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Publishing Your Web Site with FrontPage
Introduction |
 |
| When the time
comes to present your site to the world, publishing is a
very simple task with FrontPage. Publishing is the process of moving your Web site
from the computer you developed it on to a Web server
accessible to the world. Don't worry; this process isn't
as complicated as it sounds.
The easiest way to
publish your Web site is through the Publish feature in
FrontPage to a server
with
FrontPage Server Extensions (otherwise known as FPSE) installed on it. You can also publish via
FTP (explained below) using either FrontPage's
Publish function or a third-party FTP program.
|
| Finding a Home
for Your Web Site |
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|
Every Web site
needs a server on the Internet to hold the Web content
and make it available to Web
surfers. These servers go by a number of names that
include Internet Service Providers, Web hosting
companies, hosting providers, Web Presence Providers and
the like. For the rest of this article we will
use the term host to refer to this service.
If you don't have a
host to publish your Web site to, visit
www.1securehosting.com for very inexpensive
hosting for $5.99/month. You can also get your own
domain name for $12.99/year at
www.1securedomains.com - such as
www.yourname.com.
Make sure you are connected to the
Internet if you want to access this information.
When you get a
Web host for your site, make sure that you know the path
for publishing, the login id,
and the password. All three of these pieces of
information are required, no matter how you publish your
site.
Remember that if
you want to make full use of the features provided by
FrontPage (including the
simple Publishing feature described below), you'll want
a host that supports FrontPage Server Extensions.
|
| Publishing With
FrontPage |
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Once you are
ready to publish your site, you need only to select
Publish Web from the File Menu.
You'll see the following screen:
Enter the
Web address that you wish to publish your Web site to,
along with a login and password to the
site. As mentioned previously, the person in charge of
your host should provide this information to you.
If the site you list has FPSE installed, a simple entry
of your login and password is all that is required.
FrontPage will do the rest.
You can also
use the Publish Web feature to move your Web site from
one location to another on your
hard drive, network drive, or Web server. This is
frequently done when companies use staging servers
and are then ready to move the updated Web onto
production servers. Here are some options you can
use when you fill in the "Specify the location to
publish your web to" dialog:
-
Your
hard drive: c:\my documents\my webs\my web name
-
A
network drive: \\myserver\path\new web
-
A Web
server on the Internet: http://www.mydomainname.com
-
A Web
server on your ISP's network: http://webserver/myweb
If the host
does not have FPSE installed when you try to publish it,
FrontPage will tell you so and then ask
for an FTP path instead.
This path
will probably be in the format of ftp://www.websiteprovider.com/mysitename
(note that it starts
with FTP instead of HTTP). Make sure you have the exact
FTP path information from your host.
You will be given the chance to enter in the appropriate
path again if you need to change anything.
Once entered, a name and password dialog box will open
asking for the appropriate information.
If entered correctly, that is all that is needed to
publish the site. If the information is entered
incorrectly,
you will be asked to enter it again to get it right. |
|
| FTP |
 |
|
FTP stands for the
File Transfer Protocol, a format for sending files over the
Internet. There are many
FTP programs available that enable you to use the FTP format to
do just that. Some people enjoy
publishing a FrontPage Web site through a more traditional FTP
program. This includes either the
FTP program built into Internet Explorer or the many FTP
programs available for use throughout the net.
You can download my totally free favourite ... >>>
CoreFTP Lite right here
<<< (2.5 MB>)
A disk-based Web
(also see the article "HOW TO USE FRONTPAGE 2000 WITHOUT
FRONTPAGE
EXTENSIONS" at
http://www.microsoftfrontpage.com/content/articles/nofp_ext.html
for more information
on disk-based Webs) requires no special communication with the
Web server and FrontPage stores the
information for the site on your hard drive in the same
hierarchy it will on the final server. As a result,
publishing by FTP simply requires opening a connection to the
Web server through the FTP program
and transferring the Web files from your computer to the Web
server.
When you use
FrontPage to publish your site, FrontPage keeps track of which
files have been changed
and only publishes those files to save time. This is an
especially valuable feature if your site contains a
lot of content that takes a long time to transfer. If you
publish via FTP, you are responsible for tracking
that information. |
| FrontPage Publishing
Versus Traditional FTP |
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|
|
Some people prefer
using FTP for publishing as it gives them full control of the
publishing process.
While FrontPage obviously does support this option, it is
important to point out that publishing with
FrontPage takes away many of the hassles and makes the process
of remembering which files you
changed a painless one.
Note:
Publishing through the FrontPage interface and FrontPage Server
Extensions is based on the
HTTP protocol and, as a result, works through firewalls and
other connections that do not normally allow
for FTP connections because of security risks. Some people
prefer using FTP for publishing as it gives
them full control of the publishing process. While FrontPage
obviously does support this option, it is
important to point out that publishing with FrontPage takes away
many of the hassles and makes the
process of remembering which files you changed a painless one. |
| Working Live |
|
|
|
It is possible to
"work live" on a FrontPage site by opening up the Web through
FrontPage and making
changes to the site directly. You can even develop the entire
site live and never have to publish a thing.
This process is not always the most appropriate because it
enables you to make immediate changes to
your Web site with no method for undoing mistakes before they
are accessible to the world. However,
the ability to edit your Web site directly against the Web
server instead of having to find and edit the
source files and then upload them to the server can be a real
time saver, especially for quick changes.
It also allows you to edit your Web site from any computer that
has FrontPage installed.
Many find that a
simple change to a Web site is easily accomplished through this
method. Be warned,
however, that an incorrect keystroke can result in an
embarrassing Web page viewable by millions.
If you do work live with your site, be very careful to hit the
Save button only when you are sure about
the final results. |
| Tips |
|
|
|
When publishing your
Web site, please keep in mind the following tips:
-
One of the most
powerful features of FrontPage Server Extensions is the
ability to quickly publish
your Web site without the hassle of remembering which files
were updated and having to select
each one individually for transfer. If you aren't using a
Web server with FrontPage Extensions
installed, consider doing so for this simple time saver
alone.
-
If your Web site
makes use of FrontPage Server Extensions, you'll need to
publish through the
Publish option. Publishing through the FTP option will not
transfer all of the information needed
and will result in an incomplete transfer.
-
The Options
button in the Publish Web dialog box gives you the ability
to either publish only the
pages changed since the last publication (default) or to
publish all pages, overwriting possible
changes on the server side. It also gives you the ability to
publish securely via SSL.
-
Be careful not
to lose your login and password information for your Web
site. Keep them in a safe
and secure place.
|
Hi-Speed Servers |
| Many of you already have high-speed Internet Access with Telus,
Dowco or Shaw. If this is the case you already have server space
available under your account name. The biggest drawback to these servers
is that most DO NOT support the
FrontPage Server
Extensions, so some functionality of your website will be
sacrificed. You can upload via FrontPage to Telus & Shaw, but the above
provisos apply. You must set-up your web space yourself, so you need
to have your ISP's web server address, your account username and
password. Here are the ,links to the big three local ISP's: |
-
Telus ADSL Personal Webspace Access Point
Using MS Frontpage:
Once your site is finished (or edited), in Frontpage Explorer, under
the File menu, select Publish Front Page Web.... On the resulting
window, click the More Webs button. In the box that pops up, type
www3.telus.net and click OK. The MS Web Publishing Wizard will
appear, enter the following:
FTP Server Name: www3.telus.net
Directory Path: /userid
(where userid is your TELUS Internet services user ID [a1a.....] )
Click Next. Enter the following:
Username: userid
(where userid is your TELUS Internet services user ID [a1a.....] )
Password: password
(where password is your TELUS Internet services dialup password)
A box will a appear so you can monitor the progress of your
publishing.
-
Shaw High-Speed Personal Webspace Access Point
To publish files to your Shaw Webspace account using FrontPage:
Select File -> Publish Web
The Publish Destination window will appear
Enter http://publish.shaw.ca/USERNAME/
(where USERNAME is your Webspace account username)
Click OK
Provide your Webspace account username and password
Click OK
The Publish Web window will appear
Select the Publish button
A confirmation window will appear confirming that the selected files
have been successfully uploaded to your Shaw Webspace account
Click Done
-
Dowco ADSL Personal Webspace Access Point
Login to upload your files with Dowco's upload assistant.
Does not support FrontPage as yet. You may be able to get
them to install the extensions - ask them.
- Fully
Supported Cheap Webspace with FrontPage Extensions
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