Professional Microsoft IIS 8

Programmatic Configuration

When dealing with a small number of web servers and infrequent changes, IIS Manager and manual methods of administrating IIS work well, but it doesn't take long to outgrow this manual administration and look for a better way to manage the server.

Programmatic configuration is nothing new in IIS, but it's been greatly improved while keeping full support for legacy code. There is no need to throw out your old code, yet you can use the latest and greatest methods of programming to manage your IIS servers from now on.

Virtually everything that can be done through IIS Manager and through editing the configuration files directly can be done programmatically. You can program to automate monotonous tasks like the creation of new sites, managing many servers at once, or to develop tools so that non-administrators can make changes—for example, to shut down a site because of non-payment. Whatever the reason, pretty much anything that you dream up can be built.

Since there are code samples scattered throughout the book, this section focuses more on the key concepts so that, coupled with the code snipped throughout the book, you will have the tools necessary to program whatever you need. It's hard to cover everything that you need for programming without writing at least a full book, but the key foundational concepts for various programming methods are covered.

You may be a seasoned developer who just needs reference material, or you may be a programmer who needs ...