Setting Up the Development Environment

Setting Up the Development Environment ASP.NET is based on the CLR, class libraries, and other tools integrated with the Microsoft .NET Framework. Therefore, to develop and run the ASP.NET applications, you need to install the .NET Framework. The .NET Framework is available in two forms: § .NET Framework SDK (Software Development Kit) § Visual Studio .NET (VS.NET) You can install the .NET Framework SDK or VS.NET on a machine that has one of the following operating systems: § Windows 2000 § Windows NT 4.0 § Windows Me § Windows 98 § Windows XP Professional Installation of the .NET Framework SDK is very simple — just run the Setup program and follow the onscreen instructions. However, the development machine must have Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher available before the installation. Otherwise, you will be prompted to download it before you install the .NET Framework SDK. To develop any Web application, you need Internet Information Server (IIS) configured on either the development machine (in the case of Windows 2000 or Windows NT 4.0) or another machine on the network. In the latter case, the .NET Framework must be installed on the machine on which IIS is configured. Note In the case of Windows 2000 Server, the IIS server is automatically installed. In addition to installing IIS, you need to install SQL Server 7.0 or higher to develop ASP.NET database applications. You can install SQL Server on the development machine or any other machine on the network. You can create ASP.NET applications by just installing the .NET Framework SDK and configuring an IIS server. In this case, you need to use a text editor, such as Notepad, to write the code. Therefore, if you do this, you'll have to work without the IDE and other integrated tools that come with VS.NET. Hence, installing VS.NET is recommended, to get the full benefit of the .NET features. VS.NET Beta 2 comes with four CD-ROMs: § Windows Component Update CD § VS.NET CD1 § VS.NET CD2 § VS.NET CD3 When you run the Setup program from VS.NET CD1, a dialog box appears that prompts you for the following three options: § Windows Component Update § Install Visual Studio .NET § Check for Service Releases If you have not run the Setup program from the Windows Component Update CD, only the first of the preceding three options will be available. In this case, you need to insert the Windows Component Update CD in the CD-ROM drive of the machine and click the first link, Windows Component Update, to begin the update. This option updates Windows with the components that are required to install .NET. Some of the components include Microsoft Windows Installer 2.0, Setup Runtime Files, and Microsoft Data Access Components 2.7. Then, follow the onscreen instructions. In the process, you'll need to reboot the machine several times. After the Windows Component Update is complete, you can use the second link to install VS.NET. After VS.NET is installed, you can click the third link to check for any updates. When you start Visual Studio .NET, the Start Page is displayed prominently in the window. Figure displays the Visual Studio .NET window. The VS.NET window contains the Solution Explorer window to the right. This window displays the projects that are created. The Toolbox and Server Explorer windows can be seen hidden at the extreme left. When you point to the Toolbox or Server Explorer, the corresponding window opens. You use the Toolbox to create the user interface for an application. The Server Explorer window is used to add any Web server or database connection. The main Start Page window is the central location from where you can perform several tasks, such as create a new project, open an existing project, and get the latest news and recent articles at the MSDN online library. The different options available on the Start Page and what they enable you to do are described as follows: § Get Started: Create a new project or open an existing project. § What's New: Identify the new features of Visual Studio .NET. § Online Community: Contact other developers online. To do this, you must have a newsgroup reader configured on your machine. § Headlines: Get the latest news from the MSDN online library. § Search Online: Search the Web. § Downloads: Get the latest product updates, SDK releases, and sample code from the Internet. § Web Hosting: Post your Web applications and Web services created in Visual Studio .NET directly to the Internet. § MyProfile: Set the IDE-specific preferences.