Looking Around the Web Matrix Development Environment
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A lot of information is packed into the Web Matrix development environment, as shown in Figure 4-2.
Figure 4-2: The Web Matrix work area.
At the top of the work area are several menus with many of the same commands you find in Microsoft Word or Microsoft FrontPage. You can see a couple of toolbars beneath the menus with buttons for copy, paste, and a number of formatting functions. I won t belabor the toolbars, because they are, as always, just alternatives to menus. In this version of the product, you can t hide, dock, or undock the toolbars they re fixed.
To the left of the work area is the Toolbox with its four tabs: HTML Elements, Web Controls, Custom Controls, and My Snippets. As you probably expect, you can drag elements from the Toolbox onto your pages. My Snippets works sort of in reverse: you can drag text, code, and controls from the page and store them in My Snippets for later use. If you need more room in Web Matrix, you can hide the Toolbox. (Use F2, the Toggle Toolbox button, or the Toolbox command from the View menu.)
To the upper right of the work area is the Workspace window, which contains the following three tabs:
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The Workspace tab allows you to find and open files. It has its own toolbar.
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The Data tab will show you the databases and tables you can work with, and it will act as a kind of data toolbox from which you can drag elements.
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The Open Items tab shows a list of the files you re currently working with.
You can see the Properties window under the Workspace window. The Properties window contains the following three tabs:
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The Properties tab allows you to set the characteristics text, color, size, and so on of the page or of individual elements on the page.
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The Classes tab allows you to explore the .NET Framework. You can use it to learn about the controls and the other elements that you ll be programming with.
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The Community tab gives you a direct link to online resources for Web Matrix. It includes links to online documentation (in fact, all documentation for Web Matrix is on the Web), newsgroups, and a place where you can read about or report bugs.
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As I mentioned in Chapter 2, Web Matrix is a community-supported tool. If you have a question about something in Web Matrix, your best bet is to take the question to the community. The Community window in Web Matrix is your gateway to the wide world of people who, like you, are interested in Web Matrix and ASP.NET. Figure 4-3 on the following page shows you what the Community window looks like.
Figure 4-3: The Web Matrix Community window
The Web Matrix community consists of a collection of Web sites and a series of newsgroups. If you have a Windows Messenger account, the Community window even allows you to start conversations with contacts in a special contacts list called My ASP.NET Contacts. In the Community window, click each of the toolbar buttons to explore what the community options offer.
The Web sites revolve primarily around the Microsoft ASP.NET site (http://www.asp.net/), which is the official Web site for the ASP.NET development team. (If you obtained Web Matrix from the Web instead of from the accompanying CD, you ve already been on the ASP.NET Web site.) The ASP.NET Web site has a huge amount of information about ASP.NET, including a couple of sections devoted just to Web Matrix. If you click the Related Links button in the toolbar, you can get to many more Web sites devoted to ASP.NET, most of which are independent of Microsoft.
In addition to Web sites, the ASP.NET community features a number of newsgroups that work like bulletin boards. Typically, people use a newsgroups reader (usually a network news transfer protocol [NNTP] newsreader) to download and read messages offline. Many people use Outlook Express as their NNTP newsreader. If you re interested in reading and posting to newsgroups but haven t done so before, you can learn more about newsgroups and about configuring a reader at the Microsoft Communities Web site (http://communities2.microsoft.com/home/gettingstarted.aspx).
All of these community choices can be a little overwhelming if you re new to the Web Matrix community. My recommendation is that you start with the two forums that are probably most relevant to your experience and interests. In the Community window, under Web Matrix Forums, click General Discussions to get to the ASP.NET forum where people ask questions about Web Matrix. Another excellent starting point is the Getting Started forum under ASP.NET Forums in the Community window. Both of these forums are a great resource for those who are learning Web Matrix and ASP.NET.
Above all, the most important part of community is participation. Don t hesitate to use the Web Matrix Community window whenever you want help or advice. With an entire community just a click away, you ll quickly discover that many heads are better than one.
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