Synchronizing Local and Remote Sites


If you are the only person who creates and updates your Web pages, you re not likely to get confused about which version of your site ”the local version or the remote version ”has the latest files, and which files need to be updated. You can, after all, update pages, either on the local or remote site, using FrontPage. After you revise a file, you copy it to the other location, so that both versions of the site are up to date. But in a corporate environment, Webmastering is seldom done in isolation. If two or three people have recently updated pages, they either need to keep meticulous records about where the latest files are, or do the efficient thing, and let FrontPage handle the synchronization of local and remote sites.

Synchronizing Files with Remote Site View

FrontPage s new Remote Site View is easy to use, especially if you re used to working with FTP software to move files from one location to another. When FrontPage connects to a remote location, it compares the files displayed in both Remote and Local Site View. The Status column, which appears in both views, gives you an indication of whether a file in one view is matched in the other view. If you see a file that is in Local view, and listed as unmatched, that means that the file does not exist in Remote view. If you publish that file by clicking on one of the three controls between Remote and Local views, the file is moved from one site to another, and its status becomes Unchanged. The Unchanged status turns to Changed when you edit the file. See Figure 17-7 on the following page for an example.

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Figure 17-7: FrontPage makes it easy to synchronize files located on one site with the contents of another site.

Synchronizing files means you make sure the latest versions of the files on one Web site (whether local or remote) are matched on the other Web site. If you have updated only a few files, and want to save time, you can synchronize only those files by selecting them in either the Local or Remote Web Site window, then clicking the bottom-most of the three buttons between the two Web site views. If you want to make sure all the files on both sites match exactly, click Synchronize under Publish All Changed Pages, then click Publish Web Site.

Speeding Up Revisions by Publishing Only Updated Pages

Once you are familiar with the steps involved in setting up a remote site and opening its contents in Remote Site View, it s easy to publish only the pages you ve updated most recently by opening the Web you want to publish in Remote Site View and doing one of the following:

  • Select the files in Local or Remote Site View that you want to publish: use Shift+Click to select continguous files, and Ctrl+Click to select discontiguous files. Then click Publish Selected Files from the Local (or Remote) Web Site to the Remote (or Local) Web Site.

  • Select either Remote to Local, or Local to Remote under Publish All Changed Pages, then click Publish Web Site.

You can control the way files are published to the remote Web site by opening Remote Web Site Properties, and clicking the Publishing tab. Under Publish, select Changed Pages Only, if you want only to move files that you, or others, have edited (see Figure 17-8).

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Figure 17-8: Use these settings to specify whether you want to publish all files, or only those that have changed.
Aha!  

Make Sure You Publish What You Need
You might want to click All Pages, Overwriting Pages Already On Destination, if you aren t sure what has been changed, and don t have a lot of files to transfer. Click Log Changes During Publish, if you want to keep a record of what you published, and when it was published in a log file.

Opening a Web Site So You Can Update It

A FrontPage-based Web, like any Web site, is an ongoing project. You need to keep updating and correcting your pages to provide visitors with the most current information available. It s also important to update your Web site, in order to delete files you no longer need. This can reduce the amount of server space your Web site consumes, and if your ISP limits the amount of space you have, file management is especially important. You can open a Web site to update it by clicking File, Open Site, or by clicking the down arrow next to the Open button, and choosing Open Site. If the Web is on your local computer, locate the Web by clicking the Look In drop-down list. If the Web is on another computer, enter its URL in the Web Name box.

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If you are reopening a Web that you opened recently, choose the Web s name from the Recent Files submenu of the File menu. FrontPage will connect to the Web automatically, without making you locate it in the Open Web dialog box.




Faster Smarter Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003
Faster Smarter Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003
ISBN: 0735619727
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 179

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