The focus of this utility is to provide a one stop interface for common configuration tasks that need to be performed when installing a new Web site for deployment or development. The idea is that with this you may not need an installer, but you merely copy the files (or unzip them) to the server and then run this utility to configure the application to run as a Web application.

This utility performs the following tasks:

• Creates Virtual Directories
  If you distribute Web applications you will invariably end up creating a virtual directory. This option allows you to create a virtual directory on either a local or remote machine and on any Web site. The site is configured for typical ASP.NET settings.

• Configures directory permissions
  If you distribute Web applications as part of an application installation you likely will create your Web application in a directory of your own rather than on the Web Root, which means you'll have to set permissions to allow the anoymous Web user read access. You may also want to add additional rights for the ASPNET/NETWORK SERVICE account to have write access. This option allows you to specify a number of paths, a user name or group name and a user right (Read, Write, Change, Full) to assign to that path. This option requires Admin priviliges of the operator.

• Can optionally fix up a VS.NET Solution file to match new Web Configuration
  If you are a developer and you often share projects with other developers you probably know that if you have VS.NET solution on your local machine it's not likely going to open as is on another machine unless the paths and Virtual Web Directory configuration is identical to your set up. This page allows fixing a solution to match the virtual directory configured.

• Can optionally configure MSDE/SQL Server Login information and create logins
  If your application uses SQL Server and you ship to developers who don't have SQL Server, but only MSDE, you invariably
  run into developers who don't know how to configure MSDE due to the lack of admin interface. The utility provides an interface to allow changing the default login mode to MSDE/SQL Server and optionally create a new login name.

• WinForm interface
  The application provides both a WinForms rich UI or a simple command line interface. The Windows Forms interface provides an attractive and logical view of the options that are available and allow the user either to perform tasks one at a time on each tab page or all at once by clicking the Set All button.
  
  
  

• Command Line Interface
  You can also run the utility in command mode which will simply process the settings in the XML file in batch. This allows pre-configuration of the application settings and simply firing them off as part of another install routine or other external interface.

• Source Code available
  The base utility is freely available, but you can also purchase the source code for the full application and all of its components. With the source code you can customize the UI and modify some of the default behaviors.

• Configuration settings are stored in a simple XML file
  The Configuration Utility uses an XML file to store configuration settings. You set up a base install and simply exit the application which saves the settings in an XML file (using XML Serialization). Once created you can ship the configuration file with the utlility which will open the utility with your settings for the user of the application. All path references are stored path relative to the currrent directory, so paths automatically are adjusted for the users install path.