Is cPanel discountinuing FrontPage Extensions?

[BianchiDude]

Is cPanel discountinuing FrontPage?

I just received this:
FrontPage Backs Out
We feel it's very important to note that we've been notified by the cPanel development team of their plans for the upcoming releases of cPanel and it's support of Microsoft Frontpage – namely there will be none. Frontpage Extensions are being phased out of cPanel, no pun intended. Once cPanel has been upgraded at a to-be-announced date then only way to utilize FrontPage Extensions will be in its native Windows Hosting platform.

 

[chirpy]

You'll have to ask cPanel directly.

 

[sitekeeper]

I thought MS stopped supporting FP extentions for Linux all together sometime ago, if so it is was a mater of time..

From Microsoft:
What happened to FrontPage?
After nine years of being an award-winning Web authoring tool, FrontPage will be discontinued in late 2006. We will continue to serve the diverse needs of our existing FrontPage customers with the introduction of these three brand-new application building and Web authoring tools using the latest technologies, Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Designer 2007 for the enterprise information workers, Microsoft® Expression™ Web Designer for the professional Web designer and Microsoft® Visual Studio 2005 for the Web developer.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA101205221033.aspx

 

[chirpy]

If it's true, it can only be a good thing. The FP extensions MS released for Linux have always been a mess and poorly developed and it'll be a relief to be able to stop providing them - web authoring and web site technology has moved on a long way since FP was conceived.

 

[kris1351]

Yes, MS announced early this year that the FP extensions was being EOL'd in June. To be honest I can't wait to get it off of my servers. I am tired of deleted www/public_html folders due to the junk setup they use.

 

[ClearSky]

While I tire of the problems that occur, this will be a direct hit to me as I have quite a few frontpage users.

Dang...

 

[jamesbond]

You can still use Frontpage without Frontpage Extensions if you set it to FTP instead of HTTP. Ofcourse features that make use of the Frontpage Extensions will not work, but for plain html sites it works just fine, I would assume.

 

[leighj]

WHile having the FTP is nice... and ok... this DOES affect a LOT of my users who like to edit files directly on the server (Against my warnings)

While FPE will be unsupported. Will they have to be uninstalled?

 

[kemis]

Yeah, Frontpage extensions aren't just for getting the page on the Web... it also facilitates numerous Frontpage features like navigation, picture galleries, searching & more. Removing the extensions support means sites that actually rely on the extensions for content (not just uploading) will have to be re-designed... which I know my clients won't want to do. Oh well, it'll all work out in the end.

I'm actually hosted by the company that put out the initial warning that was quoted by the original poster in this thread. In my hoster's forums, I just came across the following post that appeared this morning at 9am. It might prove insightful to some:

http://forum3.midphasetalk.com/showthread.php?p=27095#post27095

Matt

 

[ClearSky]

Thanks for the link.

 

[cPanelNick]

We will continue to support them until they can't be cobbled together anymore.

 

[rpmws]

If it's true, it can only be a good thing. The FP extensions MS released for Linux have always been a mess and poorly developed and it'll be a relief to be able to stop providing them - web authoring and web site technology has moved on a long way since FP was conceived.

and the sad thing is that FP and the *nix extensions worked better on *nix systems than they ever did on NT based servers!!!

 

[WebHostPro]

Sounds like a good thing to me, I'm sure the customer will understand based the details given.

 

[leighj]

Alternative?

Ok how about using WebDAV instead? MS Expressions Web Designer(the replacement for FP) supports it and it runs ALMOST the same as FP Extensions in how we use it. The Navigation, Includes are all handled with the FP Client at save/publish time. The only thing would be to move people to an alternative form submission. This isn't a complete ideal and some FP features would be lost but the majority of users will be happy.

Granted this may be a bit cumbersome to convert but it would be a pretty good stopgap... PLUS WebDAV is supported by even more systems

Leigh

 

[rpmws]

Ok how about using WebDAV instead? MS Expressions Web Designer(the replacement for FP) supports it and it runs ALMOST the same as FP Extensions in how we use it. The Navigation, Includes are all handled with the FP Client at save/publish time. The only thing would be to move people to an alternative form submission. This isn't a complete ideal and some FP features would be lost but the majority of users will be happy.

Granted this may be a bit cumbersome to convert but it would be a pretty good stopgap... PLUS WebDAV is supported by even more systems

Leigh

webDAV is in apache2 ..so that's fixed

 

[leighj]

Yes Apache 2.0 does have it but how rough is the migration path (Running Apache 1.3.x right now)?
Will I be able to roll back if there's a problem?
What about the current FP Extensions users?
Will I have to create WebDAV users manually?

There's a LOT of questions... any place for answers?

 

[BobbyDouglas]

Just wanted to check and make sure that the official cPanel plans are still the same.

 

[kemis]

I have to wonder this too. If you check out the new cPanel 11 demo at:

http://www.cpanel.net/products/cPanelandWHM/linux/try_cp_whm.htm

You'll see down in the "Advanced" section of the new UI the same old option for "Frontpage Extensions". Looks like they're still going to support it in v11.

Anyone know anything different?

Matt

 

[leighj]

FrontPage extensions are not even supported and since they've reached. HOWEVER FrontPage itself is no longer being made. Now they are using something called Expression Web Designer. IMHO it's MUCH better but I did some tests and their support for FrontPage extensions is there. Webbots are a bit shaky but the 'Publishing' and 'Live Editing' work with other methods (WebDav/FTP) MUCH MUCH BETTER.

IMHO (FYI part my business is FrontPage templates) is that getting rid of FrontPage Extensions is a GOOD thing. Use FTP or better yet WebDav. Make more standards compliant.

Leigh

 

[BobbyDouglas]

FrontPage extensions are not even supported

- Nobody is going to update them anymore, nor claim the current version is supposed.

HOWEVER FrontPage itself is no longer being made

- Ok? But you can still buy it, and tons of people are still using it, and tons of websites still use it.

Now they are using something called Expression Web Designer

- That is a completely different product, marketed towards another type of user base.

IMHO it's MUCH better but I did some tests and their support for FrontPage extensions is there

- You cannot insert ANY FPSE using Expression Web. You can only edit a current one.

Webbots are a bit shaky but the 'Publishing' and 'Live Editing' work with other methods (WebDav/FTP) MUCH MUCH BETTER.

- Better? Now we expect our clients to know that when they FTP, they need to enter a folder before they can publish. With the FP Publish feature, it automatically did that for you.

IMHO (FYI part my business is FrontPage templates) is that getting rid of FrontPage Extensions is a GOOD thing.

- Do you mean FrontPage Themes?