Chapter 28

Testing and Publishing Your Web

• Hyperlinks at a Glance
• Viewing Hyperlinks Inside Pages
• Viewing Hyperlinks to Images
• Viewing Repeated Hyperlinks
• Verifying Hyperlinks
• Fixing Internal and External Hyperlinks
• Fixing Page Errors
• The Final Check
• Performing an Across-the-Web Spell-Check
• Performing an Across-the-Web Find
• Performing an Across-the-Web Replace
• Getting Your Web Online
• Using the Publish FrontPage Web Command
• Using the Web Publishing Wizard
• Using an FTP Program
• The Final Test
• Publicizing Your Web
• Workshop Wrap-Up
  • Next Steps
  • Q&A

It's time to give your Web page that final once-over before you get it out to the Web. You should check your spelling, check your hyperlinks, check your directories-check everything. Fortunately, FrontPage keeps in mind everything you have to do from start to finish and offers a few tools that can help you as well!

Hyperlinks at a Glance

When you develop your pages with other types of editors, sometimes you can't tell at a glance if your hyperlinks are working correctly. With FrontPage, you can tell quite easily within the FrontPage Explorer. Choose View | Hyperlink View to view your web in the FrontPage Explorer's Hyperlink View. From there, you can tell whether the hyperlinks between pages in your Web site need fixing. Figure 28.1 shows broken links to the home page. The broken link is represented by an icon that looks like a torn page in All Hyperlinks View and by broken lines in the Hyperlink View for the current page.

Figure 28.1 : Use Hyperlink View to tell at a glance whether hyperlinks to and from a page are working correctly.

When you view your pages in Hyperlink View, you can expand the tree by clicking on any page icon that has a plus symbol (+) on it. That symbol tells you there are hyperlinks to other pages contained in that page.

Viewing Hyperlinks Inside Pages

Hyperlinks inside pages are hyperlinks from a page to itself, such as hyperlinks to bookmarks that appear on the same page. In the example shown in Figure 28.2, the search page contains hyperlinks to bookmarks on the page.

Figure 28.2 : Use View | Hyperlinks Inside Pages or its toolbar button to view hyperlinks within a single page.

Notice also that some of the outgoing hyperlinks are represented by arrows and others by circles. The arrows designate hyperlinks to other pages (either in your web or to other webs). The circles represent items that are included in the current page-usually images or content that appears inside Include bots.

You can view hyperlinks inside a page by using one of the following methods:

• From the FrontPage Explorer, choose View | Hyperlinks Inside Page.
• Click the Hyperlinks Inside Page button on the FrontPage Explorer toolbar.

To turn off the display of hyperlinks inside pages, repeat one of those procedures.

Viewing Hyperlinks to Images

You can use the FrontPage Explorer's Hyperlink View to view hyperlinks to images within your current Web site. Hyperlinks to images are displayed with an icon of a picture in a frame, as shown in Figure 28.3.

Figure 28.3 : View hyperlinks to images in your pages by choosing the View | Hyperlinks to Images command or toolbar button.

To view hyperlinks to images, use one of the following methods:

• From the FrontPage Explorer, choose View | Hyperlinks to Images.
• Click the Hyperlinks to Images button on the FrontPage Explorer toolbar.

To turn off the display of hyperlinks to images, repeat one of those procedures.

Viewing Repeated Hyperlinks

You can use the FrontPage Explorer's Hyperlink View to view repeated hyperlinks to pages within your current Web site. Sometimes more than one hyperlink to the same page appears within your page. For example, you might have ten copies of the same bullet graphic on a page, as the example in Figure 28.4 shows.

Figure 28.4 : View repeated hyperlinks from your pages by choosing the View | Repeated Hyperlinks command or toolbar button.

In most cases, you want to view hyperlinks only once; but if you need to remove hyperlinks to a particular page, you might miss the additional hyperlinks on the page unless you choose this command.

To view repeated hyperlinks, use one of the following methods:

• From the FrontPage Explorer, choose View | Repeated Hyperlinks.
• Click the Repeated Hyperlinks button on the FrontPage Explorer toolbar.

To turn off the display of repeated hyperlinks, repeat one of those procedures.

Verifying Hyperlinks

What if you've got hundreds of pages on your site? You don't have to look at them all manually, do you?

Have no fear-there's an easy way to check the hyperlinks on all those pages. Use the Tools | Verify Hyperlinks command to both verify and repair internal and external hyperlinks.

• To verify internal hyperlinks, choose Tools | Verify Hyperlinks to open the dialog box shown in Figure 28.5. All broken internal hyperlinks are represented by a red circle.
  Figure 28.5 : Broken internal hyperlinks are represented by a red circle in the Verify Hyperlinks dialog box.

• To verify external hyperlinks, you must be connected to the World Wide Web. Unverified external hyperlinks are represented by a yellow circle with a question mark beside it. Figure 28.6 shows several unverified hyperlinks to pages on the World Wide Web.
  Figure 28.6 : Broken external hyperlinks are represented by a yellow circle next to a question mark.

Once you establish an online connection, use the following procedure to verify external hyperlinks:

1. Choose Tools | Verify Hyperlinks. The Verify Hyperlinks dialog box appears. External hyperlinks are listed after internal hyperlinks.
2. Click Verify to identify the broken external hyperlinks. Each hyperlink is verified in sequence. It actually goes quite rapidly. Don't worry; it doesn't load the pages as the hyperlinks are verified. The process only checks to see that the URLs are valid.
3. To stop verifying hyperlinks before the list is complete, click Stop.

Fixing Internal and External Hyperlinks

You might have some broken hyperlinks inside your web, such as hyperlinks you forgot to complete, hyperlinks to pages you might have deleted from your web, or even hyperlinks from pages imported into your web that you forgot to edit. You can easily fix them by using the Tools | Verify Hyperlinks command in the FrontPage Explorer.

To repair broken internal or external hyperlinks, follow these steps:

1. From the FrontPage Explorer, choose Tools | Verify Hyperlinks. The Verify Hyperlinks dialog box appears. Internal hyperlinks are listed first.
2. Select the broken internal or external hyperlink you want to repair.
3. Click Edit Link. The Edit Link dialog box, shown in Figure 28.7, appears.
   Figure 28.7 : Edit the broken hyperlink in the Edit Link dialog box. You can repair the hyperlink on any or all pages on which it appears.

4. The current URL appears in the Replace field. Enter the correct URL for the hyperlink in the With field.
5. Choose one of the following options:
   • Change all pages with this hyperlink. Choose this option to change the hyperlink in all pages on which the broken hyperlink appears.
   • Select pages to change. Choose this option if you want to repair the broken hyperlink on a set of selected pages.
6. Click OK. The status of the repaired hyperlinks changes to Edited in the Verify Hyperlinks dialog box. After you repair your external hyperlinks, click the Verify button again while you're online, just to make sure you fixed them all correctly.

You can also choose to edit the page on which the broken hyperlink appears. This doesn't automatically fix the other hyperlinks on which the same broken hyperlink appears, but it does allow you to verify where you wanted that hyperlink to go. To edit the page on which the hyperlink appears, follow these steps:

1. From the FrontPage Explorer, choose Tools | Verify Hyperlinks. The Verify Hyperlinks dialog box appears.
2. Select the broken internal or external hyperlink you want to repair.
3. Click Edit Page. The page opens in the FrontPage Editor, and you can repair the hyperlink in the page.
4. Save the revised page to the Web site.

You might not have the time to repair all your external links in one sitting, so add the tasks to your To Do list. Using this procedure, you won't have to use the Verify Hyperlinks command again. Tasks are added to your To Do list and include the URL that you need to repair, as well as the page it appears on. To add a broken hyperlink to your To Do list, follow these steps:

1. From the FrontPage Explorer, choose Tools | Verify Hyperlinks. The Verify Hyperlinks dialog box appears.
2. Select the broken internal or external hyperlink you want to repair.
3. Click Add Task. A task is added to your To Do list.

Fixing Page Errors

When a bot is configured incorrectly or a page that a WebBot refers to is moved or deleted from your web, you'll notice a small red triangle next to the page in the FrontPage Explorer's Outline view. Figure 28.8 shows many of these triangles (most of which were remedied by choosing the Tools | Recalculate Hyperlinks command). You can determine why the error appears on the page by using the following procedure:

Figure 28.8 : The Properties dialog box tells you why an error message exists on a page.

1. From the All Hyperlinks list, select the page that has the error triangle.
2. Choose Edit | Properties (Alt+Enter), or right-click and choose Properties from the pop-up menu. The Properties dialog box appears.
3. Click the Errors tab to see a description of the page error, as shown in Figure 28.8. Usually, when a page has an error, the Properties dialog box opens with this tab selected for you.
4. Click OK to exit the dialog box and return to the FrontPage Explorer. Resolve the error as indicated by the dialog box.

The Final Check

What if, as you develop your pages, you forget to perform a spell-check on some of them? What if you change your mind and decide to rename your Web site and you don't want to go back through dozens of pages to edit the name on the pages? New to FrontPage 97 is the capability to perform across-the-web spell-checks, text searches, and text replaces.

Performing an Across-the-Web Spell-Check

Use the across-the-web spell-check to give your pages a final run-through. You can add pages that contain any misspelled words to your To Do list.

To perform an across-the-web spell-check, follow these steps:

1. Save any open pages to your web so that they can be included in the spell-check.
2. If you want to perform the spell-check on only some of the pages in the web, select the pages from Folder View.
3. From the FrontPage Explorer, choose Tools | Spelling (f7). The Spelling dialog box, shown in Figure 28.9, appears.
   Figure 28.9 : The Spelling dialog box allows you to perform across-the-web spell-checks from the FrontPage Explorer.

4. Choose All Pages to perform the spell-check on all pages in your web or Selected Pages to perform the spell-check on the pages you selected from Folder View.
5. To add the misspelled pages to your To Do list, check the "Add pages with misspellings to the To Do List" checkbox. If you leave this option unchecked, make note of the pages on which the spelling errors appear.
6. Click the Start button. FrontPage performs a spell-check of all the pages in your web.

Performing an Across-the-Web Find

Use the across-the-web find feature of FrontPage 97 to search for any page that contains a specific word or phrase. If, for example, you can't remember which of dozens of pages on your web contains the phrase going south to Florida, you can enter the phrase and make FrontPage do the work for you.

To perform an across-the-web find, follow these steps:

1. Save any open pages to your web so that they can be included in the search.
2. If you want to perform the find on only some of the pages in the web, select the pages from Folder View.
3. From the FrontPage Explorer, choose Tools | Find (Ctrl+F). The Find in FrontPage Web dialog box appears. It is similar to the Replace in FrontPage Web dialog box, shown in Figure 28.11.
4. In the Find what field, enter the text you want to find in your web.
5. Choose Match whole word only if the word or phrase you enter is likely to also appear at the beginning of a word. For example, if you want to find all instances of can but not candle or canopy, check this option.
6. Choose Match case if you want the find command to locate all instances that appear in uppercase or lowercase exactly as you enter it.
7. Choose All pages to perform the find on all pages in your web or Selected Pages to perform the find on the pages you selected from Folder View.
8. Click the Start button. The Find occurrences of "phrase" dialog box, shown in Figure 28.10, appears. As instances of your search are found, the pages that include the phrase are added to the list in the dialog box.
   Figure 28.10 : FrontPage allows you to find a word or phrase on any or all pages in your web with the Find dialog box.

9. To edit the page on which the term appears, click the Edit Page button. To add a task to your To Do list, click the Add Task button.
10. Click Close to exit the Find occurrences dialog box.

Performing an Across-the-Web Replace

Use the across-the-web replace feature of FrontPage 97 to search and replace any text or phrase on your pages. Note that this command only searches and replaces text that appears on your web page while you view it in the WYSIWYG view of the FrontPage Editor. It does not edit any HTML code behind the scenes.

To perform an across-the-web replace, follow these steps:

1. Save any open pages to your web so that they can be included in the search.
2. If you want to perform the replace on only some of the pages in the web, select the pages from Folder View.
3. From the FrontPage Explorer, choose Tools | Replace. The Replace in FrontPage Web dialog box, shown in Figure 28.11, appears.
   Figure 28.11 : FrontPage allows you to find a word or phrase on any or all pages in your web with the Replace dialog box.

4. In the Find what field, enter the text you want to find in your web.
5. In the Replace with field, enter the text you want to replace the string with.
6. Choose Match whole word only if the word or phrase you enter is likely to also appear at the beginning of a word. For example, if you want to find all instances of can but not candle or canopy, check this option.
7. Choose Match case if you want the replace command to locate all instances that appear in uppercase and lowercase exactly as you enter it.
8. Choose All pages to perform the replace on all pages in your web or Selected pages to perform the replace on the pages you selected from Folder View.
9. Click the OK button. FrontPage finds and replaces the text as specified.
10. Click Close to exit the Replace in FrontPage Web dialog box.

Getting Your Web Online

Your pages are hyperlinked, your spelling is checked, and your images are all nice, neat, and trim. You're ready to go to the Web now.

There are three ways you can get your files on the Web. If your service provider has the FrontPage Server Extensions installed, you can use the Publish FrontPage Web command in the FrontPage Explorer to transfer your Web files to their server. If your service provider doesn't have the extensions, you have a couple of alternatives. I'll address them one by one.

Using the Publish FrontPage Web Command

Use the Publish FrontPage Web command to transfer your web to a service provider that has the FrontPage Server Extensions installed. When you use this command, you can copy changed pages, add pages to an existing FrontPage web, and copy the root web with or without child webs.

To publish your web to the remote server, follow these steps:

1. Establish a connection with your Internet provider, using normal login procedures.
2. Open the web you want to publish in the FrontPage Explorer.
   • Open the root web to publish just it or to publish it and all child webs.
   • Open any child web to publish only the child web to your remote server.

3. From the FrontPage Explorer, choose File | Publish FrontPage Web. The Publish FrontPage Web dialog box, shown in Figure 28.12, appears.
   Figure 28.12 : Use the Publish FrontPage Web command to publish webs to a remote server that has the FrontPage Server Extensions installed.

4. In the Destination Web Server or File Location field, enter the server name or IP address that you use during remote connections, or select it from the drop-down menu.
5. Check the Connect Using SSL checkbox if you want to connect to a server that supports Secure Socket Layer (SSL) communications.
6. In the Name of Destination FrontPage Web field, enter the name of the web to which you want to copy. The entry defaults to the name of your currently opened web.
7. To copy the entire web, uncheck the Copy Changed Pages Only option. Leave this checked if you are adding new or updated pages to an existing web.
8. To add the pages to an existing web, check the Add to an Existing FrontPage Web checkbox. Uncheck this option if you are posting the web for the first time.
9. If you have the root web opened in the FrontPage Explorer, you have the option to copy it and all child webs beneath it. Check the Copy Child Webs (for Root Web Only) checkbox to do this.
10. Click OK to copy your web. FrontPage copies your web pages to your remote server.

Once this process is finished, you should open the remote web in the FrontPage Explorer. Check to see whether there are any red triangles near any page names. If there are, follow the procedures outlined earlier in this chapter in "Fixing Page Errors." Test all your pages thoroughly to make sure that everything copied without error.

Using the Web Publishing Wizard

If your service provider doesn't have the FrontPage Server Extensions installed, you can use Microsoft's Web Publishing Wizard to copy your pages to your remote site. This wizard is very easy to use and steps you through posting your web pages to many popular online services.

You can find the Web Publishing Wizard in the FrontPage section of Microsoft's site:

http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/

When you use the Web Publishing Wizard's setup program, the wizard is added to your Windows 95 Start menu. You can start the publishing wizard by choosing Start | Programs | Accessories | Internet Tools | Web Publishing Wizard.

To use the Web Publishing Wizard, follow these steps:

1. Start the Web Publishing Wizard from the Start menu. The introductory screen, shown in Figure 28.13, appears. Click Next to continue.
   Figure 28.13 : The introductory screen of the Web Publishing Wizard.

2. Select a file or folder name that you want to publish from the screen shown in Figure 28.14. Choose Browse Folders to select the web directory that you want to publish. If you check the Include subfolders button, all directories beneath it are copied. Choose the Browse Files button to select a file or files to copy to your site. If your HTML pages contain references to graphics files, be sure you select them also. Click Next to continue to the next screen.
   Figure 28.15 : Choose the server you want to post your pages to or click New to configure a new server.

3. From the screen shown in Figure 28.15, select a web server to which you want to post your pages, or choose an existing server from the drop-down menu. There are two choices provided already for you here-CompuServe's Our World and SPRYNET SPRY Society. If you select either of these options, you are prompted for your account information on subsequent screens, after which you proceed to step 6. To add a new web server to the list, click New on this screen and proceed to step 4.
   Figure 28.14 : Select the file or folder that you want to publish.

4. When you configure a new server, the screen in Figure 28.16 appears. Enter a name for your Web server in the top field. This is a descriptive name for your own reference and can contain spaces.
   Figure 28.16 : You continue to configure your server on this screen.

5. From the drop-down list, select the server to which you want to post your pages. Here, you can choose from the following selections: AOL Members, AOL Prime Host, CompuServe's Our World, FrontPage Extended Web, GNN Members, and SPRYNET SPRY Society. To configure a new provider, select Other Internet Provider. Click Next to continue.
6. You are prompted to enter the URL of your server on the screen shown in Figure 28.17. The URL should include your directory name as well. As an example, your URL should look similar to this:
   http://www.myserver.com/~myname
   Figure 28.17 : Enter the URL of your server on this screen.

7. After you enter your URL, click Next to continue. At this point, you may be prompted to connect online to continue the process. The Web Publishing Wizard then displays the screen shown in Figure 28.18. You are asked if you want to connect to the server using your Local Area Network (for intranets) or using Dial-Up Networking to access the Internet. To post to a remote server on the Internet, select the Dial-Up Networking connection from the drop-down menu, or click the New Dial-Up Connection to configure a new one (the wizard steps you through the configuration). Click Next to continue with the Web Publishing Wizard.
   Figure 28.18 : Name your connection and select the connection type from this screen.

8. The Web Publishing Wizard informs you that it will verify the information you entered. Click Next to continue.
9. The wizard checks your FTP, LAN, or Web server connection, and you are prompted to click Finish to publish your web. When the wizard completes transfer of the files, you are notified that the process is complete.

Using an FTP Program

Many people use FTP programs such as WS_FTP95, shown in Figure 28.19, to publish their Web pages. This allows you to duplicate directory structures and copy pages to and from directories on your local computer to directories on a remote server very easily. You can find WS_FTP95 at the following URL:

http://www.csra.net/junodj/ws_ftp32.htm

Figure 28.19 : You can also publish your Web pages using an FTP program such as WS_FTP95.

If you use an FTP program to transfer your pages to your remote site, you need to know which files you should (or shouldn't) transfer for your Web site to work properly. You should transfer the following files:

• Web pages and other files you include in your pages, which reside in your root and child Web directories, including their subdirectories. You need to duplicate the same directory structures on your target server and copy the appropriate pages into them.
• All images in your Web site's /images subdirectory.

You shouldn't transfer these files:

• Directories that begin with _vti and their contents. These directories contain information used only with the FrontPage Server Extensions.
• Access control files. Don't transfer any files in your directories that begin with a period or the pound symbol (#).

The Final Test

After you transfer your files to your remote site, browse through the site to make sure all hyperlinks work the way they should. If your server has the FrontPage Server Extensions installed, you can use the Tools | Verify Hyperlinks command while logged in to your remote site to verify the hyperlinks quickly. Check your pages once again, using various browsers, to see if things look the way they should.

Publicizing Your Web

You can publicize your Web site in several ways. One way is to post messages in newsgroups that relate to your topic of interest. If your site has information of interest to those who frequent the newsgroups, post your URL so they can find your site.

I know you're excited about your new Web site and want to tell the world-but distribute your Web announcements sparingly, posting to only a handful of newsgroups at a time. Most who frequent newsgroups don't take too kindly to spamming-posting messages in dozens of newsgroups at the same time.

Another good way to publicize your Web site is to register your home page URLs with some of the many Web searches and robots, such as Yahoo, Alta Vista, Excite, Open Text, and others. Some of these search engines also provide hyperlinks to sites from which you can send your URL to many other search engines at once.

Workshop Wrap-Up

Your web is complete and resides on your remote server. Now you can begin the task of getting the word out. You've come a long way since the day you first opened the FrontPage box. Congratulate yourself for a great accomplishment! You're on the Internet!

In this chapter, you learned how to give your Web site the final once-over and publish it to a remote site. You also learned three ways you can get your pages out to the world and which files you shouldn't transfer when your service provider doesn't use the FrontPage Server Extensions.

Next Steps

I hope I've succeeded in anticipating everything you need to know when you design your webs. Sometimes it's difficult to consider all the questions that arise. I'll maintain a support site for this book at the following URL and post answers to frequently asked questions, include more tips and tricks, and also include some graphics you can include in your pages:

http://www.fpworkshop.com

As far as where you should go next, the sky's the limit. Keep tabs of the new features being developed for the Web. Learn how to use custom scripting languages to enhance your site even further. Continue to develop your Web design skills to keep up with the latest and greatest features.

Q&A