setup download

[Richard]

whats the correct way to do this in pub 2003 caus eI've setup my site to
link to a .xls file and its not downlaoding, does the oledata.mso file have
anythign to do with it?

 

[David Bartosik - MS MVP]

Different file types are handled differently by different browsers. And
there are standard practices of doing things on-line. For example if the
client PC has the appropriate office components installed then Internet
Explorer would open an Excel file "in" the browser window, whereas a non IE
browser would not. The standard for supplying a file - of any type - for
download is to do so in zip format, a .zip file. See
http://www.publishermvps.com/Default.aspx?tabid=38 as an example. The
exception to such is when you simply want to offer a copy versus the real
thing, in which case the standard is to present it as a PDF file (.pdf).

--
David Bartosik - MS MVP
for Publisher help:
www.davidbartosik.com
enter to win Pub 2003:
www.davidbartosik.com/giveaway.aspx

 

[Richard]

Ok. Thanks for the advice but I am still having problems. I have a link to a
zip file now but I get the same problem. When I click on the link if you
look at the bottom of IE you see's it is trying to look for a local path, if
I click on the link I get a lot of internet activity but nothing downloads.
The file is only 2kb. The website is www.andrewscomputersystems.co.uk click
on products on the left and the link is at the bottom. Any ideas? I have run
IISurlscan and IIS lockdown ands its running on Windows XP IIS 5.1. I am
running a firewall with just port 80 open. I assume that is the port the
downloads run on too?

 

[Richard]

..............................I have just taken IISlockdown off as mentioned
below but still no luck.

 

[Richard]

sorry about all the mails,

ok I think I have figured it out.........I set the hyper link the
http://www.andrewscomputersystems.co.uk/index_files/pricelist.xls
instead of the local path and it works now, is this correct way of doing it?
While I was playing with this I noticed the url wasn't very user friendly -
e.g when I click on the contact button the url is
http://www.andrewscomputersystems.co.uk/index_files/Page1276.htm

is there any way of changing the website so it points to something like
http://www.andrewscomputersystems.co.uk/contact.htm

is this a publisher 2003 setting?

 

[David Bartosik - MS MVP]

ok I think I have figured it out.........I set the hyper link the

http://www.andrewscomputersystems.co.uk/index_files/pricelist.xls
instead of the local path and it works now, is this correct way of doing

it?


If in the Publisher page you create a hyperlink and then browse to a file
locally then the hyperlink will point to your local file. That would be
incorrect for online use, you need to manually upload such "external" files
and then hyperlink to the URL of the file on your server. Since each time
you publish Publisher will maintain the site folder and site pages, I
recommend you NOT place external files in the Publisher folder as your
example shows. Instead keep them outside the Publisher web, hence the term
"external file". Either at the domain root or organized in manually created
folders, ie:

http://www.andrewscomputersystems.co.uk/myfile.zip

or

http://www.andrewscomputersystems.co.uk/mydownloads/myfile.zip

And do not use embedded spaces in folder names or in file names, instead use
under-scores (like Publisher does), and do not mix case when naming, use all
lowercase ( http://www.publishermvps.com/Default.aspx?tabid=30 ).

While I was playing with this I noticed the url wasn't very user friendly -
e.g when I click on the contact button the url is
http://www.andrewscomputersystems.co.uk/index_files/Page1276.htm

is there any way of changing the website so it points to something like
http://www.andrewscomputersystems.co.uk/contact.htm

is this a publisher 2003 setting?

Yes, look in options under Tools.


--
David Bartosik - MS MVP
for Publisher help:
www.davidbartosik.com
enter to win Pub 2003:
www.davidbartosik.com/giveaway.aspx

 

[David Bartosik - MS MVP]

Looks like you asked about "oledata.mso" in the IIS forum (not sure why).

OLE means Object Linking and Embedding. It's the technology that allows you
to insert a program object, like a spreadsheet, into a program file, like a
Word document, and then be able to modify the object in the file (in the
case the spreadsheet in a Word file) and see the modifications applied to
the original source file ( the spreadsheet file).

My guess to why you'd get an oledata file in the Pub web is that you've
inserted an object onto a page in the web publication. Doing so is incorrect
as objects can only apply to print publications and not web publications.
OLE can't exist in a web.

Delete the current site files, remove the object from the Pub file, and then
publish new site files.


--
David Bartosik - MS MVP
for Publisher help:
www.davidbartosik.com
enter to win Pub 2003:
www.davidbartosik.com/giveaway.aspx

 

[Richard]

Thanks for all of your advice.

I've sorted the download into a structured folder ok.

I can't seem to find the option that changes the
http://www.andrewscomputersystems.co.uk/index_files/Page1276.htm

to a
http://www.andrewscomputersystems.co.uk/contact.htm

for the url when the contact (or any other button is used).

The only other things that worrying me is that the following link can be
entered
http://www.andrewscomputersystems.co.uk/index_files/
and this takes me to all of the files\pages in that folder.
How would I stop this being accessed but still allow the browse
function of the pages that are stored within it?

 

[Richard]

ok I've sorted the page name problem - just wasn't looking hard enough -
thanks

I still got
http://www.andrewscomputersystems.co.uk/index_files/contactus.htm

so I put all files in the root of wwwroot and edited the index.html to look
for all files correctly instead of the index_files folder that pub created.
I also changed the file list too. This was my first bit of html coding I
have ever done but it seemed the logical way of doing things.

Surely there is a function in publisher to either stop creating a
index_files or to hide tha when its looking for a page?

 

[David Bartosik - MS MVP]

ok I've sorted the page name problem - just wasn't looking hard enough -

thanks

you're welcome, but you seem to be making this way too complicated.

I still got
http://www.andrewscomputersystems.co.uk/index_files/contactus.htm

that's what it's supposed to be.

so I put all files in the root of wwwroot and edited the index.html to look
for all files correctly instead of the index_files folder that pub

created.

whoa! you did what? If you don't want the sub-folder then turn off the
option to have it. This option is under Tools, Options. You should take some
time to get familiar with options (my site has documentation).

You should never edit the html source code ( as stated on the FAQ -
http://www.publishermvps.com/Default.aspx?tabid=30 ) after a publish.
Everytime you republish the site the files are rewritten.

I also changed the file list too. This was my first bit of html coding I
have ever done but it seemed the logical way of doing things.

Actually the file list file is an xml file not html, it's function has
nothing to do with the actual functioning of the web site. It's a special
file that Publisher uses to facilitate the Incremental Upload feature. It
serves a purpose to Publisher and thus is not to be modified.
You should delete all current site files and then publish fresh ones.

Surely there is a function in publisher to either stop creating a
index_files or to hide tha when its looking for a page?

Yes there is, as you said earlier- you weren't looking. But... turning off
the sub-folder does modify the file naming convention. It will append the
file names with a prefix of index. I wouldn't get hung up on this either
way, site visitors don't care about your page naming. When you browse sites
do you care about what they named pages?

 

[Richard]

ok, cheers for the advice, website is well on the way now you've helped me,
all issues solved - this newsgroup is brilliant -- and you a star - keep up
the good work.

Just one last question - Can you username\password protect a download using
pub2003?

 

[David Bartosik - MS MVP]

Just one last question - Can you username\password protect a download
using

pub2003?

That's a server-side function. Typically securing access is handled with
programming logic on the server which is well beyond the scope of Publisher.
Optionally you can secure a folder, and thus the files it contains, with
server permissions - some hosts support passwording folders, normally thru
their control panel - ask your host for options.

 

[Richard]

I host this site using IIS 5.1 - I can get the web sharing feature to ask
for a username and password on a folder ok Is this a good way to do it?

 

[David Bartosik - MS MVP]

Server side permissions is the faster easier way to go.

--
David Bartosik - MS MVP
for Publisher help:
www.davidbartosik.com
enter to win Pub 2003:
www.davidbartosik.com/giveaway.aspx