web hosting

Database-Driven Sites with FrontPage

Many website owners are faced with the challenge of keeping their sites fresh with updated content.  Maintaining a frequently updated site is critical these days as it keeps your visitors intrigued and also appeals to the search engines.  This means that you are likely to rank higher and therefore, generate more quality traffic.  An easy and efficient way to overcome this challenge is to create a database-driven website.

Databases and Website Content

Database-driven sites are powerful because they offer the ability to easily generate fresh, updated content.  For most developers, this is enabled by the combination of PHP and MySQL.  Unfortunately, these technologies can be very complex and will definitely take some time learning.  Thankfully, a FrontPage web hosting solution can empower you to create a database-driven and use it with virtually any database, including MS SQL, Access, Oracle or the open-source MySQL.

Making a Database Connection with FrontPage

To make a database full of information that will be displayed on the website you created with FrontPage, all you have to do is connect it to the data you want it to show.  A database connection is merely a function that allows your page to connect with a database via server-side scripting.  While this could be performed with PHP and MySQL, doing it with FrontPage is much easier.  This is because FrontPage lets you create a template that will modify the content by communicating with the database and automatically creating a new page without any additional coding.

Before getting to the template, the first thing you need to do is manually create a database in an application such as Microsoft SQL Server, Access, Excel or Oracle.  The database may contain customer messages or just about any other content you want inserted on the pages of your website.  After creating the database, set up the template where you want the information to be displayed.   The advantage of having a template in FrontPage is that it gives you the ability to change the content of your page by importing new content from a database without needing to re-code the page itself.  As long as you connect the page to the new content in the database, it will be generated on the server-side whenever your visitors view the page.

To import content, simply choose “File” from the “Tool” bar and open the “Import” menu.  After browsing for the file you want to import, select “Yes” when asked if you to create a connection for it.  That’s basically it.  FrontPage offers a great way to make sure your pages are frequently updated and appealing to your visitors with fresh content.

Summary

You will have to do a little more to truly customize your database-driven site, but FrontPage hosting is so user-friendly, that nearly every task you want to perform is simplified through a wizard or tutorial that goes along with it.  Because FrontPage is such a forgiving tool, even if you do make mistakes, detecting and correcting the problem will be a piece of cake.

Web Hosting Features – A Necessary Foundation

For a plethora of reasons, millions of customer are motivated to start a website.  Each new hosting acount accompanies a unique set of requirements.  Although price, customer support, and reliability are key points, features also play a major role in making a decision.  Features are often the most attractive part of a web hosting package and thy act as the foundation to any hosting account.   This article will talk about some of the most common features you will encounter when looking for service.

Email Tools

Email is the preferred method of communication for millions of individuals and businesses across the world.  Realizing this, web hosting companies provide all the email features needed to keep base with contacts.  Aside from multiple accounts, you generally get complimentary features such as webmail, autoresponders and forwarders to communicate effectively no matter where you might be.  Because unsolicited mail and virus infected attachments are a tremendous problem, hosting providers help you stay protected with spam filtering applications to dramatically cut down on those potentially dangerous messages.  Often overshadowed by more luxurious offerings, but email remains to be one of the most useful features in any hosting plan.

Shopping Cart Software

E-commerce is a driving force on the web and shopping carts are a big part of what enables this thriving industry.  If you have aspirations of selling your own products or services online, this is the type of software you need to make it happen. Shopping carts often come included in business or e-commerce hosting packages, usually at no additional costs.  In many cases, these programs can be easily installed through your control panel interface.

Programming Languages

Scripting or programming languages, have become common on the web hosting market but these features are geared towards more advanced users.  Some examples are open-source languages such as PHP, Perl and Ruby on Rails and proprietary technologies such as ASP and ASP.NET.  These programming tools serve benefit to developers and webmasters who are proficient at coding and building content from scratch.  A hosting provider that has these software packages installed on their server allow you to diversify your website with dynamic content that stand outs from static HTML pages.

Site Builders

Almost all web hosting plans come equipped with utilities that provide you the ability to create your site.  With most tools, you can choose from a nice selection of pre-designed templates and basically create your website in easy drag-and-drop fashion.  These utilities typically do not call for you to have any knowledge in client-side programming languages such as HTML or even server-side variations like Python or PHP.  In addition to integrated building tools, many host also offer support for standalone web design applications such as Dreamweaver and Microsoft FrontPage. These programs allow you to create your site offline and upload it to the server without the use of an FTP client.

Conclusion

The list of web hosting features is huge and seems to expand every year.  Others you might find interesting include support for multimedia applications, web stat applications and databases among others.  To each its own in this regard because everyone has that dynamic tool set they just can’t do without.

Windows Hosting with DotNetPanel

The control panel is very important in the web hosting arena as it can offer benefits to both the end-user and web hosting provider.  These programs are generally made to run on certain platforms and one of the best available for the Windows system is DotNetPanel.  Created by SMB SAAS Systems Inc., DotNetPanel is a feature-rich control panel made to simplify management tasks in the Windows hosting environment.  This control panel is robust, highly scalable and runs seamlessly without the bugs that commonly plague other applications.  Ease of use, excellent support and a great price are making DotNetPanal a first choice for many businesses.

Web Host/End-User Features

Advanced File Manager – The DotNetPanel File Browser is both powerful and comprehensive, allowing you to manage your files without the use of FTP.  This utility includes a zip/unzip function along with standard file managing options such as copying and moving files, creating files and folders and more.  Such advanced functionality gives you the power to deploy applications faster and more efficiently than FTP.  The File Browser is a wonderful feature for end-users who are behind a firewall and may not be able to use File Transfer Protocol.  It is easy to use and doesn’t require any complex network configurations.

Virtual Directories – DotNetPanel offers the unique ability to manage websites and virtual directories with nearly every one of their essential properties.  This includes default documents, security settings, MIME types, custom errors and FrontPage extensions among several others.  You can also change the location of the root folder or virtual directory any time after creating it.

Comprehensive Database Backups – DotNetPal has a wide range of features you will not find in other control panels.  One of them is the database backup/restore utility.  From the user-friendly interface you can easily backup and restore both MS SQL and MySQL databases.

Reseller Features

The DotNetPanel control panel is integrated with an arsenal of features designed to aid in the management of reseller hosting.  Some of the most notable features include:

Unlimited Hosting Accounts – With DotNetPanel, there is no limit to the number of standard or sub-reseller accounts you can set up.

Simple Resource Navigation - As an administrator, you can view all the websites, databases and user accounts of all the resellers and customers underneath you.  This can be done with ease from a centralized interface.

Account Activation and Suspicion - DotNetPanel gives you the ability to activate reseller, sub-reseller and user accounts in separate packages.  Once you suspend an account, all the resources of that particular hosting package are disabled entirely.

Audit Log – The audit log feature allows you to monitor and control every aspect of user accounts.  You can track user login credentials and also create, update and delete various activities.

DotNetPanel is a fully integrated control panel that covers nearly every angle of web hosting, a viable option for the shared hosting environment as well as dedicated and virtual private servers.  Although its restricted to a specific platform, DotNetPanel is quickly becoming the preferred choice for Windows hosting operations.

Hosting Your Site with FrontPage

If you want a website that looks professional but you are not well versed in programming technologies, FrontPage hosting could be something you’re interested in.  This type of hosting is a great option for the website owner who wants a site that looks good but are working with very few coding skills and money.  The powerful, simplistic technology behind FrontPage makes it ideal personal sites as well as small business ventures.  This article will introduce you to FrontPage hosting and explain the advantages it offers to your website.

What is FrontPage Hosting?

FrontPage hosting is a niche market hosting that offers support for the FrontPage application.  Developed by Microsoft, FrontPage is a program used to create and manage websites.  It offers flexibility that allows you to design professional websites all without knowledge of HTML or complex server-side scripting languages such as ASP or PHP.  Although programming skills are not required, the capabilities of FrontPage can be greatly enhanced as it allows you to format and edit HTML.  This can all be done through an intuitive user-friendly interface that contorts to those familiar with Microsoft Office applications.

FrontPage hosting is much like conventional web hosting services.  The major difference is the implementation of Microsoft server-based programming technologies known as FrontPage extensions.  In fact, FrontPage is only effective if the web host has FrontPage extensions installed on their server.  Though originally intended to run on Windows-based servers, FrontPage extensions can also perform seamlessly on Linux and Unix platforms as well.  For this reason, FrontPage hosting can usually be obtained at an affordable price.

FrontPage Features

The functionality of FrontPage hosting was extended greatly with the release of FrontPage 2003.  This version offered many new features such as a photo gallery, instant team websites and usage analysis reports.  Other features like the drop-down menus, radio buttons and check boxes all simplify website development and ensure a smooth ride for inexperienced developers.  FrontPage also offers a number of dynamic website templates that allow you to enhance the presentation of your site in minutes.  While there are limitations in terms of development, FrontPage can help you create a data-driven site through XML (Extensible Markup Language), a process that is made easy with the built-in WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor.  

Who Needs FrontPage Hosting?

As mentioned above, FrontPage hosting is geared towards webmasters who lack web design skills.  It is also best for users who do not require a significant amount of dynamic functions within their website.  If you can get by with features that are simple yet appealing, FrontPage hosting makes a great choice.

FrontPage hosting is a straightforward hosting solution that caters to beginner developers.  If you have a basic knowledge of Microsoft Office applications, you can truly excel in this environment.  The comprehensive Graphical User Interface allows for easy web page creation while the WYSIWYG editor virtually eliminates critical mistakes.  Though it is a niche offering, FrontPage hosting isn’t hard to find as a wide variety of companies offer support for the underlying technologies.