Free Web Application Toolkits Evolve with New Resources

Concomitantly with the launch of Microsoft WebsiteSpark in September 2009, the Redmond company also made available a collection of Web Application Toolkits to the Web. Designed to streamline the process of extending web application capabilities, the Web Application Toolkits offer developers a set of comprehensive resources including running samples, templates and even documentation, usable only in conjunction with ASP.NET. Five month after their introduction, the Web Application Toolkits have evolved with the addition of new resources, as well as a dedicated webpage.

“Web Application Toolkits help ASP.NET web developers quickly complete common tasks. Each Web Application Toolkit download contains reusable assets - e.g. controls, class libraries, endpoints etc. and a sample application that shows how to use them,” revealed Sarah Theiss, partner marketing manager, Microsoft Australia.

Developers can leverage the free Web App Toolkits offered by the software giant in order to quickly deal with common web development tasks. Essentially, the company is making it as easier as possible for devs to integrate Microsoft technology into their Cloud-based applications. In this regard, Web App Toolkits support scenarios involving Bing Maps integration or the addition of social networking capabilities. The promise from Microsoft is that developers will be able to download, install and have any Web App Toolkit running within five minutes.

Since September 2009, developers have been able to access and take advantage of no less than seven Web App Toolkits, such as IE8 Extensibility, Bing Search, REST Services, Mobile Web Applications, Template-driven Email, Social Web Apps, FAQs. However, Microsoft has now added new resources to this list.

“Over the past couple of months we’ve been busy in the lab creating three new Web Application Toolkits and are excited to launch them today! What’s new? Web Application Toolkits have a new landing page. We are launching three new Web Application Toolkits: Calendars 1.0, Bing Maps 1.0 and Freemium Apps 1.0,” Theiss added.