FP1: Files and Directories Used by FrontPage Versions 1.0, 1.1

 Last reviewed: March 17, 1998
Article ID: Q143102
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft FrontPage for Windows, versions 1.0, 1.1

SUMMARY

This file describes the files and folders used by Microsoft FrontPage, versions 1.0 and 1.1.

MORE INFORMATION

Folders Created by FrontPage for Use by Authors

When FrontPage creates a Web, it automatically creates the following folders under the root directory of that Web. 

_private/         Use this folder to store Web pages that you do
                  not want a browser to see. For example, you might
                  store included pages--those pages that are inserted
                  into other pages by WebBot Include components. Pages in
                  this folder are not added to the global text index for
                  the Web so the WebBot Search component will not present
                  these pages in a search result. Unlike other folders that
                  begin with an underscore, pages in _private are shown in
                  the FrontPage Explorer by default. (Pages in other
                  folders that begin with an underscore are not shown in
                  the Explorer unless the vti_showHiddenPages Web parameter
                  is set.)

cgi-bin/          This folder stores executable pages, such as custom
                  Common Gateway Interface (CGI) scripts.

images/           This folder contains the Undercon.gif after
                  installation. You can add additional images to this
                  folder.
To create pages in these folders, use either of the following techniques:
  • In the FrontPage Editor, click Save As on the File menu. In the Save Page In Current Web As box, type the folder name before the page url. For instance, type "_private/Header.htm" (without the quotation marks) to save a page header in the _private folder.

-or-
  • In the FrontPage Explorer, select the page, click Export Selected on the File menu and type the folder name before the page URL.

Private Files and Folders Used by FrontPage

When FrontPage creates a Web it creates a number of private files and folders. In normal operation these should not be modified directly. Doing so can cause the server extensions to malfunction and data to be lost. However, in some cases, it may be useful to understand the purpose of these files. This section describes all of the files and covers three cases where you may need to understand their significance: modifying the content area directly, setting up your own access control, and turning off text indexing.

Private Files for Each Web Page

Every folder that contains pages has two private subfolders. 

_vti_cnf/         For every page pagename.htm there is a corresponding
                  _vti_cnf/Pagename.htm. This contains a set of name-
                  value pairs, such as the last author to modify the
                  page. Every page has one of these files, whether or
                  not it contains HTML. If the file is not present then
                  it is re-created when necessary.

_vti_shm/         For every HTML page that contains WebBot components,
                  FrontPage keeps two files. The source file, which
                  contains the WebBot definitions from the client, is
                  stored in the _vti_shm subfolder. FrontPage parses the
                  page and expands all contained WebBot components. The
                  expanded version is put in the parent folder. Each time
                  you use the Recalculate Links command (on the Tools menu
                  in the FrontPage Explorer), FrontPage regenerates the
                  expanded version from the source version.
Normally you will create content using the FrontPage client, either by editing it with FrontPage Editor or by importing it with Frontpage Explorer. However, you can modify the content directly if you follow these guidelines:

  1. You can add new pages by copying them into the appropriate subfolder. They will not be visible in the FrontPage Explorer until you reopen the Web or click Refresh on the View menu. They will not be listed in the text index until you click Recalculate Links on the Tools menu.

  2. If you add a page containing SmartHTML (HTML with WebBot components), then you must add it to the _vti_shm subfolder. The page will not be visible in the FrontPage Explorer until you click Recalculate Links on the Tools menu.

  3. If you must edit a SmartHTML page directly, you should edit the source version (_vti_shm/Pagename.htm), and then click Recalculate Links on the Tools menu. If you directly edit the expanded version (Pagename.htm) then your changes will be overwritten the next time you edit the page in the FrontPage Editor or the next time you recalculate links.

  4. If you add or edit a page directly, the Modified By and Modified Date attributes of the page will not be updated, because they are stored separately in the corresponding file in _vti_cnf.

  5. If you remove a page, remove the corresponding files in _vti_shm and _vti_cnf as well.

  6. Any new or modified pages must have their file permissions set so that the Web server's CGI scripts can modify them.

Private Files and Folders for Each Web

CGI Programs:

FrontPage has three CGI executables for each Web. Each is stored in its own folder under _vti_bin. 

shtml.exe             All browse-time behavior is implemented by this
                      program. For instance, all forms generated by
                      WebBot components refer to this URL.

_vti_adm/Admin.exe    All administrator operations, such as create Web,
                      change permissions, and so forth, are implemented
                      by this program.


_vti_aut/Author.exe   All author operations are implemented by this
                      program.
If you do not want to use FrontPage to manage access control for your Web, then you can use your Web server's access control features directly. (In this case, make sure that you protect these executables appropriately.)

Text Indexes:

FrontPage keeps text indexes for each Web in a subfolder named _vti_txt off of the top-level folder. Each text index is stored as multiple files within the _vti_txt/Default.wti subfolder. 

All.*                  This is the index for each text and HTML page in
                       the Web except for those within the private
                       folders--those whose name begins with the
                       underscore character.

discuss.*              This is the index for each text and HTML page in
                       the discussion group named discuss.
Keeping a text index adds a small amount of overhead when you save a page to the Web and when you use the Recalculate Links command in the FrontPage Explorer. If you do not want to keep any text indexes (and do not plan on using any WebBot Search components), then you can delete this folder. The folder will not be re-created automatically.

Other Private Files:

A number of other private files that are kept in the _vti_pvt folder (off of the top-level folder) include the following: 

_x_todo.htm             The To Do list for the Web.

_x_todoh.htm            The To Do list history for the Web.

Deptodoc.btr            A dependency database for the Web.

Doctodep.btr            A dependency database for the Web.

Service.cnf             This file contains meta-information for the Web,
                        including parameters that you set in the Web
                        Settings dialog box (Tools menu) in FrontPage

                        Explorer.

Services.cnf            This file is present only in the root Web. It
                        contains a list of the subWebs on the server.

Additional query words: 1.10 1.00 front page vermeer
Keywords : kbsetup kbusage kbdta
Version : windows:1.0,1.1
Platform : WINDOWS
Hardware : x86
Issue type : kbinfo

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Last reviewed: March 17, 1998
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