Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

Microsoft FrontPage

Answers to questions you may have about using Microsoft's FrontPage on onweb's UNIX Servers.

NOTE: For specific information on how to use the FrontPage software, please consult the program's documentation or Microsoft Technical Support.

Support for FrontPage

According to Microsoft's documentation for FrontPage Web Presence Providers, "Installing the FrontPage Server Extensions gives your customers full support for all of the features of FrontPage. This includes remote authoring, threaded discussion groups, full-text search, and surveys."

onweb supports Microsoft FrontPage in several ways:

  • We configure your site for FrontPage by installing and maintaining the server extensions.
  • We provide Technical Support related to the functionality of the extensions.
  • We point FrontPage users to resources that will help you solve problems, publish your FrontPage webs and learn techniques for getting the most from your FrontPage software.

onweb DOES NOT provide direct technical support related to the use of your FrontPage software. User issues are referred to Microsoft's Technical Support Team.

Server Extensions

FrontPage Extensions are CGI programs which provide the server side implementation of FrontPage. FrontPage communicates with the extensions via HTTP using a Remote Procedure Call (RPC). When the server sees the "POST" request addressed to the FrontPage server extensions it simply directs the request to the appropriate CGI program. The extensions implement authoring (uploading/downloading documents, ToDo Lists), administration (setting end-user, author, and administrator privileges), and dynamic content (browse-time WebBot components).

Without the FrontPage Server Extensions you will not be able to take advantage of the WebBots that are available through FrontPage. Also, without the extensions you cannot author and administer your web using the tools provided as part of the FrontPage Editor/Explorer package.

Getting the extensions installed

New Accounts

Check the box on the order form indicating that you want the FrontPage extensions. New domains that request the FrontPage extensions when the order is placed will have the extensions installed within 2 days of activation.

Existing Accounts

To have the FrontPage server extensions installed on your existing site, send an email request to support@onweb.com.au with the following information:

  • Your domain name
  • Your onweb userid
  • Your request for FrontPage extensions.
  • Confirmation that you have back-up of any web pages currently on the site.
    (In most cases it is not necessary to delete files currently on the site to install the extensions. However, if there are directories or files with special permissions (.htaccess) these will have to be removed. You can then re-establish permissions and password protection via the FrontPage Explorer.)

On existing sites, the installation will generally be done within 24 hours.

Version

FrontPage extensions are version 2.03 (the Security Update extensions). onweb does not install or support ver 1.1

Charges

There is no charge for installing the server extensions. onweb will also reinstall corrupted extensions free of charge*.

*Note: There are certain precautions that MUST be taken when publishing and maintaining your site with FrontPage.

Limitations

There are some issues which potential FrontPage users should consider:

  1. Web size -- This seems to be most critical when a "searchable event" is present in the web (Search, Discussion Forum and Table of Contents). The lengthy process of updating the indices for these functions can lead to the connection timing-out (HTTP 500 Error or "Server "" has timed-out").
  2. Disk Usage -- You may create and publish as many child webs as your disk storage space allows. However, for each child web you publish, FrontPage duplicates certain information into indices and hidden files. This adds "overhead", increasing the storage space required for your files. Microsoft's documentation notes, "FrontPage 97's optional full-text search indexes can take up to the same amount of disk space as your textual content."
  3. PRECAUTIONS -- There are several precautions which need to be taken to protect the FrontPage extensions on your  site if it is housed on the UNIX servers:

    a) Do NOT use the Edit Access or File Manager features found in your Control Panel to set passwords, limit access, set file permissions or delete directories or files in a FrontPage web. This should only be done through the options in FrontPage Explorer.

    b) Do NOT use regular FTP (such as WS_FTP) to upload files to the server when FrontPage extensions are installed. This may corrupt the extensions, disabling the interactive features available with FrontPage.

    NOTE: The exception to this is when loading custom scripts to the cgi-local directory on your site. Instructions for uploading custom  CGI scripts is included in the notice you will receive when the extensions are installed.

Bots

WebBots are the mechanism for invoking many of the interactive features built into FrontPage. These features are added to your web through the FrontPage Editor | Insert WebBot Component

Some, such as Include and Subsitution allow elements of the web to be entered once and included in any or all of the pages by inserting the Bot component referencing that element (e.g. a logo or navigation bar). Changes made to the "master" element are made automatically to any page containing the referencing Bot.

Other Bots, such as Search, Table of Contents and Timestamp, control dynamic browse-time features. These Bots work behind the scenes to keep the web up-to-date for visitors.

The Page Counter Bot, which is available from the FrontPage CD-ROM or Microsoft web-site will not work on onweb's UNIX servers.

For more information on using the Bots, see the documentation provided with FrontPage or contact Microsoft Technical Support.

Features

Since FrontPage was created for developing web-sites in the Windows environment, some features are not available when the site is hosted on a UNIX Server.

  • Active Server Pages
  • ODBC and MS SQL Database connections (Access, FoxPro)
  • ActiveX
  • VBScript
  • SSL (Secure Socket Layer) Forms Processing (using the WebBot Save Results component)*

*FrontPage sites hosted on our UNIX Servers may use SSL by sending output from forms through cgiemail.
NOTE: onweb does not currently host NT domains

How to Create a New Web in Microsoft FrontPage

  1. From the Start menu, point to Programs, and then click Microsoft FrontPage. The FrontPage Explorer starts.
  2. In the "Getting Started With Microsoft FrontPage" dialog box, click to select one of the three options under the "Create A New FrontPage Web" section. Click OK.
    If you selected the "From a Wizard or Template" option, the New FrontPage Web dialog box appears. In the Template Or Wizard list, select the template or wizard you want to use, and then click OK.
    The Web Template dialog box appears.
  3. In the "Web Server or File Location" box, type or select the web server or directory you want to use.
    If you installed a local Web server and the FrontPage Server Extensions successfully, the Web name already appears in this box. Select the default and go to step 4.
    NOTE: You can also specify "Localhost" (without the quotation marks) as the server location.
    If you did not install a Web server locally and you are not working with a remote Web server, type the drive and directory where you want to store the Web, and then click OK.
  4. In the "Name of New FrontPage Web" box, type the name you want. The web name should be one word and should not include spaces.
  5. If the Name and Password Required dialog box appears, type your name and password in the appropriate boxes, and then click OK.
    The FrontPage Explorer builds the new web. The web address is displayed in the title bar.

How to Make a Web Page Display Data from a Database

To start using the Internet Database Connector, use the following steps:

  1. Make sure you have all of the following components:
    - Microsoft Personal Web Server, Microsoft Peer Web Services, or Microsoft Internet Information Server
    - An ODBC Driver for your database management system
    - A database
  2. Create a system data source name using your ODBC Driver. Q161172 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base will explain the steps necessary to do this with an Access Database
  3. Use the Database Results Page template or click Database on the Edit menu in FrontPage Editor to create detail sections, database column values, IDC parameter values, if-then conditional sections or else conditional sections as needed
  4. Run the Internet Database Connector Wizard using the Database Connector Wizard template. Specify the file for results as the file you created in step 3 above. Specify the options requested by the wizard and write your SQL statement to create an .idc file
  5. Store the .idc file in an executable directory in the Web server (any browser will be able to run your query).
    To activate the IDC file via hyperlink, point the hyperlink at the IDC file. To activate the IDC file from a form, select Internet Database Connector as the Form Handler, then enter or browse to the IDC file name to complete the link.

HTTP 404 Error When Using Web Publishing Wizard

When you use the Publish FrontPage Web command in FrontPage 97, you may receive the following error when you post to a Web server that doesn't have FrontPage Server Extensions installed:

The server may not have the FrontPage Server Extensions installed,or the server may be misconfigured, or you may have specified aninvalid proxy server, or the web you are accessing may have been deleted. HTTP error 404.

While the Web Publishing Wizard can create subdirectories when you post files to an established directory on a destination server, it cannot create the Web directory it is posting to. The Web Publishing Wizard is designed only to post files to an existing directory.

To avoid this error message, select the "Add to an existing FrontPage Web" check box, and verify that the directory listed in the "Destination FrontPage Web" box exists on the destination server.

For more information about the Microsoft Web Publishing Wizard, see the following Web site:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/software/webpost/

Frontpage Repeatedly Prompts for User Name, Password

This problem occurs when you attempt to open the <Root Web> or create a new web from a remote computer, if all of the following are true:

  • The computer hosting the web is using user-level access control. (To locate this option, right-click the Network Neighborhood icon, click Properties, and then click the Access Control tab.), -and-
  • The <Root Web> is hosted on the Microsoft Personal Web Server. -and-
  • There are no users or groups granted author or administrator access (in the Users and Groups tabs of the Permissions dialog box (Tools menu) for the <Root Web>.

RESOLUTION
To resolve this problem and allow users (including the original author of the Web) to author and administer the <Root Web> or subwebs remotely, set permissions for the <Root Web> or subwebs using FrontPage Explorer.
NOTE: The instructions below only apply to user-level access.

  1. In FrontPage Explorer, open the <Root Web>.
  2. On the Tools menu, click Permissions.
  3. Click the Users tab. Or, if you want to grant permissions to a group, click the Computers tab.
  4. Click Add.
  5. In the Add Users dialog box, type the name of the user in the Name box and the password in the Password and Confirm Password boxes. Under User Can, click either "Author and browse this web" or "Administer, author, and browse this web."
  6. Click OK.

To set permissions for each subweb, click Permissions on the Tools menu, click the Settings tab, click "Use unique permissions for this web," click the Users or Computers tab, and then follow steps 1 through 6 for each subweb. In Microsoft FrontPage, you do not need to set permissions to author or administer webs locally from the Microsoft Personal Web Server. In contrast, the FrontPage Personal Web Server requires a name and password to author or administer webs remotely and locally. Administrators of a web can create or delete FrontPage webs, designate administrators and authors, and restrict access to a FrontPage web. Authors can create or delete pages from a FrontPage web.

Publishing FrontPage Webs

  1. Establish a connection to the Internet
    (you MUST be online BEFORE beginning the publishing process - FrontPage does NOT invoke a dial-up connection)
  2. Select File | Open FrontPage Web and enter the name of your local Web Server to open your web locally.
  3. In FP Explorer, select File -> Publish FrontPage Web
  4. The Destination web server name should be www.domainname
    OR [ip address] for a new account.
  5. The Destination web name field should be left BLANK if you are publishing to the root directory
  6. Select the option "Add to an existing web"
    (OR If you are publishing a new subweb (child web) enter that name into the Destination Web Name field and UNCHECK the box for "Add to an existing web").
  7. Enter username/password when prompted.

To replace the temporary Home Page with your Home Page, you must do the following:

After the publishing process is complete, DO NOT Recalculate Links.

  1. Select File | Close FrontPage Web, then
  2. File | Open FrontPage web
  3. for Web Server or file location, enter www.[domain_ name]
    or the [ip address] for a new account.
  4. Click List webs
  5. Select the <Root Web>, then OK

This will open the web on the remote server. You can then rename the temporary page (based on the following information) to insure that your new page is accessible.

Home Page File Names

The opening page file name hierarchy is as follows:

Default.asp, default.htm, index.htm, index.html

However, when you publish with FrontPage, if your opening file has any of the above names, it will be renamed to have ALL of the above. Highlight the page named Default.asp, default.htm, index.htm, index.html and select Edit | Rename. You may then rename the file to ANY ONE of the four options.

Other Resources

In addition to the information in this FAQ, you may also find answers on many user issues at Microsoft's web-site, from newsgroups and, of course, in books on FrontPage.

For more information, please email sales@onweb.com.au

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