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Upgrading to FrontPage 2000.

This page is part of WebCom's FrontPage documentation , under the heading of Troubleshooting: Tips and Frequently Asked Questions. We recommend that you first review those pages before using the instructions on this page.

Background

The software for Microsoft FrontPage has two parts. You, the WebCom customer, have FrontPage Explorer on your PC or Macintosh. This is called the "FrontPage client". WebCom has installed the "FrontPage server extensions" on our web server. When you publish a FrontPage web, the client interacts with the server, requesting the server to copy the web pages into your directory on the WebCom Server.

WebCom has installed the new FrontPage 2000 server extensions, while keeping the older FrontPage server extensions online as well. If you have been using FrontPage 97 or FrontPage 98 previously, those server extensions are used when you publish your web. If you have not previously used FrontPage, and start using it now, then you will use the FrontPage 2000 server extensions. This will work even if you are using an older FrontPage client. If you have been using FrontPage with the old server extensions, and you wish to upgrade to the FrontPage 2000 server extensions, you need to follow the procedure given here to update the configuration files that are kept on the WebCom server. Once the configuration files are updated, you will access the FrontPage 2000 server extensions when you publish your web pages.

How to upgrade

Very briefly, to upgrade to the FrontPage 2000 server extensions:

  1. Publish your FrontPage web to your own personal computer.
  2. Use the "Enable Microsoft FrontPage" form in the customer services area to disable FrontPage.
  3. Use the "Enable Microsoft FrontPage" form again to enable FrontPage.
  4. Publish your FrontPage web to your account on WebCom's server.

Please Note:   These steps are only necessary if 1) You have set up authorized access through FrontPage for one or more users, and 2) If you have subwebs. Many webmasters don't use these functions. If you do not use either of these features of FrontPage, you can easily upgrade by following steps 2 and 3 only.

Disabling FrontPage with the form removes the old configuration files. Enabling it again writes the new configuration files in the format that FrontPage 2000 expects. Publishing your web to your personal computer saves the permissions that you have set for your web.

Here are the steps to follow in detail:

1. Publish your FrontPage web to your own personal computer

Many users create their webs on their local computer first, and then publish them to the WebCom server. (We recommend this practice because you can work on your website locally without having to have a constant connection to the Internet, and it results in you having a backup of your site on your local machine at all times.) If you already have an up-to-date copy of your web on your personal computer, you may skip this step and go on to step 2.

  • First you need to find the name of your personal computer so you can tell FrontPage where to copy your web:
    • If you use Microsoft Windows, select Control Panel from the Settings submenu of the Start Menu.
    • Double-click the Network icon.
    • Click the Identification tab in the network control tab.
    • Note the contents of the field titled "Computer Name". This is the name you will need to enter when you publish your web to your personal computer. For example, my computer's name is "MIKE" but you will need to use whatever appears in your control panel.
    • Press the Close button to dismiss the Network control panel.
  • Launch FrontPage Explorer. If you already have it running, select Open Frontpage Web from the File menu.
  • Click once on the item that says <Root Web>. Check that the URL given below the list gives your domain. For example, mine says http://www.wctest.com. Click the OK button.
  • Enter your Frontpage user name and password in the dialog that appears. You should see a list of the HTML files in your web. There will be welcome.html and perhaps others.
  • Click the Publish button at the top of the FrontPage Explorer window.
  • A dialog will appear asking "Please specify a location to publish your FrontPage web". Enter the name of your machine followed by a slash and the name of a folder to store the web in, for example, because my machine is named "mike", I enter mike/rootweb.
  • You will be prompted for your name and password again. This time it is the name and password for the root web on your personal computer. Your web will be saved to your personal computer. If it is a large web, some time may be required for the file transfer.
Repeat this step for each of the subwebs that you have created, if any. A subweb is a web that is saved in a folder underneath your Root Web. For example, I have a subweb named http://www.wctest.com/test1

2. Use the "Enable Microsoft FrontPage" form in the customer services area to disable FrontPage

FrontPage's configuration files will be deleted from your directory on WebCom's server, but the HTML pages and graphics will be left in place.

3. Use the "Enable Microsoft FrontPage" form again to enable FrontPage.

This proceedure is the same as the proceedure described on our main FrontPage Help Page. Please refer there for details.

4. Publish your FrontPage web to your account on WebCom's server.

This proceedure is the same as the proceedure described on our main FrontPage Help Page. Please refer there for details.

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