Site Server 3.0

Deployment

Content deployment distributes content across directories on multiple servers and across remote secure networks, to multiple destination servers. Data validation and restart capabilities ensure reliable deployment. You can deploy files, directories and ACLs (access control lists).

Content deployment uses both staging and end point servers. The staging server receives content from authors and administrators, stages content for review, and deploys content. The end-point server receives content from the staging server.

The content deployment process

1.      The administrators create projects or routes on the staging and end-point server. One to deploy content and one to receive content. You cannot run a project if you don’t configure matching projects at each end.

2.      The content to be deployed is either submitted by an author, or retrieved from the internet server by the administrator

3.      Content deployment replicates the content from the staging server to the end-point server.

4.      Both the staging and the end-point servers generate reports for the administrator, documenting deployment status.

Content deployment servers retrieve and deploy content based on their project and route definition.The staging server is running Windows NT. It receives content from content authors, other staging servers, and from http/ftp servers. Then it tests the content before it deploys the content to end point servers or other staging servers.

Testing enables the administrator to review the deployed content and ensure that all the links are functioning properly.

The end-point server is running Windows NT or UNIX server. It receives data from the staging server. The end-point server cannot deploy content, but is used to handle user requests for web pages. UNIX servers can only be used as end-point servers.

Before deploying content the administrator needs to configure all staging and end-point servers with the appropriate properties. These properties determine

1.      How event messages will be distributed among various event stores

2.      Who should receive emails reports

3.      Which servers will receive content posts

4.      How many rollbacks to allow

Server properties are set individually on all of the servers at your site.

There are 3 possible configurations that can be used

1.      A single point server: involves only one server that contains a source and destination directory. Content authors submit to the source directory, where the administrator test and approves the content before deploying it to the destination directory. This configuration is common at small intranet sites.

2.      Staging/End-Point Configuration: Content is deployed form a single staging server to one or more end-point servers. Common in Intranets and small ISPs.

3.      Multiple stage and deploy configuration: In this configuration multiple staging servers and multiple end-point servers move content around a complex geographically distributed Internet site. Content is distributed thru a chain of staging servers around the world. This configuration is normally used by large ISPs that require mirrored content on multiple servers.

Content deployment uses 3 kinds of projects to replicate content

1.      Content deployments: used when deploying content from a staging server to mid-point or end-point servers

2.      Internet retrieval: to retrieve content from an http/ftp server

3.      Component deployment: to deploy Java and COM applets packaged in .cab files

You can use the content deployment wizard instead of creating the projects manually.

Configuring projects requires specifying information about the content you want to stage and deploy. After you specify the type of project you must specify

1.      Which content to include in the project

2.      Where to deploy the content

3.      When to deploy the content

4.      Project security information

5.      Who receives project status reports

Sources and destinations are the most important elements of the content deployment project. You must create a project on EVERY server included in the replication.

Content deployment projects include

1.      End-point servers: If an end-point server is the destination, you must first create the project on the server before the server can be a destination

2.      Routes: using routes, any project can be stored in a route directory

3.      Directories: directories can be destinations

Replicating metabase information enables you to clone your web servers. The only part of the configuration that is not cloned is TCP/IP configuration.

Routes are predetermined paths that staging and end-point servers use to deploy and receive content.

After a route has been created, an identically named project on every server in that route is subsequently created so that you can deploy content to those servers. The administrator must create the route on every server in the route.

There are 2 ways to create a route

1.      Manually: Using MMC or WebAdmin.

2.      Using the New Route Wizard: this wizard creates a route on every server for you and is available from the MMC.

Provide the following to each server

1.      The route name

2.      The route directory: which contains the route and all projects that use the route

3.      The names of all servers included in the route

You can change the servers in a route at any time, either by adding new ones or removing existing ones. You can delete a route using MMC or WebAdmin. ALL projects using the deleted route will be affected. When deleting the route consider the following

1.      All replications following that route should be complete

2.      You should delete the route from all servers in the route

3.      The route will be deleted from all project definitions of all projects using that route.

Filtering content enables you to determine at a file or directory level what to include in and what to exclude from replications. Creating a filter requires building an ordered list of files or directories to include in or exclude from a replication. Adding content filters to a project does not affect content that is already deployed.

Filters are evaluated and applied in the order displayed on your screen. Since one filter can undo another, it is recommended that you think about all of the filters you want to apply and then begin with the most general filter and work toward the most specific.

When using filters, please note the following

1.      When a directory is excluded, all files within that directories and all subdirectories are excluded.

2.      When a file is included also its parent directory is included

3.      If an invalid filter is included, no content is included

4.      If an invalid filter is excluded, no content is excluded.

Securing you projects requires configuring project users, authentication accounts, and ACL deployment.

You can effectively secure your project by creating groups, each with its own set of access privileges. Windows NT and site server administrators have full control.

Members of the publishing operators group, perform service operations, such as starting, stopping and rolling back projects.

The publishing administrators can administer local and remote servers. Theirs tasks includes

1.      Project administration tasks:  adding, deleting, and editing routes. Adding and deleting users to/from projects

2.      Server administration tasks: adding/removing servers, modifying server properties, starting/stopping/pausing content deployment.

When content is replicated the server sending content must have the right Windows NT credentials to give to staging/end-point servers. The content sent is signed but NOT encrypted. This means content cannot be changed.

Projects can be scheduled

1.      Manually

2.      Automatically: Whenever content changes

3.      Scheduled: when scheduled

4.      Scheduled with the apply option: when the content is applied

Administrators can post data via upload pages or posting acceptor. Posting acceptor is a server-based tool that receives content from content authors using the http protocol. Posting acceptor can forward/repost data. Frontpage98 and Interdev can be used to post data.

To Monitor deployment use the content deployment service. MMC project pages show the status of a project, and Performance monitor maintain record of transmission and authorization data. After analyzing the data you can make adjustments, if necessary.

The rollback command is similar to the undo command: You can specify as many rollbacks as you want but you cannot rollback content at the source.

3 standard reports are available

1.      Project reports

2.      Replication reports

3.      Full reports

You can configure the server to send these reports by email.

Search

Site server includes a search feature similar to Index Server. The main differences between the 2 are

A catalog is a document index containing information about a document, but not the actual document. For each catalog you build, you must first create a catalog definition.

A catalog definition contains the instructions and parameters for building a catalog, and it’s stored in the catalog build server (the host used to build catalogs)

Search builds a catalog by

1.      Using a catalog definition to gather content

2.      Extracting words and attributes from collected documents

3.      Creating a catalog index

4.      Compiling and propagating the created catalog

Search uses 2 services: the gatherer service to create catalogs, and the Search service to perform the actual search.

Search hosts can be of 2 kinds

1.      Build servers, which build the catalog

2.      Search servers, which perform the actual search and store the catalogs. They must have access privileges to allow visitors to search them.

A single host can perform both operations, but Microsoft does not advise it.

You can conserve network bandwidth by placing the build server close to the location where documents are stored and the search server close to the site that visitors will search.

You can use multiple servers to distribute the load.

Collecting documents is called Gathering. There are 3 kinds of gatherings

1.      Web link crawl: Search can use HTTP to crawl documents by following links.

2.      File crawl: Search can use File protocol, to crawl the files present in one directory. Search can crawl ANY file system that can be mounted remotely.

3.      MS Exchange crawl: Search can use exchange public folder as a start address and crawl messages on a computer running MS exchange server by using the exchange protocol.

The crawl history is a list of links that search has crawled. It is used to eliminate duplicate crawling of the same directory.

Search uses filters to extract the full text, files, and document attributes from the documents it gathers. Filters are standard plug-in modules that conform to the MS standard Ifilter interface.

To prevent the index from becoming filled with words that do not help visitors to find documents, search uses Noise Word lists.

3 actions to create/use a catalog: Gathering, Compiling and Propagating.

When a document is catalogued, search determines which language the document is written in, and then sets the value of “detectedlanguage” for the document.

When a search is conducted the “detectedlanguage” value is checked. Depending on the language different world breakers and word stemmers are used.

Word breakers are responsible for identifying words in a document

Word stemmers are responsible for taking words and making grammatically correct variations of that word.

A search system can use multiple servers. Since WebAdmin allows you to administer only the hosts in which it’s running you must use MMC to manage a multiple host search system.

There are some options to keep in mind when specifying what to crawl

Kinds of crawls

1.      Crawl all subdirectories under the start address or

2.      Crawl by following links from the start address

You can limit page and site hops that search makes.

Kinds of files

1.      By specifying the type of files to crawl or to avoid

2.      By selecting the protocol to use

3.      By specifying whether to crawl links (URLs) with Question marks.

How far search can go

1.      Directory depth

2.      Page and site hops

3.      Site and Path Rules

4.      Specific Microsoft Exchange public folders

When crawling search identifies itself by: user agent and/or by email.

To follow crawling etiquette Search enables

1.      Setting hit frequency rules

2.      Obeying the rules of robot exclusion

3.      Leaving behind an email address to contact in case of problems

Other options to set

1.      Setting resource usage. The amount of resources used by your system to build the catalogs

2.      Access accounts: to access each catalog server

3.      Crawling identification

4.      System proxy information

5.      Crawling timeout periods

6.      Save and Load configurations: used to save configurations on the catalog server, and load them onto other servers

To log on to the search administrative interface you must be one of the following

1.      Administrator on the local host

2.      Site server Search administrators

3.      Site server Knowledge administrators

4.      Site servers administrators

You must setup an administrative access account on the catalog build server that has administrator privileges on all hosts to which you want to propagate catalogs.

When accessing content to crawl you must setup a content access account on the catalog build server to access external data.

Security depends on the kind of data you need to access

1.      File Access: The content search determines the files you can access or not

2.      HTTP access: First search tries anonymously, then it uses the access account

3.      MS Exchange Authenticates the content access account when crawling folders

When configuring your search system, consider the following

• Multiple search servers are useful when accommodating a high volume of requests
  

• Multiple catalog build servers are useful when you have a lot of rapidly changing content that you want to crawl frequently

When creating a catalog definition consider the following

1.      The number of catalogs you need

2.      The type of information for which site visitors will search

3.      Whether to TAG your HTML documents before cataloging them

4.      Where to start crawling and from which site to gather documents

5.      Whether to adjust the sites hit frequency

6.      Whether to set site rules that limit which site or path search crawls

7.      Which files you want to crawl and which protocols to use

8.      The type of information (attributes) to store in catalogs

9.      Whether you need to change the default schedule for building catalogs

10.  Whether to use different hosts for searching

If you want to add messages from MS Exchange public folders, you must first configure your search host with information about the computer running Exchange Server

If you want to build a catalog that contains database records, you must create a database catalog definition and then setup/modify ASP pages.

Catalogs can be one of the following types

1.      Crawl catalog: built by crawling files

2.      Notification: built by receiving information through a notification source

3.      Database: You build database catalogs by crawling a table in an ODBC database

Catalog definitions for a crawl must contain the catalog name and the start address and crawling policy. It can also contain information on site and path rules, file types, propagation and build schedule

Catalog definitions for Notification catalogs must include the catalog name and the notification source. It can contain information on host to which propagate and how many documents to receive before updating catalogs.

Catalogs definitions for Database catalogs must contain: catalog name, ODBC source, Table to catalog, database column to use for content and description.

When building a catalog you have 2 build options

1.      Full builds: Starts with an empty catalog, and use start address as the starting points for the crawl.

2.      Incremental builds: Start with the start address and a previous catalog. Updates any changes to the contents since the last crawl.

NOT all the changes made to a catalogue definition affect an Incremental build: in some cases you must restart with a full build.

You can view the status of a catalog at any time, to see whether the catalog is in an idle, crawling, compiled, propagating or error state.

Smaller catalogs have higher search performance. One way to decrease the size of a catalog is to reduce the number of retrievable attributes.

To run a search, you must specify which part of the catalog to search. Catalogs are organized by columns, and you must specify which column to search into.

Results ASP pages are stored in a virtual directory on your web server, that has Script permission.

Search performance can be optimized in 2 areas

1.      Cataloging performance: By minimizing use of other resources during cataloging and minimizing catalog space.

2.      Searching Performance

Cataloging can be improved by

1.      Configuring server for maximum network throughput

2.      Stopping Index Server (if not used)

3.      Minimizing number of columns for catalog

4.      Using incremental crawls when building a catalog

5.      Scheduling catalog builds

6.      Setting the site hit timing for crawling

7.      Setting timeouts periods for crawling

8.      Setting the resource use on the catalog build server

Search performance can be improved in speed and accuracy by

1.      Improving performance on search server (e.g. stopping index server)

2.      Decreasing site of searching catalog

3.      Decreasing number of catalogs

4.      Setting the resource use of the search server

5.      Search page design

6.      How well your search page helps your users target results

Membership Services

Membership server is a collection of software components, which manages P&M user data and other information. It performs 4 key functions

1.      Managing user registration and user data

2.      Protecting and sharing user data

3.      Verifying user identity

4.      Controlling access to content on your site.

Each Membership server can have some of the following components

1.      Membership Directory: central repository of user data.

2.      Authentication service: Tying together the various functions involved in site security

3.      Active User Object (AUO): Presents a single interface for applications to access and integrate data from multiple user directories

4.      LDAP service: an Internet standard for accessing user information in directories, and providing standard, platform independent access to Membership directory

5.      Message builder service: constructs and sends mailings

Site server enables you to choose from many configuration options

1.      Single Server: Typically used for test and evaluation purposes or for small web sites. All components resides on a single computer

2.      Basic Multiple Servers: For larger sites. The Membership directory database is installed on a dedicated computer

3.      Replicated multiple servers: Suitable for High-End sites, multiple application servers are deployed to support multiple applications type and performance requirements. Each Application server has a Membership server instance installed on it.

4.      Dedicated LDAP configuration: It may be advantageous to put a tier of one or more dedicated LDAP service computers between the web servers and the Membership directory database and stop the LDAP services that reside on the web servers. This configuration can offer an ideal balance of security and efficiency: the application server can be exposed to the Internet, while the LDAP service can sit behind a firewall.

Configuration limitations

• When using Windows NT Authentication mode only one LDAP service can be configured
  

• When using MS Access as the database for the Membership directory, only one LDAP service can be configured and it must reside on the same computer as the Access Database.
  

• IIS, the LDAP service, and SQL server, they all require large amounts of RAM.
  

• The Membership directory is the central repository of data where you can store:

1.      User Data: User profiles with personalization and optionally passwords

2.      Site data: Information about your site and organization, like the site vocabulary.

3.      Membership Directory Schema: Defines the objects, data, and relationships of the user and site data in the Membership directory

The Directory tree is a representation of the Membership directory as a hierarchical structure (or tree) of data objects. There are two general categories: Container objects, which have Child objects in the tree, and Leaf objects which have no child objects.

The Authentication service retrieves user properties, including passwords, from the membership directory and supplies them to the AUO. It also validates the password provided by the user, by comparing it to the one in the membership directory.

The AUO is an Active Directory Service (ADS) Component Object Module (COM) that you can configure to access and integrate user attribute data from a membership directory and other data sources.  Using the AUO, you can create a virtual user attribute schema that can be accessed from any script or program.

User accounts can be created in 3 ways: with administrative pages, with analysis pages and with registration pages.

There are 3 types of users

1. Anonymous users: Do not have an account and are not tracked at all in the Membership directory and the Windows NT server directory database.

2. Cookie-Identified Users: Are tracked in the Membership directory by Means of an automatically assigned GUID. Cookie-identified users does not have a password, and do not register as members.

3. Registered users: are tracked in the Membership directory.

With membership authentication, you can create 2 kinds of user objects in the membership directory

1. Security account objects: represented with a membership user account and password.

2. Cookie User objects: identified by a GUID that is stored on the server and in the client browser cookie file

When you create a Membership directory, you must specify the authentication method used.

With Membership authentication, users and passwords are stored in the Membership directory. With Windows NT authentication, they are stored in the Windows NT server directory database.

Membership authentication has advantages for Internet sites, while Windows NT authentication is useful for Intranet sites.

Windows NT methods of authentication: Cookie Authentication, Clear text/Basic Authentication, Windows NT challenge/response, and client certificate

Membership Authentication methods: Automatic cookie, Clear text/Basic, HTML forms, distributed password, and client certification.

In distributed password Authentication user’s identity is validated by password only.

Public is a P&M built-in group to which each user belongs

When a user tries to authenticate and fails, the user is routed to the authentication pages. The name of this file is privilegedcontent.asp, and all users have access to this file.

There are 4 levels of protections you can apply to your content

1.      Public content: not protected

2.      Registered content: Users must fill in a Form

3.      Secured content: only registered users can access

4.      Subscribed content: provided to a subset of your registered users.

When a user requires a particular file, Access control is used to check if he has permissions. ACLs (access control lists) are then used.

Personalizing Content

Personalization and Memberships enable any Internet site to present unique personalized content automatically to specified users, using a variety of delivery mechanisms.

Before P&M can use content from each source, authors must first identify (tag) content with attributes that administrators define to use specific user needs.

User profiles are stored in the Membership directory, and are the primary source of user information for personalization. They contain a set of demographics and user preference data that is used to provide a more personalized experience to site visitors.

Personalization rules are statements that test a condition and then perform an action when the condition is true.

Personalized information can be delivered thru personalized Web Pages, email or push channels.

The membership directory schema is the data structure that defines how user profiles are stored.

Attribute schema objects define attributes.  All attribute definitions are stored as attribute schema objects

Class schema objects define classes.

All objects in the membership directory, including user profiles, are an instance of a class, and every object is defined by and consists of a set of attributes.

Managing schema objects can involve the following tasks

1. Defining a new attribute

2. Defining a new class

3. Editing a new attribute definition

4. Editing a new class definition

How configuration of attributes works

1. Explicit profiling takes place when users answer questions on a registration form and establish an account.

2. The change properties page enables a user to change his/her properties stored in the membership directory. Only registered users are allowed to use this page.

3. Automatic recording can occur via Active server pages (ASP).

4. Some data can be migrated from pre-existing databases using the P&M migration tool.

One of the simplest ways of personalization is to add a user property to a web content template. There are 2 ways of doing this: by using the insert property DTC or by using VBscript.

Rule Builder is a tool found in Rule Manager. Rule Builder is used to create new rules, or modify existing rules, for delivering personalized information thru web pages/email. Rules are usually built in Rule Manager, and then saved in rule sets.

Rule exceptions set up conditions that prevent a rule from being executed, even when other conditions are met.

Personalized web pages are created with the rules you specified before.

Personalized e-mail can be done with Direct Mailer. Direct Mailer retrieves the custom text files, and then assembles them into a customized e-mail.

You can have 2 types of distribution lists: Static or dynamic, depending on if you created them or they are dynamically created from a database.

Knowledge Manager

Knowledge Manager is a web-based application that can filter documents by areas of interest, define and schedule briefs regarding content, and browse files by category.

It’s mainly used to enable visitors to find information and receive updates when information is added or changed.

Knowledge Manager makes information available in several ways

1. By searching your company's accumulated knowledge. (The searchable content must be catalogued with search)

2. By browsing categories of organization

3. By staying up-to-date on topic of interest

4. By choosing to receive email updates

5. By sharing expertise by creating briefs

6. By selecting the available channels in the intranet.

The search page is essentially a query page to get information.

Knowledge manager enables site visitors to learn from each other by using briefs prepared by co-workers, the administrator, local experts or other site visitors.

Briefs are documents that contain the information organized around a specific topic. Briefs are composed of 2 types of sections: saved search sections, which are saved search queries, and link list sections, which are lists of useful URLs along with their descriptions.

The Brief delivery page offers users a choice of how they want to receive briefs updates. You can receive briefs updates thru email or your personal briefing channel.

Channels are conduits thru which information is stored and delivered. They are setup by administrators and are centered on topics. Users then decide to which channel to subscribe.

After setting up the search center and creating briefs, you only need to add defaults and links for your site to use knowledge manager. Basic configuration is in the config.idc file.

The Knowledge Manager database is in Access format and is located in Mssiteserver\Data\Knowledge directory. The database contains the following tables

1. Briefs: Stores briefs alphabetically + author, creation date….

2. Details: Links the briefs and filter tables

3. Filters: contains information about all sections/filters

4. URLs: contains information about all link list sections

Analyzing Web site usage

You can use Analysis to analyze usage at your site, including who visits the site, where they go, and how long they stay.

Analysis offers the following tools

1. Usage import: controls how you import log files.

2. Report writer: provides standard report definitions

3. Custom import: allows you to import custom data

4. Scheduler: automates tasks performed by report writer.

If you are installing site server on multiple computers it is advised that you install analysis on a dedicated computer.

You can improve analysis by configuring IIS to gather the following information

1. Referrer data

2. User Agent data

3. Cookies

You MUST use the MS W3C extended Log file Format configured on your IIS.

If your server is already logging data when you install a new filter, you need to RESTART your SERVER for the filter to take effect.

The data falls into 5 categories

1.      Hits: any request by the user

2.      Requests: any hits that successfully retrieve content

3.      Visits: series of requests by a user

4.      Users: any entities associated with a hostname that access a site.

5.      Organizations: groups of related users that have registered one or more domain names.

Usage import enables you to import log files into the Analysis database, after which you can start report writer and run reports on the data. With usage import, you can also delete imported log files and requests.

Use the following to configure/Manage usage import

1. Server Manager: primary tool for configuring usage imports

2. Import Manager: Tool for importing log files

3. Import History Manager: Tool for managing log files once they have been imported.

Once you have configured usage import, you can import log files with the import manager. When you import files, you can either import a single log file or several log files from one log data source in one import. By importing several log files in one import, the logs are stitched.

When importing from external data sources, you can import from

1. User Data from P&M

2. Content data from Content Analyzer

3. Advertising data from AD server

4. Custom data files you create

5. Document title files you create

To enrich data in your database, you can use

1.      IP resolution: (you must resolve the IP address before),

2.      Whois queries

3.      Title lookups.

You can use Scheduler to automate a number of tasks performed in the report writer, custom import, and usage import. This is useful if you want to optimize system resources or automate regular tasks

Using Scheduler consists of scheduling import jobs, and adding task(s) to the job. The Imports runs according to the schedule you specify. Once you have scheduled a job you can choose to activate it. When a job runs messages are logged to Uimport.log.

Report writer enables you to generate reports with which you can identify trends and your most popular pages, learn how users are navigating thru your site, and analyze where users come from.

Every report has a report definition. Report definitions are made up of elements that you can add, delete, or modify. 

Basic elements of the report definition are

1. Sections: indicated by a funnel icon

2. Calculations: indicated by a calculator icon

3. Dimensions: indicated by a cube Icon

4. Measures: indicated by a circular icon

5. Presentations: indicated by tables or graphs

You can run report writer from 3 interfaces: Windows interface, WebAdmin, Command line.

Analyzing Web site Content

Site Server provides a tool called Content Analyzer, to analyze the content of a web site.

With Content Analyzer you can analyze resources and the routes that connects them

You can access Content Analyzer through one of the 3 interfaces

1. Windows Interface

2. WebAdmin

3. Command-line

When you create a project for a web site, Content Analyzer explores the site, starting with the URL of the site you specify.

Content Analyzer distinguishes between 5 kinds of resources

1. HTML Pages

2. Images (all image files)

3. Gateways (programs that dynamically creates content)

4. Other protocols (ftp, news, mail, gopher, and telnet)

5. Other resources (audio files, video files, and all other resources)

A Content Analyzer project is a file that contains a map, a graphical view of your site. You create a new project by exploring the site you want to analyze. You can create a project starting from an URL or from a file in your file system.

When Content Analyzer finishes exploring the site it saves the results in a project and displays the site map. A project contains the following

1. The structure of the web site

2. A starting URL

3. A project name

4. Any special settings you select using project options

The options for exploring include the following

1. Explore entire site or not

2. Set route by URL hierarchy: process of determining whether one of alternate routes makes a better main route from the existing main route

3. What kind of Site report to generate

4. Ignore case of URLs

5. If no default file map all files in directory

6. Verify offsite links

7. Honor Robot protocol

8. Include URLs with arguments

9. Standard or custom user agent

10. Copy site to local directory or not.

When you create your project you can choose to explore the entire site, or explore it with limits. For example, you may want to analyze just part of a branch or explore a single page. You can do that by specifying the number of pages/levels.

Once you have created a project you can use Content Analyzer to

1. View statistics for your project

2. Remap a project

3. Schedule regular updates

You can use Search Analyzer's search option to find and analyze resources on your Web site. Content Analyzer offers both a quick search and a more advanced search to specify limitless combinations of criteria.

Each Content Analyzer window offers different advantages

1. Use the site window to examine the site’s structure and identify broken links

2. Use the analysis window to view results of your searches.

3. Use the project window to focus on a particular resource

The Site window use 2 methods of showing the site structure

1. The Outline pane displays pages and resources in a hierarchical tree

2. The Hyperbolic plane displays an overview map of the site

The analysis window displays the results of a search and the respective resources in 2 panes

1. The result pane lists the resources that matches your criteria

2. The browser pane displays either the resource as it appears (e.g. image) or the html code for the resource

The Properties window displays details about links and properties of the selected resource or page

1. The resource pane displays the individual properties of a resource, such as its author, expiration date, label, URL, MIME type, or size.

2. The link pane displays details about the links to and from the resource

There are 3 kinds of link types

1. Links to resources: pointing from a selected page to other resources

2. In links from pages: Pointing to a selected resource from other pages in the site

3. Links on the route to a resource: links from the site start page passing thru to the selected resources

When analyzing links the main goal is to make sure that links are connecting the proper resources to one another. You can use the site window to examine the link structure. To begin examining a link you must FIRST select a resource and then select a link type to show.

Usually a link is broken for one of the following reasons

• An error exists in the HTML tag for the Hyperlink

• A resource is missing or otherwise unavailable

Usage data can be gathered from log files and associated with your site. The information that you can gather consists of 2 types

1. The hit count: number of times a resource was accessed

2. The referrer URL.
   

With this data you can

1. Display the busiest link

2. Analyze the links to and from the most popular pages

3. Determine which external links are linked to your pages

4. Choose a new place to base a main route for analysis

Ports to remember