How to make a discussion web and include it in a current web site
Here I describe in brief how I created my discussion web which now works perfectly. Make sure you follow the highlighted text exactly and everything (hopefully) should turn out the same way:)
NOTE: I now use the discussion forums at our sister site http://frontpagetalk.com/
A discussion group is a FrontPage web. that supports interactive discussions of topics by users. Users submit topics by entering text in a form, they search the group using a search form, and they access articles using a table of contents.
To create a discussion group and include it in your web site
Open up the website you wish to add a discussion web to then:
1 On the FrontPage Explorer’s File menu, select New and choose FrontPage Web.
Here is the essential part......in the FrontPage Web wizard box that pops up...on the left hand side at the bottom is a little box tick it...(add to current web)...this will add your discussion web to the website your in.
2 In the New FrontPage Web dialog box, select Discussion Web Wizard and click OK.
3 In the Discussion Web Wizard dialog box, enter the Web server and FrontPage web name of your discussion group, and click OK.
4 If you are prompted for your name and password, enter them and click OK.
5 In the Discussion Web Wizard, select the main features of your discussion and click Next.
· A Table of Contents contains hyperlinks to the discussion topics.
· A Search Form lets users search the discussion topics for a word or phrase.
· (if I were you I would click threaded replies) Threaded Replies allow users the choice of either creating new top-level topics for discussions or replying to topics in current discussions.
· A Confirmation Page displays a confirmation of an entry in a discussion to a user.
6 Enter a descriptive title for the discussion and click Next.
On any panel of the Discussion Web Wizard, you can click Finish to create the FrontPage discussion web using defaults for any settings you did not modify.
7 Select the fields you want on the input form and click Next.
The user uses the input form to submit topics to the discussion.
8 Select whether or not users will be required to register* for the FrontPage discussion web and click Next.
If you select to register users, the Discussion Web Wizard will create a registration form and open it in the FrontPage Editor. Insert the registration form in your root FrontPage web to make it available to users.
9 Select the sort order for the table of contents and click Next. (newest to oldest is best)
10 Specify whether or not you want the table of contents to replace your home page and click Next.(say NO)
11 Select the settings for the Search form and click Next.
12 Select colour settings for all pages in the discussion web and click Next.
13 Select a frameset (if applicable) in which to display the discussion group and click Next.
14 Click Finish to accept your selections.
15 In the FrontPage Editor, open the pages created by the Discussion Web Wizard and customise them as needed.
Just a little more tweaking and your done with the essential parts
1 When you have finished go to FrontPage Explorer.
2 In the Contents of " what ever your site is called" view in the navigation view (i.e. the lists of files and folders).
3 Left click on "Frameset for "whatever you called your discussion web"
4 Holding the button down move your mouse up towards navigation and deposit your file where you want the Discussion web to appear in your web site.
5 Right click on the Discussion folder in navigation view click "rename" and then rename your discussion web to exclude the words "Frameset for".
*To moderate a discussion group
1 In the FrontPage Explorer, on the Tools menu, choose Web Settings.
2 In the Advanced tab, select Show Documents in Hidden Directories.
3 Click OK.
4 On the View menu, choose Refresh.
5 Change to the Folders view to see the pages (named 0001.htm, 0002.htm, etc.) created by users.
Do not delete offending articles. Open them in the FrontPage Editor and type a standard message replacing the article body, such as "[Deleted Article]." This will protect forward and backward hyperlinks to other articles in the thread.
To download posts from your discussion web
1 In the FP explorer, select File/Open FrontPage Web
(you want to connect to your webpage through your hosts server)
2 From the "Getting Started Dialog Box" click "More Webs"
3 In the "Open Front Page Web" dialog box pop-up, key in http://www.yourwebhost.com on the "select Web Server or Disk Location" box
Click the "List Webs" button
You have to wait because it is connecting to 'yourwebhost' server
4 login and password will be required.
Once connecting is done you'd be able to see all your files which resides on the server. You can delete those unwanted files from here.
When you want to move your site to another host. Download your discussion web first so you can take your posts with you. The posts reside on the host server. NOT on your hard drive where your local web resides...So you must do the above first to download them and then you can republish to your new host.
New messages go to message 1
This error is caused by using upper case characters for the name of the folder (the default name of this folder when first using the Discussion Wizard is "_disc1") in which the articles are stored.
Make sure your discussion web folders are all lower case.
Microsoft FrontPage 98b Patch
Microsoft® has released the Microsoft FrontPage® 98b patch to address some minor issues with the FrontPage Editor and design-time controls and this fixes some issues in the discussion web too.
FP: How to Edit/Delete Articles in a FrontPage Discussion Web (Q154675)
