Appendix. Appendix

A.1. Setting up your local machine as a web development server with IIS

Setting up your local machine to use IIS as a web development server is easy and takes no time at all. Although IIS Express can perform the same tasks that IIS can on a Localhost, many developers prefer to run and debug their websites in a Localhost environment. You no longer need admin access to your machine for web development and setting up virtual directories is a lot easier. This guide will walk you through setting up your local machine to use IIS as a web development server.

Assuming that you have IIS installed on your machine, you’ll need to take the following steps to get started:

1.  Click Start > Control Panel.

2.  Click System and Security > Administrative Tools.

3.  In the Administrative Tools window, double-click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.

This opens a window similar to the one in figure A.1.

Figure A.1. Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager

Next, right-click Sites and choose Add Web Site. This opens a window similar to the one in figure A.2.

Figure A.2. Set up the site name and physical location of your website.

This window allows you to select a site name as well as set the physical path of your website. Once you’ve completed these details, click OK and you should be able to start working immediately. Open your web browser, navigate to http://localhost, and you’ll be able to see your website!

A.2. Useful links referenced in this book

The lists which follow figure A.2 show tools, mentioned throughout the book, used to improve and monitor the performance of your websites.

Profiling tools

• Profiling tool—http://yslow.org/
• Google PageSpeed tool—https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/
• MiniProfiler—http://miniprofiler.com
• Online web page profiling—www.webpagetest.org/
• Firebug—www.getfirebug.com
• HTTPWatch—www.httpwatch.com/
• Fiddler—www.fiddler2.com/fiddler2/

Image optimization tools

• Smush.it—http://smush.it/
• Kraken—http://kraken.io/
• Pngcrush—http://pmt.sourceforge.NET/pngcrush/
• Jpegtran—http://jpegclub.org/jpegtran/
• Visual Studio Extension—http://mng.bz/2MR6
• YUI online compressor—http://refresh-sf.com/yui
• Online Google Closure compiler—http://closure-compiler.appspot.com

Before and after results

• Before adding any page optimizations—http://before.azurewebsites.net/
• After adding page optimizations in this book—http://after.azurewebsites.net/

To learn more about managing your IIS server, the Microsoft IIS website is packed with useful resources. Please refer to www.iis.net/learn.