The Server
Explains the concepts of a web server
Internet Information Services, or IIS, comes with windows XP Professional. IISis a web server that may be used to host applications that contains both scripts and static html pages. To install IIS, open the Control Panel -> Add or Delete Programs window. Double click on the 'Add/Remove Windows Components' button on the left bar of the window. The Windows component wizard will pop up.
Screenshot 7a: Installing a Web Server
Check the box next to 'Internet Information Services (IIS) and click on the 'next' button. You may have to insert your XP Professional CD to complete installation. Once you have installed the server, you may browse your web sites using the IIS console. To access the IIS console, open the Control Panel -> Administrative Tools window. Right click on the IIS shortcut icon and select copy. Paste the icon on your desktop.
Now, double click on the console and open it. You may use the IIS console to tune web performance, manage E-mail settings, and so on. You can also use it to view the status of a web site. The default web site may be viewed right after you install IIS at http://localhost/. You may publish the default web site or a branch by assigning an IP address for it - simply right click on the branch in the right hand window, select properties, and enter the IP address, the port on which the server will listen for requests, and other settings in the window that pops up. We will simply use the http://localhost/ URL to develop and test our application locally.
Screenshot 7b: The IIS Console
To set up our application, navigate to the drive on which Windows is installed (usually C:) and go to the Inetpub\wwwroot folder on this drive. Create a sub folder here called 'florist' and copy all the contents of the 'info' directory that came with this tutorial into the new sub folder.
Screenshot 7c: The florist Site View on IIS
Screenshot 7d: The florist.html Page Hosted Using IIS
