Architecture of Office Server Extensions

Using Office Server Extensions with FrontPage Server Extensions

Microsoft Office Server Extensions (OSE) requires Microsoft FrontPage Server Extensions, and OSE installs them during Setup. FrontPage Server Extensions use the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) and standard HTTP commands. With FrontPage Server Extensions, you do not need file sharing, FTP, or telnet access. FrontPage Server Extensions do not require proprietary file system sharing calls between the client and server.

FrontPage Server Extensions provide the following advanced features:

• Security administration

  FrontPage Server Extensions use NTFS permissions to let you control who can browse, author, or administer the Web site.

• Web site content maintenance

  FrontPage Server Extensions automatically maintain links, navigation bars, and themes across all documents on a Web site.

• Web site enhancements

  The FrontPage Server Extensions provide discussion groups, hit counters, search forms and many other enhancements to your Web sites.

• Trigger events

  OSE relies on FrontPage Server Extensions for notification of changed documents on the Web site to implement the Web Subscriptions feature.

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FrontPage-extended webs

FrontPage Server Extensions support the creation and management of FrontPage-extended webs, which contain all the Web pages, images, scripts, and other files that make up a Web site. With FrontPage, users create, modify, and delete FrontPage-extended webs.

A FrontPage-extended web offers the following features:

• Hyperlink map recalculations

  FrontPage Server Extensions recalculate the entire hyperlink map when you copy a file from one Web server to another.

• Full-text index searches

  The FrontPage full-text index allows visitors to search for pages containing particular words or phrases.

• Site structure updates

  FrontPage Server Extensions update the site structure when you create or change the structure of a FrontPage-extended web.

• Design theme selections

  The design theme feature is an option that allows you to select a set of design elements, including background colors, stylized borders, navigation buttons, and so on. When you apply a new design theme to one page, FrontPage Server Extensions update all the pages in the FrontPage-extended web.

• Tasks list

  The Tasks list contains all the tasks needed to complete the FrontPage-extended web. Each task in the list links to the pages where tasks are performed.

• Unique security settings

  The security settings features of FrontPage-extended webs allow you to give specific administrators, authors, and Web site visitors access to specific FrontPage-extended webs.

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Root webs and subwebs

A root web is a FrontPage-extended web that functions as the top-level content folder of a Web site. A root web can have many levels of subfolders, but there is only one root web for each Web site.

A subweb is a FrontPage-extended web that is contained within the root web or another subweb. Subwebs allow you to break up a Web site so that different users and groups can browse and maintain different areas of the Web site. You can configure unique security settings for each subweb.

FrontPage sets no limit on how deeply you can nest subwebs, although there may be a limit to the number of subdirectories supported by your operating system. You can use subwebs to set up your Web site in a way that matches the structure of your organization. For example, you can set up a root web that contains a manager subweb, contractor subweb, and customer subweb for each department in your organization. Then you can configure the permissions to allow only the department members to browse the subweb for the group in their department.