The authoring environment for the Rational Unified Process is based on Microsoft« FrontPage« 2000, and CorelDrawÖ 8. This "Authoring Web Pages" does not intend to replace the manuals for these tools, but to point out their specific use in the development of the Rational Unified Process online.

See also, Guideline: Rational Unified Process Style Guide. It contains a lot of useful information -- Read it!

See also, Tool Mentor: Modifying the Treebrowser, and Tool Mentor: Using the Rational Unified Process Tools.

Topics

Getting Started To top of page

Microsoft FrontPage Web-server

With the installation of Microsoft« FrontPage« you get a web-server. You will be asked to give a location for this server. Web-sites located to the server area can be reached via the server.

Example:

In a web-browser you type something like:

http://mywebserver/mywebsite

Other computers in the network can also browse webs on your server.

Working with a Private Copy of the Site (no version management)

  • Place your copy in the root folder of your Microsoft FrontPage web-server, or in a working directory of your choice.

Example

C:\Webs\FrontPage Webs\Content\mycopy
C:\Work\4.2\mywebcopy

  • In Microsoft FrontPage, choose File->Open Web...
  • In the field "Folder name", either select your Microsoft FrontPage web-server or type the path to the working directory with your copy of the site.

    Example

    abbe:8080
    C:\Work\4.2\mywebcopy

  • Click Open.
  • If you have specified a folder outside the web-server, and Microsoft FrontPage doesn't recognize it as a Microsoft FrontPage web-site, you will be prompted to add FrontPage information to convert it to a web-site. Click Yes.
  • Next time you open the site in Microsoft FrontPage, it will be listed in the Recent Webs under the File menu.

Shared Site

It is, of course, possible to place the site on a file server in a network, and allow several people access it, but without the safety of a version control system. The procedure is the same as above.

Zipping a Microsoft FrontPage Web

Two things regarding zip-files:

  • When you zip up a site, make sure that all folders "_vti_xxx" are included. Sometimes this requires that you unmark the folders as invisible (making them visible) via the Properties in you favorite file-browser.
  • When you un-zip a site, select "All files", or else you may not get empty folders, which are relevant to the structure of the site.

How to zip a folder structure, with its files:

  1. Open the winzip file.
  2. Go to the folder that contains what you want to zip.
  3. Select Actions>Add.
  4. Make sure that file name is "*.*". Also click the checkbox "Include System and Hidden Files."
  5. Click on "Add with Wildcards."

Now you have a zip file with a folder structure. When people unzip this they will get a folder structure, in which the files reside.

Modifying the Process To top of page

Version Management

Operations that change the shared borders or the theme, will cause a lot, if not all, of the files to be updated. This means that all such operations must be done by one person with all files checked in by the rest of the group.

Change an Existing File

To change an existing file, simply open it from the Microsoft« FrontPage« Explorer by double-clicking the file. Microsoft FrontPage Editor will display the file. The editor is fairly straight-forward to use. For details on the editor, please refer to Microsoft« FrontPage's manual and help.

Modifying Pictures

To change an existing picture it is recommended to use CorelDraw. Most pictures in the Rational Unified Process are developed using CorelDraw. The pictures can be downloaded, in CorelDraw format, from the Rational Unified Process Resource Center.

Create a New File

There are a number of templates defined for the Rational Unified Process:

  • RUP Activity
  • RUP Artifact
  • RUP Concept
  • RUP Guideline
  • RUP Report
  • RUP Tool Mentor
  • RUP Workflow Introduction
  • RUP Workflow Detail
  • RUP Worker

We recommend Tool Mentor authors to use Microsoft« Word and their material will subsequently be converted to HTML.

To create a new file using a template:

  1. In Page mode, select File->New->Page..
  2. Select the template you want and click OK.
  3. If prompted where to store pictures, specify the images folder at the top level of the web-site.

The Rational Unified Process Templates are not Listed!?

If the Rational Unified Process templates don't show up in the list, then you haven't installed them yet. To install the templates, following the instruction in Installing FrontPage Templates.

Create a New Template

Microsoft« FrontPage« allows you to create new templates in the File->Save As dialogue.

  1. Create a page to be the new template.
  2. Remove the theme from the template by selecting Format->Theme...(A new page created from the template will apply the current web-site theme.)
  3. Select File->Save As... and click As FrontPage template (*.tem). Give a title, filename, and description for the template. Then select "Save Template in Current Web".
  4. Click OK. The template will be automatically saved to the pages folder in the Microsoft FrontPage installation folder.

Tips: Create an empty web for template creation. The templates are not site specific and you will get "cleaner" templates if the site that is currently opened does not have a theme or any specific shared borders. In the HTML-code you should have the following lines for theme and border respectively:

<meta name="Microsoft Theme" content="none, default">
<meta name="Microsoft Border" content="bl, default">

The "bl" for border stands for "bottom" and "left". If that has changed since this was written, you can adjust accordingly, using letters "t" for "top" and "r" for "right".

This should ensure that the new pages take on the site's default settings for theme and borders. If this doesn't happen automatically, simply set theme from the Format menu and shared borders from the Tools menu.

Modify an Existing Template

When you do File->New... you get the list of existing templates and you can select one to base your new page on. You edit an existing template by creating a new page using the template, edit it, and then save it again as a template:

  1. Choose File->New... and open the template you want to edit.
  2. Edit the page.
  3. Choose File->Save As...
  4. Click As Template...
  5. In the following dialog, click Browse. Choose your template from the list. Click OK.
  6. If you want to change any of the template information, do so, and click OK. You will be asked to confirm overwriting the existing template.

Review Contents and Language To top of page

Language Review

  • If your language reviewer has HTML authoring installed with Microsoft« Word, you can send HTML files to them, and they can convert them to Word. If not, create Word versions of the documentation by opening the HTML files in Word, and then saving them as Word files. Optionally combine files into longer documents. (Microsoft« Word97 supports importing of HTML. Microsoft« Word 7 can use Internet Assistant from www.microsoft.com.)
    See also the process described under Producing Manual.
  • In the Revisions dialog (Tools menu) set Mark while editing and lock the document to make sure edits are recorded.
  • Send documentation to language reviewer.
  • When the edited documentation returns, it's easy to find changes using the merge revisions, or by printing the document with the change marks visible.
  • Correct the HTML source manually.

Do not use Microsoft« Word97 for converting to HTML, because the generated HTML code is of poor quality and very different from the HTML you get when you author documents in Microsoft« FrontPage«. (Word puts in lots of formatting tags and loses the structure of the document.)

Contents Review

Publish the whole site where it can be accessed by the reviewers, or send zip-archives or CD's with the site. There are a few different ways that comments on contents can be submitted.

  • They can be marked on hard copies printed from the web.
  • You can use bookmarks in Netscape Navigator and send in the bookmark file. Navigator allows you to comment your bookmarks, and these comments will show up if you display the bookmark file in the browser, together with a link to the page they concern.
  • There is a comment facility in Microsoft« FrontPage« which shows the comments in the Normal view of the editor, but they do not show up in the Preview view or in a web browser.
  • They can convert to Microsoft« Word files using Word's HTML authoring capabilities, and use the Revision tool.

Publishing the Online Process

Publishing the entire Microsoft« FrontPage« web can be done in several ways:

  • If you want to publish it with all the Microsoft FrontPage files, copy the whole Microsoft FrontPage web (the top-level folder and sub-folders) to a new location. If you zip the files, see section zip files for more details.
  • If you want to publish it using as little memory as possible, then you want to remove all file that are not necessary. We recommend that you remove all folders named "_vti_cnf", and there contents.
  • You can also use the Microsoft FrontPage publish command:
  1. Start Microsoft FrontPage and open the working directory containing the FrontPage web.
  2. In the menu File, select Publish web....
  3. Set the path to wherever you want to publish the online process.

Publishing on UNIX

When you have published the site on a UNIX server:

  • Check file permissions.

    In the top folder, the following command will give read permission to everybody for the whole site.

    > chmod -R ugo+r .

    To make the site read-only:

    > chmod -R ugo-w .

  • Check capitalization of filenames and rename the files if they are incorrect. (Most filenames are lower-case letters, and that is a good file-naming strategy.)

Working in Microsoft Word To top of page

When it is more convenient to author text in Microsoft« Word, here are some guidelines.

  • Use Word for white papers and first drafts. Once you have moved your document to Microsoft« FrontPage«, you do not want to go round-tripping via Word.
  • For reviewing purposes you can convert to Word, but be aware of the extra work if you want to take the file back to FrontPage. (It is probably easier to update the original file in FrontPage than to convert the Word-file once it is back from reviewing. See also in section Review Contents and Language.)

Do NOT use Word's HTML Editing Capabilities

You can open any HTML document in Microsoft« Word, including the files you have created in Microsoft« FrontPage«. You will get different menus with specific HTML features. When you save your document, it will automatically be saved as in HTML. The same happens if you choose a web document template, using File->New to create a new document. The HTML document can subsequently be opened in FrontPage.

Important things you want to know!!!

  • Word will write over the original HTML, and it is more than likely that you will lose some important information. For example:
    • Paragraphs "classified" in FrontPage, e.g., Normal.picturetext.
    • However, the link to the stylesheet is preserved.
  • The styles in the style list in HTML mode are OK to use, because it will produce real HTML code, but it's not necessarily so that FrontPage will support you with all of them, i.e., you may have to edit HTML code in FrontPage if you want to use, for example, "blockquote".
  • You cannot use the Revision tool in HTML mode. If you want to this function, see below on Regular Microsoft Word Documents.
  • When sending HTML files to colleagues, remember to zip along the pictures.

Known Problems Using Microsoft FrontPage To top of page

Here are some of the problems found when using Microsoft« FrontPage«.

Topics:

Using Microsoft Word as an HTML Editor To top of page

Reported May 98

There have been reports on Microsoft« Word crashing when opening HTML files. First you should find out if You have any problems with Word. Do that by trying to open the following types of files. If you can open all four, using Word, you do not have to upgrade. If you can open all, except "theme_and_borders.htm" then you probably do not gain anything by upgrading.

a) a very simple HTML file.

b) with no shared borders, and no themes.

c) with no theme, but with shared borders.

d) with shared borders and themes.

Make sure you have the latest version of Word. To find out about the version, you must locate the WinWord.exe file. In most cases it is located at the following path on you machine:
"D:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\WINWORD.EXE" (or "C:" of course).

  1. Select it, and right-click "Properties".
  2. Select the tab "Version"
  3. Now you can see the version number close to the top of the window. In the frame further down there is also a entry called "Version".

If you have problems with the above, there are two things to do: 1) make sure you have Web Authoring Tools installed, and if so and it still crashed, 2) upgrade Office with Service Release 1. See below for details on Web Authoring Tools and Service Release 1.

Web Authoring Tools To top of page

Here is how you could check to see if you have the Web Authoring Tools installed:

First, you need the Office CD, and put it into the PC.

  1. Click on the Windows "Start" button. Select Start -> Settings -> Control Panel.
  2. Double-click on Add/Remove Programs.
  3. Select Microsoft Office Professional Edition. (that's on the Install/Uninstall tab).
  4. Click on the button Add/Remove.
  5. (wait for a while)
  6. Click on Add/Remove.
  7. Check that "Web Authoring Tools" are installed.
  8. If they are not, install them.
Service Release 1 To top of page

Microsoft has something called "Service Release 1" which is an upgrade of Office. You must download and install this. When you have done this you should be able to open HTML files.

To find the "Service Release 1", go to the homepage for Microsoft Office.

Sending out for Review up.gif (974 bytes)

When you send out the stuff for review; to be sure that everyone else can read your HTML files, we recommend that you:

a) Make a copy of your material to send out for review.

b) Remove the theme, before you send it out. (In Microsoft« FrontPage« Explorer select Format>Theme.)

c) To increase readability, you can also remove the "shared borders". (In FrontPage Explorer select Format>Shared Borders, and deselect all borders.)

Both these operations, (b) and (c), are reversible (at least according to our experiments tells us so).

IMPORTANT: Then you must also inform your reviewers about the Service Release 1, and where to get it.

Inserting Images To top of page

Reported April 98

If you create a new page in Microsoft« FrontPage« Editor and insert an image in it (insert clipart, or copy from another FrontPage page) and then save the page, FrontPage will prompt you for where to save the image. FrontPage suggests a path, but often you want to change to another folder, for example a dedicated image folder. To save the image to the folder FrontPage suggests cause no problems, but if you change it, FrontPage protests and says that the web, to which the page belongs, is not opened. Here are some ways to work around the problem:

Save the image to the suggested folder, and then move it via the FrontPage Explorer.

First import the image to the folder in which you want it. Then insert the image using the Insert->Image... menu command.

First place the new page into the navigation view. (Rational Unified Process does not use the navigation view.)

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