Up and Running with Frontier Web Site Management
by Matt Neuburg
Author of the book Frontier: The Definitive Guide
Before we start building a Web site with Frontier, we'll need some acquaintance with the Frontier package and with the program itself. In this chapter, we start Frontier running and take a little look around.Before starting up Frontier, notice what's inside the Frontier folder. You should see:
- UserLand Frontier [Frontier.exe]: that's the Frontier program.
- Frontier.root: that's Frontier's database. The database is not just some secondary appendage; it's integral to Frontier's operations.
The database contains programming information that Frontier uses in order to interpret its own scripting language, UserTalk; it contains lots and lots of UserTalk scripts that give Frontier its actual functionality, and which Frontier executes in response to your commands, for example when you choose from its menus; and it contains anything else you choose to store in it -- including the pieces of your Web site.
Frontier always opens Frontier.root automatically when it starts up.
- Other Things: Other parts of the package, while valuable and interesting, don't have much bearing on the present discussion, so we'll leave them for another time.
Now start up Frontier. The first time you do this, you'll be asked a few questions about yourself, which you should answer carefully because they'll become part of the database and will determine some things about how it's customized.You'll then see a window entitled "Frontier.root". This is the gateway to Frontier's database, often referred to colloquially as the "root" or as the "ODB" (for "online database"). The window, called the Root Window, will look something like this:
If you don't see any window at all, that's because the Root Window is invisible. But it is always present, as you can tell because it is always listed in the Window menu (as Frontier.root); to show it, choose that item from the Window menu. To hide it again, click its go-away box [close button] or choose Hide Window from the Window menu when the Root Window is frontmost.
If the text font and size use within the window aren't to your taste, you can change them with Font and Size in the Edit menu, or one of the Common Styles in the Main menu.
At this point, at the risk of making you a trifle nervous, I must inject a word of warning. This is your database to store things in as you like, and soon we're going to begin storing Web page elements inside it. You are also free to explore the database, and doing so is one of the classic ways of learning about Frontier.Nevertheless, it is also Frontier's database, and you can bring the program completely to its knees by making wanton changes. For example, one line in the picture says, in its first column, "system". If you were to change this name, or, worse, if you were to select this line (by clicking its triangle) and then press the delete [del] key to remove the line altogether, Frontier would stop working, and you might need a fresh copy of the database to get it going again.
To minimize risks, I suggest you follow two simple rules.
If, despite your best efforts, you think you've screwed something up, choose Revert from the File menu (to throw away all changes since the last Save), or quit Frontier, holding the Shift key at the same time to prevent the database from being saved automatically, and then start it up again. If you want to return to a previously backed up version of the database, quit Frontier, rename Frontier.root to something else (or even throw it away), bring out a backup from the Backups folder so that it is in the same folder as Frontier, and rename it Frontier.root.
- Make a backup of the database often!
You do this with Backup in the Main menu. As a safety feature, Frontier does not overwrite earlier backups when you make a new backup, so after a while you will probably want to throw away some older backups manually from the Finder [Windows Explorer], as they are rather large.
- Keep repeating to yourself the words my father impressed upon me when he first taught me to use power tools: "Never stop being careful."
I also keep on hand at all times a copy of the clean root as downloaded directly from UserLand, so that in case of desperation I can use it as Frontier.root and be guaranteed of a database that works.
If this little lecture has made you edgy, I apologize; you can relax now. The point is simply that Frontier, unlike most other programs, exposes its inner workings to you. That gives you a lot of power, which is the whole point of giving you this freedom, but with that power comes a lot of responsibility.
Before we talk more about the database, let's examine another important window which it's useful to have around. This is Frontier's About Window, available by choosing About Frontier from the Apple menu [Help menu].
Notice that a message is being displayed, providing some useful information about Frontier's status. If the About Window appears as a larger splash screen, complete with Frontier's icon and UserLand's URL, you can reduce it to just its message area with the resize box [maximize button].
If you don't see a message like the one shown here, telling you the time and the amount of free memory Frontier has available (and how many "threads" Frontier presently has running), press on the triangle towards the left of the window to get a popup menu and choose StatusMessage. (If you still don't see the message, try choosing Enable Agents from the Misc submenu of the Main menu.)
You can resize the About Window in the usual way. You can change the font and size of its message area when it is frontmost, in the same ways as for the Root Window.
It's a good idea to park the Main Window where you can see it most of the time, because scripts often use it to send you messages. To convince yourself of this, look for your personal menu (its name consists of whatever you told Frontier your initials were when you started up the program for the very first time) and choose one of its menu items, Hello World or Count to 10. Isn't that exciting?
Notice that when a script has sent you a message in this way, it may remain in the About Window's message area after the script has finished. You can dismiss the message and go back to seeing the status message by clicking in the message area of the About Window.
All text is by Matt Neuburg, phd, matt@tidbits.com.
For information about the book Frontier: The Definitive Guide, see my home page:
http://www.tidbits.com/matt
All text copyright Matt Neuburg, 1997 and 1998. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
No one else has any right to copy or reproduce in
any form, including electronic. You may download this material but you may not post it for others to
see or distribute it to others without explicit permission from the author.
Downloadable versions at http://www.ojai.net/matt/downloads/webTutorial.hqx and http://www.ojai.net/matt/downloads/webTutorial.zip.
Please do not confuse this tutorial with a certain other Frontier 5 tutorial based upon my earlier work.
This page created with
Frontier, 2/11/2000; 7:00:03 PM.