Cross-industry

Microsoft simplifies Web development

24 January 2011

Microsoft has released a free Web development tool designed to help developers of all skill levels easily create, customise and publish Web sites to the Internet.

Microsoft partners have already announced hosting packages for the solution, called WebMatrix.

Our Web platform offers a complete ecosystem of products, partners and technologies all aimed at helping developers succeed on the Web

S. Somasegar, Microsoft Titan Internet has launched four hosting packages, which allow customers to match their hosting requirements to their WebMatrix publishing tools and budget.

DotNetNuke also announced support for the new Web development tool, as well as new Razor scripting syntax, which Microsoft launched at CodeMash.

Hostway now also provides support for the tool for its FlexCloud on-demand cloud computing solution. "The new WebMatrix image illustrates the power and flexibility of the FlexCloud platform," said Todd Benjamin, vice president of enterprise hosting for Hostway. "Users can create server instances from their own or our pre-published library of images, significantly reducing the time, effort, and cost to launch fully-functional applications in the cloud."

WebMatrix provides a range of development tools including the Web server, database and Web frameworks. It supports multiple programming syntaxes, such as ASP.NET ‘Razor’ or PHP, and Web helpers, which give a single line-of-code solution for complex coding tasks, such as inserting Twitter feeds or video. It also includes a search engine optimisation reporting tool.

Developers can use code provided through a variety of available templates or using existing free open source Web applications, such as WordPress, Joomla!, DotNetNuke and Umbraco.

“Our Web platform offers a complete ecosystem of products, partners and technologies all aimed at helping developers succeed on the Web,” said S. Somasegar, senior vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft. “Every day, more people are looking to build, publish and manage a website, and now, with WebMatrix, we provide developers of all skill levels with a sophisticated, yet easy-to-use solution to get their sites online.”

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