Professional IronPython™

Chapter 11. Developing ASP.NET Applications

WHAT'S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• Discovering and overcoming Web Application compatibility issues

• Downloading and installing ASP.NET dynamic language support

• Developing a simple Web site

• Using IronPython to add content to a basic Web site

Chapter 8 introduces the idea of building Windows Forms applications using IronPython. In that chapter, you discovered you can create a Windows Forms application of any complexity using IronPython as long as you understand what the Visual Studio IDE is doing in the background for you. It shouldn't be too surprising, then, that you can also build Webforms applications using ASP.NET. Again, you need to consider what is happening in the background when you create a Webform using another language such as C# or Visual Basic.NET.

Unlike Windows Forms applications, a Webforms application relies on a server such as Internet Information Server (IIS) to execute. Using IIS adds another layer of complexity to the application development process. Unfortunately, Microsoft didn't have IronPython in mind when it built IIS, so there are some compatibility issues to consider when using IronPython to build Web applications. Some of these problems you can overcome by installing dynamic language support (the process is discussed later in this chapter), but other issues will remain a problem and you need to know how to overcome them.

One of the best kept secrets of the .NET Framework is that it provides a miniature Web server you can use for ...