FrontPage Server Extensions and Windows SharePoint Services

The FrontPage Server Extensions are a collection of executable files and scripts that are installed on a Web server to allow FrontPage to talk directly to the Web server and to provide enhanced content in a FrontPage Web site. Each new version of FrontPage (except FrontPage 2003, as you will see later) has provided a new version of the FrontPage Server Extensions for Microsoft Windows Web servers, as well as Web servers running on other operating systems.

Checking for FrontPage Extensions on a Server

If you want to check to see if a Web server has the FrontPage Server Extensions installed, you can use the form located at http://www.dnswiz.com/fptype.asp. By entering in the Web site location, this form will tell you if the FrontPage Server Extensions are installed as well as the version number that is installed.

If the version number starts with a 3, the FrontPage 98 Server Extensions are installed. Version 4 indicates that the FrontPage 2000 Server Extensions are installed, and version 5 indicates that the FrontPage 2002 Server Extensions are installed.

There will be no FrontPage 2003 Server Extensions because no new features in FrontPage 2003 require the use of the FrontPage Server Extensions.

The FrontPage Server Extensions (sometimes simply referred to as Server Extensions) provide for extended Web page functionality in the form of Web components. Although some components only require the FrontPage Server Extensions when the site is being created (known as save-time or author-time components), other components (known as browse-time components) rely on the FrontPage Server Extensions when the site is being browsed.

For more information on FrontPage Web Components, see "Using Web Components, Shared Borders, and Link Bars," p. 167.

For example, the Photo Gallery introduced in FrontPage 2003 uses some of the components in the FrontPage Server Extensions when you are creating galleries. However, after the Photo Gallery component has been inserted and configured, the FrontPage Server Extensions are no longer required. A page containing a Photo Gallery component will work correctly regardless of whether the Web server hosting it has the FrontPage Server Extensions installed.

The Hit Counter component, on the other hand, requires the FrontPage Server Extensions when the page is being created, but it also requires them when the page is being browsed. The Hit Counter, therefore, is a browse-time component. The Hit Counter is not visible if the FrontPage Server Extensions are not installed on the Web server.

One of the other major capabilities that the FrontPage Server Extensions provide is the ability for you to create Web sites and open Web sites directly on the Web server. As long as the Web server has the FrontPage Server Extensions installed and the host has given you sufficient access, you can open a Web site live, make changes to your Web pages, and those changes are immediately viewable by people browsing to your Web site.

For more information on opening Web sites with FrontPage, see "Opening and Working with Existing Web Sites," p. 283.

Beginning with FrontPage 2003, Microsoft has replaced the functionality of the FrontPage Server Extensions with Windows SharePoint Services. Windows SharePoint Services not only provide for the ability to create and open Web sites directly on the server with FrontPage, but they also provide many other features that are not otherwise available. Web components such as the Hit Counter, however, still require the FrontPage Server Extensions.

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Windows SharePoint Services will only install on Windows Server 2003. You cannot install them on Windows XP or Windows 2000.

For more information on Windows SharePoint Services, see Appendix C, "Windows SharePoint Services 2.0," p. 943.