Serving up something new from Microsoft.

Microsoft’s Internet Information Server is one of the world’s most popular web servers. That’s probably because it’s free. The latest release of IIS, version 4.0, is part of the NT 4.0 option pack, and adds extra features, including an expanded server object model, and integration with Microsoft’s NT Transaction Server. To get the best out of IIS, you’ll need to buy some extra software from Microsoft. In a hot little room in the Lloyds building Microsoft recently launched the latest versions of two of these tools: Visual InterDev 6.0 and Site Server 3.0.

Part of the Visual Studio development suite, Visual InterDev is designed to develop web applications based around one of IIS’s most useful features, Active Server Pages, dynamically generated HTML pages controlled by scripting on the web server. InterDev 6.0 adds a large number of features that were missing from the original release, intended to make web application development an extension of existing developers’ skills and techniques. A WYSIWYG HTML editor is now included as standard, and is based around the Trident dynamic HTML rendering and authoring component originally demonstrated nearly 18 months ago at the Birmingham SiteBuilder conference. Another major improvement is the addition of a full client-server debugging tool - vitally important now that Microsoft are also positioning the combination of IIS, ASP and MTS as a three-tier distributed application development environment.

Introduced by Anthony Bay, the General Manager of Microsoft’s Internet Server business unit, in a cut down version of his Web tech-Ed keynote speech, Site Server 3.0 is a series of tools that add personalisation and commerce tools to IIS. Available in two versions, a standard version designed for use in intranets and a commerce edition for building online shops and business to business systems. Microsoft are focusing on the business to business functions of Site Server commerce systems, as Peter Bell, Microsoft UK’s Internet Server Product Manager said “E-Commerce is not just E-Retail”. Whether this is a realistic view of the current market for Internet applications is a matter for debate, but Site Server now includes a series of transaction pipelines that allow you to use third-party components to make IIS part of an EDI solution, as well as access to most Internet friendly payment systems. This isn’t a replacement for online-shop suites like InterShop or iCat, Site Server is a framework to help you design and build your own electronic commerce solutions, using your own COM objects inside MTS with ASP pages providing a any-browser front end.

Anthony Bay also introduced the latest version of the NetShow streamed media server and player, and predicted that with the release of a new combined video and audio player for local and Internet content, that we would soon see the development of Internet-based “global brands for live content”. The Web version of MTV or CNN could be just around the corner…

A beta download of Visual InterDev is available from Microsoft’s web site (though we would recommend ordering the CD-ROM version, as it’s a hefty 180 Mb!), and Site Server 3.0 should be available now.