Top ASP.NET Items

Microsoft Web Farm Framework 2.0

The IIS team recently published the Microsoft Web Farm Framework 2.0 release to the web.  You can learn more about it and download the final V2 release of it here . What is the Web Farm Framework? The Microsoft Web Farm Framework is a free, fully supported, Microsoft product that enables you to easily provision and mange a farm of web servers.  It enables you to automate the installation and configuration of platform components across the server farm, and enables you to automatically synchronize and deploy ASP.NET applications across them. It supports integration with load balancers, and enables you to automate updates across your servers so that your site/application is never down or unavailable to customers (it can automatically...

Announcing release of ASP.NET MVC 3, IIS Express, SQL CE 4, Web Farm Framework, Orchard, WebMatrix

I’m excited to announce the release today of several products: ASP.NET MVC 3 NuGet IIS Express 7.5 SQL Server Compact Edition 4 Web Deploy and Web Farm Framework 2.0 Orchard 1.0 WebMatrix 1.0 The above products are all free. They build upon the .NET 4 and VS 2010 release, and add a ton of additional value to ASP.NET (both Web Forms and MVC) and the Microsoft Web Server stack. ASP.NET MVC 3 Today we are shipping the final release of ASP.NET MVC 3.  You can download and install ASP.NET MVC 3 here .  The ASP.NET MVC 3 source code (released under an OSI-compliant open source license) can also optionally be downloaded here . ASP.NET MVC 3 is a significant update that brings with it a bunch of great features.  Some of the improvements...

VS 2010 SP1 (Beta) and IIS Express

Last month we released the VS 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Beta.  You can learn more about the VS 2010 SP1 Beta from Jason Zander’s two blog posts about it, and from Scott Hanselman’s blog post that covers some of the new capabilities enabled with it.  You can download and install the VS 2010 SP1 Beta here . IIS Express Earlier this summer I blogged about IIS Express .  IIS Express is a free version of IIS 7.5 that is optimized for developer scenarios.  We think it combines the ease of use of the ASP.NET Web Server (aka Cassini) currently built-into VS today with the full power of IIS.  Specifically: It’s lightweight and easy to install (less than 5Mb download and a quick install) It does not require an administrator account...

Automating Deployment with Microsoft Web Deploy

This is the twenty-eighth in a series of blog posts I’m doing on the VS 2010 and .NET 4 release. This blog post continues a series of posts I’m doing that cover the new improvements we made around web deployment.  In my first post in the deployment series I provided an overview of the new VS 2010 Web Deployment features. In today’s post I’m going to be discussing Microsoft Web Deploy – which is a free server technology that enables a comprehensive publishing and deployment mechanism.  Web Deploy enables you to not only publish files – but also provision database schema/data, run database change scripts, set security ACLs, and more.  All of these deployment steps can be automated using Visual Studio. This post will provide a step...

Introducing the Microsoft Web Farm Framework

Last month we released a beta of the Microsoft Web Farm Framework. The Microsoft Web Farm Framework is a free product we are shipping that enables you to easily provision and mange a farm of web servers.  It enables you to automate the installation and configuration of platform components across the server farm, and enables you to automatically synchronize and deploy ASP.NET applications across them.  It also supports integration with load balancers - and enables you to automate updates across your servers so that your site/application is never down or unavailable to customers (it can automatically pull servers one-at-a-time out of the load balancer rotation, update them, and then inject them back into rotation). The Microsoft Web...

August 29th Links: .NET, ASP.NET, IIS Express, Silverlight, Windows Phone 7

Here is the latest in my link-listing series .  Also check out my VS 2010 and .NET 4 series and ASP.NET MVC 2 series for other on-going blog series I’m working on. [In addition to blogging, I am also now using Twitter for quick updates and to share links. Follow me at: twitter.com/scottgu ] .NET/WPF/EF 5 Little C#/.NET Wonders that Make Code Better : Nice blog post from James that highlights 5 nice language/framework tips you can take advantage of within your apps.  I’m betting a lot of people didn’t know about the StopWatch class. WPF Ribbon Control Released : The WPF team recently released the final V1 release of the WPF Ribbon control.  This makes it easy to build ribbon-based applications. Also read this WPF team blog post...

Introducing IIS Express

Developers today build and test ASP.NET sites and applications using one of two web-servers: The ASP.NET Development Server that comes built-into Visual Studio The IIS Web Server that comes built-into Windows Both of the above options have their pros and cons, and many ASP.NET developers have told us: “I wish I could have the ease of use of the ASP.NET Development Server, but still have all the power and features of IIS”.  Today I’m happy to announce a new, free option that we are enabling – IIS Express - that combines the best characteristics of both, and which will make it easier to build and run ASP.NET sites and applications. IIS Express will work with VS 2010 and Visual Web Developer 2010 Express, will run on Windows XP and higher...

Tip/Trick: Fix Common SEO Problems Using the URL Rewrite Extension

Search engine optimization (SEO) is important for any publically facing web-site.  A large % of traffic to sites now comes directly from search engines, and improving your site’s search relevancy will lead to more users visiting your site from search engine queries.  This can directly or indirectly increase the money you make through your site. This blog post covers how you can use the free Microsoft URL Rewrite Extension to fix a bunch of common SEO problems that your site might have.  It takes less than 15 minutes (and no code changes) to apply 4 simple URL Rewrite rules to your site, and in doing so cause search engines to drive more visitors and traffic to your site.  The techniques below work equally well with both ASP...

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Toolkit

[ In addition to blogging, I’m also now using Twitter for quick updates and to share links. Follow me at: twitter.com/scottgu ] Over the last few weeks I’ve been polling developers to see how many are using the new Search Engine Optimization (SEO) toolkit to increase traffic to their web-sites.  I’ve been surprised by how many people either have never heard of the tool, or have not yet had a chance to run it against their websites.  This blog post provides a quick summary about why anyone doing web-development should check it out. Why use the free SEO Toolkit? In a nutshell – the free SEO Toolkit Analyzer helps you increase traffic and visitors to your site, and as a result can increase the revenue you directly or indirectly make through...

Announcing the WebsiteSpark Program

I’m excited to announce a new program – WebsiteSpark – that Microsoft is launching today. WebsiteSpark is designed for independent web developers and web development companies that build web applications and web sites on behalf of others.  It enables you to get software, support and business resources from Microsoft at no cost for three years, and enables you to expand your business and build great web solutions using ASP.NET, Silverlight, SharePoint and PHP, and the open source applications built on top of them. What does the program provide? WebSiteSpark provides software licenses that you can use for three years at no cost.  Once enrolled, you can download and immediately use the following software from Microsoft: 3 licenses of...