Editor’s Note: This post comes from Justin Beckwith, Program Manager. 

Today we are excited to announce the release of WebMatrix 3.  WebMatrix is a free and lightweight web development tool we introduced in 2010, focusing on simplifying the web development experience for ASP.NET, PHP, and Node.js.   Since that time, we’ve received a lot of feedback, and added many new features.  To get started you can download the release, or watch the introduction video:

The highlights of this release include simple Windows Azure Web Sites integration, Remote Editing in the cloud, and source control tooling for Git and TFS. 

Integration with Windows Azure Web Sites

WebMatrix 2 was a great match for easily creating web sites, and deploying them to Windows Azure.  We’ve taken that a step further in WebMatrix 3.  The first time you start WebMatrix 3, there’s an option to sign into Windows Azure.  You can sign in using the same credentials you use on the management portal:

 After signing in, you have the option to create up to 10 free sites on Windows Azure Web Sites.  WebMatrix will automatically create these sites, and set up the publishing information when you create a new site from the pre-built templates or from the Application Gallery:

 The hope is that we’re creating a simple, effective way to manage your sites locally and in Windows Azure. 

Great Video:  Watch Eric build a site with WebMatrix 3 and deploy it to Windows Azure.

Remote Editing in the Cloud

In WebMatrix 2, we added the ability to open your Web Site directly from the Windows Azure portal.  With WebMatrix 3, we’ve rounded out that experience by providing an amazing developer experience for remote editing of your sites.  The new visual site gallery allows you to open existing sites on your local machine, or to remotely edit sites that are hosted in Windows Azure:

 While working with the remote site, IntelliSense and the other tools work as though the site was local.  If you want to work with the site locally, you can click the ‘download’ button to install and configure any runtime dependencies, and work with the site on your machine:

 Great Video:  Watch Thao show you how to edit your live site on Windows Azure using WebMatrix 3. 

Source Control with Git and TFS

One of the most requested features in WebMatrix 2 was support for version control software.  Following the TFS and Visual Studio announcements to support Git version control, WebMatrix 3 supports both Git and TFS. The source control experience is extensible, and we’ve worked with a few partners to include rich support for CodePlex and GitHub:

 The Git tooling will work with your current repositories, configuration, and existing tools.  The experience includes support for commits, branching, multiple remotes, and works great for publishing web sites to Windows Azure:

 The TFS experience is focused on making common source control tasks easy.  It matches up well with Team Foundation Service, our hosted TFS solution that provides free private Git and TFS repositories.  You can even use the new source control features to deploy your site to Windows Azure. 

Great Videos:  Watch Justin give a tour of the Git and TFS integration in WebMatrix 3.