PRB: Visual InterDev and FrontPage May Alter Web Documents when Saving

ID: Q173142

The information in this article applies to:

SYMPTOMS

When saving an Active Server Pages (ASP), HTML, or other Web document to a Web server using Visual InterDev or FrontPage, the <DOCTYPE> and several <META> tags may be added to the document.

The most common changes are as follows:

  1. <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML//EN"> tag is placed at the absolute top of the file. This occurs if the tag has been removed or moved to another location further down the document.


  2. The following tags will be added if they have been removed:
    <meta name="FORMATTER" content="Microsoft FrontPage 2.0"> and
    <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 2.0">


  3. If a WebBot tag that closes a span has been removed, it may be replaced into the document


  4. White space, such as blank lines and indenting with spaces, may be altered, changing the readability of a file.



CAUSE

This problem occurs only when the Web server is using the FrontPage 97 server extensions. Visual InterDev and FrontPage 97 use the FrontPage Server Extensions to save documents to the Web server. FrontPage Server Extensions parse the documents prior to placing them on the Web server. The Server Extensions look for either FrontPage WebBots or the <body stylesrc="../_private/style.htm"> tag.

If the server extensions find either of these elements, they assume the page was generated by FrontPage 97 and parse the page according to built in rules for these documents which include placing the DOCTYPE tag at the top of a file.

This behavior unfortunately can interfere with some specific tasks, such as an Active Server Pages (ASP) page using the redirect command. This does not affect the operation of most Active Server Pages code.


RESOLUTION

Update the Web server to use the FrontPage 98 Server Extensions.

-or-

Remove any WebBots and the <BODY stylesrc="../_private/style.htm"> tag.

-or-

Bypass the FrontPage Server Extensions when you save your files by saving them directly to the Web server with an editor such as Notepad or Microsoft Word.


STATUS

Microsoft is researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.


REFERENCES

For the latest Knowledge Base articles and other support information on Visual InterDev and Active Server Pages, see the following page on the Microsoft Technical Support site:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/vinterdev/

Additional query words: 


Keywords          : kbExtension kbFrontPage kbServer kbVisID100 kbVisID600 kbGrpASP kbFrontPageX 
Version           : WINDOWS:1.0,6.0
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: July 9, 1999