ASP.NET Tutorial 0: Getting ready for ASP.NET development

by Matt on 2009/10/27 at 12:48 pm

Windows 7 kicks serious ass… and actually runs better on my pansy little netbook than XP does. I highly recommend it.

Just some food for thought.

New additions to WPI, including beta releases.

IIS add-ons, server features, etc.

Content management systems (Drupal, Umbraco), blog platforms (WordPress, BlogEngine), etc.

URL Rewrite is one of those big features I mentioned that isn’t available for Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 systems, as it requires IIS7 or newer. URL Rewriting allows you to take a URL like www.mattvanandel.com/index.php?article=1234567 and turn it into something like www.mattvanandel.com/setting _up_your_computer_for_dotnet/ which is more user-friendly, search-engine friendly, and just plain friendly. It’s a feature supported by nearly every major PHP application out there but not by IIS6 (there are premium ISAPI filters available for IIS6, but you’d be better off using the money you’d have to spend to upgrade Windows instead, as the 3rd party IIS6 ISAPI filter doesn’t come cheap).

In the screenshot, I have already installed just about everything under the sun. You don’t need all that. Not yet, anyway (you can keep wpilauncher.exe handy to install any features you need later on). If you follow the directions you should be peachy keen.

SQL Server Management Studio (including the free Express version) is an user-friendly program for managing and administrating MSSQL databases. Understandably, it only works with Microsoft’s SQL Server software. It does not work with MySQL.

…but if you want to install it anyway, it certainly won’t hurt anything. If you want to run PHP and .NET, then leave it checked and read my PHP Setup Tutorial when you’re done with this one… just skip Step 1 of the PHP tutorial as it will be redundant after you finish here.

Prerequisites: Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows Server 2008 Operating System

So you want to get into ASP.NET web development, but don’t know what you need to get started. Don’t panic, I’m here to help!

This in-depth article contains detailed instructions for setting up your Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows Server 2008 computer for full-on ASP.NET web development in C# including installation of IIS, Visual Web Developer Express, and SQL Server Express. This does not cover any actual use of those tools (those posts will come later), but covers in great detail what you will need and how to install everything.

This article has been divided into sections, by topic. For the main article, just scroll down to the section marked “Microsoft Web Platform Installer” and click on it to expand it’s contents. To see the overview or to read the special note, simply click on the title to expand it.

> A Note for Windows XP/Server 2003 Users

If you are using an older copy of Windows, please read this section first.

Visually, IIS6 – the version of IIS bundled with older Windows releases (such as Windows XP or Windows Server 2003) – bears almost no resemblance to IIS7, the version of IIS included exclusively with newer versions of Windows (such as Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows Server 2008).

Many features common to PHP under other PHP server software (such as Apache) are not compatible with IIS6 (such as URL Rewriting and gzip). Because IIS is a Windows feature, as opposed to an individual piece of software, you are stuck with the version of IIS included in your copy of Windows. For reference, below are screenshots of each version of IIS:

IIS6 (Windows XP/Server 2003)

IIS7 (Windows Vista/7/Server 2008)

The issue is this: Any reference to IIS on this site is a reference to IIS7 (the version included with Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008). If you are learning on Windows XP, any IIS examples I give won’t directly apply to your version of IIS (IIS6). It doesn’t mean you won’t be able to follow along, it just means you’ll be on your own for working out how to do things on IIS (and you will also have to work around some reduced functionality). Alternatively, you could always download WAMP or Apache Server and do things the old-fashioned way… but those are not methods I’m going to discuss on this site. It’s too much work and, as far as I’m concerned, Windows XP is ancient history. If ever there was a time to upgrade your OS, it would be now.

> Overview

For folks who just want the cliff’s notes, here’s what we’re going to cover in this tutorial…

Download Microsoft Web Platform Installer and use it to install the following:

IIS (installed automatically by WPI, if needed)
Common Web Server features
ISAPI Filters
URL Rewrite module
ASP.NET
.NET Framework 3.5 SP1
SQL Server Express 2008 with Service Pack 1
SQL Server 2008 Management Studio Express
SQL Server 2008 Management Objects
Visual Web Developer 2008 Express with SP1

> Microsoft Web Platform Installer

Using the Microsoft Web Platform Installer to install and configure just about everything automatically.

IIS (Internet Information Services) is the server software that comes built right into every copy of Windows. It doesn’t always come enabled (especially if you’re on one of the Home editions of Windows), but thanks to a handy little tool called Microsoft Web Platform Installer (WPI for short), there’s pretty much no configuration required in order to get the server running. This tutorial will basically amount to checking a bunch of boxes in WPI and letting the software do the rest.

Note: If you’ve already read my PHP Setup Tutorial, then you may be shocked as to how little work is required to get .NET up and running. This is because just about everything you need to create .NET websites is included in Visual Web Developer (or Visual Studio, if you happen to have a copy of that you’d rather use). In fact, you don’t even need to configure IIS to test your sites, since Visual Web Developer (VWD) and Visual Studio (VS) simply launch a mini-web server instance any time you need to test a page. Yes, that is insanely cool.

Downloading Web Platform Installer

WPI automates a lot of the annoying tasks usually associated with setting up a new web server like installing IIS (if needed), Visual Web Developer, SQL Server Express, and absolutely anything else you may want or need to work create websites in .NET.

To get started, visit Microsoft’s Web Platform site at www.microsoft.com/web/ and download the latest version of WPI (which is 2.0 as of this writing).

Intro to Web Platform Installer

When you launch the WPI file (wpilauncher.exe unless you renamed it) you will see three sets of tabs on the left, titled “What’s New?“, “Web Platform“, and “Web Applications“.

Everything we need is under the “Web Platform” tab, so click that now. You should be looking at the following screen:

Web Platform Installer - Web Platform

Don’t worry if your WPI screen doesn’t have the same features checked as my screenshot. We’re going to set yours up right now.

WPI: Web Server Options

With the “Web Platform” tab selected, you should see a bunch of category boxes, with a Web Server option at the very top.

First, click on the Web Server box so that you see a green check next to the text. This means you have automatically selected all the basic features in that category… but we’ll want to add a couple more things to that. Find the Customize link underneath the description for “Web Server” and click on it. Now you should see the following screen (again, don’t panic if yours doesn’t look exactly like mine, just follow the instructions below):

Web Platform Installer - Web Platform (Customize)

This page shows all the individual Web Server features available, lumped together into logical groups. Scroll down the list and make sure that all of the following options are checked (checking any that you need to, if they aren’t already):

Under the “Application Development” group:

ISAPI Filters

Under the “Common HTTP Features” group:

Static Content
Default Document
Directory Browsing
HTTP Errors
URL Rewrite (IIS7+ only)

When you’re done selecting your Web Server features, click the Back to Web Platform link in the upper-left.

WPI: Frameworks and Runtimes Options

Now, from Web Platform page, find the “Frameworks and Runtimes” box a little further down and click on the Customize link there.

On this screen, go ahead and check off everything under the .NET Framework group. The page should look similar to this (you can ignore the PHP checkbox as it’s not necessary for working in ASP.NET):

Web Platform Installer - Frameworks & Runtimes (Customize)

When you’re done selecting your Frameworks and Runtimes features, click the Back to Web Platform link in the upper-left.

WPI: Database Options

Find the Database box a little further down and click on the Customize link there. On this screen, select the following items:

Under the “SQL” group:

SQL Server Express 2008 with Service Pack 1
SQL Server 2008 Management Studio Express
SQL Server 2008 Management Objects

Web Platform Installer - Database Options

When you’re done selecting your Database features, click the Back to Web Platform link in the upper-left.

WPI: Tools Options

Now for the last step… find the “Tools” box near the bottom of the Web Platform list and click on the Customize link there. On the following screen, check the box next to “Visual Web Developer 2008 Express“.

Web Platform Installer - Tools

Note: If you’re lucky enough to have a copy of Visual Studio 2008 Professional (VSP), you can use that instead of Visual Web Developer 2008 Express. For our purposes on this site, the two pieces of software are interchangeable… except that VWDE is free and VSP is not. My screenshots will use VSP2010, but other than some different eye candy, everything is identical in VWDE.

Alternatively, as of this writing the beta version of Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate is available as a free download and it-is-glorious. If it’s still available when you read this, you can just as easily use that instead of VWDE. It’s your call… but as a beginner, the decision won’t really make much of a difference in your learning experience.

WPI: Install Everything!

Now simply click the “Install” button in the lower right of the WPI window and the installer will take care of the rest. That’s it!

As far as setup is concerned, that really is all there is to it. Microsoft has made it as easy as conceivably possible to get everything you need or want installed and running automagically.

I’ll be posting overview tutorials for each of the specific tools mentioned on this page soon (IIS, Visual Web Developer/Visual Studio, etc) – but don’t wait for me. Go ahead and play around with them. I’ve always found that the best way to learn something is to just do it (even if you don’t exactly know what it is you’re doing). I’m sure you’re smart enough to learn a bit on your own in the mean time (you can to this site, after all)