VCOM Technical Support

General instructions are contained in the Help system, but for those new to uploading using FTP, follow these detailed instructions.

Take them one at a time, and do not improvise unless you really know what you are doing.

1) Build your site into HTML files

Your web site must be built into HTML files before it can be published. This collection of HTML files is referred to as a Package. With your web site open, go to the "Build" menu and select "Web Site (HTML)". The "Build as an Internet Web Site" screen will appear. Here you can specify link colors, whether to use Standard or Dynamic HTML and some other options.

For the purposes of publishing, the most important options are "Folder" and "Package Name".

"Folder" is the location on your computer where the HTML files are stored before they are published. You should not need to change the default setting for this unless you are building many different web sites and wish to keep them separate.

"Package Name" is used to identify your site in the Publishing Assistant. The Package Name is also the name of your web site that will appear in your web site's URL. The default setting for this is the name of your web site document, with a couple of minor changes to ensure that there are no invalid characters. When you update your web site at a later point, it must have the same package name as it did originally if your changes are to overwrite your original site. If you provide a different package name, you are effectively creating a whole different web site.

When you click the "OK" button to proceed with building the HTML files, you may see a message similar to the following:

"Web Easy has detected that the folder 'C:\Program Files\V Communications\Web Easy\HTML' contains other files and packages. Do you want to remove all files and packages that are not required for 'album1'? Note: you should keep these files if they are used in your web site or other packages."

What this means is that the folder in which the HTML files are about to be built already contains some other files. Often these files will be from other web sites you have created, in which case you should probably select "No", so as not to delete them. The fact that there are other files in the folder where you are building your site will not have any effect on the building process.

2) Set up a connection profile

Before your HTML files can be published, you need to set up a Connection Profile. A Connection Profile consists of the information Web Easy needs to know about your ISP or Hosting Provider in order to publish your files. Most of the information required is specific to your ISP or Hosting Provider, so you must ask them for it. The details of what information is required are listed below.

You need to be connected to the Internet (via dial-up, cable, DSL, LAN, etc.) in order to continue.

Once the package of HTML files has been built, and you have established your Internet connection, start the Publishing Assistant. Go to the "Tools" menu and select "Publish Assistant" - you will be presented with a welcome message. Click the "Next" button to continue, then click the "Connect" button to set up a Connection Profile.

The first thing to do is pick a name for the Connection Profile, preferably something that has meaning for you, like "My ISP" or "My Work Account". Enter this name in the box labelled "Profile". This will allow you to select this Connection Profile in the future, the next time you want to publish your site.

The first three pieces of information required from your ISP or Hosting Provider are:

- Host Name or IP Address

This is the name of the server to which your HTML files will be published. It can either be a Host Name (similar to 'www.mysite.com', 'ftp.mysite.com', 'users.isp.com', etc.) or an IP Address (similar to '192.168.1.1'). Enter only the Host Name or IP Address - do not enter quotation marks, slashes, or file or folder names here.
- User Identifier
This is your user name, provided to you by your ISP or Hosting Provider when you signed up with them.
- Password
This is your password, provided to you by your ISP or Hosting Provider when you signed up with them.

The above information must be entered in the fields provided on the "Remote Access" page of the Connection Profile screen.

Next, click the "General" tab and examine the following fields:

- Initial remote folder
The word "remote" here means the server to which your HTML files will be published. This is where you specify the folder in which you wish your files to be placed. Unless you want to create a complex folder structure on the server, or your ISP or Hosting Provider specifically requires it, you should leave this field blank. If you do enter a folder name here, ensure that you use forward-slashes "/" in the name, rather than backslashes "\".
- Initial local folder
This is the folder on your computer that contains the HTML files you will be publishing. If you accepted the default value for the "Folder" field when building the HTML files you will not need to change this setting. If you change this value, ensure that you use backslashes "\", not forward-slashes "/".
- Timeout (sec)
This specifies the number of seconds WebEasy will wait for a response from the server when publishing files. If you get "timeout" or "winsock" errors later on when you are publishing your files, you can try changing this to a higher value. It is recommended that this be set to "30" or "45" initially.
- IP Port
This is the port number to use when transferring files via FTP. This setting should be "Default" or "21", unless you are advised otherwise by your ISP or Hosting Provider.

Click the "WWW Site" tab and set up the following fields:

- World Wide Web site address:
This is the URL of your web site. It must be the full URL, including the "http://" part, and any required path information after the server name. Examples of this are "http://www.mysite.com" and "http://members.myisp.com/johndoe". Do not enter quotation marks, and be sure to use forward-slashes "/", not backslashes "\".
- Primary Page:
This is the name of the first HTML file that will be displayed when someone visits your web site. If your ISP or Hosting Provider uses UNIX servers, you should usually set this to "index.html". If Windows servers are used, it will usually be "default.htm". Setting this field correctly will cause the first page of your web site to appear automatically when someone visits your web site.

Web Easy Professional provides one other section in the Connection Profile screen called "Firewall". You will generally not need to change the settings in here unless you are in an environment with a firewall, such as a corporate office. If in doubt, ask your network administrator or ISP. The settings are as follows:

- Type
There are several different types of firewall. If you are not using a firewall, select "None". If you are using a firewall, the most common is the "User" type, but if you have doubts, ask your network administrator or ISP.
- Host
This is the Host Name or IP Address of the firewall computer. Your network administrator or ISP can tell you what this is.
- Port
This is the port number to use when connecting to the firewall. This setting should be "Default" or "21", unless you are advised otherwise by your network administrator or ISP.
- User ID and Password
These fields are the user ID and password to use when connecting to the firewall. Your network administrator or ISP can tell you what these values are. Often, these fields are not required.
- Use Passive Transfer
In some environments, for instance when a firewalling technique known as IP Masquerading is being used, this box must be checked. Your network administrator or ISP can tell you whether to do this or not. If you are using a personal firewall program, you should generally check this box.

Once all the above information has been entered, click "OK" to connect. If you receive an error message at this point, check the following things:

- Make sure your Internet connection is active. Open your web browser and see if you can view other people's web sites.
- Contact your ISP, Hosting Provider or network administrator and double check the settings you entered in your Connnection Profile.

3) Publish your site

Having successfully created a Connection Profile and connected to the server, you should now see a list of Web Site Packages (collections of HTML files you have built) that can be published. Select the package you wish to publish and click the "Next" button to continue. If you cannot see the package you just built in this list, click the browse button - this is the little picture of the folder above the package list - and browse until you find the folder you specified when building your HTML files.

Next, you are presented with the package name, the local folder name and the remote folder name. If you want to change the remote folder, you can do so here by clicking the browse button next to the remote folder name. This allows you to create new folders on the server if you desire. You will not usually need to bother with this - just accept the default remote folder location.

The other two things that can be specified on this page are as follows:

- Make this package the default Web Site

If this box is checked, the web site you are publishing now will become the default site on the server. You should only uncheck this box if you are publishing many different sites to the same server.

- Let Web Easy automatically manage the Web Site
If this box is checked, only files that have changed since the last time you published your site will be uploaded, and Web Easy will check for files that are not used in the package. If this box is not checked, all files will always be published, regardless of whether or not they have changed.

After you have reviewed the above settings, click the "Next" button, and publishing will commence.

Once all files have been published you will see the final page of the Publishing Assistant. Clicking "Finish" will close the assistant. If you have checked the "View Publish Report Now" box, your web browser will open and display a report listing the files transferred. If you have checked the "View Web Site Now" box, your web browser will open and go to your web site, provided you entered the correct value for "World Wide Web site address" in your Connection Profile.

If you had previously published your site and are now updating it, you may see the "Cleaning the selected Web Site" screen. Here you are provided with the opportunity to remove any files that are no longer used in your web site. Simply select the files to delete from the "Files to be kept" list and move them to the "Files to be deleted list" using the buttons provided.