FrontPage is a powerful web site development tool. You can use it not only to edit Web pages but also to manage your Web site. This chapter discusses how FrontPage can be used to develop and manage the contents of a Web site. You can obtain more information about FrontPage from Microsoft's Web site.
Note: The Microsoft FrontPage Web site is http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/default.htm.
Installing FrontPage is as easy as downloading it from Microsoft's web site and running the file SETUP.EXE. When the FrontPage installation program is executed, it displays a dialog box similar to the one shown in Figure 9.1. Use this dialog box to specify the directory in which FrontPage should be installed.
Figure 9.1. The Select Components dialog box.
You can also select three FrontPage components. Make sure that the Client Software component is checked; it consists of the FrontPage Explorer and Editor. Check the Personal Web Server component if you want the FrontPage server to be installed on your system. If your Web server is compatible with FrontPage Server Extensions, you do not have to install the FrontPage Web server. Visit the FrontPage Web site for the most up-to-date list of Web servers supported by FrontPage. At the time of this writing, FrontPage Server Extensions is compatible with Netscape Commerce Server, Netscape Communications Server, and WebSite. By the time you read this, FrontPage will support other Web servers, including Microsoft's Internet Information Server.
Note: If you install the Personal Web Server component, make sure that no other Web server runs on port 80 of your system. If another Web server uses port 80, the FrontPage Web server might have problems binding to it. If you want to install the FrontPage server for testing purposes and have already installed a sever (such as Internet Information Server), the FrontPage server should use a different port. In this case, stop the other server for the duration of the installation process. After FrontPage is installed and its port is changed, you can continue to use the other server as you did before.
If you want to install FrontPage Extensions for your Web server, check the Server Extensions component. Click the Next button to continue.
Figure 9.2 shows the Select Program Folder dialog box, which you use to select the folder FrontPage should be installed in. When FrontPage is installed, the string of text that you specify in Figure 9.2 becomes a branch of the Windows NT Start menu. You can use the scroll-down list to install FrontPage in an exiting start menu folder.
Figure 9.2. The Select Program Folder dialog box.
When all the files are copied, the installation program displays the dialog box shown in Figure 9.3. FrontPage is now installed on your system. Before the installation programs terminates, it might check the IP address of your system and display a confirmation dialog box. To start the FrontPage Explorer, check the box.
Figure 9.3. The Setup Complete dialog box.
FrontPage consists of several programs. Depending on the components that you selected in Figure 9.1, the installation program installs various FrontPage applications and places them in a start menu folder (see Figure 9.4).
Figure 9.4. FrontPage application icons.
If your Web server is not compatible with Windows NT, you can use the FrontPage server to experiment with FrontPage and create a Web site. After you create Web pages, transfer them to the production Web server. You can launch the FrontPage server, shown in Figure 9.5, from the Windows NT Start menu. You might have to edit some configuration files to configure the FrontPage server if you want to run it on a port other than port 80.
Figure 9.5. The FrontPage server.
By default, the FrontPage server is installed on port 80. If another Web server runs on port 80, this can cause problems, because both servers cannot share the same port. To solve this problem, change the default port of the FrontPage server by editing the configuration files. The following instructions are based on FrontPage 1.1. If you are using a later version of FrontPage, refer to the documentation for information about changing the default port of the FrontPage Web server.
If you already installed server extensions for the FrontPage server, invoke the FrontPage Server Administrator application and select Uninstall to remove server extensions from the FrontPage server. After you change the port number of the FrontPage server, you can reinstall server extensions for the FrontPage server. To change the port used by the FrontPage server, edit the file H:\FRONTPAGEWEBS\SERVER\CONF\HTTPD.CNF—this assumes that you installed the FrontPage server in the H:\FRONTPAGEWEBS directory. As Figure 9.6 shows, to change the port of the FrontPage server, locate the line that contains the server port information and type in the new port number.
Figure 9.6. To change the default port for the FrontPage server, edit the HTTPD.CNF file.
Caution: When you change the default port of a Web server, selecting a port below 1024 might cause problems in the future. It is recommended that you select a port greater than 1024.
You can now install server extensions for the FrontPage server and start it in a different port. If another Web server runs on port 80, you can restart it and use it as before.
The FrontPage Server Administrator is used for managing server extensions installed on various Web servers managed with FrontPage. You also can use it to ensure that Web server extensions are installed properly and to enable and disable authoring on a server. The following sections discuss how to use FrontPage Server Administrator to manage and administer server extensions.
When it is first invoked, the FrontPage Server Administrator dialog box lists Web servers that can be authored with FrontPage (see Figure 9.7). By default, if you installed the FrontPage server, only the contents of the FrontPage server can be managed with FrontPage Explorer. It is easy to manage and author the contents of a Web site with FrontPage Explorer. However, FrontPage Server Extensions must be installed on a server before it can be managed using FrontPage Explorer. Therefore, you should install FrontPage Server Extensions for your Web server as described in the next section. Make sure that FrontPage supports your Web server before you attempt to install FrontPage Sever Extensions on it. If FrontPage does not support your Web server, you can still use the FrontPage server to design and manage the contents of your Web site. In this case, skip the following section and proceed to the section on managing server extensions.
Figure 9.7. The FrontPage Server Administrator dialog box.
It is easy to install server extensions for additional Web servers, as long as they are supported by FrontPage. Click the Install button in the dialog box shown in Figure 9.7 to install server extensions for an existing Web server. You are presented with the dialog box shown in Figure 9.8. Select the your Web server's type, and press OK to continue. For the purpose of this demonstration, FrontPage Server Extensions is installed on a WebSite Web server that is configured to run on port 200. (When you change the port number of a secondary Web server running on your server, do not follow this example and use a port number below 1024. Always use port numbers above 1024 to avoid potential conflicts.)
Figure 9.8. The Configure Server Type dialog box.
FrontPage gathers information about your Web server and displays a confirmation dialog box, as in Figure 9.9. Press the OK button to continue. FrontPage installs server extensions for the Web server that you selected. If you are installing FrontPage Server Extensions on a WebSite Web server and it is configured for multiple domain names, enter information on multiple domain names when asked for it. Otherwise, leave the dialog box that asks for information on Multi Hosting blank; press the OK button to continue.
Figure 9.9. The Confirmation Dialog dialog box.
After server extensions are installed for a new Web server, its port is added to the FrontPage Server Administrator dialog box, as shown in Figure 9.10. You then can configure the server extensions and authoring settings for each server by selecting its server port.
Figure 9.10. The FrontPage Server Administrator dialog box after FrontPage Server Extensions for an additional Web server has been installed.
Use the Upgrade button on the FrontPage Server Administrator dialog box to upgrade server extensions of a Web server to the server extensions of the current version of FrontPage. This feature is particularly useful after upgrading to a newer version of FrontPage. When you press the Install button, the dialog in Figure 9.11 appears. It confirms whether you want to upgrade the server extensions for the Web server that you selected.
Figure 9.11. The server extensions upgrade dialog box.
Use the Uninstall button to uninstall server extensions from a Web server. When you press the Uninstall button, the dialog box in Figure 9.12 appears. It confirms whether you want to uninstall server extensions for the Web server that you selected. Uninstalling server extensions does not delete the contents of a Web site. Only FrontPage Server Extensions are removed.
Figure 9.12. The server extensions uninstall dialog box.
You can verify whether server extensions for a Web server have been installed properly. Press the Check button. If the dialog box in Figure 9.13 does not appear, FrontPage Server Extensions has not been installed properly. In this case, you might want to reinstall FrontPage Server Extensions.
Figure 9.13. You can use the Check button of the FrontPage Server Administrator dialog box to check the status of server extensions installed on a Web server.
Use the Authoring button to control whether a Web server's content can be authored with FrontPage. When you press the Authoring button, the dialog box in Figure 9.14 appears. It confirms whether you want to change the authoring settings on the Web server that you selected.
Figure 9.14. The Enable/Disable Authoring dialog box.
Use the Security button to administer the security settings of FrontPage Server Extensions. You also can use this button to assign a password to a web of documents managed by FrontPage and to limit which computers can manage a Web site with FrontPage Server Extensions.
When you press the Security button, the dialog box in Figure 9.15 appears. Use it to specify a user name and a password that can be used to author a Web site managed with FrontPage.
Figure 9.15. You can use a user name and password to make sure that unauthorized persons do not make changes to your Web site.
Press the Advanced button in the dialog box shown in Figure 9.15 to specify which computers can use FrontPage to manage the contents of a Web site. If your Web site is managed by computers only in your own domain, you should change the default setting to match your domain name's IP address. This dialog box accepts numeric Internet IP addresses. To find your IP address, execute the FrontPage TCP_IP Test icon. This icon is found in the FrontPage start menu folder shown in Figure 9.4. When executed, it displays your IP address, as shown in Figure 9.16.
Figure 9.16. Use the FrontPage TCP_IP Test application to find the IP address of your computer.
To ensure that no other computers can modify your Web site with FrontPage, you might want to enter your IP address in the dialog box shown in Figure 9.17. Even if you do not specify an IP address, FrontPage still requests a user name and a password before users are allowed to make changes to your Web site. The IP address must be a numeric address with four digits (1 through 256) that are separated by periods. A wildcard character (*) can be used instead of a digit. For example, 128.*.*.* enables all computers whose IP addresses begin with 128 to administer a FrontPage web.
Figure 9.17. The Internet Address Restriction dialog box.
FrontPage Explorer is a powerful utility that enables you to view your Web site from a different perspective. Although it is possible to view the content of a Web site with File Manager or Windows NT Explorer, these applications are not meant for viewing the contents of a Web site. For example, when you look at a document root directory using a utility such as Windows NT Explorer, you see several directories and files. However, you cannot find out information such as what those files are, what is in them, or whether they have any URLs that point to your Web site or other Web sites. Moreover, there is no way to find out whether hyperlinks at your Web site actually work without checking each one individually.
FrontPage Explorer solves these problems by enabling Web site developers to look at Web sites that they create in a new perspective. This section discusses how to use FrontPage Explorer to manage the contents of a Web site. When invoked for the first time, FrontPage Explorer looks similar to the window shown in Figure 9.18. Select the Open Web option under the File menu to invoke the Open Web dialog box, shown in Figure 9.19. After you select a web with the Open Web dialog box, you can manage it by using FrontPage Explorer.
Figure 9.18. FrontPage Explorer.
Figure 9.19. The Open Web dialog box.
Type in the address of your server, as shown in Figure 9.19. If the server that you want to manage is installed on a port different from port 80, specify its port name by preceding the port number with a colon. Then click the List Webs button to see the various webs installed on the Web server that you selected. Select <Root Web>, and press OK to continue. Type in a user name and a password to administer the web.
FrontPage Explorer extracts information about the web and displays the information graphically. As Figure 9.20 shows, the Outline View pane lists home pages, and the Link View pane graphically displays URLs that are part of the Web page selected in Outline View. After you install FrontPage, it defaults to the summary view, and you must select View|Link View from the Menu Bar to see the Link View. If you want to edit a Web page shown in Link View, simply double-click it. You then can edit it with FrontPage editor.
Figure 9.20. Use FrontPage Explorer to view the contents of a Web site graphically.
Note the plus and minus buttons that appear at the top left corner of some Web pages. Also note how the Web tree of the page selected in Figure 9.20 is expanded and how there is a minus sign to the top left hand corner of this page. If a Web page has a plus sign at the top left corner, the document has URLs that link to other Web pages. If you click the plus sign, it changes to a minus sign and you see all the URLs in that page, as Figure 9.20 shows.
Although this graphical view is useful for viewing how Web pages in a Web site are connected to one another, it does not give much information about the various files at a Web site. To obtain more detailed information about a Web site, select the Summary View option under the View menu. As Figure 9.21 shows, Summary View is ideal for obtaining detailed information about a Web site. You can sort the columns in Summary View by clicking the description label at the top of each column. This feature is powerful. Certain Web pages at your Web site, for example, might use graphic files that are too large to be transferred over a POTS link in a reasonable period of time. You can single out these graphic files easily by clicking the Size column and sorting the files based on their sizes.
Figure 9.21. Use Summary View to obtain detailed information about the various files at a Web site.
FrontPage Explorer is a powerful tool for graphically managing the contents of a Web site. You can also use it to exploit the capabilities of FrontPage because it is integrated with other components, such as the To Do List and the program that verifies the URLs of Web pages. Spend some time with FrontPage Explorer to become more familiar with it and to realize its potential.
Use the FrontPage To Do List, shown in Figure 9.22, to keep track of various tasks that have to be done. Because it is integrated with other the components of FrontPage, such as the program that checks for broken links, the FrontPage To Do List is ideal for keeping track of the tasks that must be done to maintain a Web site. To invoke the FrontPage To Do List, select the Show To Do List option under the Tools menu.
Figure 9.22. The FrontPage To Do List.
To add a new task to the To Do List, click the Add button. The dialog box in Figure 9.23 appears. It gathers information about the task that you want to add. Type in the name and a description of the task, and specify its priority level.
Figure 9.23. Adding a task to the FrontPage To Do List.
After you set up a Web site, some Web pages inevitably will have broken URLs for objects that no longer exist. It is important that you check your Web site periodically for broken links. FrontPage includes an application that verifies links at a Web site. To invoke this utility, select the Verify Links option under the Tools menu. The Verify Links utility locates invalid URLs for Web sites as well as the Web pages that contain them (see Figure 9.24).
Figure 9.24. FrontPage can verify the URLs for Web pages.
You can add a broken link to the To Do List so that you can take care of it at another time. Figure 9.22 shows an example of a broken link added to the To Do List. To add invalid URLs to the To Do List, click the Add Task button (see Figure 9.24). You can correct broken links immediately by clicking the Edit Link button and replacing the URL, as shown in Figure 21.25. Use the Edit Page button to edit the Web page that contains the broken URL.
Figure 9.25. The Edit Link dialog box.
FrontPage Editor is a powerful WYSIWYG HTML editor that you can use to create Web pages with tables, frames, and other HTML 2.0 enhancements. The following sections discuss a few key features of FrontPage Editor; it does not comprehensively cover all its capabilities.
FrontPage Editor is a powerful HTML editor that you can use to create and edit Web pages. Although you can invoke FrontPage Editor as a stand-alone application or through FrontPage Explorer, it is recommended that you open first an existing Web and then FrontPage Explorer. This enables you to use features of FrontPage Explorer to create and edit Web pages. Spend the time to become familiar with FrontPage Explorer, for you can use it to view and edit pages at a Web site by double-clicking them.
The following sections help you get started with FrontPage Editor. First, though, bring up FrontPage Explorer, select a web, and select the Show FrontPage Editor option under the Tools menu. This enables you to save Web documents edited with FrontPage to an existing Web.
You can use FrontPage Editor to define the document formatting attributes of a Web page. When you create a new document, for example, you might want to assign colors to various elements of the Web page. Simply select the Properties option under the Edit menu. The Page Properties dialog box appears (see Figure 9.26). You use it to assign a title to a Web page and to customize its appearance.
Figure 9.26. The Page Properties dialog box.
To format the text in a Web page, first select the text with the mouse and choose the Characters option under the Format menu. The dialog box in Figure 9.27 enables you to format the text. Use the Choose button to change the color of the text. This feature is handy for emphasizing a paragraph or a heading. Press the OK button to apply the formatting options that you select.
Figure 9.27. Use the Character Styles dialog box to format text.
When used properly, frames can make a Web site easier and more interesting to navigate. It is easy to create a multiframe Web page with FrontPage. To create a Web page with frames, select New under the File menu. The dialog box shown in Figure 9.28 appears. Use the scroll-down list to select the Frames wizard, and press OK to continue.
Figure 9.28. Use the Frames wizard to create a Web page with frames.
The dialog box shown in Figure 9.29 appears next. Use it to create a multiframe Web page with a custom grid or frames template. Generally, you should use a custom grid to create a multiframe Web page if you are familiar with frames and have an unusual frame set in mind. Otherwise, use a frames template. Now click the Next button.
Figure 9.29. This dialog box enables you to choose which technique to use for creating frames.
The dialog box shown in Figure 9.30 now appears. Use it to select the layout of the frames on your Web page. Select a layout, and press the OK button to continue. When you selecting a layout, keep in mind users who might browse your Web site with 640-by-480 resolution monitors. After you create a frame set, look at it after you have resized your Web browser window to 640 by 480 pixels to make sure that everything is readable.
Figure 9.30. This dialog box enables you to select the layout of the frames on a Web page.
When you create Web pages with frames, keep in mind that some Web browsers do not support frames. Although the percentage of users using such Web browsers is going down, you should make sure that a user browsing your Web site with an older browser can still view its contents. To specify a Web page that will be shown to users whose browsers do not support frames, use the dialog box shown in Figure 9.31.
Figure 9.31. This dialog box enables you to specify an alternate content page URL for Web browsers that do not support frames.
Finally, the FrontPage Frame Wizard asks you for the title of your multiframe Web page and its filename (see Figure 9.32). Fill in the information, and click the Finish button. FrontPage Frame Wizard then creates your multiframe Web page.
Figure 9.32. This dialog box enables you to specify the title of a Web page, as well as its URL.
If you go back to FrontPage Explorer, you can see the multiframe Web page that you just created. Look at Figure 9.33. Notice how the Web page is broken down into three separate pages. Each page holds the contents of a frame. To edit a frame, double-click the corresponding file in the Link View pane of FrontPage Explorer.
Figure 9.33. This is multiframe document that was just created, viewed with FrontPage Explorer. You can edit the frames by double-clicking them.
Select the Insert Table option under the Table menu to add tables to a Web page. The dialog box in Figure 9.34 appears. Use it to specify the number of columns and rows in the table as well as other attributes.
Figure 9.34. The Insert Table dialog box.
After you create a table, you can insert text and images in the cells just as you insert text and images in regular Web pages. To insert images, selecting Image under the Insert menu. By default, the columns in a two-column table are of equal width. As Figure 9.35 shows, this is not ideal in some cases. The image is cut off because the left column takes up too much space. To fix this, place the mouse pointer on the left column and click the right mouse button. You will then see a pop-up menu similar to the one in Figure 9.35.
Figure 9.35. Click the right mouse button to format the cells in a table.
Select the Cell Properties option. The dialog box in Figure 9.36 appears. Use it to define the width of a column. To reduce the width of the left column, specify a lower percentage value for it. This example uses a cell width value of 30 percent.
Figure 9.36. The Cell Properties dialog box.
The entire image can be displayed in a table cell after the width of the left column is reduced (see Figure 9.37). Tables are useful for formatting the contents of a Web page. Use the right mouse button to format the cells of tables and to have more control over their contents.
Figure 9.37. The table after the width of the left column size is reduced.
You can use FrontPage scripts to add CGI programs to a Web site. For example, FrontPage can be used to effortlessly setup a guest book at a Web site. Simply select New under the File menu, and choose the Guest Book option (see Figure 9.38) to begin creating a guest book.
Figure 9.38. Select the Guest Book template.
The Guest Book template is loaded into FrontPage Editor, as shown in Figure 9.39. You then can edit the guest book page by, for example, changing the font and adding images.
Figure 9.39. Edit the guest book page.
Select Save under the File menu to save the guest book page. The File Save dialog box, shown in Figure 9.40, appears. Type in a title for the Web page and a filename for the guest book. Click the OK button to save the file.
Figure 9.40. Save the guest book page.
Users now can connect to your Web server and sign the guest book using the filename specified in Figure 9.40. Figure 9.41 shows an example of how a user might connect to your Web server and sign the guest book.
Figure 9.41. The guest book is immediately functional.
After a user types in a guest book entry and presses the Submit Comments button, the information is sent to a FrontPage CGI program for processing. After the information is processed, FrontPage displays a message, as shown in Figure 9.42. This message also has a link to go back to the previous page.
Figure 9.42. A confirmation message for the guest book entry.
When a user clicks the link to go back to the previous page or manually goes back and reloads the guest book page, the entry that was just added is displayed, as shown in Figure 9.43. The CGI applications built into FrontPage are powerful. For example, you can set up a guest book with FrontPage—without writing a single line of CGI code—in about five minutes. Experiment with other FrontPage CGI scripts, and incorporate them into your Web site to make it more interactive. For more information on CGI, see Chapter 10 "Introduction to Windows NT CGI Programming."
Figure 9.43. Contents of the guest book.
You also can create Web pages using predefined document templates. Select New under the File menu, and choose the template that best resembles the page that you want to create. Experiment with various FrontPage templates to become familiar with using them. FrontPage templates can be used to save time and create attractive web pages.
FrontPage is a powerful, yet easy to use, application for developing Web pages and managing the contents of a Web site. Because it is part of Microsoft Office, it is likely to be integrated with Microsoft Office applications in the future. You can use FrontPage to create interactive Web pages without writing CGI programs or worrying about the details of HTML, so it is an ideal application for easily creating the content for a Web site.
One of the best things about the World Wide Web is how it can be used to distribute information to millions of people. CGI enables you to interact with this large audience of people. The next chapter covers all the fundaments of CGI programming. It discusses various aspects of adding CGI applications to a Web site, and it demonstrates how CGI applications can be written in Practical Extraction Report Language (PERL) and C/C++.
