Use FrontPage 2002 Server Extensions

The FrontPage 2002 client (and earlier versions of FrontPage) enable users to create intranet and Internet Web sites quickly and easily. When used in conjunction with Web servers running the FrontPage Server Extensions 2002, users can incorporate sophisticated server-side features in the Web sites they create. While the FrontPage client can be used to create content that is published to the Web site through FTP, the presence of FrontPage Server Extensions provides added Web site functionality. Chief among these is seamless content publishing directly from the tool that is used for content creation, but there are other valuable additions, such as usage analysis features. You attain higher levels of functionality and capability when you use the client and Server Extensions together.

The following figure provides an overview of the FrontPage client and Server Extensions authoring process.

Figure: FrontPage 2002 authoring process

Although FrontPage Server Extensions 2002 supports older versions of the FrontPage client, such as FrontPage 2000 and FrontPage 97, these clients cannot access some of the advanced functionality. However, they can deploy content to the Web server.

FrontPage-based Web authoring and administration functionality is available from any computer that has a level-4 browser, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or later, or Netscape Navigator 4 or later. Authoring and administration are also available from a SharePoint Services–compatible client program, such as the Microsoft Office 2000 or the Microsoft Office XP suite of application clients.

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As an alternative to using FrontPage, you can upload content to a Web server using FTP. Service providers commonly offer FTP capability to their customers, though typically it is the more advanced subscriber that is interested in using a tool like FTP.

You need to take a prudent approach to providing FTP for content authoring because FTP is not nearly as robust as HTTP, especially from a security perspective. Earlier sections describe the security issues associated with using FTP as a content management tool, and why the Windows-based Hosting reference architecture does not recommend the simultaneous use of FTP and FrontPage 2002 Server Extensions in a shared hosting environment. The use of FTP as a content publishing mechanism is discussed in more detail earlier in this section.

You can also use Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV), an implementation of HTTP 1.1, or FrontPage WebFolders as an alternative to FTP to author content, although WebDAV is not available for non-HTTP services, such as FTP sites. The Windows-based Hosting reference architecture does not address WebDAV or WebFolder implementations, nor the potential impact Web folders may have on the performance or security of a hosted solution. The same Windows-based Hosting recommendations that apply to FTP also apply to direct authoring mechanisms, such as WebDAV and server message block (SMB)–based file share access.

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The following figure in shows the directory hierarchy that is recommended in Web hosting.

Figure: Directory structure for a centrally managed, shared Web hosting deployment

NOTE
When you install FrontPage Server Extensions 2002 and extend a new Web site to use FrontPage Server Extensions, additional folders are created that are not shown in this figure. These folders typically start with an underscore in the folder name. Do not modify the folder structure that FrontPage Server Extensions create because FrontPage Server Extensions manages these folders and their security settings. They are required to support many FrontPage Server Extensions features.

IMPORTANT
FrontPage Server Extensions assigns specific permissions and, in some cases, sets the inheritance properties for the subdirectories it manages. If you modify the access control entry (ACE) values set by FrontPage Server Extensions on one of the FrontPage directories, the ACE is reset to the default settings when the FrontPage repair process runs.

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The following figure in shows the directory hierarchy that is recommended in Web hosting.

When you install FrontPage Server Extensions in the Administrative Tools, a shortcut named SharePoint Administrators is also installed. Thus, the deployment steps included in this section refer to this interface, though you may not actually be using Windows SharePoint Services.

Windows SharePoint Services version 2.0 can co-exist on the same server with FrontPage 2002 Server Extensions without difficulty. However, they cannot be extended on the same site or virtual server. Windows SharePoint Services are quite different from FrontPage Server Extensions, although they both utilize FrontPage as a client.

IMPORTANT
If you have customers using FPSE to manage a Windows SharePoint Services version 2.0 site, you need to maintain a Windows SharePoint Services version 2.0 environment for those customers unless you plan to migrate their sites to Windows SharePoint Services version 3.0. Integration with FPSE is not supported with Windows SharePoint Services version 3.0. For more information, see Customer Site Management.

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