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Appendixes FrontPage Server Extensions Configuration Variables
Some features of the FrontPage Server Extensions can be configured by setting the values of server extensions configuration variables. You must specify all configuration values as strings, although some are interpreted numerically. Variables can be set at one of three levels:
Each subweb variable's syntax is
For example:
If the same configuration variable is defined at more than one level, the FrontPage Server Extensions resolve the conflict by using the following hierarchy:
The following table describes the locations of server extensions configuration variables on Windows and UNIX.
FrontPage assigns each configuration variable a default
value internally.
This appendix includes the following information about each configuration variable:
When AccessControl is set to 0, FrontPage permissions checking is completely disabled. When AccessControl is set to 0, an administrator must manually set access control on the _vti directories whenever a subweb is created. Until access control is manually set, any user can author the subweb. When AccessControl is set to 0, custom access-control permissions will not be overwritten by FrontPage. Also, the FrontPage client will disable the Permissions command.
When AllowExecutableScripts is set to a non-zero value, FrontPage will set the executable bit on files within executable directories. When directories are marked as executable, all files within the directory will also be marked as executable. If authors are permitted to upload into executable directories (that is, the NoExecutableCgiUpload variable is set to 0), then when AllowExecutableScripts is set to a non-zero value, authors will be able to execute newly uploaded CGI scripts and ISAPI extensions. If NoExecutableCgiUpload is set to 0 and AllowExecutableScripts is set to 0, authors will be able to upload and use ASP and IDC files, but not CGI or ISAPI files.
When Authoring is set to disabled, all authoring using the FrontPage Server Extensions is disabled for the virtual server. This variable can also be set using the FrontPage MMC Snap-in. When set to enabled, authoring is enabled.
Sets the maximum number of documents kept in the cache cache when FrontPage is doing write operations. This is the maximum number of documents whose property information, such as web parameters, you want to keep in active memory. When an author opens a document after the cache is full, the cache is cleared and starts with the most recently opened document.
By default, the FrontPage Server Extensions set the HEIGHT and WIDTH attributes in all IMG tags in pages saved to a web. This improves the appearance of pages when a site visitor downloads them over a slow connection. CacheMaxImage sets the maximum number of images whose HEIGHT and WIDTH attributes the server extensions will cache while recalculating hyperlinks or saving a page. If you set this variable globally or per virtual server, and webs on your server frequently contain more than 16 images, you should increase this number. If you set this variable on an individual subweb, do not set it higher than the number of image files in the web.
Sets the maximum number of included files on a page (that is, files included through the Include Page component) that the FrontPage Server Extensions will cache while recalculating hyperlinks or saving the page. You should increase the value of CacheMaxInclude to the highest number of pages that are included in any page in your web, if that number is higher than the default value (16).
Sets the maximum document size in kilobytes that the FrontPage Server Extensions will cache internally.
Sets the maximum number of documents kept in the cache when FrontPage is doing read operations. This is the maximum number of documents whose property information, such as web parameters, you want to keep in active memory. When an author opens a document after the cache is full, the cache is cleared and starts with the most recently opened document.
Sets the earliest version of the FrontPage client that can be used to author a web. Set this variable when you do not want a Web to be edited by an author using earlier versions of the FrontPage client (you would do this, for example, when the Web contains features that are not supported by earlier versions of the FrontPage client). This variable can only be set for a single web, in the web's _vti_pvt/Service.cnf file. If this parameter is not present, any version of the FrontPage client can be used to edit the web. ClientVerCutoff must be followed by a colon, the earliest version of FrontPage that you want authors to use while editing the web, another colon, and an error message to display when an author attempts to open the Web with an older client. For example:
Note that the variable's write-state is set to SX. It is safest to hide this variable so that it can't be assigned a value by using the Web Settings dialog box in the FrontPage client.
On all servers except IIS, ComplexPasswords tightens restrictions on password strings created in FrontPage. When ComplexPasswords is set to a non-zero value, the following rules apply to passwords:
The FrontPage Server Extensions automatically reserve the correct amount of space for images and other files that are embedded on a Web page. You can use DisableAutoImgSizeExts to specify a list of one or more file extensions. For files of the type listed in this variable, the server extensions will not automatically reserve the correct amount of space on the page. To specify the file types, concatenate filename extensions (including the leading period character), and do not use spaces. For example: .ext1.ext2.ext3
FrontPage caches META tag data for all Web pages in a file. Caching this data in a single location makes it more accessible to scripts and programs that use the FrontPage object model. The variable DisableMetaTagStore disables this caching feature. If a Web is not being accessed via the object model, set this variable to a non-zero value to disable the META tag data store.
By sending a URL with a debug parameter (for example, http://server/web/_vti_bin/shtml.dll/page.htm/_vti_debug), users can view information regarding the Web server configuration. By default, the FrontPage Server Extensions ignore the parameter and return the page without displaying the potentially sensitive information. However, as a troubleshooting tool, you can enable use of the debugging parameter by setting the variable EnableVtiDebug to a non-zero value.
Sets the URL format used by the server-side image map processor that runs on FrontPage-generated image maps. Note that FrontPage 2000 generates client-side image maps, and most browsers support client-side image maps, so this setting is only useful with earlier versions of FrontPage. Valid parameters are NCSA, CERN, Netscape, none, or "". If you specify none, FrontPage will not generate HTML to support server-side image map processing. The empty string "" specifies to generate default FrontPage image maps.
Sets the server-relative URL of the server-side image-map processor for the selected image-map format. If ImageMapFormat is set to "", server-side image maps are handled automatically by the FrontPage Server Extensions. For other formats, provide the name and location of the image-map processor. To specify client-side image maps, set this variable to "" (none).
The call from the FrontPage client to the server extensions to list documents can be very long-running, if, for example, the call is for a list of the entire contents of a large web. By default, ListLockLatency is set so that this transaction releases and reacquires its lock on the Web every 5 seconds. This is only a rough number; the locks are released whenever a new directory is encountered during the list transaction. A directory containing 100,000 files, for example, could take many tens of seconds to list, and the lock will not be released until the entire directory is listed. Control the lock-release interval (in seconds) by setting ListLockLatency. The value of the variable is the maximum number of seconds between lock releases. A value of 0 means that the lock should be released every time a new subdirectory is encountered.
When FrontPage 2000 server extensions are installed on a Web server, users of the FrontPage client can list all system DSNs on the server by clicking Web Settings on the Tools menu and going to the Database tab. This can create a security hole, because it exposes a list of resources on your server. When ListSystemDSNs is set to zero, FrontPage users cannot view the list of system DSNs on the Web server. When ListSystemDSNs is set to a non-zero value, system DSNs are listed.
If Logging is set to a non-zero value, the FrontPage Server Extensions log all authoring operations to the file Author.log in the _vti_log directory of the web. Each operation is recorded with the current time, remote host, author's user name, Web name, operation performed, and the per-operation data. In the event of a security breach, this log file can be analyzed for authoring activity on the Web site.
Can be used to override the character-set attribute of the content-type header.
Can be used to override the content transfer encoding attribute of the content-type header.
Sets the user name to use as the From account when sending e-mail. Specifically, it is used as the argument to the SEND FROM: command in SMTP. The default for SMTP is user@host, where user is the current user account and host is the current host name.
(This is an obsolete variable provided for backward compatibility; use NoSaveResultsToAbsoluteFile instead.) When set to a non-zero value, NoAbsoluteFileResults forces the default (Save Results), Registration, and Discussion form handlers to write only to a file within the author's Web content area. It prevents these form handlers from writing to an absolute file path. Although the default value of NoAbsoluteFileResults is 0 it is set to 1 during FrontPage setup.
When NoClientImageMaps is set to 1, it prevents FrontPage from generating HTML that supports client-side image-map processing. To configure FrontPage to generate client-side and server-side image maps, leave this variable set to its default value of 0 and select a server-side image-map format (see ImageMapFormat).
When NoExecutableCgiUpload is set to a non-zero value, new CGI scripts cannot be run. On a UNIX server, when this key is set to a non-zero value, the FrontPage Server Extensions will not set the execute bit on any CGI scripts that an author uploads to a Web using FrontPage. On a Windows NT server, when this key is set to a non-zero value, the FrontPage Server Extensions will not allow the file to be uploaded. The user receives an error message saying that the file can't be put in the specified directory. A Web Presence Provider can manually set the execute permission after inspecting the CGI script. When NoExecutableCgiUpload is set to 0, the server extensions automatically set the execute bit on CGI scripts uploaded to an author's cgi-bin directory (UNIX), and automatically allow scripts to be uploaded to executable directories (Windows NT). NoExecutableCgiUpload also controls whether users can mark directories as executable. If the key is set to 0, users can mark any directory executable. If the key is set to a non-zero value, users can't make directories executable, but web administrators can.
When NoIndexServer is set to 1, FrontPage does not use the IIS Index Server to build the full-text index of the Web site. Instead, FrontPage uses the FreeWAIS search engine that is included in FrontPage 2000. By default, if FrontPage detects Index Server, it will use it to build the full-text index.
(IIS 4.0 or later) When NoMarkScriptable is set to a non-zero value, users of the FrontPage client cannot modify the scriptable bit on any folders in a web. When this value is set, an Internet service provider must manually set the scriptable bit on folders. When NoMarkScriptable is set to 0, FrontPage client users can modify this bit. Internet service providers can use this setting to selectively allow or disallow use of database features and other ASP-based pages on a per-server or per-web basis. If you set vti_nomarkscriptable for a subweb, by editing the web's _vti_pvt/service.cnf file, you must use BX rather than SX, SR, or SW as the variable. So, the possible settings are:
or
If NoMarkScriptable is set to 1 on the server, but vti_nomarkscriptable
Earlier releases of FrontPage allow the default (Save Results) form handler to pipe form results to any arbitrarily chosen program. For backward compatibility, NoSaveResultsPipeTo disables this capability when it is set to a non-zero value. To allow piping form contents to a program, set this variable to 0.
When NoSaveResultsToAbsoluteFile is set to 1, the default (Save Results), Registration, and Discussion form handlers cannot write to an absolute file path even if the browsing account has the NTFS rights to write to that path: the form handlers can only write to a file within the web's content area. When NoSaveResultsToAbsoluteFile is set to 0, the FrontPage default (Save Results), Registration, and Discussion form handlers will write to an absolute file path Use NoSaveResultsToAbsoluteFile instead of the obsolete NoAbsoluteFileResults.
When NoSaveResultsToLogDir is set to 1, the default (Save Results), Registration, and Discussion form handlers will not write to the web's _vti_log directory. When NoSaveResultsToLogDir is set to 0, form handlers will write to the web's _vti_log directory. Use NoSaveResultsToLogDir instead of the obsolete NoServerFileResults.
(This is an obsolete variable provided for backward compatibility; use NoSaveResultsToLogDir instead.) When NoServerFileResults is set to a non-zero value, the default (Save Results), Registration, and Discussion FrontPage form handlers cannot write to the _vti_log directory in an author's web.
When PreserveTagCase is set to Y or a non-zero value, the server extensions preserve the case of HTML tag attributes when they reformat HTML pages. PreserveTagCase takes precedence over the variable UpperCaseTags. Note that the cases of HTML tags are controlled by a separate variable, UpperCaseTags.
On IIS servers only, setting PrivateBrowsable to 1 makes the _private directory in a Web accessible to browsers. To prevent site visitors from browsing the _private directory, set PrivateBrowsable to 0. Once you have added this setting, it will apply to new webs you create. It does not effect webs that were created before making the setting.
When you publish updated documents to your web, FrontPage checks a list of document properties and verifies that the content of these properties (metadata values) match between the source and the destination webs. If they don't match, FrontPage updates the destination Web with the source Web's copy of the document. The property list is stored in the key PublishMetainfoKeys, and is customizable. For example, a user might revise nothing in a Web except for the list of categories that a file belongs to. Using the PublishMetainfoKeys key, FrontPage will publish the updated pages, even though no content has changed. If your Web uses the Categories component, it might be especially important to you to keep metadata for categories up to date. PublishMetainfoKeys is not a version checking mechanism. Using this key, the source web's copy of the document always overwrites the destination web's copy if the metadata values differ. If you want to preserve the destination web's version of documents and metadata, you can delete items from the list of values in this key.
If you want to prevent FrontPage from checking metadata values,
When ReformatHtml is set to Y or a non-zero value, the FrontPage Server Extensions reformat all HTML pages when they are uploaded to the Web server. Setting ReformatHtml to 0 causes only pages with FrontPage-based components to be reformatted.
When RequireSSL is set to enabled (or any other value except disabled), the server extensions require a Secure Sockets Layer connection between the FrontPage client and the server.
If user and group restrictions are enabled (that is, RestrictIISUsersAndGroups is set to Y or a non-zero value) for a given FrontPage-extended web, the server extensions look for a Windows NT group named with the following convention: FP_[VirtualServer][_Directories][_Subweb] On a multihosted IIS2.0/3.0 machine, [VirtualServer] is the server's IP address and port number combination, and [_Directories][_Subweb] is the URL of the subweb. An example for the root web is FP_172.17.123.255:80. For a subweb, an example is FP_172.17.123.255:80_directory1_MySubWeb1_directory2_MySubWeb2. This is the nested subweb at the URL http://172.17.123.255:80/directory1/MySubWeb1/directory2/MySubWeb2. On a single-hosted machine, [VirtualServer] is the port number. For example, FP_80 is the virtual server at port 80 when this port is not specifically bound to an IP address in the Internet Service Manager. On IIS 4.0 and later, [VirtualServer] can be of the form /LM/W3SVC/N, where N is an instance number. An example of this form for a root web is FP_/LM/W3SVC/1. An example for a subweb of this virtual server is FP_/LM/W3SVC/1_MySubWeb. Another variation of this form is to use the host name. For a root web, an example is FP_www.microsoft.com:80, and for a subweb, FP_www.microsoft.com:80_MySubWeb. On a single-hosted machine, [Virtual Server] could be configured as the port number, as in FP_80. The other IIS 4.0 options will work in this case as well. If restrictions are enabled on a subweb but no local group is defined, the FrontPage Server Extensions look for the group of the parent web and use it, if it exists. This is repeated recursively if the subweb is nested within another subweb. If no appropriately named group is found, then no restriction is placed on permissions.
RestrictIISUsersAndGroups cannot be set at the subweb level; however,
When using the FrontPage Server Extensions executable Shtml.exe, versions 3.0.2.1330 or later, run-time FrontPage-based components such as the default (Save Results) form handler and the Search form will only process HTML or HTML-based files that do not contain ASP code or the SCRIPT RUNAT=server tag. This prevents exposing the contents of source code, passwords, or other private information to users. The set of HTML or HTML-based files that can be processed by Shtml.exe is identified by file name extension: .htm, .html, .shtm, .shtml, .htx, .asp, .alx, and .asa. If the Web server's configuration file maps other filename extensions to an HTML or HTML-based file type, those files are also added to the set of files that can be processed by Shtml.exe. For Apache and NCSA servers, any file extensions mapped to have a MIME type of "text/html" are also added to the set of files that can be processed by Shtml.exe. Use RunTimeFileExtensions to specify which file types that can be processed by Shtml.exe, should be processed. This further limits the set of HTML or HTML-based file types to be processed by Shtml.exe. RunTimeFileExtensions must be followed by a list of permissible file name extensions. Each extension must begin with a period character, and there should be no spaces or other delimiters between extensions (for example: .htm.shtm.htz). Note that in this example, the .htz extension must be mapped to one of the permissible extensions in a Web server's configuration file. If RunTimeFileExtensions is not specified, Shtml.exe processes only files with .htm and .html extensions. RunTimeFileExtensions is ignored in versions of the FrontPage Server Extensions earlier than 3.0.2.1330. For IIS servers 4.0 and later, the FrontPage Server Extensions get the default values for RunTimeFileExtensions from the global ScriptMap, and they get the per-virtual-server ScriptMap settings from the metabase.
Sets the language for the scripts that are generated by the FrontPage Server Extensions to enforce any data-validation settings an author has applied to form fields. Valid parameters are VBScript, JavaScript, or none.
Sets the name of the program to which e-mail should be piped. Typically this will be sendmail, but it could be any program. Before invoking the command, all occurrences of "%r" are replaced with the recipient of the mail. The percent sign character followed by any other character is replaced by that character.
The SMTPHost variable is set to the name or IP address of a host running an SMTP daemon, such as sendmail on UNIX. When a site visitor submits a form whose results are to be sent via e-mail, the FrontPage Server Extensions connect to the SMTP daemon to deliver the mail. By default, FrontPage assumes that the daemon is listening on port 25 (the standard for SMTP) but you can override this by appending ":xx" to the name, where the xx is the port to use. Normally, you will set either the SMTPHost or SendmailCommand variables, but not both, because SendmailCommand takes priority over SMTPHost. Example values: mail.example.microsoft.com, test:10000, 127.0.0.1
If you are using the built-in WAIS search engine, setting TextMemory to 0 turns off full-text indexing of the web. A non-zero value specifies the number of megabytes of RAM the server extensions are to use during text indexing for hash-tables and other data structures. For webs with less than 500 pages, set the value of TextMemory to 1. For webs with 500 to 5000 pages, set it to 2. For webs with more than 5000 pages, set it to 4.
When UpperCaseTags is set to Y or a non-zero value, the server extensions convert all HTML tags to uppercase when they reformat HTML pages.
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