

Here’s a very simple example of what Razor markup looks like along with some comment annotations:

MICROSOFT WEBMATRIX ACCESS DATABASE CODE
Razor uses the sign plus standard C# (or Visual Basic) block syntax to delineate code snippets and expressions. This results in a much leaner syntax than the typical ASP.NET Web Forms alligator () tags. The markup syntax for Razor is geared for minimal typing, plus some progressive detection of where a script block/expression starts and ends. There’s no support for a “page model” or any of the other Web Forms features of the full-page framework, but just a lightweight scripting engine that works with plain markup plus embedded expressions and code. Unlike the Web Forms view engine, Razor works only with inline code, snippets, and markup therefore, it is more in line with current thinking of what a view engine should represent. Do we really need another? Microsoft thinks so, and Razor is an implementation of a lightweight, script-only view engine. What? Yet another native ASP.NET view engine? We already have Web Forms and various different flavors of using that view engine with Web Forms and MVC. Having a local data store in those applications that can potentially be accessed by multiple users is a welcome feature. This is not only useful for web applications, but also for desktop applications for which a fully installed SQL engine like SQL Server would be overkill. In my simple testing the data engine performed well enough for small data sets.

This is a big win, pending compatibility and performance limits.
MICROSOFT WEBMATRIX ACCESS DATABASE INSTALL
In effect, you don’t have to install a special system configuration to run SQL Compact as it is a drop-in database engine: Copy the small assembly into your BIN folder (or from the GAC if installed fully), create a connection string against a local file-based database file, and then start firing SQL requests.Īdditionally WebMatrix includes nice tools to edit the database tables and files, along with tools to easily upsize (and hopefully downsize in the future) to full SQL Server. The new release of SQL Server Compact 4.0 supports multiple connections and you can run it in ASP.NET web applications simply by installing an assembly into the bin folder of the web application. SQL Server Compact is not new-it’s been around for a few years, but it’s been severely hobbled in the past by terrible tool support and the inability to support more than a single connection in Microsoft’s attempt to avoid losing SQL Server licensing. IIS Developer Express provides most of the IIS 7.5 feature set providing much better compatibility between development and live deployment scenarios.ĭatabase access is a key component for most web-driven applications, but on the Microsoft stack this has mostly meant you have to use SQL Server or SQL Server Express. IIS Express addresses a few shortcomings of the Cassini server such as the inability to serve custom ISAPI extensions (i.e., things like PHP or ASP classic for example), as well as not supporting advanced authentication. This new development server replaces the much less compatible Cassini web server that’s been used in Visual Studio and the Express editions. IIS Developer Express is a new, self-contained development web server that is fully compatible with IIS 7.5 and based on the same codebase that IIS 7.5 uses. WebMatrix is made up of several components and technologies: The key is to provide a friendly and fully self-contained development environment that provides all the tools needed to build an application in one place, as well as tools that allow publishing of content and databases easily to the web server. WebMatrix appears to be Microsoft’s attempt to bring back some of that simplicity with a number of technologies and tools.

Yet other technologies like PHP and even classic ASP did provide the ability for non-developers and hobbyists to become reasonably proficient in creating basic web content quickly and efficiently. NET or even the Visual Web Developer Express edition and it’s not likely that the person in front of the screen will be very productive or feel inspired. Stick a non-developer in front of Visual Studio. Let’s face it: ASP.NET development isn’t exactly trivial unless you already have a fair bit of familiarity with sophisticated development practices. But in the process, it also provides some updated technologies that can make life easier for existing. Microsoft recently released the first CTP of a new development environment called WebMatrix ( ), which along with some of its supporting technologies are squarely aimed at making the Microsoft Web Platform more approachable for first-time developers and hobbyists.
