The FrontPage Server Extensions are a set of files that is installed onto a Web server to add functionality to a Web site. The FrontPage Server Extensions have been around for many years. Perhaps the reason why they are so pervasive is that most hosting companies offer support for them.

The FrontPage Server Extensions use either the HTTP or secure HTTP (HTTPS) protocol to publish site content. These same protocols are used when browsing Web sites. Because the FrontPage Server Extensions use the same protocols as your Web browser, they can easily publish to remote servers even if you are behind a firewall. Almost all firewalls are configured to allow HTTP and HTTPS traffic to freely pass through. The FrontPage Server Extensions take advantage of that fact when publishing content.

Note

If you are prompted multiple times for a username and password when publishing with the FrontPage Server Extensions, see “Username and Password Not Accepted” in the “Troubleshooting” section of this chapter.

The Remote Web Site Properties dialog shown in Figure 3.2 displays the options available when choosing to publish a Web site using the FrontPage Server Extensions.

Figure 3.2. The FrontPage Server Extensions options allow you to specify a URL using HTTP. If you require a secured connection, SSL is also available.

After the FrontPage Server Extensions have been installed on the Web server, they must be configured for your Web site by an administrator of the Web server. During the configuration process, the FrontPage Server Extensions add folders to your Web site that begin with _vti. These folders contain configuration information that the FrontPage Server Extensions use to keep track of changes to your Web site.

The FrontPage Server Extensions offer functionality at both design time and runtime. In addition to offering the ability to connect to remote Web sites and publish content, they also provide components that generate HTML and client script while you are developing the site, as well as components that provide special functionality when the Web site is browsed.

To publish with the FrontPage Server Extensions, you will need to have the FrontPage Server Extensions installed on the remote Web site. It is not necessary to install the FrontPage Server Extensions on the local Web site.

Note

If you get an error telling you that the FrontPage Server Extensions are not installed when publishing, see “FrontPage Server Extensions Aren’t Installed” in the “Troubleshooting” section of this chapter.

When you publish with FrontPage Server Extensions, you will usually publish to the same address that you would use when browsing the remote Web site in your Web browser. For example, if I were publishing a local copy of my Web site from c:WebSitesJimcoSoftware to my public Web site using the FrontPage Server Extensions, I would enter a destination address of http://www.jimcosoftware.com.

WebDAV is really just an extension of the HTTP protocol, and therefore shares many of the same benefits offered by the FrontPage Server Extensions. In fact, the options available in the dialog for publishing a Web site in Expression Web 2 via WebDAV are identical to those available when publishing using the FrontPage Server Extensions.

There are many benefits to using WebDAV:

WebDAV is already a part of your operating system. In fact, when you create a shortcut to an HTTP location in My Network Places, Windows uses WebDAV to create that link if the FrontPage Server Extensions are not installed on the remote server.

To use WebDAV to publish your Expression Web 2 Web site, your hosting company or system administrator must provide support for WebDAV. I have had great success using WebDAV on IIS 7 and Expression Web 2, but Microsoft’s implementation of WebDAV isn’t complete. Even so, you can open a remote Web site and publish your Web site using Microsoft’s implementation of WebDAV and Expression Web 2.

Note

If you are publishing with WebDAV and you receive an error saying that the FrontPage Server Extensions are not installed, see “FrontPage Server Extensions Are Used Instead of WebDAV” in the “Troubleshooting” section of this chapter.

FTP has been around a long time and is widely used by many Web developers for transferring Web content. In fact, the first FTP standard appeared in 1971, long before the advent of the World Wide Web.

FTP is generally not secured. That means it’s possible for someone to intercept your username and password. There are actually several options available for secure FTP. However, Expression Web 2 does not support any of these methods. If you want to use secure FTP, you’ll need to use a third-party FTP client.

FTP is a reliable method of transferring files between computers. However, there are some things to keep in mind when using FTP. There are two types of FTP connections: passive FTP and active FTP. If you experience trouble when using FTP (especially when publishing through a firewall), enabling passive FTP usually will resolve the issue.

To enable passive FTP in Expression Web 2, select Tools, Application Options and check the Use Passive FTP check box on the FTP tab, as shown in Figure 3.3.

Figure 3.3. Expression Web 2 supports both passive and active FTP. One of the two will work fine in almost all cases.

Note

If you publish content using FTP but the content doesn’t show up on the remote Web site, see “Content Missing after Publishing” in the “Troubleshooting” section of this chapter.

The File System method of publishing is used most often in situations where both the local and remote locations are on the same network. For this method to work, you must have a connection to the remote server that allows for access via a UNC (Universal Naming Convention) path.

A UNC path consists of a server name and a share name using the syntax \servershare. It’s also possible to set up a mapped drive so you can refer to a UNC share using a drive letter. UNC paths and mapped drives use the same underlying architecture.

After you’ve opened the Web site you want to publish, select File, Publish Site to display the Remote Web Site Properties dialog. You’ll then need to select the method you’ll use for publishing and enter the location for the remote Web site.

If you’d like to review or change the options for publishing your Web site, click the Publishing tab. As shown in Figure 3.4, you can choose to publish only those files that have changed since the last publish, or you can choose to publish all files.

Figure 3.4. Expression Web 2 lets you choose whether to publish everything or just those files that have changed since the last time you published.

By default, Expression Web 2 publishes only those pages that have changed since the last time you published. It uses one of two methods to determine which files need to be published:

Expression Web 2 also gives you the option of whether to include subsites. Even though Expression Web 2 will display subsites in the folder list of your Web site, it will only publish the main site by default. If you want to publish the main site and all the subsites, you’ll need to check the Include Subsites check box.

If you’d like Expression Web 2 to create a log of your publish operation, check the Log Changes During Publish check box. Expression Web 2 will then create an HTML file in your Temporary Internet Files folder, as shown in Figure 3.5. You can view this file by clicking View Your Publish Log File in the Copy Web Site view after you have published the Web site.

Figure 3.5. The Expression Web 2 publish log is easy to filter using the Show Only drop-down. If you’d like to keep the log, save it after publishing the site.

In addition to publishing your files, Expression Web 2 can also optimize your HTML. The main purpose of this feature is to remove code that may not be needed on the remote Web server.

You can configure what type of HTML optimization takes place using the Optimize HTML tab on the Remote Web Site Properties dialog, as shown in Figure 3.6.

Figure 3.6. Expression Web 2 can remove any unnecessary code so that your pages are as small as possible for better load times, but don’t expect miraculous increases in speed with this feature.

There are many options available for HTML optimization:

Note

If you’ve made changes to the Optimize HTML settings and you notice no effect on your HTML code, see “HTML Optimization Doesn’t Affect Web Files” in the “Troubleshooting” section of this chapter.

After you’ve configured all the publishing options for your Web site, click the OK button. If the remote Web site that you specify doesn’t exist, Expression Web 2 will prompt you to create it, as shown in Figure 3.7. Expression Web 2 will create a Web site with an images folder and a _private folder. No other files or folders are created in the remote Web site until you publish files to it.

Figure 3.7. Expression Web 2 prompts you to create a new Web site if the remote Web site you specify doesn’t exist.

After the remote Web site has been created, the Remote Web Site view is activated, showing the local Web site on the left and the remote Web site on the right. From the Remote Web Site view, you can choose from one of three different publish settings:

Expression Web 2 displays an icon next to pages in the Remote Web Site view to indicate what will happen when the Web site is published, as shown in Figure 3.8. These icons are not displayed for folders, but if you select a folder, Expression Web 2 will display the files within the folder along with appropriate icons indicating whether or not the files will be published.

Figure 3.8. Expression Web 2 displays arrows next to files that will be copied when the Web site is published. The direction of an arrow indicates the direction of the file copy that will take place on that particular file.

Because I have chosen the option to synchronize the Web sites, Figure 3.8 indicates that default.htm will be copied to the remote Web site and master.dwt will be copied to the local Web site when the site is published.

You can also use the arrow buttons that appear between the local Web site and remote Web site views to publish files and/or folders. If you’d like to copy just a few files (or just one), you can simply drag and drop them between the two views.

If your Web site consists of just a few files, it’s pretty easy to tell which files will be published using the Remote Web Site view. However, as your Web site increases in size, it becomes more difficult to manage. If your Web site contains a lot of folders like the one shown in Figure 3.8, you’re not going to be able to easily see what will happen when you publish. Fortunately, Expression Web 2 offers the ability to filter the Remote Web Site view using the View drop-down, as shown in Figure 3.9.

Figure 3.9. You can quickly filter the Remote Web Site view using the View drop-down. In this case, I’ve decided to view all the files that will be published. Notice that Expression Web 2 does not display any folders in this view.

Rule number 1 of publishing is this: If you’re going to have a problem with a hosting company, it’s going to happen when you are publishing your content. Most hosting companies do a great job of ensuring that people can always browse your site, but publishing is more complex and requires a more precise configuration.

The second rule of publishing is that most hosting companies will deny responsibility when it comes to publishing problems. That means you are going to have to do your own troubleshooting.

To troubleshoot publishing problems, you’re going to need to install software that can capture information between your computer and the remote computer. The two tools I use for doing this are Ethereal and Fiddler, both of which are free tools and available for download on the Internet.

Ethereal (see Figure 3.10) is a network protocol analyzer. That’s a fancy way of saying that it captures all traffic that flows to and from the network card on your computer. It features a great filter so that you can zero in on just the traffic you want to see. When dealing with Expression Web 2 publishing issues, you’re going to be interested in HTTP or FTP traffic. Ethereal is available from www.ethereal.com.

Figure 3.10. Ethereal is a very powerful network capture tool that is free and available via download from www.ethereal.com. Here I’ve captured the network traffic while opening a Web site using the FrontPage Server Extensions.

The other tool I use is Fiddler (see Figure 3.11), which is an HTTP debugging proxy. That’s a fancy way of saying that it logs all HTTP traffic on your machine. Fiddler has the added benefit of being able to log local traffic that doesn’t travel over your network card. Fiddler is available from www.fiddlertool.com.

Figure 3.11. Fiddler targets HTTP traffic specifically. It’s a great tool to use when troubleshooting publishing using HTTP.

Using Fiddler to Troubleshoot HTTP Publishing Errors

Fiddler is a convenient tool to use for troubleshooting HTTP publishing because it targets only HTTP traffic. To start Fiddler, select it from the Start menu in Windows or use the Fiddler button in Internet Explorer, as shown in Figure 3.12.

Figure 3.12. Fiddler installs a button into Internet Explorer so you can always access it quickly when you need it.

After you start Fiddler, it will begin capturing HTTP traffic, as shown previously in Figure 3.11. At the right side of the Fiddler interface, you can see different views of the data. By clicking the Session Inspector tab, you can view the local computer traffic in the top half of the display and the remote traffic in the bottom half. A series of buttons appears above both panels, allowing you to change the format of the data that is displayed. When troubleshooting publishing issues, it’s probably most helpful to click the Headers button for both panes, as shown in Figure 3.13.

Figure 3.13. Fiddler can break local and remote traffic into two panes. In this case, you can see that the server is using basic authentication.

You can use the information that Fiddler provides to help in troubleshooting publishing issues by analyzing the authentication information. You want to look for the 401 status sent by the remote server and select the line just below it in Fiddler, as shown in Figure 3.14. You should then see your local machine respond with the authorization information.

Figure 3.14. Fiddler clearly shows when you are sending authorization information to the remote server.

If you see that you are not sending authorization information to the server, you’ve got a problem on your end. However, if you see that you are sending information to the server, you’re either sending the wrong credentials or there’s a problem somewhere other than on your end.

Using Ethereal to Troubleshoot HTTP Publishing Errors

Ethereal is a much more powerful tool than Fiddler because it will capture all network traffic on your computer. However, with that power comes additional complexity. For that reason alone, I usually choose Fiddler over Ethereal for simple troubleshooting, but you may find that Ethereal offers features that are useful to you.

Tip

Because Ethereal captures all network traffic, it can also be used to troubleshoot FTP publishing. Fiddler only captures HTTP traffic and cannot aid in troubleshooting FTP.

To use Ethereal, select Capture, Interfaces to display a list of network interfaces that you can capture. Browse to any Web site and look for the interface that shows an increasing number of packets (as shown in Figure 3.15), and then click the Capture button.

Figure 3.15. You will want to capture the interface that is connected to the Internet. Look for the interface with an increasing number of packets.

After you’ve started the capture, begin your publishing in Expression Web 2. When you encounter a problem, switch back over to Ethereal and click the Stop button in the capture dialog, as shown in Figure 3.16.

Figure 3.16. The capture dialog shows the packet statistics during a capture. Click the Stop button to end the capture process.

Note

If Ethereal doesn’t capture any network traffic, see “Ethereal Captures Nothing” in the “Troubleshooting” section of this chapter.

Ethereal captures all traffic on the network, so there’s a good chance it will have captured a significant amount of data that is not related to your work in Expression Web 2. Fortunately, you can filter the captured data easily by simply entering http in the Filter textbox, as shown in Figure 3.17.

Figure 3.17. Filtering in Ethereal is a simple task using the Filter textbox.

The data is collected in Ethereal in a similar format to the data collected in Fiddler. Once again, you want to look for Expression Web 2’s response to the 401 status code sent by the Web server. (I’ve highlighted the 401 status code in Figure 3.17.)

Another powerful feature of Ethereal is its ability to display a conversation between Expression Web 2 and the remote Web server in a readable format. By right-clicking on any of the captured data and choosing Follow TCP Stream from the menu, Ethereal will display the entire conversation, as shown in Figure 3.18. You can even save this information and send it to your host to demonstrate the problem.

Figure 3.18. An enormous benefit to Ethereal is its ability to display captured data as an entire conversation.

By using the data captures from Ethereal or Fiddler, you should have all you need to isolate publishing problems and possibly convince a stubborn host that the problem isn’t on your end.

I’m publishing my site to my host and my username and password aren’t being accepted. I know they’re right and I know that my host has the FrontPage Server Extensions installed. What could be wrong?

The FrontPage Server Extensions recognize different levels of access to a site. If you are entering the correct information and publishing has never worked, it’s possible that your host has not granted you proper permissions.

Contact your host and tell them to make sure you have permission to author against your Web site.

My host promises me that the FrontPage Server Extensions are installed, but when I try to publish, I keep getting a message telling me that the FrontPage Server Extensions aren’t installed.

It’s possible that the permissions on the remote Web site are not set correctly. This can prevent Expression Web 2 from being able to tell if the FrontPage Server Extensions are installed. If Expression Web 2 can’t tell that the FrontPage Server Extensions are installed, it will assume that they aren’t.

Use Ethereal or Fiddler and see what you can turn up. If you see something that looks out of the ordinary, send it to your host.

I’m publishing to my Web site using WebDAV, but I’m getting a message saying that the FrontPage Server Extensions aren’t installed. Do I need the FrontPage Server Extensions to publish using WebDAV?

No. The FrontPage Server Extensions and WebDAV are mutually exclusive. That means that if the FrontPage Server Extensions are installed on the Web server, you can’t publish using WebDAV. As soon as you try to publish using HTTP, the Web server will expect you to use the FrontPage Server Extensions.

If you are getting an error about the FrontPage Server Extensions when publishing via WebDAV, it indicates that the FrontPage Server Extensions are installed on the site and you cannot use WebDAV to publish. Contact your host and let them know that you want to remove the FrontPage Server Extensions and use WebDAV instead.

I’ve published my content using FTP, but when I browse my Web site, nothing’s there. Have I lost everything?

You haven’t lost everything. Chances are you just uploaded information to the wrong directory. Your host has a specific directory that contains your Web site’s files. Most of the time, you are automatically placed into that directory when you log in. However, in some cases, you will need to specify the directory within Expression Web 2 in the FTP Directory text box.

Ask your host for the directory you should be using when publishing.

I’ve made some changes to the HTML Optimization feature in Expression Web 2, but when I check the code in my pages, nothing has changed.

Many of the comments and other special code that gets cleaned out as a function of HTML optimization are actually needed by Expression Web 2 while you are creating your pages. Therefore, Expression Web 2 will only optimize the HTML when you publish your Web site. The local files will remain unchanged.

I’m trying to use Ethereal to capture network traffic on my wireless network card. It doesn’t seem to be capturing anything at all. What could be wrong?

You should be able to capture against your wireless network card, but you might need to disable promiscuous mode.

In the Capture Interfaces dialog shown previously in Figure 3.15, click the Prepare button and then uncheck the Capture Packets in Promiscuous Mode check box in the Capture Options dialog.