Redmond, Washington — After three rounds of betas, software monopolist Microsoft has finally unfurled a new web development tool called WebMatrix, which the company says is designed to let developers of “all skill levels” create, customize, and publish websites to the Internet.
The company plans to roll-out the application at the CodeMash Web development event in Sandusky, Ohio, according to a post in the Microsoft Public Sector Developer Weblog.
“With WebMatrix, we are unraveling how you build Web sites on Windows and including everything you need to build, run and deploy your Web site for free,” wrote Microsoft technology evangelist Laurence Moroney, in a Microsoft blog entry first announcing the technology last July.
WebMatrix brings together a treasure of Web platform, using Microsoft’s ASP (Active Server Pages), the software package includes a code and database editor as well as lightweight server software, and programming frameworks, letting users code, test, and deploy both ASP.NET and PHP applications side by side. It also includes built-in SEO features.
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“Our Web platform delivers a complete ecosystem of products, partners and technologies all aimed at helping developers succeed on the Web,” says S. Somasegar, SVP of the Developer Division at Microsoft. “Everyday, 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.”
The software, which was first introduced in July, gives users tools to create and manage Web sites while staying compatible with Microsoft’s Visual Studio and SQL Server products. The software is targeted at Web developers who may be using free open-source software to build websites. WebMatrix is bundled with tools for running a website, including a Web server, database and Web frameworks. It also includes a tool for running search-engine optimization reports to help developers make their sites more prominent in Web searches. It is available in nine languages.
To complement in design, the WebMatrix tools seamlessly functions with a number of web application and website templates. In addition, users can also import external ASP or PHP-based templates, including those from free Web publishing platforms such as WordPress, Joomla!, DotNetNuke and Umbraco or other content management systems.
All the modules are tightly knitted, making for a unified design and deployment process. The software also contains links to a number of hosting providers in select part of the globe. Once a hosting provider is chosen, the software can upload the website material to that location automatically.
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“The target audience for WebMatrix is the universe of web developers that are not already hard-core .NET and ASP developers,” said Jon Rooney, senior product manager with the Web platform team. He said the tool is powerful enough for Web designers working at agencies to use.
“There is a whole market out there for people who are using various open-source products who want to do things like blogging. They are looking for inexpensive. free tools,” said Al Hilwa, an analyst who covers application development software at IDC, a research firm in Framingham, Mass. “WebMatrix hits the spot for that kind of thing. It is a way for Microsoft to reach what is typically not its core base of developers.”
Hilwa compares it to Microsoft’s FrontPage software. “A long time ago Microsoft had a thing called FrontPage. It was a very different tool but hit at a similar market, people who want to do quick and dirty websites who are not programmers.”
The company anticipates a fully-baked version of the software to make it more attractive to first-time users. “The majority of the users are going to be new to this. That is one of the explicit goals here,” Brian Goldfarb, the director of developer platform marketing at Microsoft, quoted by CNET in an interview earlier this week. “We are trying to make Web development, and the Microsoft technology stack more approachable by a wider audience than we have in the past.”
Moreover, users can also run an SEO report and discover how to make their sites more visible to search engines. Microsoft mentions that the product “provides clear guidance on how to make your site better, and even offers to take you right to the file in your site you need to fix.”
Interestingly, WebMatrix is not the only newest open-source Microsoft product that is being released today. Microsoft also is introducing the 1.0 version of its free, open-source “Orchard” content-management system (CMS). Similar to WebMatrix, Orchard’s goal is to require users to do less coding, making the product appealing for a less techie audience, Microsoft is hoping.
Here is where you can download the free WebMatrix software.
Also, Microsoft has made some video tutorials you can watch.