FrontPage server extensions are CGI programs which provide the server side implementation of FrontPage. FrontPage communicates with the extensions via Hyper Text Transmission Protocol (HTTP) using a Remote Procedure Call (RPC).

When the server sees the “POST” request addressed to the FrontPage server extensions it simply directs the request to the appropriate CGI program. The extensions implement authoring (uploading/downloading documents, To Do Lists), administration (setting end-user, author, and administrator privileges), and dynamic content (browse-time WebBot components).

Without the FrontPage Server Extensions you will not be able to take advantage of the WebBots that are available through FrontPage. Also, without the extensions you cannot author and administer your web using the tools provided as part of the FrontPage Editor/Explorer package.

Are there any precautions that need to be aware of before using FrontPage to publish the site?

In order to protect the FrontPage extensions on your Unix account, please take into consideration the following precautions:

  1. FrontPage uses the same .htaccess file as the Protect Directories utility in your Control Panel, which could cause problems. Once you have installed FrontPage extensions, use the directory protection that comes with the software
  2. Do not use features found in your Control Panel to set passwords, limit access, set file permissions or delete directories or files in a FrontPage web. This should only be done through the options in FrontPage Explorer.
  3. Do NOT use regular FTP (such as WS_FTP) to upload files to the server when FrontPage extensions are installed. This may corrupt the extensions, disabling the interactive features available with FrontPage.

NOTE: The exception to this is when loading custom scripts to the cgi-local directory on your site.

What is a WebBot?

WebBots are the mechanism for invoking many of the interactive features built into FrontPage. These features are added to your web through the FrontPage Editor | Insert FrontPage Component.

Are all of the features available in FrontPage supported on sites?

FrontPage was created for developing websites in the Windows environment, so the following features are not available on our LINUX/UNIX servers:

  • ODBC and MS SQL Database connections (Access, FoxPro)