How to create a Visual InterDev project

This step-by-step article demonstrates how to create and test a new Visual InterDev Web project with one sample Web page. Through the Visual InterDev Web project, you can identify and manipulate your Web application files. The project is not part of the Web application file set; instead, it is a file that Visual InterDev uses to point to the files that are associated with your Web application.

Requirements

The following list outlines the required hardware and software:

• Windows NT 4.0 Professional, Windows NT 4.0 Server, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 Server, or Windows 2000 Advanced Server
• Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) version 4.0 or 5.0.
• Microsoft Visual InterDev version 6.0

Installing the required software

Internet Information Services

IIS 5.0 is a minimum requirement for any Web application to work on a Windows 2000-based computer. As a result, you must install IIS on the destination computer before you can proceed. To install IIS, please follow the instructions in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article: Visual InterDev 6.0

You must install Visual InterDev before you create a project. To install Visual InterDev, please follow the instructions in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

Creating a new Visual InterDev Web project

After you install Visual InterDev and Internet Information Server with FrontPage Server Extensions, you are ready to create a new Visual InterDev Web project.

To create a new Visual InterDev Web project, follow these steps:

1. From the Windows Start menu, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0, and then click Microsoft Visual InterDev 6.0.
   
   NOTE: If you have also installed Microsoft Visual J++ 6.0, both products are displayed on the opening splash screen and in other areas throughout Visual InterDev because they share the Integrated Development Environment (IDE).
2. In the New Project window, verify that Visual InterDev Projects is highlighted.
   
   NOTE: If you do not see the New Project window, click New Project from the File menu. To display the New Project window by default when you open Visual InterDev, click Options on the Tools menu. In the Options dialog box, click to expand the Environment node, and then click General. Under On startup, click Show New Project dialog.
3. Click New Web Project.
4. Type the project name in the Name text box, type the location in the Location text box, and then click Open.
   
   NOTE: The location represents the place where Visual InterDev saves the local copy of the Web page. Do not use a drive location that resides on <drive>/Inetpub/Wwwroot.
5. The Web Project Wizard is started. Follow these steps in the wizard:
   1. In Step 1 of the wizard, in the What server do you want to use drop-down list box, type your computer name. You may also type a localhost in place of your computer name. If you are creating a Web page on a remote server, type that server's name.
      
      To determine your computer name on a Windows 2000-based computer, right-click My Computer on the desktop, and then click Properties. On the Network Identification tab, click Properties. The name of your computer is listed in the Computer name text box.
   2. Under What mode do you want to work in, you are given the following options:
      
      
      • Master mode: Use this option if you want your file changes to be saved to both the local files on your workstation Web application and the master files on the master Web server.
      • Local mode: Use this option if you want your file changes to be saved to your workstation's copy of the file that resides in the local Web application and not to the master Web application. You must update the master Web application explicitly; to do this, you can release the working copy or synchronize the project.
      In this case, click Master Mode, and then click Next. You receive a "Contacting Web server" message.
   3. In the Step 2 of the Web Project Wizard, while you specify the Web, keep the default Create a New Web Application option, and then click Next.
   4. If you want to apply a layout or a theme to your project, you can select them in Steps 3 and 4 of the Web Project Wizard. It is not necessary to have a theme and layout for your project. Click Finish.
   5. You receive a message, which states "Creating Project File" and "Copying Script Library". When the process is complete, your Visual InterDev IDE opens with your Toolbox and Project Explorer visible.
6. Click anywhere in the Project Explorer window to make it the active window.
7. From the Project menu, click Add Web Item, click Active Server Page, type a name, and then click Open. The source of the new Active Server Pages (ASP) page is displayed. Click Paste As HTML on the Edit menu to paste the following ASP code after the <BODY> tag:

   <% Response.Write "Hello World!" %>
   					

8. Save the project.
9. Right-click in a blank area of the ASP page that you created, and then click View in Browser.
10. If you are able see the "Hello World!" message in the browser window, you have successfully created a Visual InterDev Web project.

NOTE: This project is created in Master mode on the local computer. If you want one or more developers to work on this project from different computers, they must create a project on their computers, type the computer name where the master project is located, and select Local mode in step 5a. Then they must choose Connect to an existing Web Application on <ComputerName>, select the project that they want to connect in step 5b, and continue.

Troubleshooting

You may encounter the "Unable to Contact Web Server" error message under certain circumstances. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: If Visual Studio 6.0 Service Pack 4 is installed, refer to the following article for more information about this error message: NOTE: If the wizard proceeds to Step 2, you know that the Web server has been properly configured. If not, you receive a message, which states that it was "Unable to contact web server http://<Computer Name>".

You may also receive this error message because the Web server has been stopped and should be restarted, or because you do not have privileges to connect to the Web server. To restart the IIS Web Services on a Windows 2000-based computer, click Run from the Windows Start menu. Type iisreset, and then click OK.

For more information, see the following MSDN Web site: