Developing applications for Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0
A web server that is running IIS 7.0 can host many types of applications that are developed using different tools, such as Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.
Developing web applications
You can develop web applications for IIS 7.0 by using Microsoft ASP.NET version 1.1 and ASP.NET version 2.0, which require the Microsoft .NET Framework, or ASP.NET version 1.0 and Active Server Pages (ASP), which do not require the .NET Framework.
When you develop web applications, consider the following issues:
Writing for global audiences
Remember that applications must be understood in multiple languages and will be used by many cultures. Globalization settings help guarantee that your application will run in different environments with few, if any, changes.
Designing a webpage
ASP.NET pages use controls to build the contents of a webpage. Controls help you keep the design of a page separate from the ASP.NET programming that actually runs the application. Controls also give you a way to change values for the content of a webpage.
Defining application settings
You might need to modify your application settings to work with the settings of the web server or website on which the application runs. You can define application settings so that it's easier to make those modifications.
Connecting to a database
Some web applications store information in a database. For example, many e‑commerce applications keep track of inventory so that they can immediately let a customer know whether an item is available for purchase. To get information from the database, the application uses a connection string—a series of characters that defines how the application interacts with the database.
Protecting security information machine keys
Machine keys are an ASP.NET security feature. ASP.NET uses them to help protect some security information and some information about user visits and changes to the pages on your website.
Providers
ASP.NET uses providers to make an application interact with applications other than the ones for which it was designed. For example, you might run a web application that stores membership information in a Microsoft Access database, but your company is soon going to use a SQL Server database. Instead of rewriting your application, you can use a provider to make the connection between the application and the SQL database.
Putting the pieces together
Before an application can run on IIS 7.0, all the files that make up the application must be compiled, or grouped, into a single file that has a .dll extension. You can control the grouping by specifying compilation settings.
For information about configuring web application development settings, go to IIS 7.0 Beta: Configure Web Application Development Settings on the Microsoft TechNet website.
Setting up e‑mail
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) delivers and receives e‑mail messages.
Managing user information
You might want to collect and store information about users who visit your website and run your web application so that your application can use this data in the future. Here are two useful things you can do:
Create user profiles
Every web application keeps different information about the users who visit a website or run a web application. A user profile helps you define what kind of information you want to keep.
Store user actions
Users who visit a website or run a web application frequently look at more than one page on the site or run more than one application. For example, on an e‑commerce website, a user might select an item for purchase and then search for additional items. To keep track of where users go and what changes they make, use ASP.NET session state to hold this information.
Running existing applications on IIS 7.0
If you wrote ASP and Common Gateway Interface (CGI) applications to run on earlier versions of IIS, you don't have to rewrite them. They will run on IIS 7.0 without changes. Most Internet Server API (ISAPI) filters will also run without changes.
