Need some help with Front Page 2000 issues...

[garry2005]

A newbie here (not a professional web designer, by the way):

I'm designing a new "virtual airline" website with Front page 2000, and I've run smack into a couple of issues that have me stumped!

1. A section of this site will require registration and Member Login. I've worn my fingers to the nubs trying to work with the REgistration Form Handler and Security, and all I have to show for it are sore fingers! Does anyone know of a simple way (with F/P or otherwise) to accomplish this?

2. Another section of the site will have a number of airplane pictures that must be thumbnailed. If I insert the pictures and let let them fall wherever they happen to land on the page, and then use AutoThumbnail, everything works great. But when I position the thumbnails on the page, they are not thumbnails when viewed through a browser...just small pictures.

Thanks in advance for any help...
Garry ([email protected])

 

[SiteExpress]

Position the pictures where you want them, and then link them to a new window that opens with the larger picture. Also, FP has some built in web components for using images. Try Insert | Web Component | Photo Gallery

As far as the login and registration, I have never liked, nor trusted FrontPages version of this. You are better off using an independant script for this. Try searching someplace like Hotscripts.com or This URL that Steph recommended for another member.

 

[garry2005]

Front Page Issues...

Hey, thanks much for the reply, and for the help! I'll try your tips on the thumbnail issue, and I'll check both of those links for the "Login" problem. I'm gald to hear it wasn't just my programming ineptitude with F/P...that Registration thing is a total nightmare, and even when you play their rules explicitly, it doesn't work!

Thanks again...
Garry

 

[SiteExpress]

You can get it to work with FP, but if the server is a remote server, and not your local machine, you have to ignore all of the errors it warns you about when you try to save the files. Then just upload them, and close your eyes and pray!

 

[garry2005]

Thumbnails...

Site Express:

You said: >>and then link them to a new window that opens with the larger picture<<

I'm still a little confused; not sure what you mean by a 'new window'...can you be more specific on this? See, in order to position them where I want them, I have to shrink them via Auto-Thumbnail, and therein lies the problem. When I do that, and then position them with "Absolute", they are just small pictures, not thumbnails. Are you suggesting import smaller pictures first, put each bigger picture on a seperate page, and then link the smaller picture to that page with the bigger picture? I'm still missing something, I think.

Garry

 

[StephanieCordray]

You might want to use a table(s) to position them rather than divisions/layers. I'm not a heavy Frontpage user so i don't know why such a thing would take the hyperlinks to the large images away but I suppose it can happen.


If you need to change the sizes of the thumbnails try right clicking on the images, choose thumbnail properties, and then change the settings to a more desired size for auto thumbnail.

 

[StephanieCordray]

oh, yeah... i forgot about the form handler issues... I'm not really clear on what you need.. do you need to secure a part of the site for member login using a form to request membership and setup up passwords for the new members? I can tell you how to secure a part of your site using frontpage but to my knowledge it won't generate and setup new passwords... that would have to be done manually... there are other options that I can recommend once I know exactly what you need.

 

[garry2005]

Thumbnails & Login issues...

Hi Stephanie, and thanks much for your help.
The thumbnail thing is driving me nuts, and it makes no sense at all: It's not a size issue, it's simply the loss of the thumbnail characteristics...it doesn't work if you position the picture.

On the login/security problem, here's the scoop, and I'm sure it's pretty basic for those who understand this stuff: Anyone can view the site, with exception to certain pages that are restricted to registered members only. By that, I mean a potential member completes a web form (which I can do) and submits it to me. I then send the user a response (with a password, if I approve the application), and then I can manually update whatever reference file with this new password so they can login. I've been referred to all sorts of things, such as PHP, SQL, Hotscripts, Hostrs, .htaccess....and while this may be as easy as breathing to many of you, it may as well be written in Chinese to me; I don't understand a single word of it, or how it works. So the bottom line is that I simply need to control access to just one web page...if I can do that, I can control the rest of the restricted stuff from that page.

Regards...and thanks again for your help.
Garry

 

[StephanieCordray]

For the thumbnails... what characteristics are you losing? the hyperlinks to the larger images or is there something else about them you want to keep like the borders?

For the security and the forms.
You can do that with frontpage as long as your hosting service offers frontpage extensions. If your host doesn't for whatever reason, you won't be able to use frontpage to do it.

Are you running into error messages such as "some elements will not be saved properly until the web page is published?" I know that's paraphrased because i forget the exact wording of the message. If so, that's because frontpage extensions are needed to fully use those elements and it's nothing to worry about in previews and such.

To get the form mailed to you, you have to change the properties of the submit button. I think it defaults to a cgi script and you don't want that, correct? Right click on the submit button in frontpage... i forget which option but i think it's form properties... this will bring up a window with the option to change how the form is handled choose mail to: your email address. There are other options to detail what you want mailed to you of the form elements, and you can also have it save the info to a web page or text file on the site... It used to make the page automatically in previous versions of frontpage but i think you have to make the page yourself now.

There is probably a lot more than i'm forgetting but this should get you started.

 

[garry2005]

Hi Steph...
>>what characteristics are you losing?<< Okay, imagine I have a full-size picture I want to thumbnail. I stick the picture on the page, use Auto Thumbnail to shrink it, and if I do nothing else, it works fine in a browser. BUT...if I position the thumbnail somewhere else on the page (which of course is necessary) and then run the browser, it's no longer a thumbnail; it's just a small picture.

As for managing forms and submitting them, I'm okay with that...I have a business website that I built with F/P and it has a ton of forms. You're right that F/P should be able to do the "Permissions" thing, but here is exactly what I get when I try with this new website...(So you know, F/P extensions have already been uninstalled and re-installed by the webhoster):

500 Internal Server Error
Internal Server Error The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
Please contact the server administrator, [email protected] and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.
More information about this error may be available in the server error log.
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
Apache/1.3.33 Server at www.lewisaire.com Port 80

I've been trying to contact the webhoster for 2 days, but no response yet. I'm baffled.

Garry

 

[StephanieCordray]

How are you trying to position it? Drag and drop? Is it possible to see the site online? Sometimes things become clearer when you can actually see what's happening... sounds like when you move it, the hyperlinks don't follow.

Frontpage extensions are not set up properly on the server... sorry... It's going to make it darned difficult to get some elements of your site working properly. Can you install and uninstall from your control panel? If it's been 2 days with no response from your webhoster... I hate to say it but you need to find another service... that's ridiculous.

 

[SiteExpress]

I tried to recreate your picture problem, but was unable to do it. You can take a look Here


The only thing that I can think may be happening is this. When You create thumbs with Auto Thumbnail, FP creates thumbnail sized images for your pictures. When you save the page, it wants to know where to save the thumbs. Make sure you point it to a directory that is not in the same folder as the originals, as you will overwrite your originals with the thumbnail images.

Take a look at the code on that page. You can actually use the same code for your page, and just edit the locations and image names. I used 3 images, and used different position attributes.

Let me know if that helps.

 

[StephanieCordray]

What few times I used frontpage for such it always tacked onto to the thumbnail so that it had filename_small and saved into the same directory.

 

[SiteExpress]

That is true. It will add _small to it, but it gives you the opportunity to change the directory and name. I was just making sure he didnt accidentally overwrite his large images. That is the only thing I could think of that would cause him to end up with just thumb size images.

 

[garry2005]

RE: Thumbnails...

I sincerely do appreciate this help, gang:

If someone is doing exactly what I'm doing, and it works for them, then I am truly lost. I've tried this on different PC's with different uploads of Front Page, and it performs the same. I'll reiterate the steps:

1. Open a blank page.
2. Insert a full-size picture.
3. At the bottom, I click on Auto-Thumnail, and the picture shrinks.
4. I click Format/Position/Absolute, which then allows me to grab the the picture and place it wherever I want.
5. I save the page, and click on "Preview in Browser" at the top.

The picture is just a small picture in the browser now, not a clickable thumbnail.

What in the world am I doing wrong???

Garry

 

[StephanieCordray]

At a guess, I'd say it's a glitch in Frontpage. When you drag and drop like that using format, you are changing the entire format of the picture and basically removing the formatting you want to keep which are the thumbnail properties... That's why I suggested using tables to place your images... you can then place the pictures where you want them without having to move them... place the images in separate table cells so nothing else can interfere with them if necessary.

 

[garry2005]

Steph, you are a true blessing to hang in there with me!

Okay, I'll try that, but I've never worked with tables before. So you're saying place the BIG picture in a table cell, and then thumbnail the cells?

 

[SiteExpress]

No, she is saying to create a cell in the place you want the thumbnail to be, then insert the image and thumbnail it there. That way, you do not have to move it once it is thumbnailed.

**Just checking. The image is not animated is it? It wont work with animation. I know I shouldnt ask, but I had to at least check.

Can you provide a link to the page you are referring to?

 

[SiteExpress]

I followed your steps exactly, and it worked for me.

http://www.resqtraining.com/thumbnails.htm

 

[garry2005]

This is absolutely crazy! I'm not questioning that it worked for you, but here's a example of what I'm seeing, and I used the exact steps I listed before...and it's from a third PC, each with F/P 2000 that was loaded from separate disks! The picture on the far left I simply thumbnailed and did not re-position, and you see it works. The picture in the middle...I Thumbnailed that one and re-positioned it.

www.jetcoder.com/pix.html

I'm using I/E for a browser