| DYNAMIC CONTENT
Dynamic content is any web content that
is processed by the web server before sending the results to the web browser.
In contrast, static content is content which is sent to the browser without
modification.
Common forms of dynamic content are Active
Server Pages (ASP), Java Server Pages (JSP), Cold Fusion (CF), and HyperText
Processor (PHP) pages. WebSite Director (WSD) can
manage any form of dynamic content that uses normal files that reside on
the web server. Although these files can also retrieve content from
databases, the current release of WSD cannot be used to manage the database
content.
Dynamic Content Preview Directory
When you use WSD to View or Preview with
static content, WSD will send the View or Preview request directly to the
web browser. When you View or Preview dynamic content, WSD uses a
"Dynamic Content Preview Directory" to temporarily publish the request
so it can be processed by the web server as it is delivered to the web
browser.
To set up a Dynamic Content Preview Directory,
use the following steps:
-
Create a directory (such as "/preview") under
the Document Root directory of your web server. This directory should
be not be linked to from any pages on the web site.
-
Make the directory invisible during Submit
New Request processing by marking it as a "Private Directory" as follows:
-
On the Application Desktop click System Administration;
then click Maintain Web Site
-
On the Maintain Web Site screen, highlight
the directory to be marked Private from the Directories and Documents list,
and click Properties.
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On the Directory Properties screen select
the checkbox by Private Directory in the "Flags" list.
-
Enter the directory in the Dynamic Content
Preview Directory field on the System
Configuration screen (accessed from the System Administration screen).
Mime Types
WSD identifies the type of content being
worked on by using Internet-standard "Mime Types." Each type is associated
with the filename extension of a document. Mime Types are also used
by the web server to tell the web browser which type of content is being
displayed so that the browser can determine how to display the content.
WSD looks up the Mime Type for a given
document by matching the filename extension with a Mime Type specified
in a Mime Types file. Unless a different Mime Types file is specified
during installation, WSD uses a standard set of Mime Types. These types
are contained in a file called "mime.types" that is installed in the WSD
installation directory. If the web server uses its own Mime Types
file (Apache does, Microsoft Internet Information Server does not), you
can configure WSD to use that Mime Types file.
-
This can be done during installation by specifying
the path to that Mime Types file, or
-
following installation by modifying the "MimeFile"
configuration entry in the wsd.conf configuration file.
If WSD is configured to use the web server's
Mime Types file, WSD will always use the same Mime types used by the web
server. Some web servers only use the filename extension, not Mime Types,
to process certain forms of dynamic content (such as ASP or JSP pages).
Therefore, no standard Mime Types are associated with these content types.
However, because WSD requires a Mime Type to process dynamic content,you
may need to add new Mime Types for certain types of dynamic content. Suggested
Mime Types for ASP and JSP pages are "application/asp" and "application/jsp"
respectively. You can add new Mime Types using the "Maintain Mime
Types" screen.
-
To access the Mime Types screens, click System
Administration on the Application Desktop; then click System Configuration.
-
On the System Configuration screen click Mime
Types, then select Add New Mime Types.
To tell WSD to process a specific content
type (using the associated Mime Type) as dynamic content during View and
Preview,
-
Go to the Maintain Mime Types screen , select
the Mime Type and click Edit Mime Type.
-
On the Edit Mime Type screen select the "Dynamic
Content" option for that Mime Type.
Any Mime Type with that option selected will
be passed through the web server for special processing using the Dynamic
Content Preview Directory selected above.
In addition to using the Edit Mime Types
screen to set the Dynamic Content option, you can also select the following
options:
-
Allow online editing of that content
-
Support the use of Page Layout templates
If the results of the web server's processing
of the dynamic content contains relative URLs, you may also want to enable
the "Use Base Href" option. This option will tell WSD to insert a
"BASE HREF" HTML tag at the beginning of the document. The use of
the BASE HREF tag may interfere with certain forms of dynamic content,
so you may not wish to use that option for all types of dynamic content.
Default Mime Types
If WSD is unable to find a Mime Type for
a given filename extension, it will use a default Mime Type of "text/plain."
This is the same default Mime Type used by most web servers. The Netscape
and Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers handle that default Mime Type
differently.
-
Netscape honors the Mime Type and will display
the actual data in source form, even for binary files.
-
Microsoft Internet Explorer will ignore that
Mime Type, however, and will try to figure out the type of content from
the content data itself.
This distinction is most apparent when using
dynamic content that generates HTML output. If a Mime Type is not
defined for that type of dynamic content,
-
Microsoft Internet Explorer will appear to
render the resulting page properly (since it identifies the content as
HTML and renders it accordingly). However, since it will not be processed
as dynamic content, you may also see non-HTML scripting commands embedded
in the output.
-
Netscape will display the source of the page
as plain text.
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