Chapter 1: Introducing ASP.NET and the .NET Platform

to run ASP.NET. You’re likely to have the .NET Framework already, as it installs automatically through the Windows Update service.

.NET Framework Software Development Kit (SDK)

The .NET Framework 2.0 Software Development Kit (SDK) is a free download that contains the necessary Web Application development tools, a debugger for error correcting, and a suite of samples and documentation.

We’re also going to need a database. In this book, we’ll use the following:

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition

This is the free, but still fully functional, version of SQL Server 2005. If you worked with previous versions of these technologies, you should know that SQL Server 2005 Express is a replacement for the previous Microsoft SQL Data Engine (MSDE). You can read more on the differences between various SQL Server 2005 editions at the Microsoft site.2

SQL Server Management Studio Express

Because the Express Edition of SQL Server doesn’t ship with any visual management tools, you can use this free tool, also developed by Microsoft, to access your SQL Server 2005 databases.

Installing the Web Server

Installing Internet Information Services (IIS)

IIS comes with most versions of server-capable Windows operating systems—in- cluding Windows 2000 Professional, Server, and Advanced Server; Windows XP Professional; Windows XP Media Center Edition; and Windows Server 2003—but it’s not installed automatically in all versions, which is why it may not be present on your computer. IIS isn’t available for Home editions of these operating systems, such as Windows XP Home Edition. If you run this, you’ll need to rely on Cassini, which we discuss below.

To see whether you have IIS installed and running, simply locate your Administrative Tools folder (sometimes it’s a menu option; sometimes it’s a folder in the Control Panel3) and check whether or not it contains a shortcut to Internet Information Services. If the shortcut isn’t visible, then it’s not installed. To install

IIS, simply follow these steps:

2http://www.microsoft.com/sql/2005/productinfo/sql2005features.asp

3To see this folder, you’ll need to view the Control Panel in “classic view.”

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Installing the Web Server

1.In the Control Panel, select Add or Remove Programs.

2.Choose Add/Remove Windows Components. The list of components will become visible within a few seconds.

3.In the list of components, check Internet Information Services (IIS), as shown in Figure 1.2. The default installation options are enough for ASP.NET development, but you may want to click Details… to view the extra options you could add.

Figure 1.2. Installing IIS

4.Click Next. Windows may prompt you to insert the Windows CD.

Add Administrative Tools to the Start Menu

Here’s how to add Administrative Tools to the Windows XP Start menu:

1.Right-click on the Start button and select Properties to bring up the

Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog.

2.Click the Customize… button to bring up the Customize Start Menu dialog.

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Chapter 1: Introducing ASP.NET and the .NET Platform

3.If you’re using the classic Start menu, check Display Administrative Tools, then click OK.

4.If you’re using the Windows XP-style Start menu, click the Advanced tab, scroll through the Start menu items list until you get to System Administrative Tools, and select from Display on the All Programs menu or Display in the All Programs menu and the Start menu.

Once IIS is installed, close the Add or Remove Programs dialog. To check that IIS has installed correctly, see if you can find the Internet Information Services short cut in Administrative Tools. If you can, IIS is installed. Open the link to make first contact with the IIS management console, which is shown in Figure 1.3. In the left pane, you’ll initially see the name of your computer, whose nodes you can expand.

Figure 1.3. The IIS administration tool

You can close this tool for now; you’ll meet it again later.

You are now ready to host web applications. Although we won’t cover the configuration of IIS for external use, we will show you how to configure IIS to support local development of ASP.NET applications in order that they may be uploaded to your external web hosting provider later.

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