Web Matrix

ASP.NET Web Matrix is an easy to use WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) application development tool for ASP.NET. It's free and can be installed via a quick 1.3 MB download. The following are the features of ASP.NET Web Matrix.

ASP.NET Page and HTML Designer 

You can quickly create ASP.NET pages or HTML documents using the rich WYSIWYG designer. Drag and drop ASP.NET server controls from the toolbox or user controls (.ascx files) from the workspace onto your page, and the designer provides a near-realistic preview rendering for either of them. Select individual controls to get
in-place designer editing support for templates as well as full property grid customization support. Simply
double-click a server control to get automatic event wireup of server event handlers. The designer also supports Table and Style attribute editing.

SQL Server and Access Database Management 

Integrated support to create and edit SQL or MSDE and Access databases. You can create new databases, add or delete tables, design table schema and relationships, edit table data rows, create stored procedures (SQL/MSDE) all within Web Matrix. You can also auto-generate ADO .NET code to perform data access using built-in code wizards.

Easy Data UI Generation 

Web Matrix makes it easy to create data bound pages without writing code. Drop SQL/MSDE or Access tables on your page to create data-bound grids, or start with Data Page templates for reports or Master/Detail pages. Code builders help you generate code to select, insert, update and delete SQL/MSDE or Access data.

Multiple Language Support 

Web Matrix supports multiple languages for code in Web applications files (eg. aspx and ascx files), as well as in code wizards. Web Matrix has support for writing code in C#, Visual Basic and J#.

Class Browsing 

You can browse any class in any assembly to view its properties, events or methods, as well as metadata attributes associated with the class. You can perform searches on class names, or member names to quickly find classes. Perform searches to find related or derived classes.

XML Web Services Support 

You can easily add XML Web Service support to your applications. Web Matrix provides support for developers to easily expose a SOAP-based XML Web Service, as well as call and consume a XML Web Service hosted on another server.

Mobile Application Support

You can write mobile-web-enabled applications for a wide variety of mobile devices such as cell phones, pagers and PDAs. Web Matrix provides drag-and-drop design support for authoring mobile pages using ASP.NET and the Mobile Internet Toolkit.

Projectless File and FTP Workspaces 

Web Matrix supports both FTP-based and file-based workspaces that allow developers to easily organize and edit their ASP.NET applications. Workspaces are saved across sessions allowing you to quickly work on your application. Just double-click a file within the workspace tree to open it for editing. No FrontPage server extensions or project system required.

Development Web Server 

Develop and test your ASP.NET applications, without requiring IIS. Web Matrix includes a lightweight personal web server that serves most web content, including ASP.NET pages and XML Web Services, for local requests.

Community Integration 

Web Matrix provides a built-in gateway to the ASP.NET community right within the IDE allowing you to browse community web sites and search the ASP.NET Forums and Newsgroups for help.  

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