IIS - Do you use Subsites? If so, why?

Asked By AnnaUllrichMicrosof

30-Jul-08 07:24 PM

Do you use the Subsites feature in FrontPage? If so, I'd like to know why
you're using it. I know some users use subsites as a hack to prevent the
program from publishing particular folders. I'm wondering why others might be
using the feature.

Thanks,
Anna
http://blogs.msdn.com/anna

30-Jul-08 07:31 PM

Inline below;

--
Chris Leeds
Contact: http://chrisleeds.com/contact
Have you seen ContentSeed (www.contentseed.com)?
NOTE:
This message was posted from an unmonitored email account.
This is an unfortunate necessity due to high volumes of spam sent to email
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Sorry for any inconvenience.
(Chris Leeds) I use sub sites to control publishing.  Rather than publishing
everything or marking a bunch of files as do not publish I'll just break a
site up into logical subwebs.  Besides getting better control over what gets
published it speeds the file comparison phase of publishing up a lot.
another reason to do it is to protect a site.  Lets say you've got a bunch
of regular HTML files, and a dynamic application such as a shopping cart.
it's particularly important and helpful when the application relies on a
file within the web structure like a flat file or access database.


I know some users use subsites as a hack to prevent the
(Chris Leeds) My uses are fairly pedestrian, but some users will do sub webs
and control user access (whether publishing or browsing) through the
frontpage server extensions administration, and some folks also use it to
FTP files into a site with FrontPage server extensions.  You'll crush a site
by ftp-ing stuff into it, but if you only want to ftp into a certain folder
turning it into a subweb (or subsite) will prevent the extensions on the
parent web from getting messed up.

HTH
Chris

30-Jul-08 09:17 PM

Hi Anna,

Not so much anymore..at one time I created lots of subwebs (subsites) and my
major reason was to keep content separated as well as making selective
publishing easier.

Eventually I realized that I could do everything I needed to do by simply
creating different directories (folders) I didn't need any of the special
functions that the FrontPage extensions afforded for subwebs..so I simply
stopped creating and using subwebs.

(Also many hosts feel that using subwebs tends to bring with it some
additional
security concerns....just passing on what I have heard! :-)

--
Joe
Microsoft MVP Expression Web

Expression Web Forums:
http://expression-frontpage.com/forums/

FrontPage and Expression Web Forums:
http://www.timeforweb.com/frontpage/forum/

30-Jul-08 09:30 PM

I, also, use subwebs to logically divide up material to:
1) save time during the publishing where the software is comparing the PC
version to the server version
2) to avoid publishing things undone yet in other parts of the main web or
other subwebs

It seems to make the whole project more logical. Each piece is a small
entity that stands alone and cannot mess up anything else.

I am not sure what I will do if and when I leave  FrontPage behind and use
someother software.

30-Jul-08 09:36 PM

Thank you, this is really helpful. It never occurred to me to suggest this to
users who complain about long publishing times.  RFR, please note that
Microosft Expression Web provides support for subwebs, just like in
FrontPage.

Anna

31-Jul-08 05:17 AM

Typical subweb uses are:
- to segregate content (say large Media files from the rest of a main site to speed up publishing - especially critical if extremely
large media files are involved - like files over 30 MB which can, and should only be FTPed)
- to segregate a folder that may need unique permissions or FTP from the root web (to prevent FP SE corruption if use of FTP or
dynamic generated content is required - again often for very large media files)
- for segregation of host generated server folders (like server logs or asp.net default files) that can not be removed from a site
(due to the way the host sets up the account), to prevent conflicts w/ the site content and protect the server generated content
from corruption
- to protect files which should never be published using http and need special file permissions (like certain Perl scripts)
- as a development site for changes or site updates that does not affect the production site (until you are ready to publish from
the subsite to the root to update the production site)
- to protect FP server side generated content like FP Discussion Webs (for those that use them it is mandatory to use a subweb)
- as an archive for older versions of the site, or for archiving FP webbot generated content (like Discussion webs, etc)
- as a subsite requiring unique permissions (for authoring) especially for multiple FP users (or for browsing by a select group with
unique permissions required (several clients I have segregate their sites by departmental functions because they are maintained by
separate departments using a common DWT)


PS
- none of which are hacks, but valid uses of the FP SE capabilities (and in the case you mention to overcome a shortcoming of both
the FP and the EW Do Not Publish feature (which does not support folder level flagging of all content in a folder or server
generated content w/i a folder)


--

_____________________________________________
SBR @ ENJOY (-:              [ Microsoft MVP - FrontPage ]
_____________________________________________

31-Jul-08 07:09 AM

Are you saying that you've got a common DWT attached to pages in multiple
sub webs?

--
Chris Leeds
Contact: http://chrisleeds.com/contact
Have you seen ContentSeed (www.contentseed.com)?
NOTE:
This message was posted from an unmonitored email account.
This is an unfortunate necessity due to high volumes of spam sent to email
addresses in public newsgroups.
Sorry for any inconvenience.

31-Jul-08 08:22 AM

Yes you can do that
- the DWT does not need to be w/i the web/subweb using it
(requires use of a template page set up to use the DWT, either as a page they copy for new pages, or as a custom page template using
absolute addresses)

--

_____________________________________________
SBR @ ENJOY (-:              [ Microsoft MVP - FrontPage ]
_____________________________________________

31-Jul-08 09:02 AM

That's interesting.  I assumed, since the DWT is so dependent on metadata
that it wouldn't span sub sites/ sub webs.


--
Chris Leeds
Contact: http://chrisleeds.com/contact
Have you seen ContentSeed (www.contentseed.com)?
NOTE:
This message was posted from an unmonitored email account.
This is an unfortunate necessity due to high volumes of spam sent to email
addresses in public newsgroups.
Sorry for any inconvenience.

31-Jul-08 09:49 AM

I use them for most the reasons Stefan has indicated, as well as having mall type sites, where each
merchant is assigned a separate subweb / subsite for their store.

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe
Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
http://www.Ecom-Data.com
==============================================

31-Jul-08 10:48 AM

Hey Anna!

I use them to intergrate portal software site (discussion forums) with a
main FP site...like DotNetNuke.

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rob Giordano
Microsoft MVP Expression

01-Aug-08 02:49 PM

Stefan, when you say the following

multiple FP users (or for browsing by a select group with
unique permissions required (several clients I have segregate their sites by
departmental functions because they are maintained by
separate departments using a common DWT) "

are you referring to the FPSE permissions feature?

Anna

01-Aug-08 02:50 PM

Do you use the subsites feature to make the portal software a subsite so it is
not published or ... ?

01-Aug-08 05:41 PM

Hi Anna:
By separating related content into subwebs, you can speed up publishing time
for large sites. I had a site that got so large over the years that when I
got a new PC and had to Publish All to get the local and remote sites in
sync, I couldn't publish the entire site because it had gotten too big and
the publishing timed out. I had to break it into further subwebs in order to
publish.

In the case of sites with multiple content owners/authors, it can help
prevent authors overwriting other author's changes if each are working in
and only publishing their own subwebs.

I *believe* there is a limit of 2 databases per web site, so putting
databases into their own subweb gets around that limit.

By keeping related content in its own subweb, it is very easy to publish it
to a new location (with a new domain name) without having to pull individual
pages and folders out of the root web and dealing with broken hyperlinks.

Subwebs are a good place to work on new sites to show clients for their
review before you publish them to their final resting place.

Hope this helps - thanks for asking!

--

~ Kathleen Anderson
Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
Spider Web Woman Designs
Expression Web Resources: http://www.spiderwebwoman.com/xweb/
FrontPage Resources: http://www.spiderwebwoman.com/resources/
Please reply to the newsgroup for the benefit of others

02-Aug-08 04:20 AM

Yes
- for those users not using any server side code for permissions

--

_____________________________________________
SBR @ ENJOY (-:              [ Microsoft MVP - FrontPage ]
_____________________________________________


extremely
site
from
with
by
both

02-Aug-08 04:26 AM

FYI
- there is no limit to # of DB per site
(unless the DBRW or DBIW have a limit - but I've never run into it)
I've set up a site w/ dozen separate DB & DB connections

And if you set up your DB connection as DSN you can share the DB across subwebs

--

_____________________________________________
SBR @ ENJOY (-:              [ Microsoft MVP - FrontPage ]
_____________________________________________

02-Aug-08 09:12 AM

Yup - I thought while I was writing my post that it could have been an
haven't tried to add a third database to see if the limit still applies.

--

~ Kathleen Anderson
Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
Spider Web Woman Designs
Expression Web Resources: http://www.spiderwebwoman.com/xweb/
FrontPage Resources: http://www.spiderwebwoman.com/resources/
Please reply to the newsgroup for the benefit of others

03-Aug-08 05:19 PM

No, so it can be published and maintained separately without using FPSE some
portal software does not play well with FPSE.


--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rob Giordano
Microsoft MVP Expression