Creating websites with FirstClass The building blocks of a website The Main Site container The Template Sets container Choosing your template set Using the Internet Services default behavior Editing the HeaderMatch document Creating website content Creating a home page Creating other site content Creating multiple sites or supporting multiple languages Creating a site About the Multiple Sites & Languages form Example of multiple sites and languages The building blocks of a website You can create single, multiple, and multiple-language websites on your FirstClass system. By default, you have all the components necessary to run a single site on your system. When users access a FirstClass website, they are seeing an interface controlled by FirstClass web templates and your site content (a home page and other documents you create and serve out). These elements are stored in the WWW container inside Internet Services on the administrator's Desktop. By default, WWW contains: •       Main Site This conference is the default website and contains the components to run a single website. •       Template Sets This folder contains the template sets shipped with FirstClass. •       Images This folder contains all of the images required for the shipped template sets. Any sites you create in addition to Main Site use this folder. •       Social and Social Workplace Help Social is the site container for FirstClass Communities. The Main Site container The Main Site container includes a default Home Page document and a .sitepref form. The Home Page document contains standard FirstClass information and is the first thing your users see when they access your site. We recommend that you change the Home Page document to reflect your site and orient your users. Alternatively, you can create your own home page using Web Publishing. For more information, see the Client Help. The .sitepref form controls the appearance of your main site. You can accept the default appearance or update this form to customize it. The Template Sets container The Template Sets container stores the templates shipped with FirstClass. These templates control the web interface. The shipped template sets are: •       Standard Templates         The default web client interface in both classic and enhanced views. •       Mobile Templates         The web client interface for handheld device users. •       ScreenReader Templates The text-to-speech interface for the visually impaired. •       Bluefield Templates. The FirstClass Communities interface. Any sites you create in addition to Main Site also use this container. Top Choosing your template set You can choose the web templates you want to use for a site by: •       using the Internet Services default behavior •       putting only one set of templates in a newly created site container •       editing the HeaderMatch document. These methods are listed in order from easiest to most complicated. We recommend that, where possible, you use the easier methods, as these have less chance for error. Using the Internet Services default behavior If you run a standard site setup, you will have the four sets of templates described above in your Template Sets container. By default, Internet Services is hard coded to automatically display the template set specified by the HeaderMatch document, but uses all four template sets as a group. If you want to display a different web interface without changing the default template structure, use the .sitepref form. If you run a standard site, this is the simplest way to choose a template set. You don't have to make any changes in your site container or reconfigure the HeaderMatch document. Caution In this scenario, you cannot have a single template set in your site container and just set the .sitepref file to use it; it will not work. Since users can choose to display a different set of web templates in their preferences, which overrides the .sitepref setting, in this configuration, you must maintain all four template sets in your site container. If you remove a template set and a user happens to choose it, he will get an error message and be unable to access his account. Editing the HeaderMatch document If you want to preserve the default template setup (all template sets in your site container) but display different templates, create a new container inside the Template Sets container and place your custom templates inside. You can then edit the HeaderMatch document to reference the new template container for either all sites or specific sites. For example, to reference a template container called My Templates, you would add this line before the default template set selection code: <sitename>: SET .templates = "<My Templates>" You also edit this document when you want to remove template sets from the Template Sets container. For example, to remove all the template sets except for Standard Templates, you would add this line before the default template set selection code: <sitename>: SET .templates = "<Standard Templates>" Top Creating website content Any information on your FirstClass system can be served out to the web. This information can include: •       FirstClass conferences and folders (original containers or aliases) •       FirstClass documents (including regular text and literal HTML) •       FirstClass home pages •       HTML documents (including organization policies, maps, and so on) •       external folders (containing non-FirstClass information, such as FTP resources). Creating a home page When serving out your home page to the web, Internet Services looks for a file with valid HTML code, a FirstClass document with regular text and images, or a combination of both. The home page must reside inside a site-specific container for Internet Services to access it. There must only be one home page per site container. By default, a site container includes a Home Page document. You can simply update this document or replace it with your own home page file or document. Using a text editor You can use a plain text editor to create your home page as an HTML file. Your file can include HTML code that links to containers or external folders. Save the file with one of the following names: •       default.html, default.htm, default.shtml, default.stm •       index.html, index.htm, index.shtml, index.stm •       home.html, home.htm, home.shtml, home.stm •       Home Page. Internet Services automatically looks for an HTML file with one of these names to open first. If none of these files exists, Internet Services displays the contents of the site containers. Using a FirstClass document Alternatively, you can use a FirstClass document as your home page. If the default Home Page document isn't in your site container, choose File > New Document Special > Site Web Page. This document can contain regular text, HTML code, or a combination of both. It does not require an extension. If you include HTML code, format it as Literal HTML. Internet Services will output this code as is for a web browser to interpret. Literal HTML can output Frames, Java code, tables, specific formatting (such as custom fonts), and image anchors. Creating other site content Internet Services serves out any content you place in a site container. This content can consist of HTML files or FirstClass content such as containers (or aliases to them), documents, and messages. Site content is subject to standard permission restrictions. If you place a restricted conference in your site container and your users try to access it, they will be prompted to provide a valid user ID and password. Internet Services renders on the fly, so changes to content will be automatically displayed when the web page is reloaded. Top Creating multiple sites or supporting multiple languages If you want to support multiple sites, you must create a separate uniquely named container for each site in WWW. For multiple-language sites, you must create a separate subfolder for each language inside the site container, named with the language's ISO code. The basic site structure for sites you create is the same as for Main Site. The only required objects are a .sitepref form and a home page. Even the home page isn't required if you want the home page in Main Site to be the landing page for all your secondary sites. Creating a site To create a FirstClass site, you can: • use the Create New Site button in the WWW container This method uses a FirstClass rule to create a website. We recommend this method if you create multiple sites with unique domain names and IP addresses, because FirstClass will automatically enter the correct information in the Multiple Sites & Languages (MS&L) form. • create the site manually You can use this method on both new and existing sites. We recommend this method if you create multiple-language sites, because you will not have to change or remove any incorrect information from the MS&L form that the create new site rule would automatically enter. • create a subsite using your main domain address. This method avoids the need to register a new domain name. Using the Create New Site button To create a site using the Create New Site button: 1       Create a separate domain address and register it in your DNS and with your Internet provider. 2       Click the Create New Site button. 3       Fill in the fields on the New Site form. 4       Choose your default template set when prompted. A container with your chosen site name will appear in WWW and will contain the same default objects as in the Main Site container. The template set selection on the .sitepref form will automatically be set to the template set you chose. 5       Customize the Home Page document (optional). 6       Customize the .sitepref form (optional). 7       Open the MS&L form and confirm the information is correct. FirstClass automatically fills in the new site information on this form, so you just need to make sure it is correct. 8       Restart Internet Services. Creating the site manually To create a site manually: 1       Open the WWW container. 2       Create a conference with the name you want to use for your new site. If you want to create a language site, you need to use the correct ISO code name (for example, fr, es, or fi) for your chosen language. 3       Copy both the .sitepref form and the Home Page document from the Main Site container to your new site container. 4       Customize the .sitepref form and the Home Page document for your new site as required. 5       Create any other objects or documents required by this site. 6       Enter the site information on the MS&L form. 7       Restart Internet Services. Creating a subsite using your main domain address You can also create websites without having to register new domain names by adding subdomain names. For example, if you want users on mobile devices to go to a different site than your main site (www.huskyplanes.com), you would create a new site that uses the mobile templates. Next, you would add a subdomain name to your main domain address for this site (www.mobile.huskyplanes.com). About the Multiple Sites & Languages form By default, FirstClass automatically enters your site information on the Multiple Sites & Languages form when you create a site using the Create New Site button. If you are running a legacy FirstClass site, or want to make a change to the MS&L form, you can do so manually.         Note If you enable a security certificate on your site, you must manually enter the name on the MS&L form. The FirstClass server cannot automatically access the information you entered on the New Site form. Whether you are running a single or multiple site configuration, the MS&L form must contain the correct information for all of your sites, so your web users will be directed to the correct location. If you change the name of a site container, make sure you change it on the form. Example of multiple sites and languages In this example, Husky Planes has three websites: Canada, US, and Spain, each pointing to the same server machine. Canada and US each have separate folders for the two different languages they support. Each container has a home page in its respective language. Husky's administrator has placed English, French, and Spanish language files in the Resource Registry. This is how the administrator filled in the Multiple Sites & Languages form: Jacques Bertrand from Canada has two languages set in his browser’s preference list: French as the default and English as his second language. Lucy Tyler from the United States has two languages set in her browser’s preference list: Spanish as the default and English as her second language. Enrico Hernandez has Spanish as his only language choice in his browser’s preference list. This is what these users would see accessing Husky Planes:                                 Jacques         Lucy            Enrico Canada          French                  English English US                              English         Spanish Spanish Spain                   Default         Default Default Since the Canada site supports both English and French: •       Jacques will get the French home page and templates •       Lucy will get the English home page and templates •       Enrico will get the Spanish home page and templates. Since the US site supports both English and Spanish: •       Jacques Bertrand will get the English home page and templates •       Lucy Tyler will get the Spanish home page and templates •       Enrico Hernandez will get the Spanish home page and templates. Since the Spanish site supports only English, all three users get the default, English, only. Top