Web Platform Installer: review of the third version
Most recently, the third final version of the Web Platform Installer (WebPI) is released - a tool that allows you to quickly deploy a web developer workstation and the easiest way to install the necessary web applications from a large set of ready-made templates.
This article provides an overview of the third version of WebPI, listing the changes from the second version and a description of the functionality that will be useful to every web developer (and not only).
The daily work of a web developer consists of using a number of tools to create new projects or work with the structure of one large project. As such frequently used tools, you can list the following: development environment (IDE), database server and database tools, application server and related tools, ready-made application templates (CMS, forums, blogs, wiki engines, etc.) .
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Over time, developers accumulate a large number of these tools, which are represented by distributions, archives, simply useful download links, and so on. It’s quite natural that a part of this compiled toolkit becomes obsolete (as an update is released on the server) or loses relevance for other reasons. Thus, the developer constantly has to keep abreast of and make sure that his favorite tools are relevant, the latest versions.
Immediately monitor everything, but tiring. And here the obvious idea is to implement some kind of remote single repository of such tools that someone will keep up to date, and we only turn to it as needed for the next tool we need.
This remote repository is the Web Platform Installer. With WebPI, you always have access to the latest versions of web development tools, creating and editing databases, and web application templates of the latest versions. In addition, with all the wealth of choice, WebPI offers all the tools for free.
In order to be the fastest Web Platform Installer must have a minimum size. And this is true, the size of WebPI 3 is only 1.3 megabytes (1.5 MB in the case of the 64-bit version). The recently released final version is available for download at the following link . Here you can choose the localization of the product (14 languages ​​available) and the version that corresponds to your operating system: 32-bit or 64-bit.
There is another way to download the latest version of WebPI - this is the official product page, available at http://www.microsoft.com/web/downloads/platform.aspx (second image). On this page you can get a little more information about the product and download the current version for your version of the operating system.
Installing WebPI 3 occurs in seconds:
After installation, everything is ready to deploy your workplace, access to the latest versions of tools, development tools and web application templates.
Web Platform Installer third version meets the updated interface:
Depending on the localization of your operating system, the localization of the product will be selected. In this case, this is the English version.
The new interface is somewhat similar to Metro UI - Microsoft's initiative to build modern user interfaces. We can safely say that, compared to the second version, the WebPI 3 interface has become even more convenient.
WebPI 3 contains three main sections: Spotlight (offers), Products (products) and Applications (applications). The first tab of Spotlight offers to get acquainted with the latest releases, updates or the most notable releases of applications. For example, in the screenshot above - these are the latest versions of ASP.NET MCV 3, Drupal CMS, web farm creation tool, Orchard engine and others.
Here are some important actions that are worth considering separately:
Using the search field input field, you can quickly find the component you need to install. For example, below I searched for the keyword “ forum ” (the first picture) and the second search for the phrase “ sql compact ” (the second picture):
As you can see, the search offers the fastest opportunity to find the necessary functionality for installation. Works search instantly.
Web Platform Installer 3 settings are available via the Options link. This link leads to the settings window in which you can specify several important parameters:
First of all, here you can add a custom link to the third-party installation package. This feature is a big plus of WebPI, which allows you to expand the already large base of installed tools with third-party packages. For example, we can add a link to the latest “night” build of Orchard CMS, simply by adding it in the settings window:
www.orchardproject.net/privatedrops/orchardfeed.xml
after adding (Add Feed) and closing the settings window, we will receive an additional tab with access to our custom package bundle:
Thus, we will be able to install the latest Orchard CMS assembly directly from WebPI. The format of such a custom package configuration is open, which allows third-party companies to use it for their own needs to quickly deploy their own packages within the company.
Another setting available in the options window allows you to select your preferred application server, which is installed when configuring applications and tools. You can specify the use of a full-fledged IIS server, or choose a lightweight, but full-featured IIS Express server. By default, IIS Express is offered as a new tool for developing and debugging web applications.
Another important setting available in the options window is the choice of the preferred localization language when installing tools and web applications. Install “Russian” to automatically download Russian versions of packages, tools and applications.
And the last possibility of the settings window is WebPI cache management. Web Platform Installer 3 automatically caches downloaded packages for faster access in the future. You can track the size of this cache and, if necessary, clear it by removing packages.
To select and install the necessary packages in the WebPI interface, you need to add a package using the Add button. We can choose both PHP / MySQL based projects, for example, a Drupal PHP project template or the phpbb forum, and .NET based projects: DotNetNuke CMS, DasBlog blogging engine, and lots of others.
If you do not have PHP or .NET, SQL Server, or MySQL installed on your workstation, then WebPI will automatically offer to install them, depending on what is required for your application. In this case, in some cases, we are free to choose on which DBMS our application will work:
To continue the review, I chose the Applications section, in which I chose the Blogs subsection, among all the presented application templates for creating blogs, I chose the BlogEngine.NET engine:
Listing all that we have chosen to install can be seen by clicking on the “Items to be installed” link (packages ready for installation).
Web Platform Installer is a smart mechanism that automatically detects dependencies of the installed package and adds those tools to the installation list without which the package you choose will not work. In our case, the following packages were added (the first screenshot).
The choice for installing WebMatrix and IIS Express is related to the fact that in the WebPI settings we chose the IIS Express and WebMatrix development environment, which determines the need to install the tools that are currently missing, including Web Deploy 2.0.
If we switch the preferred work to the IIS server in the settings, we will get the following list of dependencies (the second screenshot). Here only IIS server configuration packages are selected, which in my case has not yet been configured to work with ASP.NET applications. WebPI 3 will do this automatically.
The presented dependency lists are displayed for information only. You do not need to take any action, all packages will be downloaded and installed automatically without your participation.
I chose the first way to work with WebMatrix and IIS Express as the easiest and most convenient way to work with web applications. All I needed was to click the Install button. WebPI 3 offers to familiarize yourself with the installed packages and estimate the size of the downloaded data. In addition, I can immediately read the license agreements and, for installing all the tools, confirm that I agree with them.
After inspecting the list of installed packages, click I Accept (I agree) and just wait until WebPI downloads and installs packages from a remote repository. And here WebPI arrives intelligently and installs downloaded packages in parallel with loading the rest.
The time required to download and install packages depends on many parameters, including the speed of your Internet connection, the number of packages, the performance of your computer. On average, this process takes several minutes if there are any dependencies and less if there are no dependencies and only one package needs to be installed.
In any case, you can go about your business, because all the download, installation and initial configuration take place automatically.
At the end of the installation, you will receive a message stating that all the selected tools have been successfully installed:
Now, at the invitation of WebPI, you can go to work with the BlogEngine.NET project simply by clicking on the Launch link. This will launch WebMatrix with the BlogEngine.NET project loaded:
Now all you need is to click Run to start your blog application.
As you can see, the development environment, the IIS Express application server and the application I selected were all downloaded and configured automatically so that all I had to do was launch the application.
Web Platform Installer 3 is the simplest and fastest way to deploy a web developer work environment, download necessary components, tools and applications.
Working with WebPI 3 does not require any special knowledge. The WebPI 3 interface is made in a convenient Metro UI style and offers easy and fast access to the necessary information. Required packages and tools are easy to find using search.
WebPI 3 is easy to configure and configure. This tool is smart enough to resolve dependencies and automatically load and configure them. While downloading multiple packages, WebPI behaves intelligently and installs the downloaded packages in parallel with the rest of the download.
Installation and initial setup of all tools is done automatically and without user intervention. Upon completion of the installation, we just need to go to the ready-made tools and start working.
The third version of the Web Platform Installer offered a new interface, new applications in the repository and the ability to manage the development environment: using a full-fledged IIS server or using a simplified version of IIS Express and WebMatrix.
In summary, we can say that Web Platform Installer 3 is a reliable, simple and indispensable tool for any web developer who makes life much easier.
This article provides an overview of the third version of WebPI, listing the changes from the second version and a description of the functionality that will be useful to every web developer (and not only).
What is the Web Platform Installer?
The daily work of a web developer consists of using a number of tools to create new projects or work with the structure of one large project. As such frequently used tools, you can list the following: development environment (IDE), database server and database tools, application server and related tools, ready-made application templates (CMS, forums, blogs, wiki engines, etc.) .')
Over time, developers accumulate a large number of these tools, which are represented by distributions, archives, simply useful download links, and so on. It’s quite natural that a part of this compiled toolkit becomes obsolete (as an update is released on the server) or loses relevance for other reasons. Thus, the developer constantly has to keep abreast of and make sure that his favorite tools are relevant, the latest versions.
Immediately monitor everything, but tiring. And here the obvious idea is to implement some kind of remote single repository of such tools that someone will keep up to date, and we only turn to it as needed for the next tool we need.
This remote repository is the Web Platform Installer. With WebPI, you always have access to the latest versions of web development tools, creating and editing databases, and web application templates of the latest versions. In addition, with all the wealth of choice, WebPI offers all the tools for free.
Installing Web Platform Installer
In order to be the fastest Web Platform Installer must have a minimum size. And this is true, the size of WebPI 3 is only 1.3 megabytes (1.5 MB in the case of the 64-bit version). The recently released final version is available for download at the following link . Here you can choose the localization of the product (14 languages ​​available) and the version that corresponds to your operating system: 32-bit or 64-bit.
There is another way to download the latest version of WebPI - this is the official product page, available at http://www.microsoft.com/web/downloads/platform.aspx (second image). On this page you can get a little more information about the product and download the current version for your version of the operating system.
Installing WebPI 3 occurs in seconds:
After installation, everything is ready to deploy your workplace, access to the latest versions of tools, development tools and web application templates.
Work with Web Platform Installer 3
Web Platform Installer third version meets the updated interface:
Depending on the localization of your operating system, the localization of the product will be selected. In this case, this is the English version.
The new interface is somewhat similar to Metro UI - Microsoft's initiative to build modern user interfaces. We can safely say that, compared to the second version, the WebPI 3 interface has become even more convenient.
WebPI 3 contains three main sections: Spotlight (offers), Products (products) and Applications (applications). The first tab of Spotlight offers to get acquainted with the latest releases, updates or the most notable releases of applications. For example, in the screenshot above - these are the latest versions of ASP.NET MCV 3, Drupal CMS, web farm creation tool, Orchard engine and others.
Here are some important actions that are worth considering separately:
Search
Using the search field input field, you can quickly find the component you need to install. For example, below I searched for the keyword “ forum ” (the first picture) and the second search for the phrase “ sql compact ” (the second picture):
As you can see, the search offers the fastest opportunity to find the necessary functionality for installation. Works search instantly.
Options
Web Platform Installer 3 settings are available via the Options link. This link leads to the settings window in which you can specify several important parameters:
First of all, here you can add a custom link to the third-party installation package. This feature is a big plus of WebPI, which allows you to expand the already large base of installed tools with third-party packages. For example, we can add a link to the latest “night” build of Orchard CMS, simply by adding it in the settings window:
www.orchardproject.net/privatedrops/orchardfeed.xml
after adding (Add Feed) and closing the settings window, we will receive an additional tab with access to our custom package bundle:
Thus, we will be able to install the latest Orchard CMS assembly directly from WebPI. The format of such a custom package configuration is open, which allows third-party companies to use it for their own needs to quickly deploy their own packages within the company.
Another setting available in the options window allows you to select your preferred application server, which is installed when configuring applications and tools. You can specify the use of a full-fledged IIS server, or choose a lightweight, but full-featured IIS Express server. By default, IIS Express is offered as a new tool for developing and debugging web applications.
Another important setting available in the options window is the choice of the preferred localization language when installing tools and web applications. Install “Russian” to automatically download Russian versions of packages, tools and applications.
And the last possibility of the settings window is WebPI cache management. Web Platform Installer 3 automatically caches downloaded packages for faster access in the future. You can track the size of this cache and, if necessary, clear it by removing packages.
Selecting and installing products and applications in the Web Platform Installer
To select and install the necessary packages in the WebPI interface, you need to add a package using the Add button. We can choose both PHP / MySQL based projects, for example, a Drupal PHP project template or the phpbb forum, and .NET based projects: DotNetNuke CMS, DasBlog blogging engine, and lots of others.
If you do not have PHP or .NET, SQL Server, or MySQL installed on your workstation, then WebPI will automatically offer to install them, depending on what is required for your application. In this case, in some cases, we are free to choose on which DBMS our application will work:
To continue the review, I chose the Applications section, in which I chose the Blogs subsection, among all the presented application templates for creating blogs, I chose the BlogEngine.NET engine:
Listing all that we have chosen to install can be seen by clicking on the “Items to be installed” link (packages ready for installation).
Web Platform Installer is a smart mechanism that automatically detects dependencies of the installed package and adds those tools to the installation list without which the package you choose will not work. In our case, the following packages were added (the first screenshot).
The choice for installing WebMatrix and IIS Express is related to the fact that in the WebPI settings we chose the IIS Express and WebMatrix development environment, which determines the need to install the tools that are currently missing, including Web Deploy 2.0.
If we switch the preferred work to the IIS server in the settings, we will get the following list of dependencies (the second screenshot). Here only IIS server configuration packages are selected, which in my case has not yet been configured to work with ASP.NET applications. WebPI 3 will do this automatically.
The presented dependency lists are displayed for information only. You do not need to take any action, all packages will be downloaded and installed automatically without your participation.
I chose the first way to work with WebMatrix and IIS Express as the easiest and most convenient way to work with web applications. All I needed was to click the Install button. WebPI 3 offers to familiarize yourself with the installed packages and estimate the size of the downloaded data. In addition, I can immediately read the license agreements and, for installing all the tools, confirm that I agree with them.
After inspecting the list of installed packages, click I Accept (I agree) and just wait until WebPI downloads and installs packages from a remote repository. And here WebPI arrives intelligently and installs downloaded packages in parallel with loading the rest.
The time required to download and install packages depends on many parameters, including the speed of your Internet connection, the number of packages, the performance of your computer. On average, this process takes several minutes if there are any dependencies and less if there are no dependencies and only one package needs to be installed.
In any case, you can go about your business, because all the download, installation and initial configuration take place automatically.
At the end of the installation, you will receive a message stating that all the selected tools have been successfully installed:
Now, at the invitation of WebPI, you can go to work with the BlogEngine.NET project simply by clicking on the Launch link. This will launch WebMatrix with the BlogEngine.NET project loaded:
Now all you need is to click Run to start your blog application.
As you can see, the development environment, the IIS Express application server and the application I selected were all downloaded and configured automatically so that all I had to do was launch the application.
Results
Web Platform Installer 3 is the simplest and fastest way to deploy a web developer work environment, download necessary components, tools and applications.
Working with WebPI 3 does not require any special knowledge. The WebPI 3 interface is made in a convenient Metro UI style and offers easy and fast access to the necessary information. Required packages and tools are easy to find using search.
WebPI 3 is easy to configure and configure. This tool is smart enough to resolve dependencies and automatically load and configure them. While downloading multiple packages, WebPI behaves intelligently and installs the downloaded packages in parallel with the rest of the download.
Installation and initial setup of all tools is done automatically and without user intervention. Upon completion of the installation, we just need to go to the ready-made tools and start working.
The third version of the Web Platform Installer offered a new interface, new applications in the repository and the ability to manage the development environment: using a full-fledged IIS server or using a simplified version of IIS Express and WebMatrix.
In summary, we can say that Web Platform Installer 3 is a reliable, simple and indispensable tool for any web developer who makes life much easier.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/115136/
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