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by Dennis R. Short
FrontPage Version 1.1, by Microsoft, is a suite of three sets of tools that help you to develop and administer local and remote Web sites. The three components of FrontPage are the FrontPage Client, the Personal Web Server, and a set of utilities. FrontPage Client consists of FrontPage Explorer, FrontPage Editor, FrontPage Wizards, and the To Do List. The Personal Web Server is a 32-bit pc-based Web server running under Windows 95 or Windows NT that supports the HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) and CGI (Common Gateway Interface) standards. The final component of FrontPage is a set of utilities; FrontPage TCP/IP verifies the TCP/IP configuration of a pc hosting a Personal Web Server, and FrontPage Server Administrator handles server administration tasks.
| NOTE |
All of the components described in this chapter are installed in a typical installation. To install any component or subset of a component, select custom installation |
Although FrontPage is marketed as a package that enables non-programmers to develop professional-quality Web sites, FrontPage is useful as a productivity and development tool for professionals as well. You can make the most of FrontPage by using it with the family of Internet Assistants available for Microsoft Office applications. You also can extend FrontPage's functionality by using the FrontPage Software Developer's Kit (SDK) to develop templates, wizards, and custom CGI scripts.
FrontPage Client is the set of productivity tools that are part of FrontPage. These tools include FrontPage Explorer for Web site administration, FrontPage Editor for creating and modifying Web pages, the To Do List for managing the tasks involved in Web creation and maintenance, and FrontPage Wizards for the development of Webs, Web pages, and pages utilizing forms or frames.
FrontPage Explorer is a tool used to view and administer a Web site. Information on the Web site is presented in both hierarchical and graphical forms. The visual interface provided by FrontPage Explorer is extremely useful in helping the developer understand how the Web components are associated and linked. Icons indicate the type of Web element and whether a problem, such as a broken link, exists. The application is closely integrated with FrontPage Editor and helps you to create links and relocate files between directories while dynamically modifying all links for pages effected. You can quickly create Web sites by using the wizards and templates that FrontPage Explorer provides.
With FrontPage Explorer, you can display link, outline, and summary views of a Web site (see Figure 11.1). All files, documents, and links are displayed in the Web view. The usual configuration, selected in the View menu, is a side-by-side display of the outline view and the link view. Double-clicking an icon opens that HTML component in FrontPage Editor. You can direct FrontPage to recalculate all Web links and to refresh the display lists by using the Tools | Recalculate Links command.
Figure 11.1 : FrontPage Explorer window.
| CAUTION |
If you manipulate the Web file area outside of the FrontPage Explorer environment while Explorer is open, you must select View | Refresh from the menu bar to display the Web hierarchy correctly. The recalculation of Web links for a large Web site can take a long time. Not only are all internal links verified but all external links are tested also. Depending on network traffic, this recalculation can be quite time-consuming. |
You can create new Webs or add elements to the current Web by using available wizards and templates. The Corporate Presence Wizard (see Figure 11.2 and Figure 11.3) and the Discussion Web Wizard are included in FrontPage. FrontPage also includes five templates: Normal Web, Empty Web, Customer Support Web, Personal Web, and Project Web. You can develop other Web wizards and templates using the FrontPage Software Developer's Kit. These wizards are selected when a new Web is created. Each wizard takes the user through a series of questions that establish the Web content.
You can establish links by dragging a file from FrontPage Explorer on top of text (the link description) in FrontPage Editor. By using the File | Copy Web command, you can copy existing Webs and all their components to or from another Web server with server extensions installed (see Figure 11.4). Although some CGI programming may not transfer (WebBot generated code will transfer), you can move Webs between platforms without having to make many corrections. Individual files and Web components can be imported from or exported to other servers by using the File | Import and File | Export commands. To use these commands, you must have read/write access for the target system. Common problems encountered when importing or exporting Webs include incompatible file naming conventions or extensions such as mixed-case file names or three- versus four-character extensions (for example, .htm and .jpg versus .html and .jpeg), fragmented directory structures, and references to local applications not found on the target system.
Figure 11.4 : The Copy Web dialog box.
FrontPage automatically updates all files and directories for a published Web if any changes have occurred. For example, Explorer can automatically fix related links when a document is renamed or moved. FrontPage Explorer also can verify and flag all broken internal and external links (see Figure 11.5).
Figure 11.5 : An example of a broken link icon in the Link View of FrontPage Explorer.
The verify link function tests all internal and external links. Figure 11.6 shows the results of this procedure. The summary view allows failed links to be edited or to be added to the To Do List.
FrontPage Explorer launches the correct Microsoft application for any file created using a Microsoft application. The extension and application is then added to the configure editors list. You must add non-Microsoft extensions to the list manually in order for the specified editor to recognize them.
You can configure the editors that FrontPage uses. You can map file extensions to the application that you would like to use for editing or viewing that file type by selecting Tools | Configure Editors and adding, modifying, or removing a file extension and the related application. Applications referenced in the Configure Editors dialog box (see Figure 11.7) must include the full path for the required executable.
FrontPage Editor is a WYSIWYG editor used to create and develop Web pages. The Editor does not require a knowledge of HTML and presents the user with an interface very similar to Microsoft Word with Microsoft Internet Assistant for Word. Using wizards or templates, you can create Web pages with features that normally would require special programming, including forms and frames. You can create specialized HTML coding such as scheduled images, timestamps, which indicate the last date of page modification, and includes through WebBots. Server-side includes references to fragments of HTML code that can be embedded in Web pages. By updating this fragment of HTML code, commonly used elements, such as copyright notices or Webmaster e-mail addresses, can be updated on all pages in a uniform manner.
FrontPage Editor enables you to control and implement most HTML-related functions through icon and menu selection. Standard word-processing functions including font style, font size, font attributes, paragraph style, and paragraph alignment are directly translated into HTML code. However, FrontPage Editor does not directly support tabs and tabbing for the layout of text.
| CAUTION |
Text imported into or pasted into the FrontPage Editor will display tabs present in the text. However, when the page is viewed from a external browser, the tabs are not part of the page formatting, and unpredictable results may occur. |
FrontPage has other limitations as well. Although you can view HTML code within FrontPage Editor, you cannot directly manipulate it. Instead, you must use another editor, such as Microsoft Word with Internet Assistant for Word. The example of the FrontPage Editor window shown in Figure 11.8 illustrates some of the limitations of the internal Web browser. In this example, the Editor is unable to display the scrolling marquee and font specification for a page developed with Internet Assistant for Microsoft Word.
Figure 11.8 : The FrontPage Editor window.
To create a page in FrontPage Editor, you either open a normal template, use one of several special templates, or invoke a wizard. You can open existing pages from any source, including an existing URL, and you can save the page directly to that URL if you have the correct permissions set. You can save images and other components of the page locally from the remote URL. By double-clicking the Page icon, you can open pages directly from FrontPage Explorer.
You can edit pages by using drag-and-drop, directly manipulating an object (such as text), or by editing the object or page properties. Double-clicking a component, such as an image, brings up the properties window for that component. You can then modify these properties as required. In Figure 11.9, an existing JPEG image of a diesel engine is being changed into an interlaced gif image to improve page display performance.
Figure 11.9 : An Image Properties dialog box.
A number of frequently used Web page formats and constructs are automated by FrontPage Editor. These formats and constructs are accessed through the Insert menu for each category, such as Headings or Form Field. Figures 11.10 and 11.11 show two form field constructs for a drop-down menu and an image insert. Available formats and constructs accessed through the Insert menu include the following:
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Figure 11.10: The Drop-Down Menu Properties dialog box.
Figure 11.11: The Insert Image dialog box.
FrontPage Editor includes several Web page templates for commonly created pages (see Figure 11.12). These templates are oriented toward commercial or professional sites with Normal Page being the system default. Templates are available when a new Web page is created. The templates consist of a series of dialog boxes that guide the user in the creation of the page through a series of selections. The following templates are included in FrontPage Editor for the creation of new Web pages:
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Figure 11.12: An unedited Web page created with the Hot List template in FrontPage Editor.
FrontPage Editor includes three wizards: Form Page Wizard, Frame Wizard, and Personal Home Page Wizard. The two most useful are the Form and Frame wizards. The Form Page Wizard prompts you for each type of question the form is to include and allows you to edit the text and the attributes for each question (see Figures 11.13 and 11.14). The Frame Wizard presents a number of common frame arrangements for Web pages and enables you to select the frame arrangement and name the frame elements before creating the Web page (see Figure 11.15). You also can use custom frame sizes and configurations rather than the predefined frames.
Figure 11.14: A dialog box from the Form Page Wizard defining the output options.
Figure 11.15: Selecting the frame style from the Frames Wizard - Pick Template Layout dialog box.
The Personal Home Page Wizard presents a list of common personal home page elements from which you can choose (see Figure 11.16). A Web page template including the selected elements is then created for you, providing a basis for further Web page development. The Personal Home Page is based on a single page rather than a series of linked pages.
Figure 11.16: The contents dialog box of the Personal Home Page Wizard.
FrontPage Editor can import images in a number of formats, including BMP, EPS, gif, JPEG, MAC, MSP, pcD, pcX, TIFF, WPG, and WMF. All images inserted into a page or table in FrontPage Editor are converted into either gif or JPEG (quality 75 by default) formats. An image, after it's inserted by using either the Insert | Image or the Insert | Form Field | Image commands, can be converted between JPEG and gif by editing the image properties (refer to Figure 11.11). The HTML IMAGE code that is created when you insert an image includes the image size in order to increase the speed at which the page can be viewed by a compliant browser.
| CAUTION |
Because image size information is included in the HTML code, you must open and save a Web page in FrontPage Editor if you have changed the size of an image on that page by using an external image editor. This action allows the Editor to update the size information in the IMAGE code. Failure to update the image size can affect the appearance of the page. |
You can edit images within FrontPage Editor. For example, you can make a selected color in a gif transparent by using the Make Transparent tool from the image toolbar and selecting the color that will be transparent.
You also can use FrontPage Editor to create clickable images by using the image toolbar edit commands for circular, rectangular, and irregular polygons to insert hotspots on an image. After you create a hotspot, FrontPage automatically prompts you for the URL link information. To create client-side image maps, access the image properties by clicking the image with the right mouse button and adjust the Web settings by selecting the Generate Client-Side Image Maps option. Both client-side and server-side image maps can be supported at one time. You can control more advanced image manipulation, including interlaced gifs, alternate images or text, and extend attributes, by editing the image properties.
WebBot components can be described as smart page objects and are inserted using the Insert | Bot command. WebBots allow the Web page developer to include capabilities that would normally require CGI programming. For example, WebBots can help you create discussion groups with full-text search capabilities, schedule images and other Web components to be included on Web pages, perform registration and confirmation functions, allow HTML markup, and use include functions to simplify site administration. There are two types of WebBots: static and dynamic. Static WebBots are components that do not change when a user fetches a Web page. Dynamic WebBots change each time a user fetches a Web page. The WebBots available in FrontPage Editor Version 1.1 are all static WebBots.
When you insert a WebBot into a Web page, you are prompted for the configuration required by that particular WebBot. For example, after inserting the Include WebBot, you would be prompted for the needed URL. If you inserted the Timestamp WebBot, you would be prompted for the date format and to indicate whether the time is to be for the last edit or the last automatic update of the Web page. Figure 11.17 shows the dialog box for the Scheduled Image WebBot used to insert images in a Web page for defined time periods.
Figure 11.17: The Scheduled Image Bot Properties dialog box.
One of the more useful WebBots is the Annotation WebBot. This WebBot enables you to include information on a Web page that is only viewable within FrontPage Editor and is not seen by the user when the page is displayed by a Web browser. This WebBot enables you to add production comments directly to the page and permits the developer to simply reference the annotation in the To Do List.
FrontPage Client includes an integrated To Do List that is accessible from both the FrontPage Explorer and the FrontPage Editor. The To Do List allows the developer to maintain a list of tasks that need to be accomplished for a Web site. The list indicates the task, who is responsible for the task in a multiple-author environment, the priority of the task, the affected page, and a description of the task that needs to be performed (see Figure 11.18).
Figure 11.18: A To Do List from a Web site under development.
The To Do List also can maintain and display a history of assigned and accomplished tasks. The usefulness of the To Do List is extended if an Annotation WebBot is used on the page to describe the work needing to be done or the problem that must be corrected.
The FrontPage Personal Web Server is a 32-bit Web server that can run under either Windows 95 or Windows NT. The server supports both the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) standards. The principal use for the FrontPage Personal Web Server is to allow Web developers to run a Web server on their local machines for the development and testing of a Web site. Another use for the Personal Web Server is to operate a small Web site for a collaborative workgroup or an isolated intranet.
System requirements for the FrontPage Personal Web Server include an Intel Pentium-based system (a 486 processor is not adequate), a minimum of 16 M of memory for the Personal Web Server, 15 M minimum of disk space (more will be required), and the Windows 95 or Windows NT operating system.
The installation process is straightforward. If you are installing all of the FrontPage components, two main directories are created by default. The applications programs are installed in the Programs Files directory in a directory called Microsoft FrontPage. The tutorial files, templates, wizards, clip art, and other files are located in various subdirectories.
The FrontPage Personal Web Server creates a new directory at the root level of the selected drive called FrontPage Webs. This directory contains two main components: the Server directory and the Content directory. The Content directory holds the files and directories that make up the Web page. The installation process also prompts you for a name and password for page administration. You cannot recover this information if the name and password are lost. You must use the Custom Install option to reinstall the Personal Web Server in this case.
The main limitations to the FrontPage Personal Web Server are the lack of secure transaction options (some encryption is supported) and the limited number of users the server can effectively serve on Windows 95 and smaller Windows NT servers. Personal Web Server was not designed as a production server.
| CAUTION |
When you name files and directories for a Web under FrontPage Personal Web Server in a Windows 95 or Windows NT environment, don't use spaces, special characters, or long file names that would normally be legal under these two operating systems. If you do, browsers running under different operating systems, such as Windows 3.1, will not be able to access the page because the file names will either be truncated or appear to be invalid. A File not found error will be returned to the browser. |
Server extensions allow FrontPage Explorer to work directly with a variety of different WWW servers running under several different operating systems. FrontPage includes server extensions for FrontPage Personal Web Sever, O'Reilly Website 1.1, Netscape Communications Server v11.2, and Netscape Commerce Server on Windows NT. FrontPage server extensions can be configured to support single and multiple daemons and can support multihoming.
| CAUTION |
The FrontPage server extension for Netscape Commerce Web Server does not support SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). You must disable SSL while using FrontPage Explorer or Editor to manage the site. SSL may be turned on again when site management tasks are completed. |
Additional server extensions are available for popular WWW servers for the following operating systems: Solaris 2.4, SunOS 4.13, IRIX 5.3, HP/UX 9.03, and BSD/OS 2.1. The current listing of available FrontPage server extensions is on the Microsoft Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/FrontPage/softlib/fs_fp_extensions.htm; you can download these server extensions from the site as well. Note that server extensions for the popular IBM operating systems, including the RS/6000 platforms, are not currently available. For unsupported systems, you will need to use the FrontPage Publishing Wizard. This Wizard does not provide functionality equivalent to using FrontPage with server extensions.
FrontPage server extensions could weaken a Web site's security if they are not properly configured. Most of the known security cases involve running a Web as root and thereby allowing the possibility of forged root access. If you are using FrontPage server extensions, download the Known Security Issues Web page for FrontPage from Microsoft's Web site.
Two utility programs are included in FrontPage to aid in the performance of systems administration tasks: Front Page TCP/IP test and FrontPage Server Administrator. Additional utility programs and aids may be downloaded from Microsoft's Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/FrontPage/softlib.
FrontPage TCP/IP Test (TcpTest.exe) verifies the installation of either 16-bit or 32-bit Winsock DLL's and returns information on the system's Internet connectivity, including host name, IP address, and local host IP address (see Figure 11.19). Run this utility before installing FrontPage Personal Web Server by double-clicking the software icon located in the bin subdirectory of the Microsoft FrontPage folder.
Figure 11.19: An example of the TCP/IP Test dialog box after testing a site.
FrontPage Sever Administrator is available as a Windows (fpservwin.exe) program or as a command-line (fpsrvadm.exe) application located in the bin subdirectory of the Microsoft FrontPage folder. Although you can handle most of the administration of a Web site from FrontPage Explorer, tasks that must be performed or run from the server's local host machine require FrontPage Server Administrator. This application enables you to change the administrator password and other parameters on the host machine and change permissions for FrontPage Editor and FrontPage Explorer so that they can function with a particular server (see Figure 11.20). FrontPage Server Administrator works only with systems running the appropriate FrontPage server extension.
Figure 11.20: The starting dialog box for FrontPage Server Administrator.
An additional utility that you can download from Microsoft's Web site is FrontPage Publishing Wizard (fpposit.exe). This application helps you to perform many of the same Web administration functions as FrontPage Server Administrator does, but it's for systems that do not have FrontPage server extensions available. The application is particularly useful for moving a Web site onto or out of the FrontPage Client environment. The starting dialog box for FrontPage Publishing Wizard that controls the FTP access to the remote Web is shown in Figure 11.21.
Figure 11.21: The beginning dialog box for FrontPage Publishing Wizard.
Microsoft FrontPage Software Developer's Kit (SDK) is used to extend the functionality of FrontPage by allowing developers to create templates and wizards for Web pages or Webs and helping them to develop CGI-based programs or scripts. The development of templates does not require programming knowledge, but the development of wizards or OLE Automation for the external control of FrontPage components requires that you know either Microsoft Visual C++ or Visual Basic. A Visual Basic program called Web Template Maker is included in the SDK to help automate the process of creating Web templates. The SDK includes a number of coding examples as well.
You can use the Developer's Kit to develop prototype Web components and to distribute these components to developers or to end users. Examples of applications you could create with this kit include the development wizards for employee information Web pages or wizards for product catalog page development, including graphics and CGI scripts. You can download the FrontPage Software Developer's Kit from Microsoft's Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/FrontPage/softlib/fs_fp_sdk.htm.
Microsoft FrontPage is an integrated set of tools for the creation and maintenance of Web sites and Web pages. Using FrontPage in combination with Microsoft's Internet Assistant family provides for a powerful Web development and administration environment supported by a single vendor. The automation of tasks through wizards and WebBots greatly simplifies many repetitive Web creation functions. Through the use of the FrontPage SDK, a competent programmer can automate a variety of templates and wizards that would allow less skilled personnel to assist in the development of robust, professional, and consistent Web pages for larger organizations.
