Section 5.4: Managing Websites
5.4.1: Using Scripting to Manage Website Content
A script is a set of commands that you can use to programmatically alter the content of your Web pages. There are two kinds of scripts: client-side and server-side. Client-side scripts run on the Web browser and are embedded in a Web page while server-side scripts run on the Web server and are most often used to modify Web pages before they are delivered to the browser. Server-side scripts can instruct the Web server to perform an action such as process user input or log how often a user visits your Web site.
5.4.2: Reroute Requests with Redirects
When a browser requests a page on your Web site, the Web server locates the page and returns it to the browser. When you move a page on your Web site, you can instruct the Web server to give the browser the new URL, which the browser then uses to request the page again. This process is called redirecting a browser request or redirecting to another URL. Redirecting a URL is useful when you are updating your Web site and want to make a part of it unavailable, or when you have changed the name of a virtual directory and want links to files in the original virtual directory to access the same files in the new virtual directory. IIS includes two features that provide this functionality: server-side includes (SSI) and the ASP scripting environment that allows you to dynamically alter Web content after the content has been requested, but before it is returned to the browser. SSI allows you to perform a host of Web site management activities from adding dynamic time-stamping to running a special shell command each time a file is requested. SSI commands, which are called directives, are added to Web pages when the page was designed. When a page is requested, the Web server parses out all the directives it finds in a Web page and then executes them. ASP, which is a server-side scripting environment, is primarily designed for Web application development, but can also be used to ease Website management. It allows you to track users visiting a Web site, or you can customize Web content based on browser capabilities.
5.4.3: Operators Group
Operators are a group of users who have limited administrative privileges on individual Web sites. Members of this group can administer properties that affect only their respective sites and do not have access to properties that affect IIS, the Windows server computer hosting IIS, or the network. This method of distributed server administration has the following advantages:
• Each member of the Operators group can act as the site administrator and can change or reconfigure the Web site as necessary. For example, the operator can set Web site access permissions, enable logging, change the default document or footer, set content expiration, and enable content ratings features.
• The Web site operator is not permitted to change the identification of Web sites, configure the
anonymous user name or password, throttle bandwidth, create virtual directories or change their paths, or
change application isolation.
• Because members of the Operators group have more limited privileges than Web site administrators,
they are unable to remotely browse the file system and therefore cannot set properties on directories and
files, unless a UNC path is used.
5.4.4: Administering Sites Remotely
IIS 6.0 has remote administration options that you can use to perform administrative tasks on remote computers running IIS. You can use the browser-based Internet Services Manager to change properties on your site if you are connecting to your server over the Internet or through a proxy server; or you can use the Internet Services Manager if you are on an intranet. You can also use Terminal Services over a LAN, PPTP, or dial-up connection to remotely administer IIS.
Note: Internet Services Manager uses a Web site listed as Administration Web site to access IIS properties. When IIS is installed, a randomly selected port number is assigned to the Website. The site responds to Web browser requests for all domain names installed on the computer, provided the port number is appended to the address. If Basic authentication is used, the administrator will be asked for a user name and password when the site is reached. Only members of the Administrators group and Operators group can use the site.