The ASP.NET Web Matrix Project is a lightweight, easy to use tool for developing web applications with ASP.NET. Its community features integrate the active .NET community to enable both novice and advanced developers to learn how to develop with ASP.NET. The Web Matrix Project ties in the ASP.NET community with features like instant messenger and chat room integration, as well as community based help. All of this plus a WYSIWYG web form designer is available in a ~1MB package.

The ASP.NET Web Matrix Project is:

• A lightweight, easy to use, community oriented tool for building ASP.NET applications
• Built entirely on the .NET Framework in C#
• Shipping with MSDE (as separate download)

The ASP.NET Web Matrix Project is designed to:

• Connect developers to the ASP.NET community
• Help developers provide feedback on new features
• Experiment with new feature ideas

The ASP.NET Web Matrix is complimentary to Visual Studio .NET:

• Web Matrix is built with the hobbyist developer in mind – VS .NET is an awesome tool for the enterprise developer
• Web Matrix is a great way to develop ASP.NET skills, then later migrate to VS .NET

ASP.NET Web Matrix Features:

ASP.NET Page Designer. Rapidly create ASP.NET pages using the rich WYSIWYG designer. Drag and drop ASP.NET Server controls from the Toolbox onto your page. Select individual server controls to get in-place designer editing support as well as full property grid customization. Simply double-click a server control to get automatic event wireup of server event handlers.

SQL and MSDE Database Management. Integrated support to create and edit SQL and MSDE databases. Create new databases, add/edit/delete tables and stored procedures, and edit data content all directly within the Web Matrix tool. Auto-generate ADO.NET code to execute SQL statements and stored procedures using built-in code builders.

Easy Data Bound UI Generation. Web Matrix makes it easy to create data bound pages without writing code. Drop SQL tables on your page to create data-bound grids, or start with Data Page templates for reports or Master/Detail pages. Code builders help you generate code to select, insert, update and delete SQL data.

XML Web Services Support. Easily add XML Web Service support to your applications. Web Matrix provides support for developers to easily expose a SOAP-based XML Web Service, as well as call and consume a XML Web Service hosted on another server.

Build Mobile Applications. Write mobile-web-enabled applications for a wide variety of mobile devices such as cell phones, pagers and PDAs. Web Matrix provides drag-and-drop design support for authoring mobile pages using ASP.NET and the Mobile Internet Toolkit.

Projectless File and FTP Workspaces. Web Matrix supports both FTP-based and file-based workspaces that allow developers to easily organize and edit their ASP.NET applications. Simply double-click a file within the workspace tree to open it for editing. No FrontPage server extensions or project system required.

Development Web Server. Develop and test your ASP.NET applications, without requiring IIS. Web Matrix includes a lightweight personal web server that serves most web content, including ASP.NET pages and XML Web Services, for local requests.

Community Integration. Web Matrix provides a built-in gateway to the ASP.NET community right within the IDE -- allowing you to browse community web sites and search the ASP.NET Forums and Newsgroups for help.

For more information, please visit the ASP.NET Web Matrix Project Web Site.