Expression® Web Design
FrontPage WebBot Components
Thursday, January 01, 2009
Even though most FrontPage WebBot Components require FrontPage Server Extensions (FPSE) to work properly, there are three FrontPage WebBot Components that are in design-time and do not require FPSE to function:- WebBot Include component
- WebBot HTML Markup component
- WebBot Substitution component
WebBot Include Component
This is probably one of the most used and misunderstood FrontPage WebBot Components. It is
sometimes thought that FPSE are required for the
Include Component
to work, however this is not the case. FrontPage helps to create this
component. Unlike server side includes (which requires you to only publish
one changed file), you have to publish all the pages that you have webbot
include component. The code will look something like:<!--webbot bot="Include" U-Include="nav.html" TAG="BODY" -->
If you look at the date on any of the pages when you change the include file (in this case nav.html), you will see all the pages that have the include webbot component have the current date and time. This helps to affirm that the FrontPage include webbot component is created and maintained by FrontPage, not FrontPage Server Extensions.
WebBot HTML Markup Component
This component is probably not needed as much as it was in earlier versions of FrontPage. Earlier versions of FrontPage had a bad habit of your HTML code into code it thought was correct. Enclosing your HTML source code in this component was to prevent FrontPage from checking / changing your HTML code into something that it thought would be better (or correct).
The source code looks something like:
<!--webbot bot="HTMLMarkup" startspan --> <a href="http://www.loudexpressions.com" title="Microsoft Expression Web Blog">Expression Web Blog</a> <!--webbot bot="HTMLMarkup" endspan -->
FrontPage 2000 was notorious for changing HTML source code, especially in ASP pages. I remember having a ton of problems back then when I was inserting ASP code into the code view. FrontPage 2002 seemed a lot better and FrontPage 2003 I don't think I ever had a problem with it changing the code.
WebBot Substitution Component
This component
allows the FrontPage webmaster to automatically enter some default information
about the web page or web site. For example, the component will show the
author, description, last changed date, or URL. The Author and Modified By
comes from the logon username of the system - it might be Administrator.
This might be helpful if you have a number of individuals that make updates and
changes to your website. It will show who made the last change through
FrontPage - in case something is incorrect.
The
Description can be changed pretty easily. In the FrontPage folder list, locate
the page you wish to change the description. Right click the file name and
choose Properties. A Properties dialog box will come up - go to the Summary
tab. Here you should see a field named Comments. Enter the description here
and hit OK. You might need to refresh your page or close it to properly see the
Description on your web page.And as we discussed earlier about FrontPage Server Extensions and the meta data (or meta-key), the "hidden" folder (_vti_cnf) has an index.htm file and this file contains another line:
vti_description:SW|FrontPage is a WYSIWYG HTML editor
Hopefully in this small example above, you can see how very important the meta data (meta-key) is for FrontPage. This is why you need to publish a FrontPage website if you are going to use any components that relying on FrontPage Server Extensions.
This is why when you need to change servers, you have to publish the FrontPage website with FrontPage - you cannot just copy the files over. If you copy the files over (maybe via explorer), and attempt to run a component that relies on FPSE, you might get an error message (something like: The server administration programs and the server extensions on the web server are not compatible. The administration program is too old to use with this server).
Changing Files in the _vti_cnf Folder
Changing
information in these files is usually not recommended. I
did go in and change line two from:vti_author:SR|BRYANT-01\\Administrator
to:
vti_author:SR|BRYANT-01\\Corey R. Bryant
Now if you look at the new Properties dialog box (on the right), you will see the Created by field has changed from BRYANT-01\Administrator to BRYANT-01\Corey R. Bryant.
Compare it with the one above to note the change to see the changes.
There are more fields that can be added to these hidden files, but again, it is not recommended. You should let FrontPage make these changes. For the most part, FrontPage makes the changes when you save the web page and you never know.
By the way, Expression Web will support the Include and Substitution Components some. It seems though the WebBot HTML Markup Component though is not completely supported by Expression Web. You can enter HTML source code between the comments and Expression Web will not show the results in Design mode, however when you view the page in a browser (like Internet Explorer / Firefox), the code will be seen properly.
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