What's New for Developers in FrontPage

See Also

Microsoft FrontPage 2000 now includes a Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications object model to support new and improved features in the application. Many methods that you were familiar with in FrontPage 98 are still available but have been replaced by language elements that take advantage of the new object model. For more information on the new feature areas in FrontPage, refer to the section on New Feature Areas; for details on language elements, refer to the section entitled New Language Elements; or, for details on language elements that have been hidden, refer to the section Hidden Language Elements.

New Feature Areas

The following topics provide conceptual information about features that are new in FrontPage 2000.

Accessing the Object Model in FrontPage from Design-Time Controls

Accessing Framesets with Microsoft Visual Basic

Coding in a Windowless Environment

Creating Web Sites With Microsoft FrontPage 2000

Exploring Procedures

Exploring the Object Model in FrontPage

Managing Publishing with Meta Tags

Managing Source Control Projects

Modifying Pages Programmatically

Programming Dynamic Elements

Sharing Programming Projects

Understanding Absolute and Relative URL Addressing

Using Events to Control Actions

New Language Elements

Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications is new to FrontPage. You can automate FrontPage from your Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel macro and use all of the commands you are familiar with and more. Now you have commands that help you manage Web sites, create FrontPage-based web pages, and communicate with Microsoft Office macros and applications as well as the familiar Visual Basic macro tools.

The new language elements in Visual Basic replace the FrontPage 98 language elements. However, the FrontPage 98 elements are included in FrontPage 2000 as hidden elements for purposes of backward compatibility, but are not recommended for use with Visual Basic in FrontPage 2000.

Hidden Language Elements

The Microsoft FrontPage 98 OLE Automation interfaces are now depreciated in favor of the new, richer object model. The old automation interfaces will continue to work. The one caveat is that if a user has mulitple windows open, any call that operates on a web will use the web contained in the top most FrontPage window.

Old style menu customization has been replaced with the Microsoft Office command bar customization.

Designer HTML has been replaced with a combination of Office AddIns and the richer object model.