[WEB4LIB] FrontPage 2000 question

[Mark Pecaut]

On Fri, Apr 06, 2001 at 08:57:38AM -0700, Andrew I. Mutch wrote:
> I have a very basic question for FP2000 users but I haven't been able to
> find the answer to this.  Here it goes:
> 
> Is there a way to make web pages in FP2000 "read-only" so that they can be
> used as templates?  I want staff to be able to use a pre-defined template
> but I don't want the template over-written.
> 
> Now, a couple of additions.  
> 
> 1) I don't want to use FP's built-in template function as it adds steps to
> the process that I want to avoid.
> 
> 2) I've already tried setting the file permissions to read-only - this is
> on WinNT 4 - but FP2000 doesn't seem to recognize this setting.  Might I

There are two `read only' settings when you are using NTFS.  There is 
the `read-only' attribute, (which also exists on FAT filesystems).  This 
is changed by looking at the file properties and changing the checkbox
next to `read-only' (similar to the `hidden', `system', and `archive' 
attributes).  There are also security permissions, which are specific to 
NTFS filesystems.  You set these by going to the `security' tab while looking
at the file properties.  You probably already know this.

I guess it is possible for FrontPage to unset the `read-only' attribute,
edit it, and reset it, all without telling you.  I don't know.  However,
if you properly set the security permissions with NTFS such that you don't
have permission to write to the files, there is no way for Frontpage to 
overwrite the file.  It is easy to change permissions in such a way that
a user has the read-write access, even though it is not obvious from 
looking at the permissions that the user can write to the file.  Here 
are some questions to ask yourself:

1) is the user in several groups?  does one group not have access while
another does?  The permissions the user gets are the union of the permissions
of all the groups the user belongs to.  So if only one of the users' groups has
read-write permission, the user will have read-write permission.
2) Who is the owner of the file?  What permissions does Creator-Owner have?
3) What are the permissions on the directory the file is in?
4) Are you the administrator?  Don't be (ie, use a different account to test 
it).

If you do some experimenting, I'm sure you will find the permissions
that work.  

-Mark

> have to play around with the files in the "_private" directories too?
> 
> I appreciate if anyone can provide a hint on a simple way to do this!
> 
> Andrew Mutch
> Library Systems Technician
> Waterford Township Public Library
> Waterford, MI