ASP.NET Web Matrix -- HTML Editor for ASP.NET Users
Posted on Wednesday, March 15, 2006 at 10:02 PM by Randall
Those who design web sites with Microsoft's ASP.NET often seem to get the short end of the stick when it comes to HTML editors. Most are either designed for plain HTML or for open source scripting languages like php. The ASP.NET Web Matrix looks like it is worth checking out for ASP.NET coders. It is a freeware, community-supported, easy-to-use WYSIWYG application development tool for ASP.NET, apparently designed by Microsoft programmers in their spare time. While it looks very nice to me, I should admit up front that I have never written more than a few lines of ASP.NET code and am far from an expert on the needs of those who use ASP.NET every day. However, a friend of mine lives and breathes ASP.NET and he swears by Web Matrix.
Here are the main features from the web site:
* ASP.NET Page and HTML Designer.
* SQL Server and Access Database Management.
* Easy Data UI Generation.
* Support for multiple languages.
* Class Browsing.
* XML Web Services Support.
* Build Mobile Applications.
* Projectless File and FTP Workspaces.
* Development Web Server.
* Community Integration.Rapidly create ASP.NET pages or HTML documents using the rich WYSIWYG designer. Drag and drop ASP.NET server controls from the toolbox or user controls (.ascx files) from the workspace onto your page, and the designer provides a near-realistic preview rendering for either of them. Select individual controls to get in-place designer editing support for templates as well as full property grid customization support. Simply double-click a server control to get automatic event wireup of server event handlers. The designer also supports Table and Style attribute editing.
Rating: 4
Operating System: Windows 2000, XP, 2003
Special
Requirement: Microsoft .NET Framework
License: Freeware
Price:
Free
Web Site: http://www.asp.net/WebMatrix/