FP98: Interoperability with Previous Versions of FrontPage

• Microsoft FrontPage 98 for Windows

SUMMARY

Some FrontPage 98 features will not function on your Web server if the FrontPage 98 Server Extensions are not installed on the Web server. However, all features in FrontPage 97 will work on a Web server on which you installed the FrontPage 98 Server Extensions. This article describes some of the limitations you may encounter when the FrontPage client and server environments are different.

MORE INFORMATION

FrontPage 98 introduces a number of new features:

• Themes (both per-Web and per-page)
• Shared borders (both per-Web and per-page)
• Image bullets
• Navigation bars
• Text on GIF overlays

With the exception of per-Web themes, per-Web shared borders, navigation bars, and text on GIF overlays, these features are maintained by both the client and the server working together. For example, the FrontPage Server Extensions apply the themes and borders across the Web (as requested by client), the client generates the text overlays, and the server merges the overlays with the images.

The features that are encoded as HTML comments are not compatible with the FrontPage 97 Server Extensions. If you open a Web page that contains this type of component in the FrontPage 97 Editor, the code will become scrambled, and FrontPage 98 will not be able to recognize the code.

The features that rely on the FrontPage 98 Server Extensions, of course, will not work when place your content on a server running the FrontPage 97 Server Extensions.

This article discusses the following four scenarios:

• Using the FrontPage 98 client with the FrontPage 97 Server Extensions
• Using the FrontPage 98 client with the FrontPage 1.1 Server Extensions
• Using the FrontPage 97 client with the FrontPage 98 Server Extensions
• Using the FrontPage 1.1 client with the FrontPage 98 Server Extensions

Using the FrontPage 98 Client with the FrontPage 97 Server Extensions

The FrontPage 98 Server Extensions are required for authoring and the correct formulation of many of the FrontPage 98 features. Therefore, when you publish your content from a Web server that is running the FrontPage 98 Server Extensions to a Web server running the FrontPage 97 Server Extensions, you will have two options:

• Freeze the content so that you can not edit it directly on the server that is running the FrontPage 97 Server Extensions using the FrontPage 98 client software. This does not mean that that you cannot edit the page in FrontPage 97 or republish the page to the server using FrontPage 98.

• Remove all FrontPage 98 features when you publish your Web. With this option you can remotely edit the Web using either FrontPage 97 or FrontPage 98. However, the new features of FrontPage 98, such as themes, shared borders, image bullets, navigation bars, and text on GIF overlays will not be available.

If you attempt to open a Web that was originally created in FrontPage 98 on a server that is running the FrontPage 97 Server Extensions, and you froze the content instead of downgrading the functionality, the FrontPage 98 client will detect this condition and the following warning message will appear:

   This Web contains FrontPage 98 features that cannot be edited on a
   FrontPage 97 server. It was copied here from

      http://your.source-server.name/your-subweb

   You must edit that Web and republish to this location.

If you later upgrade the Web server to the FrontPage 98 Server Extensions all of the FrontPage 98 features will be enabled and you will be able to open the Web directly with the FrontPage 98 client software.

The following functionality will be affected when running the FrontPage 98 client software with the FrontPage 97 Server Extensions.

Channel Definition Format (CDF) Wizard:

The CDF Wizard will not add a Subscribe button to navigation bars in your FrontPage 98 Web pages.

The simplest way to work around this behavior is to add a hyperlink from a page in your FrontPage 98 Web site to your channel definition file (.CDF), thereby making this file available to anyone who clicks the hyperlink.

If you are authoring using FrontPage 98 Server Extensions and publishing to a Web server running the FrontPage 97 Server Extensions, then the Subscribe button will be added. You will still experience limitations with navigation bars if you are using a FrontPage 97 Web server. For additional information, please see the "Navigation Bars and Page Borders" section of this article.

Text on Images:

This feature will appear correctly in FrontPage 98 Editor and it will also be published to the Web server correctly. You will not be able to edit the text when you work with the FrontPage 97 client.

Themes:

Themes will not be available if you are creating your Web content with the FrontPage 98 client on a FrontPage 97 Web server. When publishing a FrontPage 98 Web site to a Web server that is running the FrontPage 97 Server Extensions, you will be presented with two choices:

• To downgrade your Web. This option will remove the advanced features of the Web such as navigation bars, themes, shared borders, and image bullets.
• To publish your Web and preserve the appearance and functionality when the content is opened in a Web browser. However, you will not be able to use the FrontPage 98 client to edit the Web hosted on the server with the FrontPage 97 Server Extensions. If your Web Presence Provider (WPP) upgrades to FrontPage 98 Server Extensions, re-publish your Web to the WPP's server. This will restore full FrontPage 98 functionality.

Navigation bars or page banners inserted in the main body region rather than the shared border region of your Web page will not appear correctly when you publish the page to a server running the FrontPage 1.1 or 97 Server Extensions.

Shared Borders and Image Bullets:

Shared borders and image bullets will not be available if you are authoring with the FrontPage 98 Editor directly to a Web server using the FrontPage 97 Server Extensions. When you publish a FrontPage 98 Web site to a Web server that is using the FrontPage 97 Server Extensions, you will be presented with two options:

• To downgrade your Web.

  This option will remove the advanced features of the Web such as navigation bars, themes, shared borders, and image bullets.

• To publish your Web and preserve the appearance and functionality when the content is opened in a Web browser.

  NOTE: you will not be able to use the FrontPage 98 client to edit the Web hosted on the server with the FrontPage 97 Server Extensions. If your Internet Service Provider (ISP) upgrades to FrontPage 98 Server Extensions, re-publish your Web to the ISP's server. This will restore full FrontPage 98 functionality.

You may not incorporate any Active Server Pages (ASP) database regions (created by the FrontPage 98 Database Connection Wizard) into any Web site hosted on a server running the FrontPage 97 Server Extensions.

If you save or publish a FrontPage 98 database to a Web server running the FrontPage 97 Server Extensions, the page will no longer function regardless of the server you are using. This behavior occurs because the ASP code is stripped out and discarded and FrontPage 98 uses client-side FrontPage components to create the ASP database regions. (There are no server-side components.) In contrast, earlier versions of FrontPage assume all FrontPage components have at least a server-side expand function.

Using the FrontPage 97 Client with the FrontPage 98 Server Extensions

The following functionality will be affected when running the FrontPage 97 client software with the FrontPage 98 Server Extensions.

Active Elements and FrontPage Components (WebBots):

Active elements and FrontPage components in a FrontPage 98 Web page will remain intact when you open the page in the FrontPage 97 Editor. However, these elements will appear in the FrontPage 97 Editor as Java programs or WebBot components and most will not be supported by the same custom user interface that you will see if you are using the FrontPage 98 Editor.

Image Bullets:

The FrontPage 97 Editor will display image bullets in a table. If you edit pages that implement this feature, changes to the tables may cause the lists to appear incorrectly.

Themes:

When you open a page that incorporates a theme in the FrontPage 97 Editor, the page will appear without a theme. However, if you open the same page in a Web browser by clicking the Preview In Browser button on the Standard toolbar, the theme remains intact. If you want to modify the FrontPage theme settings across an entire FrontPage 98 Web site or any individual Web page, use the FrontPage 98 Editor.

Text on Image Overlays:

The text placed over any image in a FrontPage 98 Web page will not appear when that page is opened in the FrontPage 97 Editor. FrontPage 97 does not support text on image overlays.

Text Animation:

Dynamic HTML code, used to animate the text in FrontPage 98, will appear as JavaScript in the FrontPage 97 client. The actual text (on which the animation effect has been placed) will appear similarly in both the FrontPage 97 Editor and the FrontPage 98 Editor (Normal tab).

In the FrontPage 97 Editor, you will not be able to preview the animated text unless you open the page in a Web browser because the FrontPage 97 Editor does not have a Preview tab like the FrontPage 98 Editor. However, you may edit any of the "animated" text using the FrontPage 97 Editor, and the text animation will still work when you open the page in a Web browser.

Database Connectivity:

FrontPage 97 Internet Database Connector (.IDC) files are supported by the FrontPage 98 Server Extensions.

Style Sheets:

Style attributes are not available in the FrontPage 97 Editor. Style attributes (placed on any text in a FrontPage 98 Web page) may not be preserved when you open your page in the FrontPage 97 Editor.

Using the FrontPage 98 Client with the FrontPage 1.1 Server Extensions

The following functionality will be affected when using the FrontPage 98 Editor and the FrontPage 1.1 Server Extensions.

Office File Links:

Links from HTML pages to Microsoft Office 97 documents are tracked in the FrontPage 98 Editor but links from Microsoft Office 97 documents are not tracked. Hence, they will not appear in or be updated by FrontPage Explorer.

Visual SourceSafe(VSS) Integration:

Integration with Visual Source Safe and FrontPage 1.1 Server Extensions is not supported. This feature was introduced with the release of FrontPage 97.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Support:

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connections are not supported by the FrontPage 1.1 Server Extensions. This feature was introduced with the release of FrontPage 97.

NT Challenge/Response (NTLM) User Authentication Support:

Instead of being logged in to the Web server automatically, you will be prompted to enter your FrontPage user name and password. The FrontPage 1.1 Server Extensions use basic authentication, which is less secure than NTLM. NTLM support was introduced with the release of FrontPage 97.

Database Connectivity:

Internet Database Connector (.IDC) files (created by the FrontPage 97 IDC Wizard) are not supported when using the FrontPage 1.1 Server Extensions. Also, you may not incorporate any Active Server Page (.ASP) database region created by the FrontPage 98 Database Connection Wizard into any Web site hosted on a server running the FrontPage 1.1 Server Extensions.

If you save or publish a FrontPage 98 database to a Web server running the FrontPage 97 Server Extensions, the page will no longer function regardless of the server you are using. This behavior occurs because the ASP code is stripped out and discarded and FrontPage 98 uses client-side FrontPage components to create the ASP database regions. (There are no server-side components.) In contrast, earlier versions of FrontPage assume all FrontPage components have at least a server-side expand function.

Form Field Validation:

If you use the FrontPage 98 Editor with the FrontPage 1.1 Server Extensions to create forms, form field validation will only enforce the maximum-length parameter for the form field.

Long Folder Names:

Long folder names are not supported in any FrontPage Web running the FrontPage 1.1 Server Extensions.

Search Forms:

FrontPage search forms do not use the Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) Content Indexing service. Support for Index server was introduced with the release of FrontPage 97.

Directory Support:

You may rename folders in-place in the FrontPage 98 Editor, but the links to pages in the renamed folders will not be updated automatically by the FrontPage 1.1 Server Extensions. These hyperlinks will break. In addition, you may not delete folders when using the FrontPage 98 Editor with the FrontPage 1.1 Server Extensions. Creating, renaming, and deleting folders was introduced with the release of FrontPage 97.

Setting Permissions with Internet Information Server (IIS):

You may set permissions for a Web site published via the FrontPage 1.1 Server Extensions, but the FrontPage 1.1 Server Extensions will return different permissions formats (Administrators/Authors) rather than the newer format (Users/Groups) returned by the FrontPage 98 Server Extensions.

When using IIS with the FrontPage 1.1 Server Extensions, permissions for all users and groups will be listed on the Users tab. The Groups tab will appear blank. If you click Add on the Users tab, the Windows NT Domain User List will not be used. The list of available users will be based on the Frontpg.ini settings stored on the server. Permissions for non-Microsoft servers work the same regardless of which version of the FrontPage Server Extensions you are using.

International Characters:

Multiple character set support is not available with the FrontPage 1.1 Server Extensions. Only the Windows 1252 character set is supported by the FrontPage 1.1 Server Extensions.

Using the FrontPage 1.1 Client with the FrontPage 98 Server Extensions

There are no known issues at this time.