Additional Customization Tips

Update sites, jump pages, and error forwarding are three additional techniques you can use to customize your IIS Web sites. Each of these techniques is discussed in the sections that follow.

Using Update Sites to Manage Outages

An update site allows you to handle outages in a way that’s customer-friendly. Use the update sites function to display alternate content when your primary sites are offline. So rather than seeing an error message where the user expects to find content, the user sees a message that provides information regarding the outage as well as additional helpful information.

Each Web site you publish should have an update site. You create update sites by completing the following steps:

1. Have your Web development department create a Web page that can be displayed during outages. The page should explain that you’re performing maintenance on the Web site and that the site will be back online shortly. The page can also provide links to other sites that your organization publishes so that the user has somewhere else to visit during the maintenance.

2. Use Windows Explorer to create a directory for the update site. The best location for this directory is on the Web server’s local drive. Afterward, copy the content files created by the Web development team into this directory.

   Tip

   I recommend that you create a top-level directory for storing the home directories and then create subdirectories for each update site. For example, you can create a top-level directory D:\UpdateSites and then use subdirectories called WWWUpdate, ServicesUpdate, and ProductsUpdate to store the files for www.microsoft.com, services.microsoft.com, and products.microsoft.com, respectively.

3. Start the IIS snap-in and then, in the left pane (Console Root), click the plus sign (+) next to the computer you want to work with. If the computer isn’t shown, connect to it.

4. Click the Web Sites node. You should now see a list of Web sites already configured on the server. You should note the host header, IP address, and port configuration of the primary site you want to mimic during outages. To view this information, right-click the desired Web site, choose Properties, and click the Web Site tab. Click Advanced to view host header values.

5. Create a new site using the configuration settings you just noted. Name the site so that it clearly identifies the site as an update site. Don’t start the update site.

6. You need to edit the site’s properties. Right-click the site entry and then select Properties.

7. Use the fields in the Documents tab to perform the following tasks:

   • Enable default content pages

   • Remove the existing default documents

   • Add a default document and set the document name to the name of the outage page created by your Web development department

8. Select the Custom Errors tab. Edit the properties for 400, 404, and 500 errors. These errors should have the Message Type set to File and have a File path that points to the outage page created by your Web development department.

9. Update other site properties as necessary and then close the Properties dialog box by clicking OK.

Once you create the update site, you can activate it as follows:

1. Use the IIS snap-in to stop the primary site prior to performing maintenance, and then start the related update site.

2. Confirm that the update site is running by visiting the Web site in your browser. If the site is properly configured, you should be able to append a file name to the URL and be directed to the outage page.

3. Perform the necessary maintenance on the primary site. When you’re finished, stop the update site and then start the primary site.

4. Confirm that the primary site is running by visiting the Web site in your browser.

Using Jump Pages for Advertising

A jump page is an intermediate page that redirects a user to another location. You can use jump pages to track click-throughs on banner advertisements or inbound requests from advertising done by the company.

With banner ads, jump pages ensure that users visit a page within your site before moving off to a page at an advertiser’s site. This allows you to track the success of advertising on your site. Here’s how it works:

1. A page in your site has a banner ad that is linked to a jump page on your site.

2. A user clicks on the ad and is directed to the jump page. The Web server tracks the page access and records it in the log file.

3. The jump page is configured to redirect the user to a page on the advertiser’s Web site.

With corporate advertising, jump pages ensure that you can track the source of a visit to advertising done by the company. This allows you to track the success of your company’s advertising efforts. Here’s how it works:

1. The marketing department develops a piece of advertising collateral—for instance, a product brochure. Somewhere in the brochure, there’s a reference to a URL on your site. This is the URL for the jump page you’ve configured.

2. A user types in the URL to the jump page as it was listed in the ad. The Web server tracks the page access and records it in the log file.

3. The jump page is configured to redirect the user to a page on your Web site where the advertised product or service is covered.

Each jump page you create should be unique, or you should create a dynamic page that reads an embedded code within the URL and then redirects the user. For example, you can create a page called Jump.asp that reads the first parameter passed to the script as the advertising code. Then you can create a link in the banner ad that specifies the URL and the code, such as Jump.asp?4408.

Handling 404 Errors and Preventing Dead Ends

Users hate dead ends, and that’s just what a 404 error represents. Rather than having the browser display an apparently meaningless 404—File Or Directory Not Found error, you should throw the user a lifeline by doing one of two things:

• Replacing the default error file with a file that provides helpful information and links

• Redirecting all 404 errors to your site’s home page

Either technique makes your Web site a better place to visit. This feature could be the one thing that separates your Web site from the pack.