Testing localhost

[jimt]

After recovering from a disk crash I reluctant to test things as I have in
the past by simply publishing to the www and testing the results/changes
etc. "live". Is there a source or document that discribes how to set up a
"test" enviroment against localhost so the pages, db connections. etc can be
tested before publishing to the www?

Thank
Jim T.

 

[Rob Giordano [MS MVP]]

create a new website on localhost (http://localhost/newwebname )

File | New ... New Website

 

[Steve Easton]

Do you have IIS installed on the machine?
( Internet Information Services )


--

Steve Easton
Microsoft MVP FrontPage
FP Cleaner
http://www.95isalive.com/fixes/fpclean.htm
Hit Me FP
http://www.95isalive.com/fixes/HitMeFP.htm

 

[jimt]

Steve,

I have IIS 5.1 with FP-2002 extensions. The web-based is directly under
wwwroot and currently do not have any sub-webs. The web is a stand alone (no
other users, connected PC, or authors) and I publish to our town's web site
at:

http://www.stonehamme.com

My site is not a very dynamic site other than during the spring when the
town officials access assessment data. The web has a DB connection to an
Access 2000 database. This is my biggest concern after my recovery from my
hard drive crash. Although I can do a restore to the ISP web host as the web
master; my goal is to set up an environment (directory structures, settings,
etc) that mirrors the host so I can test any adds, changes, etc to localhost
BEFORE publishing to the above web site.

The www site has a large number of data files stored at a peer level to the
public directory for security purposes. These files are accessed for viewing
and in some cases downloading via hyperlinks on the public web pages via an
ASP call. The access DB is also stored above the public directory on the host
for security. There is a common connection ASP that provides the citizens
access to the DB via stored queries in the DB.

Some data/images etc, such as town maps, are stored under the public
directory on the host site.

So you can see the site is a hybrid of directories and functions. At this
point I don't even know how to open the localhost in a browser (IE-7.0) to
test. I've tried by entering http:\localhost in the brower address bar but
get a page error window.
Questions like:
1) Does the localhost require a "top level" directory call public containing
all of the web pages and directories (other than the secure directories) to
mirror the host site?

2) Is there any additional requirement to locally test the Access DB
connection and stored procedures/queries?

3) How do you open the localhost to view in a browser that mimics the www
host?

My long term goal as noted is to create the localhost (or facimile) so I
test my changes before publishing.

Thanks
Jim T.

 

[Rob Giordano [MS MVP]]

Here's what I would do, since that online web has fpse installed (and
hopefully working)

Open FP
File | Open Web
enter the online web location http://www.stonehamme.com
this of course opens the online web within your local FP
now
File | Publish Web (don't use the shortcut Publish button)
when prompted enter
http://localhost/stonehammesite (or whatever you want to call it on your
local machine...note no extension)

Now you have a copy of the stonehamme site on your machine...work with it
locally and publish back to the online server

You may get prompted about no site existing do you want to create it...yah.

works for me


--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rob Giordano
Microsoft MVP Expression

 

[jimt]

Sorry so long on getting back on this subject; a host of non FP tasks.

The www site is outdated compared to the localhost. What I'm trying to do is
to test the pages on the localhost before I publish to the www site. My
vision of testing is to open the pages on my PC as though the will appear
when published to www.stonehamme.com. This will give me a chance to navigate
and correct any issues, formatting, etc before publishing.

I can publish localhost to location on my hard drive but how can I access it
using IE as it would on the internet?

My experience in I.T. is you test the changes before moving the changes to
production. As a higher level question therefor is how do FP webmasters test
their pages, navigation, links, etc? Do they publish to the www sites and
then review the pages and changes there?

Thanks
Jim T.

 

[Ronx]

To access localhost in a browser, type:

http://localhost/ in the browser address bar

The default page will open. If you get an error, post the complete error
message here. We can't help unless we know what is going on.

To test a website, I have my own Windows 2003 server for testing. Other
methods are to create a subweb on the live site and publish the local
website there for testing.

 

[jimt]

Thanks for the prompt reply.

When entering http://localhost/ on the IE browser address line the error
screen is:

"The website declined to show this webpage
Most likely causes:
This website requires you to log in."
(detail)
"This error (HTTP 403 Forbidden) means that Internet Explorer was able to
connect to the website, but it does not have permission to view the webpage."

I don't know why this is a security problem. I have not "installed"
security/log on/password access to the local site since it is only on my PC;
i.e. no one else accesses the localhost.

In your reply you note: Other methods are to create a subweb on the live
site and publish the local website there for testing.

I've created a subweb named "stoneham" locally using Sharepoint.
(A note about sharepoint; in sharepoint the FrontPage Server Extensions 2002
window reads: default web, URL = http://jimt.
Should this read localhost instead of jimt? The stoneham subweb reads
http://jimt/stoneham/.)

Is this what you mean by "on the live site"? I have not tried publishing yet
to the stoneham subweb. I want
to make sure this is the right solution to what is the root issue.

Thanks
Jim T.

To access localhost in a browser, type:

http://localhost/ in the browser address bar

The default page will open. If you get an error, post the complete error
message here. We can't help unless we know what is going on.

To test a website, I have my own Windows 2003 server for testing. Other
methods are to create a subweb on the live site and publish the local
website there for testing.

 

[Ronx]

No - the live site is the site that is visible to the public.

Your 403 error may be caused by IIS being set to not allow anonymous
browsing. This is an IIS properties setting.