehm (Murach, 2008; ISBN: 1890774472). Check it out today at your favorite bookstore. Buy this book now.
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