Mixing FP and non-FP webs on one PWS server

[Kevin Lucas]

I want to be able to use a single Microsoft Personal Web Server (PWS)
running on Win 98SE to host FrontPage webs and non-FrontPage webs
simultaneously. One of the reasons is that I want to be able to publish
simple FP sites or non-FP sites by pushing them to the Web server rather
than pulling them from the web server PC because it is not normally easily
accessible. And as I understand it PWS only allows authoring such as that by
FrontPage from its own host PC rather than any remote PCs.

This would allow me to migrate away from FP to something that will allow FTP
(and hence get round PWS's authoring limitations).

My PWS has the Frontpage extensions and I see from this newsgroup that I
shouldn't really FTP the non-FP webs to the server. So I wondered:

- whether I could still make the two types of web coexist by setting the PWS
manager to control a folder quite outside my standard PWS folder-set (which
is in Inetpub/wwwroot) and FTPing my non-FP webs into this separate folder

- or could I use the Publishing Wizard within the PWS manager to load a
non-FP web into the standard web server folders? Would it look after the
issues of the FP extensions successfully as it does so? (The downside here
is that I have to do this from the PWS host PC)

- or would the Microsft Web Publishing Wizard for example take due account
of the FP extensions on the server and somehow handle the fact the webs I'm
publishing aren't from a FP environment without damaging the extensions in
the process?

Even if I used a web server other than PWS I'd still need the FP extensions
until I can migrate all my existing webs and then I'd presumably be back to
the original problem of needing the extensions while wanting to publish
sites that don't use them.

I'd prefer to avoid running two web servers on different ports if possible.

Sorry this is a bit complex to explain but is it obvious to anyone how I
should go about this please?

Many thanks for any help you can give.

Kevin Lucas

 

[Wes]

You can FTP from FP. Also, you can use FP to design your site and upload
using the FTP program of your choice.

 

[Kevin Lucas]

Wes
Thanks for this but I'd understood that I shouldn't FTP into a Web Server
that uses the FP extensions. So can I just clarify; even though FP may be
capable of FTP (which I'd assumed was for uploading to servers that don't
have the extensions), it's safe to use another FTP program (not FP) to FTP
to a web server running the extensions?

Thanks for your help
Kevin

 

[Thomas A. Rowe]

You really shouldn't use any FTP (FP or 3rd Party) to publish content that is to be managed by FP to
a server that has the FP extensions, as the extensions will not be aware of any changes in content.

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, WebCircle, MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================

 

[Ronx]

Yes and No.
Set up a subweb, and use this for all FTP operations and there will be no
problems. The extensions in the subweb will probably be corrupted, but this
will not affect the rest of the website.

When FTPing in an extended web follow these rules and you _may_ be OK:

Never FTP a folder. Create the folder on the server, then FTP the contents
(but not any subfolders), never FTP the folder itself.
Never FTP a page that contains a Run Time FrontPage component or requires
the extensions to run - Forms, Hit Counters, Custom Navigation Bar etc.
Don't even think about FTPing the contents of a _vti folder. Even thinking
about it will corrupt the extensions
After an FTP session, open the web in FrontPage, then use Tools->Recalculate
Hyperlinks This will (should) resync the extensions with the changed
contents.

These rules are very easy to break, which is why FTPing to a FrontPage site
should be avoided.

Ron

 

[Kevin Lucas]

Ron
This is excellent information. Thanks very much.
Kevin