Microsoft delivers updated WebMatrix Web-development toolset

On May 1, Microsoft released to the Web the final version of its WebMatrix 3 toolset for creating, publishing and maintaining Web sites.

(It looks like the early April WebMatrix 3 announcement was for a test build, and not the final version, which was hard to tell.)

The third release of this lightweight toolset includes support for Windows Azure Web Sites (the Web-hosting framework codenamed "Antares"); source-control tools for working with Git and TFS and improved remote editing.

WebMatrix 3 also includes support for code completion for PHP, Node.js, ASP.NET, HTML5, CSS3, and jQuery. It supports open-source apps like Wordpress, Drupal, Umbraco, Joomla out of the box, and has built-in database management for SQL Server, SQL CE as well as MySQL. The WebMatrix toolset also can help devs test their Web sites on iPhone, Windows Phone, iPad.

WebMatrix 3 can be downloaded from Microsoft's site for the product.

WebMatrix is a free set of tools for creating, publishing and maintaining Web sites. It enables developers to quickly install and publish open-source applications or built-in templates to create, publish and maintain their Web sites. Included in the bundle are a Web server, database engines, various programming languages and more. It is aimed at developers using ASP.Net, PHP, Node.js and/or HTML5.

Originally launched in 2010, WebMatrix got its start as a collection of a lightweight version of Microsoft’s IIS Web Server, known as IIS Express; an updated version of SQL Server Compact Edition; and a new “view-engine option” for ASP.Net, known as “Razor,” which enabled developers to embed Visual Basic or C# within HTML.

In other Azure-related news of potential interest to developers, Microsoft also released the Windows Azure SDK (software development kit) 2.0 for .Net earlier this week.