Creating Staging Profiles

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Creating a Profile's "Stage As User" Creating a Profile's "Stage As User"
Creating the Destination User Creating the Destination User
Creating a Profile Creating a Profile
Editing or Deleting a Profile Editing or Deleting a Profile

Creating a Profile's "Stage As User"

A "Stage As User" is a dedicated NT domain user account with Microsoft Content Management Server 2001 (MSCMS 2001) subscription rights. A profile will stage only the channels and content that their Stage As User has subscription rights to. Therefore, you use the rights of a Stage As User to determine what content from your MSCMS 2001 site will be created on the static site. By using separate profiles with separate Stage As Users, you can create different versions of a site.

Stage As User accounts must be dedicated (that is, not in use by an MSCMS 2001 subscriber). Otherwise, subscription choices made by the subscriber will affect what gets staged.

To set up a Stage As User, create a new NT domain user. Name the NT account so it can be readily identified with the staging profile. Create an MSCMS 2001 subscriber rights group exclusively for that user, and assign the channels you want staged to the rights group.

Creating the Destination User

You must create the Destination User account before installing the Site Stager. Site Stager uses the Windows NT User Manager rights to create directories and files as it stages a site. The Destination User does not need to be a member of an MSCMS 2001 User Group.

Site Stager requires that the Destination User have "Log On As Batch Job" rights, and write privileges in all directories where the generated HTML files are stored. These rights and privileges can be explicitly granted to the Destination User account or inherited from an NT group to which the Destination User belongs. The Destination User must also have local administrator rights.

If the account you enter does not already have "Log On As Batch Job" and "Log on locally" rights, the Site Stager installation program grants them. Administrator rights must be manually granted using the Windows NT User Manager (or Users and Passwords in Windows 2000). If the destination user account is modified, ensure the new Destination User is given these rights on the Site Stager computer. We recommend creating Destination User accounts specifically for Site Stager use only.

Creating a Profile

  1. Open the Site Stager Administration window. Click Add. The Properties dialog box opens.

  2. Enter a name in the Profile Name box. If possible, base the name on the Stage As User name.

Source Setup:

  1. Configure the "Active" check box. If the Active check box is checked, Site Stager runs this profile automatically according to the schedule set for it. If you clear the check box, the profile must be started manually.

  2. The URL that was entered when the Site Stager was installed (https://<your server name>/NR/System/Staging/sitemap.asp), or whatever has been entered since, appears as the Site Map URL. If the server name for the site to be staged is ever changed, you'll need to edit the site map URL accordingly.

  3. Type in or browse for a user name to use as the Stage As User. Site Stager runs the profile using the subscription rights of this user. Type the password for the Stage As User in the User Password box.

Destination Setup:

  1. In the Default Filename box, type the file name (usually index.htm or default.htm) used as the default, top-level page for the staged version of the MSCMS 2001 site.

  2. Type in or browse for a Destination Directory. The staged site will be written to this directory. The Destination User must have "Log On As Batch Job" rights, and write privileges in all directories where the generated HTML files are stored. Staging will not occur unless this field contains a valid directory.

Note We recommend each profile have a different Destination Directory. If two profiles must share the same Destination Directory, ensure there is enough time to move the staging results before the next staging occurs. Also, confirm that the destination drive will have enough unused space to accommodate the generated Web sites.

During staging to the destination directory, if the file or directory already exists, then its security attributes are left untouched. Otherwise the file or directory is given the security attributes of the directory that contains it.

Note Universal Naming Convention (UNC) names (\\server\shared\path)are supported. Using UNC names means that a user can schedule a stage on a computer, log out, and still have the stage work successfully.

Staging Options:

  1. For names to mirror the channel names, select the "Use source" option. For a new name, select the "Generate new" option to automatically have Site Stager create names for directories and files.

    • Generated folder names include the prefix "ch" followed by a number, for example, "ch1"

    • Posting names include the prefix "p" followed by a number, for example "p1.htm"

    Spaces, punctuation, and other characters (for example, the non-alphanumeric characters \/:*?"<>|) that would generate either invalid URLs or invalid file or folder names are automatically removed. Spaces are converted to a "+".

    You may need to use automatically generated names if the character set used for the channel names (Japanese Shift-JIS, for example) creates non-standard URLs. Before using channel names as URLs, confirm that your operating system, server software, and Web browsers support non-standard URLs.

  2. Enter required information in the Incremental Staging and Store Resources areas.

    • Select "Incremental Staging" to overwrite and update only those files whose contents have changed since last staging, thereby preserving the last-modified dates of those files whose contents haven't changed.

    Note Selecting this option doesn't result in a faster staging process.

    The two types of incremental staging are synchronized and passive.

    • With Synchronized (default) staging, previously staged items whose corresponding objects on the server have been deleted since the last staging will be deleted as well (applies to files and directories).

    • With Passive staging, no items will be deleted. Files will only be overwritten if it has been determined that the content has changed since last staging. This method preserves modification dates on files whose content hasn't changed.

    • Enter a suffix in "Default Extension for HTML files." Instead of all HTML files being staged with the extension "htm", you can specify in the text box, the suffix to be used instead of "htm". All staged HTML files in the next staging of this profile will have the suffix specified. Do not specify any blanks or the "." in the text box.

    • Select "Store Resources Separately" to have htm and html files generated from a .asp, or files generated by a .cfm, stored in one directory hierarchy (channels) and have other file stored in a separate resources directory. Specify a subdirectory that resides under the destination directory and a Web Server virtual mapping that maps to this physical directory.

    • Virtual path: Site Stager uses this path to write URLs to the staged resources properly. This path must be absolute, for example, "/dir1/dir2/respath" and must be mapped to the destination subdirectory value (through the Internet Services Manager). The default value is "/resources".

    • Destination subdirectory: All resources are stored in this directory. This value must be a relative path, for example, "dir1/dir2/residir" and a subdirectory of the destination directory. There is no organization of the resources into subdirectories. The default value is "resources."

Description:

  1. Enter a short description identifying the profile. This description is visible in the Site Stager Administration window.

  2. In the "Shell After Staging" text box, enter the path of the program to be run after staging is complete. For example, if you enter: "C:\Program Files\TextPad 4\TextPad.exe" c:\test1.txt, it opens the text file "c:\test1.txt" after staging has successfully completed. If staging has not successfully completed, the program will not be executed.

    Tip Be sure to enter all arguments if they exist and separate them by a space. For example: c:\dir1\dir2\foo.exe arg1 arg2. 

    If the path to the executable contains spaces, you must surround the path with double quotes. For example: "c:\program files\ncompass\foo.exe" arg1 arg2. 

  3. Using the Microsoft Task Scheduler, click the Schedule Tab to set up a schedule. (To use MS Task Scheduler Help, select a field and press F1.)

Note If the Task Scheduler service is not started or was not installed, an error message appears when you click OK to close the profile's Properties dialog box. Ensure the Task Scheduler service is installed and configured to start automatically, using the Services control panel applet. If the Task Scheduler is not running, Site Stager won't stage and no error is reported to the Site Stager log file.

If active, a valid profile stages automatically according to any schedule set for it.

Editing or Deleting a Profile

To edit a profile, select the profile name in the Site Stager Administration window, click Properties, and edit the profile. After making the changes, click OK to save them and close the profile Properties dialog box.

To delete a profile, select the profile and click Remove.