Services and menus

Overview

Netscape Web Publisher provides many sophisticated file and link management functions. There are two ways to access much of this functionality: through links and buttons on the Web Publisher Services page and through the Web Publisher menu commands. This chapter describes the Web Publisher Services page and then the menus, with each command described in the order in which it appears on the menu.

This chapter discusses these links and buttons on the Web Publisher Services page:

This chapter also provides details for these menus and commands:

Web Publisher Services page

The Web Publisher Services page provides many file management functions in a single form plus providing direct access to agent services, access control, search, and help. This section describes the functions and services available from this page.

To display the Web Publisher Services page, do the following:

  1. Select a file or folder in the Web Publisher window.
  2. Click the Information toolbar button or choose Properties from the View menu. The Web Publisher Services page is displayed with the file's properties visible.

Note

Users of Netscape Communicator can choose the Page Services command from the Communicator's View menu to display the Web Publisher Services page for the file currently being browsed.

The Web Publisher Services page

Properties

Web Publisher files and folders have a set of default properties that describe many of their attributes. For example, when a file was created, who the lock owner is, and what its URL is.

To access the properties for a file or folder from Web Publisher, do the following:

  1. Select the file or folder in the Web Publisher window.
  2. Click the Information toolbar button or choose Properties from the View menu. The Web Publisher Services page is displayed with the file's properties visible.

To access the properties for a file or folder through the Web Publisher Services page, do the following:

  1. Click the Properties link. The Netscape Web Publisher Services window appears with the file or folder properties in the right frame.

The Properties for a file

Files have the set of default properties listed here. Folders have only two modifiable properties, Description and Owner, and four read-only properties: Filename, URL, Size, and Modified.

Note

If a file is in an “edit” state, it is displayed as locked. Do not unlock it from this form because although the file would now appear as no longer locked or in an “edit “ state, it still must be published (with the Publish All Edited Files command) before it is available to other users.

You can perform a search on any property as well as on any searchable file contents. For example, you can search for all files that belong to a certain author, for all the locked files, or for any file with a particular string in the title field. For more information about doing searches, see Chapter 5, "Search."

Modifying a file's properties

You can change some properties for a file or folder. You can assign yourself as owner of a file or folder that has no owner or you can reassign ownership for files and folders that you own, you can lock an unlocked file or you can unlock files that you have locked, and you can make the file's contents searchable or unsearchable. You can enter new values for title, author, and description, and Web Publisher will use your new values instead of those defined in the file.

To modify these fields, follow these steps:

  1. Type in your new data and click any checkbox option you want to change.
  2. Click Modify to change the existing property value, or click Reset to revert to the original value.

This function reindexes the selected file, updating the searchable properties (and file contents if that option is chosen).

Version History

Netscape Web Publisher provides a version control system for keeping track of files as they are updated and changed. You can manually place a file under version control by using the Start Version Control menu command or you can set automatic version control for a file when you edit or upload a file by clicking the Start Version Control checkbox. Regardless of how it was placed under version control, the first version is always version 1.1. Each subsequent time you edit and then publish the file, the version number increases by 0.1 increments. See also the section "Starting version control" for more information.

Once a file is under version control, Web Publisher maintains a record of each version of a file and gives you access to its versions in these ways:

Note

This information is only available for files, not for folders. When you view a folder in the Web Publisher Services page, the Version History link is not displayed.

To view a file's version history, do the following:

  1. Access the Web Publisher Services page through one of the methods described in "Web Publisher Services page."
  2. Click the Version History link in the left frame. The version history for a file under version control is displayed in the right frame.

The version history for a file

The history consists of a series of version information sections, one per version. Each section has this information:

If a file is not under version control, you can start version control for it by clicking the Start Version Control button, as shown in Figure 4.4.

Starting version control for a file

Comparing versions

Web Publisher allows you to compare different versions of a file. The output is an HTML file displayed in your web browser window that highlights where the versions differ. If you compare different version of a non-HTML file for which there is an HTML conversion filter, Web Publisher converts the files into HTML and displays their differences as an HTML file in the Browser. See the section "About collection attributes" in Chapter 5, "Search," for a list of filters.

Depending on which version you choose from each drop-down list, you get different results from the comparison. The version you choose from the first list is taken as the basis for the comparison. The version from the second list is examined for differences, either additive or subtractive. Additional text appears in green with a green marker on the left. Deleted text is shown as red strikethrough text with a red marker on the left. Note that if you compare versions of a file that are extremely divergent in size and content, you may not be able to easily determine where the two files differ.

Primarily intended to compare text-based HTML and ASCII files, Web Publisher cannot readily compare text files with binary data or files with graphic images. If you compare files that differ in which graphics they use or where the graphics are positioned in the file, Web Publisher marks the difference with a green or red marker as a placeholder rather than displaying the graphic itself.

Note

You cannot compare two versions of a file that are in different formats. For example, if you have an HTML file under version control and you upload a Word-formatted file as the second version, you cannot compare the two versions.

To compare versions:

  1. Follow the steps in "Version History" for viewing the file`s version history.
  2. At the top of the right frame, there is a section for comparing versions. See Figure 4.3 for a screen shot of this function.
  3. From the two drop-down lists, select the two versions you want to compare.
  4. Click Compare to display an HTML difference file.

Viewing older versions

Web Publisher keeps earlier versions of version controlled files in an archive. You can view an older version of a file by following these steps:

  1. Follow the steps in "Version History" for viewing the file`s version history.
  2. Click the link in the version number field, labeled "Version," to view the version. For example, click the link v1.3 to see the third version of a file.

The results are shown in a web browser window.

Check Links

Netscape Web Publisher maintains links between files when you copy, move, or rename files and directories. You can check links for a file or for a folder. This function displays the link status information as of the last time the links were checked. To be sure you are up to date, click Check Links. For a file, this information provides a list of all outgoing links. For a folder, it provides a summary for all the files in the folder, showing which files have at least one broken outgoing link.

See Chapter 8, "Managing links" for more information about how to check links in a file or folder.

Custom Properties

Your server administrator can create additional custom properties for the web publishing collection. Once new custom properties have been created, whenever a file that is part of the web publishing collection is indexed, these properties are included. Such properties are user-modifiable and Web Publisher uses any values you input instead of the original value in the file once you make changes. The indexing process makes these custom properties available to you for viewing and searching.

Custom properties

Note

If a file has not been indexed since the adding of the custom property, the property is not viewable. Custom properties are not available until a file has been reindexed.

To view the custom properties for a file, do the following:

  1. Access the Web Publisher Services page through one of the methods described in "Web Publisher Services page."
  2. Click the Custom Properties link. This displays a list of the custom properties that were defined by the server administrator at the time this file was last indexed.

Web Publisher button

This button is useful for users of Netscape Communicator who have accessed the Web Publisher Services page through the page services item on the Communicator's View menu. When you click this button, a new Web Publisher applet is launched. (For Navigator 3 users, this button is disabled.)

Agents button

When you click this button, the Netscape Agent Services page is displayed. See Chapter 6, "Agents" for more information about agents.

Access Control button

When you click this button, the access control page is displayed. See Chapter 7, "Access control" for more information about access control.

Search button

When you click this button, the Netscape Search page is displayed. See Chapter 5, "Search" for more information about performing searches.

Help button

When you click this button, the online help file containing information for this screen is displayed. This help file also contains information about the menu commands in Web Publisher.

The File menu

The File menu provides menu commands that allow you to manage server folders, edit and publish files, and upload and download files and folders.

Creating a new folder

The Web Publisher allows you to create new folder on the server. Because this writes a new file to the server, you must have write permission in order to do this. Web Publisher prompts you for your password to authorize the operation.

To create a new folder on the server file system:

  1. Select the existing folder that is to contain the new folder. You can choose the primary document directory, or root.
  2. From the File menu, choose New Folder or click the New Folder toolbar button. The Create New Folder dialog box appears with your folder displayed in the Make Folder In field. If you chose to make the folder at the root directory, the field is left blank.
  3. Type the name for your new folder in the New Folder's Name field. Do not begin with a "/" or use spaces or apostrophes in the name.
  4. Click Create to create the folder, or click Cancel to close the window and leave the server files untouched.

You cannot create a new folder with the same name as a folder that already exists in that directory on your server. If you try, you get an error message and the operations fails.

Opening an existing folder

The Web Publisher allows you to open an existing folder on the server, which implicitly reloads the current server data for this folder.

To open a folder on the server file system:

  1. Select the existing folder to open.
  2. From the File menu, choose Open Folder or click the Open Folder toolbar button.

The folder is displayed in the Web Publisher window as open, with its files and subfolders visible.

Browsing a file

You can browse many types of server files in your web browser. HTML files are displayed as is. PDF, email, and news files are displayed as plain text in your browser. Files in other format, such Microsoft Word and Excel can be viewed in their original format if you have a helper application defined for your browser. If you don't, the web browser prompts you to identify which application should be used.

To view the contents of a file on the server:

  1. Select the file.
  2. From the File menu, choose Open File in Browser or click the Browse toolbar button.

The file is displayed in a web browser window.

Editing a file

You can edit unlocked files, or files that you locked, if you have write access permission for the files. Web Publisher puts the file into an "edit state," locking out other users so that they cannot edit your file until you have published it back to the server.

Depending on what your editor preferences are (Communicator users) or how your editor.txt file is set up (Navigator 3 users), this command launches Netscape Navigator's HTML editor, Netscape Composer, Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Word or Excel, a simple text editor, or some other application that you have associated with this particular file's format. If you do not define an editor program for a given file type, Web Publisher displays an Editor Launching Error when you open the file for editing.

Note

For Navigator 3 users: If you click Cancel in the first dialog box to appear requesting local file access, the edit is canceled and the server file remains unchanged. If you click Cancel in later dialog boxes, Web Publisher marks the file as being "in edit" whether or not the editor program starts up, and you must publish the file before it is available again to other users.

To edit a file in Web Publisher:

  1. In the Web Publisher window, select the file you want to edit.
  2. From the File menu, choose Open File in Editor to launch the file's editor application and begin editing the file.
  3. When you finish modifying the file, save it in the application and return to the Web Publisher window.

Note

For Navigator 3 users: If you are using Netscape Navigator's HTML editor, use the Save command. Do not use its Publish command. If you use the Publish command, when you return to Web Publisher, you must reload the latest server data by using the View | Reload Window menu command.

To edit a file in Netscape Composer:

  1. From Netscape Navigator's File menu, use the Open File command to select the server file for editing in Composer by entering the file's URL. This causes Web Publisher to lock the file so other users cannot edit it simultaneously.
  2. In Composer, edit the file as usual.
  3. When you finish modifying the file, use the Composer's Publish command to put it back on the server.

Canceling an edit

You can cancel an edit operation before you save your changes in the editor application, while the file is still in an "in edit" state, so that your file is unlocked and remains unchanged on the server.

To cancel an edit:

  1. From the File menu, choose Cancel Editing File.
  2. The Cancel File Edit dialog box appears. Click Yes to confirm that you want to cancel the edit.

Note

For Navigator 3 users: If you click Cancel in the first local file access dialog box, you cancel the edit and leave the server file unchanged. Clicking Cancel in later dialog boxes does not cancel the edit, requiring you to publish the file before it is available again to other users.

Publishing edited files

An edited file is not available for others to modify until it has been published back to the server. Until it is published, it is in an edit state, which locks out other users. The properties and content of new HTML files are automatically indexed during the publishing operation, making them available for searching. This happens also for non-HTML files that have an HTML conversion filter. If you are publishing a new version of an existing file, the publishing operation reindexes the file's properties (and contents, if that option is selected on the Properties page).

Note

If a file was manually locked before you edited it, publishing the file releases the manual lock as well as the implicit editing lock.

Publishing an edited file

When you finish editing a file and save it, the new version is still not available on the server for other users until you publish it. You can only publish your own edited files. When you publish a file that does not have an owner, you are assigned as the file's owner.

To publish an edited file to the server:

  1. In the Web Publisher window, select the edited file.
  2. From the File menu, choose Publish An Edited File, or click the Publish toolbar button. The Publish File dialog box appears with your file's name in the Publish File field.

Publish an Edited File dialog box

  1. To add your own comments to a version-controlled file, you can enter text in the Comment field. Your comment is displayed in the file's version history. If a file is not under version control, you cannot add a comment. Instead the message "(N/A for files without version control)" appears in this field.
  2. Click Publish to publish the file.

The edited file is again available on the server, with Web Publisher adding a new version for any file under version control.

Note

If you are using Netscape Composer, when you complete your changes, use the Composer's Publish command to restore it to the server. This causes Web Publisher to unlock the implicit edit lock on the file.

Publishing all edited files

When you finish editing a file and save it, the new version is still not available on the server for other users until you publish it. If you have edited more than one file for a given server, you can publish them all simultaneously rather than publish each file separately. If you have only edited one file, this function is disabled.

When you publish a file that does not have an owner, you are assigned as the file's owner.

To publish all edited files to the server:

  1. From the File menu, choose Publish All Edited Files. The Publish All Edited Files dialog box appears with a list of all files in the "edit" state.

List of edited files

  1. To add your own comments, you can enter text in the Comment field. Your comment is displayed in the version history for files under version control. It is ignored for files without version control.
  2. Click Publish to publish the files.

The edited files are again available on the server, with Web Publisher adding a new version for any file under version control.

Uploading to your server

You can put a file or folder from your local system onto the server, making it available for other users. Whether a file is an application, a word processing document, a PDF file, a spreadsheet, or HTML file--you can upload it to the server with Web Publisher.

The properties and content of new HTML files are automatically indexed during the upload, making them available for searching. This happens also for non-HTML files that have an HTML conversion filter. If you are uploading a new version of an existing file, uploading reindexes the file's properties (and contents, if that option is selected on the Properties page).

You can add a file or folder to an existing folder, replace an existing file if the server file does not have version control, or add a new version for server files under version control. You can set the new file to be under version control and locked or unlocked. When uploading a folder to the server, you can also upload its subfolders.

Note

For Navigator 3 users: You can only upload individual files, not folders.

You can establish a default upload directory on your local system that becomes the location where Web Publisher expects your local files to be found. To do this, you define a local directory for uploading and downloading as described in "User preferences."

There some special cases to consider when you are uploading a file from your local system to the server:

  1. The existing server file is overwritten
  2. The file you are uploading becomes a new version of the existing server file
  3. The upload fails

To upload a file:

  1. In the Web Publisher window, select the file that you want to replace or update or select the folder that is to contain the new file.
  2. From the File menu, choose Upload to Server. The Upload File or Folder dialog box appears.

Upload dialog box

  1. In the Upload Local File or Folder field, type the full pathname of your local file. If you have defined a default upload folder, the folder's name is already displayed. The Browse button is disabled for Navigator 3 users.
  2. Your destination folder's pathname appears in the To Server File or Folder field. You can also change the destination that appears.
  3. You can optionally start version control for this file, by checking the "Start version control on uploaded files" option. The default is to start version control.
  4. You can lock a file when you put it on the server by checking the "Lock files after upload" option. The default is not to lock files.
  5. Click Upload to add your local file to the server.
  6. A dialog box is displayed asking you to update the file properties for this file. Click OK to go to the Web Publisher Services page with the Properties for this file.

To upload a folder (for Communicator users only):

  1. In the Web Publisher window, select the folder that you want to replace or update or that is to contain the newly uploaded folder.
  2. From the File menu, choose Upload to Server. The Upload File or Folder dialog box appears.
  3. In the Upload Local File or Folder field, type the full pathname of your local folder. If you have defined a default upload folder, the folder's name is already displayed. An alternative is to click the Browse button to find it on your local system.
  4. To upload your folder's subfolders, check the Include Subfolders checkbox. The default is not to upload subfolders.
    If you upload a folder and files with the same names as those already existing on the server, Web Publisher handles each file within the folder on an individual basis. Files with version control are incremented with a new version and files without version control are overwritten.
  5. Your destination folder's pathname appears in the To Server File or Folder field. You can also change the destination that appears.
  6. You can optionally start version control for files within this folder by checking the "Start version control on uploaded files" option. The default is to start version control.
  7. You can lock the folder's files when you put them on the server by checking the "Lock files after upload" option. The default is not to lock files.
  8. Click Upload to add your local folder to the server. A dialog box is displayed giving you a summary of the completion status for the uploaded folders and files.
  9. A dialog box is displayed asking you to update the properties for this folder. Click OK to go to the Web Publisher Services page with the Properties for this folder.

Downloading from the server

You can download a file or a folder from the server to your local system. You can choose to also download the subfolders within the folder you want to download and you can choose to lock the server files that you are downloading.

You can establish a default download directory on your local system that becomes the location where Web Publisher places your downloaded files. To do this, you set a user preference as described in "User preferences."

To download a file or folder

  1. In the Web Publisher window, select the file or folder you want to download.
  2. From the File menu, choose Download From Server.
    For files, the Download File dialog box appears with the name of the selected file in the Download Server File field.

Download file dialog box

For folders, the Download Folder dialog box appears with the name of the selected folder in the Download Server Folder field.

Download dialog box

  1. For folders, you can check the Include Subfolders option to also download any subfolders within the selected folder.
  2. Type the download destination in the To Local File (for files) or To Local Folder (for folders) field. If you have defined a default download folder, the folder's name is already displayed. For files, you can type in a different filename to rename the file as part of the download operation.
  3. You can place a lock on the server files you are downloading by choosing the Lock Server Files option. The default is not to lock files.
  4. Click Download to download a server file or folder to your local system. For folders, a dialog box is displayed giving you a summary of the completion status for the downloaded folders and files.

Note

You can also "download" a file from the server to your local drive by opening the file in a web browser and using the Save As menu command from the Navigator's File menu. Saving a file in this manner is not recommended because it skips the automatic link management and indexing functions that are provided by Web Publisher. Files saved in this way require manual intervention to update their links and to index their contents and properties.

Exiting from Web Publisher

You can exit from Web Publisher at any time. To relaunch Web Publisher, you must return to the Web Publisher home page. See the section "The Web Publisher home page" in Chapter 2, "Installing and configuring" for information about the home page.

The Edit menu

The Edit menu provides menu commands that allow you to lock and unlock files; copy, move, rename, and delete files and folders; and set user preferences.

Locking and unlocking a file

Once you have locked a file, other users cannot move, rename, delete, or edit it until you unlock it. You can manually lock a file when you do not want other users to have access to it. You can also direct Web Publisher to lock files that you are downloading.

You can unlock any file that you locked or any file that you downloaded with the Lock Server Files option checked. You cannot lock a folder.

Note

You can unlock a file that is being edited by another user, but you are strongly recommended not to do this. If you do, Web Publisher continues to list the file as a file that needs to be published even though the pen icon is removed from the Web Publisher window.

Locking a file

You can lock any file, including those owned by another user. If you lock a file, the file is displayed in the Web Publisher Services page with you as the lock owner and only you can unlock it.

To manually lock a file:

  1. In the Web Publisher window, select the file you want to lock.
  2. From the Edit menu, choose Lock. If you did not set a user preference to confirm locking operations, the file is locked at this point.
  3. If you have set the user preference to request lock confirmations, the Lock File dialog box appears with your file's name in the Lock File field.
  4. Click the Lock button to lock the file.

Note

Communicator users with the Composer plug-in can also manually lock a server file from the Composer application on their local system by using the Tools | Web Publisher | Lock menu command.

Unlocking a file

If you locked a file, you can unlock it. The server administrator is also authorized to unlock a file that you have locked.

To unlock a file:

  1. In the Web Publisher window, select the file you want to unlock.
  2. From the Edit menu, choose Unlock. If you did not set a user preference to confirm unlocking operations, the file is unlocked at this point.
  3. If you have set the user preference to request unlock confirmations, the Unlock File dialog box appears with your file's name in the Unlock File field.
  4. Click the Lock button to unlock the file.

Note

Communicator users with the Composer plug-in can also manually unlock a server file from the Composer application on their local system by using the Tools | Web Publisher | Unlock menu command.

Copying files and folders

You can copy locked and unlocked files and folders. You need read and write permission for all the files and folders within a folder in order to be permitted to copy the folder. When you copy a file that is under version control, or a folder containgin version controlled files, only the most recent version of each file is copied to the new location. The previous versions of the file are not copied. You must select the original file to view previous versions of the file and its version history.

You are assigned as the owner of the new folders and files, and the new files are not placed under version control. If Automatic Link Update is turned on for your server, outgoing links in a newly copied file are mapped to point to the same target folders as the links in the original file.

Copying a file

When you copy a file, you become the owner of the copied version of the file. You can copy locked and unlocked files.

To copy a file:

  1. Select the file in the Web Publisher window.
  2. From the Edit menu, choose Copy to (or use the Control key + drag-and-drop method to copy the file into a new location). The Copy File or Folder dialog box appears with the name of the selected file in the Copy File or Folder field.

Copy dialog box

  1. Enter the filename for the new copy in the To File or Folder field (if you used the drag-and-drop method the file in step 2, this field is already filled in).
    Note: Do not begin with a "/" if you want to copy the file to the primary Web Publisher document directory.
  2. Click Copy to copy the file.

Copying a folder

When you copy a folder, all the files and folders within it are copied and you become the owner of the new files and folders.

To copy a folder:

  1. Select the folder in the Web Publisher window.
  2. From the Edit menu, choose Copy to (or use the Control key + drag-and-drop method to copy the folder in a new location). The Copy File dialog box appears with the name of the selected folder in the Copy file field.
  3. Enter the path for the new copy of the folder in the To file field (if you used the drag-and-drop method the file in step 2, this field is already filled in).
  4. Click Copy to copy the folder and its files.

Moving files and folders

You can move unlocked server files and folders. Web Publisher automatically updates all the links within and to the moved documents. Moving requests are subject to access control restrictions for the specified folder or file that you wish to move. If you want to prevent other users from moving your folders and files, you can use the access control function to limit the Delete access right to yourself. See Chapter 7, "Access control," for more information about access control.

If Automatic Link Update is turned on for your server, outgoing links in newly moved files, including those in a moved folder, are mapped to point back to their original target folders. Incoming links from other server files are mapped to point to the newly moved files and folders.

Moving a file

You can move an unlocked file if you have delete privileges for the file. You cannot move a locked or unpublished file. When you move a file that has no owner, you are assigned as the owner of the file. If the file already has an owner, the ownership is not changed.

To move a file:

  1. Select the file in the Web Publisher window.
  2. From the Edit menu, choose the Move to command (or use the drag-and-drop method to drag the file to its new location). The Move File or Folder dialog box appears with the name of the selected file in the Move File or Folder field.

Move dialog box

  1. Enter the name of the folder that is to contain the moved file in the Within Folder field (if you used the drag-and-drop method the file in step 2, this field is already filled in). Do not type in a filename.

  2. Note

    Do not begin a with a "/" if you want to copy the file to the primary Web Publisher document directory. You must use a "/" at the end of a folder's pathname.

  3. Click Move to move the file.

Moving a folder

You can move a folder if you have read-write privileges for the folder and all the files within it. You cannot move a folder if there is any locked or unpublished file within the folder. When you move a folder and files that are not yet assigned any owner, you are assigned as the owner of the folder and its files. If the folder and files already have an owner, the ownership is not changed.

To move a folder:

  1. Select the folder in the Web Publisher window.
  2. From the Edit menu, choose Move to command (or use the drag-and-drop method to drag the file to its new location). The Move File dialog box appears with the name of the selected folder in the Move file field.
  3. Enter the new path for the folder in the To dir field (if you used the drag-and-drop method the file in step 2, this field is already filled in).

  4. Note

    Do not begin with a "/" if you want to move the folder to the primary Web Publisher document directory. You must use a "/" at the end of the folder's pathname.

  5. Click Move to move the folder and its files.

Renaming files and folders

You can rename unlocked server files and folders. Web Publisher automatically updates all the links within and to the renamed documents. Renaming requests are subject to access control restrictions for the specified folder or file that you wish to rename. If you want to prevent other users from renaming your folders and files, you can use the access control function to limit the Delete access right to yourself. See Chapter 7, "Access control," for more information about access control.

If Automatic Link Update is turned on for your server, outgoing links in newly renamed files, including those in a moved folder, are mapped to point back to their original target folders. Incoming links from other server files are mapped to point to the newly renamed files and folders.

Renaming a file

You can rename an unlocked file within a folder if you have read-write privileges for the file. You cannot rename locked or unpublished files. When you move a file that has no owner, you are assigned as the owner of the file. If the file already has an owner, the ownership is not changed.

If you rename a version controlled file, the file's version archive is still accessible through the new name. You can no longer access earlier versions through the previous filename.

To rename a file:

  1. Select the file in the Web Publisher window.
  2. From the Edit menu, choose Rename. The Rename File dialog box appears with the name of the selected file in the Rename file field.

Rename dialog box

  1. Enter the new name for the file in the To Name field. Do not type in the file's path. That is, type newIndex.html, not /docs/newIndex.html.
  2. Click Rename to rename the file.

Renaming a folder

You can rename a folder if you have read-write privileges for the folder and all the files within it. You cannot rename a folder if there is any locked or unpublished file within the folder.When you rename a folder and files that are not yet assigned any owner, you are assigned as the owner of the folder and its files. If the folder and files already have an owner, the ownership is not changed.

To rename a folder:

  1. From the Edit menu, choose Rename. The Rename File dialog box appears with the name of the selected folder in the Rename file field.
  2. Enter the new folder name for the folder in the To Name field. Do not type in any additional pathname information. That is, type Project-X, rather than /docs/Project-X.
  3. Click Rename to rename the folder.

Deleting files and folders

You can delete unlocked files and folders on the server. Once you delete a file, it is no longer searchable. Delete requests are subject to access control restrictions for the specified folder or file that you wish to delete. If you want to prevent other users from deleting your folders and files, you can use the access control function to limit the Delete access right to yourself. See Chapter 7, "Access control," for more information about access control.

You can set a user preference to request confirmation of delete operations. This is the default and is the recommended method. See "User preferences" for more information.

Deleting a file

You can delete an unlocked file if you have delete permission for the file. You cannot delete locked or unpublished files. Once you delete a file, you can no longer search on its properties or contents.

To delete a file:

  1. Select the file in the Web Publisher window.
  2. From the Edit menu, choose Delete or press the Delete key. If you did not set a user preference to confirm deletions, the file is deleted at this point.
  3. If you have set the user preference to request delete confirmations, the Delete File or Folder dialog box appears with your file's name in the Delete File or Folder field.

Delete confirmation dialog box

  1. Click Delete to delete the file or Cancel to close the window and leave the server file untouched.

Your server administrator can restore deleted files that are under version control. The most recently published version of the file is the version that is restored.

Deleting a folder

You can delete a folder if you have delete permission for the folder and for every file within the folder. You cannot delete a folder if there is any locked or unpublished file within the folder.

To delete a folder:

  1. Select the folder in the Web Publisher window.
  2. From the Edit menu, choose Delete or press the Delete key. If you did not set a user preference to confirm deletions, the folder is deleted at this point.
  3. If you have set the user preference to request delete confirmations, the Delete File or Folder dialog box appears with your folder's name in the Delete File or Folder field.
  4. Click Delete to delete the folder or Cancel to close the window and leave the server folders untouched.

Note

Your server administrator cannot restore deleted folders. However, when you restore a file that was inside a folder that has also been deleted, Web Publisher recreates the same folder structure for your file as you had before you deleted it. This may mean that one or more folders must be created to replicate the path structure. These folders will have the same names as the deleted folders, but will be empty.

User preferences

You can set several preferences for Web Publisher: user name, operations to confirm, display font, and which local folders to use for uploading, downloading, and storing "in edit" files. These are stored in the nswppref.txt file in your Navigator's WebPub folder along with some other settings that Web Publisher sets for you internally. Communicator users can also set their editor preferences from this menu. See the section, The Web Publisher preferences file, for more information about this file.

User name preference

The User Name Preference dialog box lets you enter a new user name for Web Publisher. Many Web Publisher operations depend on the user's name to identify the owner or lock owner for a file.

You can check a checkbox that allows you to set this name as the default name, which means that Web Publisher does not require you to input your user name each time you launch Web Publisher. If you want to be prompted for a user name whenever you start up Web Publisher, do not check the default name checkbox.

If you leave the user name field blank, you are prompted for user name and password rather than just the password when you execute an operation that requires authorization.

You must use a username that is valid for your server. See your server administrator for more information, if necessary. Actions that require a authorization include editing, uploading, copying, moving, and renaming files as well starting version control for a file and creating a new folder on the server.

The user name preference dialog box

Operations to confirm

The Operations to Confirm dialog box lets you to direct Web Publisher to ask for confirmation whenever you use the drag-and-drop method to copy or move files or folders, or whenever you delete, lock, or unlock files or folders. Without these options checked, Web Publisher immediately performs the action without giving you a second chance to revisit your decision.

The confirm operations dialog box

Directories

The Local Folder Preferences dialog box allows you to set two types of folder preferences: for uploading or downloading files and for storing "in edit" files.

You can set a preference for which local folder is to serve as the source folder for upload operations and as the destination location for downloads. You needs to enter the full physical path, For example, C:ProjectsTempDir.

You can also set a preference for which local folder to use for files during editing, that is, as the temporary storage folder for files in an "in edit" state. Unless you are using Netscape Composer to edit your HTML files and you have set your editor preference to edit directly on the server, files being edited are temporarily copied to your local system. Once you publish the file, the temporary "in edit" file is deleted from your local system.

You cannot change your local folder preferences while a file is still in an edit state. You must publish all edited files before you can change a directory preference.

Note

For Windows systems that require 8.3 file notation, you must use pathnames with this notation for your directory preferences. Because it occurs so frequently, Web Publisher handles one case for you automatically: If the folder you want to use for files during editing has Program Files as part of its pathname, Web Publisher translates it to Progra~1 for you.

The local folder preferences dialog box

Font

The Font Chooser dialog box lets you define the font, font size, and font style to display in the window. Fonts in other windows and dialog boxes are not modifiable.

To close this dialog box, you must click the button in the top left corner. Clicking the Set button does not make the dialog box disappear.

The font chooser dialog box

Editors

This option is available for Netscape Communicator users only.

The Editor Preferences dialog box lists the defined editor applications that have been associated with specific file types. The default is to list the Composer component of Netscape Communicator as the HTML editor of choice.

The editor preferences

If you want to associate another editor program with a specific file type, you can use the Set Editor Program dialog box to enter the file extension for the file and indicate the executable program file.

The set editor program preferences dialog box

The View menu

The View menu provides several commands for viewing or redisplaying Web Publisher data. The first command, Properties, displays the Web Publisher Services page, which is the main page for viewing data about your files and folders. From this page, you can look at the version history for a file, check links, and view any custom properties that have been defined

The other View menu commands let you to change the sort sequence for the contents of the window, to reload and refresh the window data, and to show or hide the Web Publisher toolbar.

Properties

To view a file's properties through the Web Publisher Services page, do the following:

  1. Select the file.
  2. From the View menu, choose Properties or click the Information toolbar button. The Web Publisher Services window appears. See "Properties" for more information.

Sorting files and folders

You can choose to sort the files and folders in various different sort sequences. There are two ways to do this:

Redrawing the window

You can choose to redraw the Web Publisher window to resolve display problems you may have with the current image of the window.

To redraw the window, do this:

  1. From the View menu, choose Redraw Window.

Reloading the window

You can reload the Web Publisher window to ensure that the window displays the latest set of files and their current status from the server. This ensures that you have all the current file management changes. In particular, this is useful to update the displayed owner and lock status of a file.

To reload the window, do this:

  1. From the View menu, choose Reload Window.

Showing the toolbar

You can toggle the toolbar on and off:

The Services menu

This chapter describes the simpler commands on this menu, such as those for link management and for starting or stopping version control. The functional areas of text search, agent services, access permissions, and link management are described in separate chapters.

For text search, see Chapter 5, "Search." For agent services, see Chapter 6, "Agents." For access permissions, see Chapter 7, "Access control." For link management, see Chapter 8, "Managing links."

Starting version control

You can establish version control for any Web Publisher file. Once you do so, Web Publisher tracks any change made to the file's contents or properties. Version control can be started automatically, as when you upload a local file to the server with the Start Version Control option checked, or you can start it manually. When you start version control for a file that does not yet have an owner, you are assigned as its owner. If the file already has an owner, the ownership is not changed.

Regardless of how it was placed under version control, the first version is always version 1.1. Each subsequent time you edit and then publish the file, the version number increases by 0.1 increments.

Note

When you copy a file under version control, the newly copied file is not placed under version control. If you want version control for the file, you need to manually start version control for it.

There are two ways to manually start version control for a file. One method is as follows:

  1. Select a file that is not currently under version control.
  2. From the Services menu, choose the Start Version Control command.

Alternatively, you can use the second method:

  1. Select a file that is not currently under version control.
  2. From the Services menu, choose the Properties command, or click the Information toolbar button. This displays the Web Publisher Services page.
  3. Click the Version History link. This displays a message, "Version Control has not been started for this file."

Version control not yet started

  1. Click Start Version Control to set version control on for this file.

The file now has a stack icon next to it in the Web Publisher window. When you view the file's version history, you can see that the file now has a 1.1 version number.

Stopping version control

You can stop version control for any file under version control. If you stop version control, the version history archive does not delete the previous history for this file, but you can't view it. If you later start version control again, Web Publisher adds the current server file to the version history archive as the latest version, incrementing the version number by 0.1 from the version number you had when you stopped version control.

For example, if you stopped a file at version 1.7 and made three edits without version control, when you started version control again for the file, Web Publisher puts the current server file into the archive as version 1.8. You can only track the last modification made to the server file. Earlier edits are unobtainable as separate versions.

To stop version control for a file, follow these steps:

  1. Select a version controlled file.
  2. From the Services menu, choose the Stop Version Control command.

The Help menu

The Help menu has two items to provide assistance for Web Publisher and to provide some basic product information.

Web Publisher Help

You can access the Web Publisher User's Guide to get additional information about how to install the product, to find out more details about the Web Publisher functions and services, and to learn about using text search, agent services, access control, and link management.

To access the User's Guide, do the following:

  1. From the Help menu, choose the Web Publisher Help command.
  2. This opens up a new web browser with the table of contents. You can navigate the User's Guide files by clicking on the topics you are interested in and then going back and forward as usual.

About

You can access some basic information about Web Publisher, including the product's current version number, by viewing the About box for the product.

To access the About box, do the following:

  1. From the Help menu, choose the About command.