IISAdmin to the Rescue
I've always gone through the trouble of setting up a separate full-blown Windows 2003 Server here in my office for doing development work. The reason being that I didn't want to test on the production server, deal with FTP lags when uploading constantly changed files, and I like to keep my sites clean. I don't like testing in a base wwwroot directory and either setting up tons of subfolders or constantly clearing the wwwroot directory to get a site in the root.
I mentioned IISAdmin a while back, but never actually got it installed and working. Well I wiped my machine yesterday and got rid of a bad Media Center installation and went back to standard XP. I installed IIS and then installed CF5, CFMX 6.1, and CFMX7. I set up a separate site for each, and I can then use IISAdmin to easily switch sites to test in the right server. Awesome little tool, and the perfect price, free
6 Comments
Daniel Short wrote on 11/27/05 6:52 PM
True, but I never have reason to switch sites all that often :). I like that it just sticks there in the system tray and stays out of my way. Would be nice if it had a larger file listing though... I have so many sites that it's hard to find the one I want when I can only see six or seven at a time.
Rob Wilkerson wrote on 11/28/05 5:09 AM
I've looked at this before, but didn't see any way to make it work with virtual directories - a feature I need. I solved the problem by writing a VB script that creates new sites (XP will allow multiple sites, but has disabled the point-and-click access) and then using the standard IIS admin to stop one and start another each time I need to change. Do you happen to know whether it supports virtual directories for each site? Thanks.
Daniel Short wrote on 11/28/05 5:09 AM
As far as I know it does, but I don't think that's a feature of IISAdmin, simply a feature of IIS itself, whether XP Pro or Server... I have several sites on my machine, each with different virtual directories. In IISAdmin, I just click Create, give the site a name and base folder, and then I can interact with the site in MMC just like it was on my production 2003 Server.
Alex Ortiz wrote on 12/06/05 5:03 AM
Hi Dan, my name is Alex and I am a lynda.com member. I am really excited to learn about the new recording, I can't wait. I just have a question, how deep into coldfusion are you gonna go in this series? And since you will be working with dreamweaver, are you gonna be working in code view only or are you gonna be working in design view too? I love working in code view myself.
Daniel Short wrote on 12/06/05 5:03 AM
Hi Alex, The new title is *mostly* point and click. I get into the code a small bit, but I spend most of my time in Design view with the Server Behaviors panel in the title (I personally spend 90% of my time in Code view). The title is really geared towards beginners taking their first steps to dynamic development. The first five chapters don't even cover anything to do with Dreamweaver. They're all abou app servers, web servers, and databases. Dan
Critter wrote on 11/27/05 6:51 PM
aye. great program. agreed. my only beef id the dang thing doesn't show up when i alt-tab!! :)