As a follow-up to yesterday's blog entry where I discussed how we're integrating BlueDragon with the new IIS 7.0 configuration system, I'd like to take a look at the new IIS Manager and how it will affect BlueDragon/CFML developers and server administrators. There are three key points I want to make:

1. BlueDragon administration and configuration is fully integrated with IIS 7.0 and ASP.NET.

2. BlueDragon administration and configuration can be done globally, and per individual web site and web application.

3. The new IIS 7.0 administration and configuration system allows very fine-grained control of delegation of permissions by the server administration to individual web site and web application administrators.

4. The new IIS 7.0 Manager supports remote access to the server by individual web site and web application administrators, with feature delegation controlled by the server administrator.

Let's take a look at the new IIS Manager (this screenshot if from Windows Server 2008 beta3; a screenshot from Windows Vista would be similar):

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The first thing you'll notice--if you're familiar with earlier versions of IIS--is that you're now presented with a collection of "applets" to edit various configuration settings, rather than a tabbed properties dialog; this makes it much easier to navigate and find exactly the configuration settings you're looking for. You'll also notice that ASP.NET settings are included, and that we've added BlueDragon configuration directly into the IIS Manager (those are generic icons for now, we have a graphics artist working on a nice set that will match the others). Here's a screenshot of the BlueDragon application settings page:

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Note that the configuration is heierarchical; in the above screenshot, we're editing the global configuation. The is indicated by the fact that the server is selected in the left pane and in the address bar; note also the the status indicator in the lower left (circled in red) showing that it's the global applicationHost.config file that's being edited (see yesterday's blog entry for a discussion of applicationHost.config).

Contrast the above screenshot with the one below. In this screenshot we're editing the settings for the Default Web Site, which is selected in the left panel and in the address bar, and note that it's the Default Web Site's web.config file that being edited (circled in red at the lower left):

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Now let's take a look at feature delegation, which can only be done at the global server level, and only by a server administrator. Feature delegation is used in conjunction with remote access to specify which features an individual web site or web application administrator is allowed to modify. Note in the following screenshot that all of the BlueDragon features are configured as "Read/Write", meaning that any BlueDragon configuration settings can be modified for any web site or web application:

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Modifying any BlueDragon feature to be "Read Only" prevents that feature from being modified for any web site or web application. It's possible to provide finer-grained control by marking a feature "Read Only" only for particular web sites or web applications, and "Read/Write" for others. It's even possible to mark individual settings within a feature as "Read Only" while leaving others "Read/Write". For example, within the BlueDragon application settings page, you can mark the "Buffer Entire Page" option as "Read Only" while leaving the other settings "Read/Write".

It's difficult to explain all of this thoroughly in a short blog entry, but hopefully I've given you a sense of what's possible. I'm going to go over all of this in more detail at my keynote at CFUNITED-07, so be sure to attend if you'd like to hear more. Also, visit the IIS web site for more information on IIS 7.0 administration and management.