RE: [TCLUG:8427] mod_frontpage

["Eric Hillman" <ehillman@cccu.com>]

> > > Anyone using the mod_frontpage for Apache?
> > > One of our last standouts for getting rid of NT complete at Real Time
is
> > > our clients need(?) for frontpage. The crap from Microsoft was full of
> > > security holes and a kludge.
> > >
> > They don't NEED it.  Just tell them to access it with ftp.  Frontpage
can do
> > that just fine.  They will just have a local copy of their site, and
when
> > it's how they want it, they hit publish and it's there.
>
> I have never used FP, but I thought it installed stuff like form handlers.
> That isn't needed or you are saying that if the do a local site and upload
> that then all the utility functions get upload?


	I don't know anything about mod_frontpage, but I do know how FrontPage
normally works.  All the FP functions are handled by the FP Extensions -- a
set of CGI programs, configuration files, and binaries.  These are stored in
"hidden" directories on the webserver with names like _vti_pvt and _vti_bin,
where they are not normally readable from the web but can usually be tweaked
by hand if necessary.  Files are uploaded via HTTP PUT commands.  If a page
is uploaded that requires a Frontpage-supplied applet (they call them
"WebBots") it is automatically uploaded as well.  I don't know if FP acts
this way when "publishing" a web via FTP, but I suspect it must.

	The Apache_fp "patch" which MS supplies is *not* necessary for the normal
functions of FP (posting, deleting & editting files, adding users, changing
passwords, etc.)  It *is* necessary to perform a couple of acts which
Apache's code ordinarily would prevent it from carrying out on its own
(creating new FrontPage Webs, for example, which involves editting Apache's
config files.)  I, personally, strongly recommend that folks do *not* patch
Apache to make it work with FP.  The extensions, however, are not difficult
to understand and work with securely if you know what you're doing -- they
won't do anything that Apache wouldn't normally be capable of doing anyways.