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Unix Operating Systems Software The Internet Windows

FrontPage Server Extensions for Unix? 45

Posted by Cliff from the avoid-vendor-lockin dept.
beetle496 asks: "Okay, so I didn't research my choice of ISP adequately. Despite running Apache 2.0 on Red Hat, the only option for dynamic content they support is FrontPage Server Extensions. I am quite comfortable with X/HTML and CSS, and am okay with JavaScript. I am annoyed enough that I would buy FrontPage, were it available for my preferred platform. I've performed the customary MSDN and Google searches. The best I came up with was a page on FrontPage UNIX Server Extensions, which sounds exactly on target, but didn't help me. Can anyone point me toward a resource on writing HTML code to make use of FPSE (aka, webbot) -- without using FrontPage?"
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FrontPage Server Extensions for Unix? More

FrontPage Server Extensions for Unix?

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  • power of choice (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sofar ( 317980 ) on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @06:02PM (#13057895) Homepage

    use the power of choice: change ISP's

    • Re:power of choice (Score:4, Insightful)

      by jmt9581 ( 554192 ) on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @06:31PM (#13058102) Homepage
      The OP said he'd buy Frontpage if it were available for his platform, but he won't spend the meager amount of money to find a decent webhost? That's ridiculous, I think that a (legal) version fo Office would cost at least $100, which should be more than a year of hosting from a decent webhost.

      • Re:power of choice (Score:5, Informative)

        by bhtooefr ( 649901 ) <[gro.rfeoothb] [ta] [rfeoothb]> on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @08:54PM (#13059143) Homepage Journal
        Adelphia: 10MB space, and not much is allowed (no .EXEs, for example) - the only dynamic content is FP extensions. (this is according to TFA)

        Freeshell: $36 ONE TIME, 100MB web space (also 100MB shell and 100MB mailbox), Perl, PHP, and Python ALL supported for dynamic content, and you can put almost anything in your webspace.

        Which sounds like the better idea?
        • Yes, $36 is a good value. But that is $36 versus $0 since I still need an ISP.

          I am surprised that no one here thinks making use of FPSE by hand is an interesting hack.

          • Hmm...

            I don't deny that it's interesting, but not easy.

            See, Microsoft is going to make it a royal PITA.

            You're almost better off writing your HTML, then getting someone with FrontPage to put the components that you need in. (And, no, I'm not doing that...)
    • Its quite possible he doesn't have much of a choice, (he's using Adelphia, which means his only high-speed competition is the telco), he could host his own site - using a dynamic dns solution, or he could pay for a seperate webhost.

  • FrontPage anything... (Score:3, Informative)

    by qualico ( 731143 ) <<worldcouchsurfer> <at> <gmail.com>> on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @06:05PM (#13057930) Journal
    ...makes me shudder.

    yep, change ISPs.
    Web standards are scary enough without adding yet another layer of, "more to go wrong".
    • I have used FrontPage a couple times over the years and it truly is horrible. Even the simplest text page with no tables or anything comes out as a nasty jumble of HTML that is terribly unpredictable across browsers.
      I do believe FP (even the 2003 version which I happen to have tried recently because I was given a copy for free) is hands down the worst web editor out there. (Well, okay, it's a tie between FP and MS-Word! :)
      So yeah, change ISPs...
    • Maybe, just maybe, OP signed a contract and isn't interested in throwing the money away.

      You might start by rooting around Microsoft's MSDN site for information.

      \\Greg
      • Even with a contract, your going to come out ahead switching.
        The time wasted for a buggy outcome, will certainly exceed any money thrown away.

        "...start by rooting around Microsoft's MSDN site..."

        lol, not sure you meant the pun, but I alternatively read that as rooting the MSDN site, (running Linux), and use that for your host.

  • I think... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Bin_jammin ( 684517 ) <Binjammin@gmail.com> on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @06:06PM (#13057935)
    geocities still has an impressive page builder. It might be worth looking into.
  • Why would you punish yourself by using a product whos vendor hates its existence?

    Microsoft will make using Frontpage on Linux the most painful experience you've ever had, trying to force you into switching to Windows.

  • $10 says... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by hotgazpacho ( 573639 ) on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @06:14PM (#13057997) Homepage Journal
    ...that PHP (albeit an older version) is installed. Create a file called phpinfo.php in your web root, and put in the following:
    <?php phpinfo(); ?>
    Then, visit the page in your browser. If you see the code, or it wants you to download the file, you're SOL. Otherwise, rock on!

  • Frontpage extensions for WINDOWS (Score:3, Interesting)

    by fluor2 ( 242824 ) on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @06:16PM (#13058008)
    I've installed Apache on windows, and I recently discovered that there was no Frontpage extensions for WINDOWS! I refuse running IIS on Windows, so what do I do? :)

  • You have GOT to be kidding me (Score:5, Insightful)

    by toygeek ( 473120 ) on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @06:25PM (#13058075) Journal
    You want to use the frontpage extensions, OUTSIDE OF FRONTPAGE? Tell you what, go get a .22, and shoot yourself in the foot. It'll be more productive.

    I have the unfortunate "pleasure" of supporting the Frontpage extensions on about 40 production web hosting servers. They are *horrible*. I mean *HORRIBLE*. When they work, they work fine, but then they quit working, it sometimes takes wiping out a clients site, reinstalling the extensions, and then having them re-publish from *scratch*. Oh yeah, great stuff there.

    Do yourself a favor and use a few PHP or Perl scripts do do what you need to do. There's nothing in Frontpage that can't be done in PHP or Perl. Its NOT that great. Heck I've done prettier, more functional sites using shtml and php.

    Just reading this post makes me feel like I'm watching a bad horror movie and the main character is about to enter the room where the axe murderer is waiting, and everybody in the audience KNOWS there's an axe murderer. "DONT GO IN THERE!" somebody shouts.

    Remember, Friends don't let friends use Frontpage.

  • Frontpage for UNIX is EOL'd (Score:5, Informative)

    by Oinos ( 140188 ) * on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @06:34PM (#13058121)
    This [rtr.com] seems pretty straight forward to me.

    Perhaps you should find a new ISP since your current one is using obsolete software.

  • you would buy it ? (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    then why not buy it and run it under crossover office on linux. Its un-supported but it may work.
  • .. they want their "Ask Slashdot" back.

    Sheesh. "Frontpage Extensions" .. ew.
  • a style="background: rgb(255, 204, 153) none repeat scroll 0% ! important; color: rgb(102, 0, 0) ! important; -moz-background-clip: initial ! important; -moz-background-origin: initial ! important; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial ! important;" stylesave="" href="http://home.adelphia.net/"
    - it looks horrid! Make the bleeding stop!

  • Overview: Frontpage extensibility (Score:5, Informative)

    by demigod2k ( 471203 ) on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @09:56PM (#13059587)

    As other people have mentioned, FPSE is obsolete. Today, you are supposed to use client-side dynamic (webbot, DTC, add-in) or more modern server-side dynamic (ASP) techniques. A lot of things including navigation can be handled design-time, reply or email if you're interested in that topic. I do everything design-time; it's my preferred method, and FP2003 is my preferred tool.

    However you can still use a webbot for server-side dynamic behavior. Visit MSDN and download the Frontpage 2002 SDK [microsoft.com]. Don't worry, it's not outdated. The extensibility models haven't changed between versions.

    With a perl script, it's the same as a standard CGI script [microsoft.com] as described on MSDN. Look for the example \FPSDK\Files\WebBot\wbtest4 in the SDK. If you prefer to use a DLL or shared library, use the BeginWebBotExpand macro [microsoft.com] which lets you access the bot attributes. In either case, you're going to build a BTL file [microsoft.com] and call the webbot from HTML [microsoft.com] like:

    <!-- WEBBOT BOT=name ATTR1="xxx" ATTR2="yyy" -->

    The SDK describes the four ways a webbot can activate [microsoft.com]. Try to test things client-side first, it's a lot easier. If your webbot fails it will just insert a generic [FrontPage Component name] on the page. Doublecheck the logs in _vti_pvt for the logs, to get hint why things are failing.

    It's oldschool, it works, and it's a simple variant on CGI scripting. Again, for simple things like navigation bars it's a heck of a lot easier to use a design-time dynamic control (client-side webbot, DTC, or add-in). I strongly recommend you consider those instead.

    • A very generous offer.

      I was just trying to add a hit counter and was modestly surprised that I could not find the syntax documented. I then became astounded at Adelphia's refusal (or, more likely, inability) to explain why they supported FPSE but not cgi scripting when they were running Apache under Red Hat. (That discussion logically followed when they could not point me to resources either.)

      Anyway, the broken hit counter is here [adelphia.net]. Web searches turn up similar problems, but none that I could understan

  • No. (Score:3, Informative)

    by tverbeek ( 457094 ) on Wednesday July 13, 2005 @10:15PM (#13059702) Homepage
    Can anyone point me toward a resource on writing HTML code to make use of FPSE ... without using FrontPage?

    No.

  • Change ISPs, yours sounds like a security nightmare.
  • Frontpage Express can generate pages that use frontpage serve extensions, google Frontpage Express and see if pages created by that work. You're probably better off paying a small amount for PHP/MySQL/CGI capable webspace though.
  • Unforunately, he probably can't change ISPs because he's using Adelphia - a cable provider. Thanks to a recent supr. court decision [slashdot.org], he won't be ever able to change providers unless he goes DSL or Satellite.

    It sucks to have to pay more, but you could always find a webhost with cheap plans [infexion.net].
  • 1) Setup-up Win95a with Personal Web Server and FP extensions
    2) ????
    3) Profit!

    Seriously, I have quite a bit of experience in MS Web Dev land. Stay clear of the FP extensions. If you are on IIS, use ASP or ASP.NET. If you are running on Unix PHP will probably be available and is the most widely supported (read: you will be able to find examples of what you want to do online) web scripting language out there. Also, give Ruby on Rails a try.

  • You *could* pay for frontpage to work, but... (Score:3, Informative)

    by petard ( 117521 ) on Thursday July 14, 2005 @09:12PM (#13068970) Homepage
    Better hosting will cost you a fraction of what frontpage would for a very long time. And if your time's worth anything, this looks like an even better deal... Try these guys. [nearlyfreespeech.net] No setup fee, no monthly fee. You just pay $1 per GB transferred and $0.01/MB/Month for disk space. php and mysql are included. To set up an account, you just transfer some money to them. If you use more bandwidth than you've paid for, they just stop serving your pages, so there's no risk of running up a huge bill if you get slashdotted. I'm not affiliated, just a really happy customer.

    (My experience: I run a lightly used download site there along with a personal bookmark synchronization php/mysql app to share my mozilla bookmarks between machines. I've spent just under $1.50 for credit card fees, transfer and disk space since October.)
  • Not only is this going to be a headache... You're going to be hand-coding all of the FrontPage stuff into your website, which may grow to be pretty large. Then you're probably stuck doing it that same way, because FP might kick back your code, and it would take too much effort to port to something else. You'll have to keep editing it by hand, FOREVER.

    Is this something you really want to do?

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