Publishing Your Web Site with FrontPage 2000

Publishing Your Web Site with FrontPage 2000
Articles for Microsoft® FrontPage® 2000

Introduction

When the time comes to present your site to the world, publishing is a very simple task with FrontPage 2000. 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 2000 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 2000's Publish function or a third-party FTP program.

Finding a Home for Your Web Site

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, a click of the WPP's button in the Publish Web dialog box will help you find one quickly. You can also visit http://www.microsoftwpp.com/wppsearch for suggestions on finding the right host. 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 2000 (including the simple Publishing feature described below), you'll want a host that supports FrontPage Server Extensions.

Publishing With FrontPage

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 webs\new web
A network drive: \\myserver\path\new web
A Web server on the Internet: http://www.mydomainname.com
A Web server on your company'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.

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

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.