2

What do I need to run a development environment locally with multiple ASP.NET applications. I have Windows XP, with what seems basic IIS. Im getting tired of opening up Visual Web Dev Express every time I want to view a website project.

Thanks

M

madphp
  • 379
  • 3
  • 12

2 Answers2

3

Depends on what you want your IIS configuration to look like. You can do it locally on XP by configuring a virtual directory for each application. Alternatively you could run a virtual Windows 2003 server and use it's "complete" edition of IIS6 which allows for multiple web sites and application pools (that's a bit overkill, even if closer to a production environment).

Not quite sure what you're getting at with your last statement about opening Visual Web Dev Express.

squillman
  • 37,883
  • 12
  • 92
  • 146
  • 1
    Visual Studio has a scaled down, on-demand version of IIS that only runs on the localhost ip address. When you execute a web application in Visual Studio, it creates a temporary web site on a random port on 127.0.0.1 pointing to your project build folder, and then it shuts down once the application terminates. – Jessica McKinnon Sep 09 '09 at 14:39
  • @Jessica. Correct. – madphp Sep 09 '09 at 14:41
  • Ahhh, gotcha. Sorry, I never use that scaled down version :) Install IIS on your XP box and you will be able to use that instead of the scaled down version. You'll have to play some games to get debugging to work, though. – squillman Sep 09 '09 at 14:43
  • @squillman. So, if i use virtual directories, each application will be at localhost/website1 localhost/website2. – madphp Sep 09 '09 at 14:45
  • Yes, that's correct... Not ideal in all situations, which is where a real server environment comes in. Unfortunately you can't configure multiple web sites in the XP version of IIS to get around the path issue. You'd have to change your document root for each application on the single web site that XP allows. – squillman Sep 09 '09 at 14:56
1

You are not limited to only using the on-demand web server built into Visual Studio (which, as you say, is annoying in that it only runs while your application is running within Visual Studio). The full version of IIS for any desktop or server edition of Windows (NT or later) is available on your Windows installation media, and can be installed in the same way as any other optional Windows component. In the case of Windows XP, you would click on the following to install IIS 5.1:

  • Start
  • Control Panel
  • Add/Remove Programs
  • Add/Remove Windows Components
  • Internet Information Services (IIS)

A great online resource for using IIS is Microsoft's IIS site, www.iis.net. Note that while the site is focused more on IIS 7.x, most articles on the site give compatibility information for prior versions.

Jessica McKinnon
  • 1,505
  • 8
  • 9