Multiple Web sites (2002)

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Our web site has got too large with so many graphics and we are having continual trouble with getting the pages with frontpage extensions working. If someone accidently FTP’s the wrong pages then often the search page etc stops working. Even after resetting the extensions on the hosted site, this still will not work. We are thinking of splitting the site into two parts so that a smaller site has all the Frontpage pages that need extensions and the other is with all the pages of graphics which could be uploaded directly by FTP. Can this be done with a sub web (if so how do you set that up) or can it be done using a different address but with say the search pages or forms for submitting requests looking at both sites?
Many thanks for any one who can point us in the right direction.

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Quick question. Are you globbing all of your files into the root folder, or do you have subfolders for various files. Having your entire site within the root may cause problems, even though theoretically, it should work fine. It is similar to any folder/file structure. I have seen quite a few Windows 2000 profiles go corrupt, and in every case, the user’s profile is loaded with documents (In their ‘My Documents’ folder). We typically set people up to have a ‘data’ drive or parition, and we recommend for people to put their data files there. You can even ‘point’ your MyDocuments to that drive/partition/folder. I bring this up because Windows 2000 is a rock solid OS, but it get’s quirky when it’s over loaded.

A Web Server is just a fancy file share. Thus, it could very easily be susceptible to the same ‘quirkiness’. Depending upon the server’s OS, you may easily run into the 8.3 file format issue (8 character filenames, with 3 character extensions).

So, you should immediately split your site up into subfolders (not necessarily subwebs).

If you have already done this, and you are still experiencing these problems, a new subweb may help, but you are going to have to talk with your Hosting company to determine how to setup a subweb. A subweb is a ‘virtual directory’, that can also have FrontPage extensions placed on it. In this manner, a subweb maintains it’s own FrontPage settings (Theme, navigation, etc.).

You may also want to talk to your hosting company about killing the FP extensions on the end completely, and then reinstalling them. It would require work on your end to ‘rebuild’ your settings, but you may not be ridding yourself of corrupt files by just ‘resetting’.

If you are running your own IIS server, I can give you more detailed advice, but from your post it sounds like you are using a hosting company.

Hope my babbling helps…..

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Thank you for your response Drew. What you say may be the cause. We are creating pages and pages of graphic files in another program and bringing them into FrontPage. For some reason i am told that the links only worked when they were in the root directory. This means that there are well over 1,000 files in the root directory. I will speak to the person who has been maintaining the site. The problem has been that it takes a huge amount of time to reload and FronPage seems to fall over just near the end which is when I think it actually does the files for the search page and other pages that need the extensions.
Allan

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Whoever told you that images had to be in the root directory should be burned at the stake…..or at least forced to repeat ‘I know nothing about websites’ 1,000 times.

A webserver is a fileshare PLUS. When you open a word document, you can link pictures into it, right? Do you need to have the images in the same folder? Of course not. Files are found using what is called a URL, or Uniform Resource Locator. Using a URL allows you to specify EXACTLY where a resource can be found.

Webservers are even slicker. Let’s say you have index.htm in the root. You then have a ‘virtual folder’ called images, where are actually on another machine, in another folder. If you put an image into index.htm, and set it’s source to “imagesMypicture.jpg”, the webserver sees ‘images’ translates that into the path of the virtual folder, and retrieves the appropriate file.

Another item to toss into the mix. Why are you FTPing files to the webserver? If it uses Front Page extensions, you should be able to just drag and drop the files into the file view of FrontPage. In fact, that is how you SHOULD transfer files. Why? Because FrontPage keeps track of where files are. You can build a page, and set images into that page, put links to other pages etc. At some time in the future, you may move an image to another folder, or move a page which is linked to a new folder, and Frontpage will change the links on all of your pages. If you go behind FP’s back, and just upload files, you aren’t giving Frontpage the chance to keep up to date. FrontPage extensions are really just ‘files’ on the server, which Frontpage uses to keep track of your site. There is no ‘thinking’ on the server, it is done within your local session of FrontPage. Change the files without FrontPage, and you are heading for a site that is going to be, shall we say, ‘unfriendly’ to FP.

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