Simplifying ASP.NET Demos By Switching Web Server - v2010 vol 1

06 April 2010

Starting with the DXperience v2010.1 release, our ASP.NET demos will no longer use the IIS web server. Instead, we’re switching to use the built-in ASP.NET Development Server (formerly known as Cassini web server).

Why The Change?

During the ASP.NET European training tour, we learned that many developers had issues with their IIS installations. While some were easy to fix and some were more, um, challenging, it's still a roadblock to appreciating our ASP.NET demos. The easiest fix is to use a simple web server when not in a critical environment like production.

Therefore, to make it easier for everyone to get our demos up and running without the need for a proper IIS installation, we’re switching to the “ASP.NET Development Server”.

Seamless Change

There are 2 ways to run our online ASP.NET demos on your local machine. By running them in Visual Studio or as a standalone website.

When running as a standalone website, our ASP.NET demos will use the built-in ASP.NET Development Server.

Because we package all of the demos source code in our installation, you can also open the demo projects in your Visual Studio. This allows you to explore the demos source code and learn more about how the features work. And, if you’d like, you can also change the default server to IIS.

Folder Location Changed

To allow the built-in ASP.NET Development Server proper read and write access, the demos will have to be relocated from the “Program Files/DevExpress” folder to the “User” folder. For example, on my Windows 7 machine, they new directory is located here:

C:\Users\Public\Documents\DevExpress 2010.1 Demos

To recap:

This change is mostly transparent for you.
Helps you because you don’t have to worry about any IIS installation issues.

Drop me a line below with your thoughts on the exciting changes in the DXperience v2010.1 release.

DXperience? What's That?

DXperience is the .NET developer's secret weapon. Get full access to a complete suite of professional components that let you instantly drop in new features, designer styles and fast performance for your applications. Try a fully-functional version of DXperience for free now: http://www.devexpress.com/Downloads/NET/

Free DevExpress Products – Get Your Copy Today

The following free DevExpress product offers remain available. Should you have any questions about the free offers below, please submit a ticket via the DevExpress Support Center at your convenience. We’ll be happy to follow-up.

Mehul Harry (DevExpress) Web Program Manager

Email: mharry@devexpress.com

Twitter: @Mehulharry

Tags

DXperience, Features, ASP.NET, v2010.1

Tony Parisio

That is great news!

"I'm a DevX, and 2010.1 was my idea..."

6 April 2010

heather

This is really great news. Running IIS on your development machine poses security risks that are just not necessary. Using the built-in web server has always worked for us.

6 April 2010

Antonio Vazquez

This a really useful change. I haven't IIS on development machines and I had to run the example inside VS or copy the demos to IIS server. Now it will be easier.

6 April 2010

David

Wow, finally! What took you so long? The competition is doing this for years. Not to mention that using access database for the demos is totally unusable in 64 bit environments (hint hint - do you even test such scenario?)

Very very very late and inadequate action for a company that claims to be top notch, but as they say better late than never.

Another hint - why don't you use your new captcha control for the verification to these comments? It is ALWAYS good idea to test your product on your own if you want clients to use it.

6 April 2010

Mehul Harry (DevExpress)

@David,

It simply comes down to priorities, time and resources. This feature was just not as high some of the other features like support for new Microsoft platforms. :)

tv.devexpress.com/OpportunityCosts.movie

And we've considered the move away from access db in the past. That project was put on hold but I'll see if there is time to include that in a future release.

As for the ASPxCaptcha, yes, we do plan to use it but we have big plans for all our sites. Stay tuned and you'll see exciting things in the next few weeks.

Thanks for the feedback and your support.

6 April 2010

Kendall Miller

Excellent step, and thanks for taking action on the feedback. This has been an issue for us - we just don't install the web server on development systems since Vista came along, and now we won't get that warning about it during install either.

6 April 2010

Michael

Makes sense - the worst thing you can have is one that is digging into a component set who has no running samples ...

When the company is little bigger the one who takes care of the IIS is a systems administrator whom the programmer having no idea why the samples work do not, no time to find the reason must tell the administrator how to implment the fix ... companies have standard images ... I'm sure you know but really consider such situations...

Maybe, I'm assuming this, you did not expect that many ASP.net programmers in comps start ASP.net with devexpress components when writing their first "real" ASP.net app. This counts for devexpress.

In this scenario it is really better to have an IIS free solution for running examples ...

7 April 2010

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Simplifying ASP.NET Demos By Switching Web Server - v2010 vol 1

Why The Change?

Seamless Change

Folder Location Changed

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