Release History - Expired Versions

• It is now possible to configure whether WSP displays a message box when it finishes publishing and whether that message box should be displayed with a timeout. The configuration for this is reached via the new menu item "Tools", on the "Tools" menu select "Options". These options are global and effect the behaviour of the tool, regardless of which website is being published.
• When specifying files or folders to ignore (or delete), it is now possible to include a path. For example if "\folder1\images" is to be excluded but "\folder2\images" included the folder to exclude would be entered as "\folder1\images". A leading back-slash ('\') on the folder name indicates the top level folder, without the back-slash the name will be matched against any folder. For example "images" refers to any folder called images, whereas "\images" refers to only the top level folder called "images" so would not match against "sub\images". To exclude the top level folder "images" but not "folder1\images" enter "\images". To exclude all folders called "images" enter "images".
• The file "thumbs.db" (which Windows XP creates to store cached thumbnail information) is added by default to the list of files ignored during publishing. Being ignored they will not be copied up but any "thumbs.db" files already on the website will not be deleted. To ensure that any "thumbs.db" files on the website are removed change the setting to "delete". If you need to publish "thumbs.db" then edit the properties for the website and remove this setting.
• Gary Kuever has suggestion the option that when publishing is complete the "Publishing Completed" dialog box does not try to get focus. This is because this can be disruptive when working on other things while publishing. (Note: the behaviour in XP is different from other versions of Windows because it prevents applications from grabbing focus.)

Bug fixes:

• An issue which could cause timeouts to take much longer than they should has been resolved.
• When performing a publish or publish-all the menu option for publishing the current site was not disabled.

• Ability to selectively disable publishing for part of a website (by folder) when part of a website is undergoing maintenance, development or reorganisation.
• Allow certain file types to be excluded from the upload - user selectable.
• Option to include/exclude recursive publishing of sub-directories.
• Ability to control explicitly which files are copied as text (i.e. ASCII or Binary transfer).
• Ability to specify file permissions (chmod).
• Confirmation check added that the web server exists when creating a new web site for publication or when configuring its properties. This verifies that the ftp server is contactable and that the username and password are correct. It is an optional stage.
• Keyboard shortcuts added - for example to publish a website.

• Can now specify which FTP port to use if an FTP server does not use the default FTP port. (Suggested by David Schneider.)
• Bug fix: Can now publish to ftp addresses that include more than one depth of sub-folder.
• Bug fix: An unhandled timeout could occur when listing files from the FTP server.
• The size and location of Web Site Publisher on screen is now remembered between runs. (Suggested by Patrice Wendling.)
• On login failure a better error message is displayed - showing the actual error from the FTP server. This makes it easier to diagnose incorrect username or password errors.
• The maintenance option to delete files from the website that no longer exist, has been moved from the "Advance tab" of the web site properties tab sheet to the new tab "Behaviour".
• Additional property added, "Disabled" which allows you to mark a website as disabled so that when publishing (either a publish all or publish current) the site will not be published.

• The utility now allows dial-up connections to be hung up after publishing. The default behaviour is to leave a dial-up connection open. You can change this by clicking the "Config..." button to bring up the properties for the website, on the "FTP Parameters" tab you can change the "Dial-up Connection Behaviour" to one of:
  • Leave the connection
  • Ask to hang-up
  • Hang up the connection without asking.

• When the tool expires it now shows a dialog showing where to download the latest version from.

• New upload option to upload via a temporary file. When uploading via a temporary file each file is first uploaded to a temporary file and only when that upload has completed is any prior old version deleted and the uploaded file renamed to have the correct name. Whilst this is marginally slower than a straight upload it has a number of advantages:

  • The original file is still available to be viewed until the upload completes.
  • Should the connection be dropped (or fail) during the upload then the original file remains intact - with the conventional approach you would end up with a truncated file.

  This functionality is disabled by default (although it is recommended that you enable it). To enable it bring up the properties for the website by clicking "Config..." and then select the "Advanced" tab and check "Upload via temporary file".

• Bug fix: Timeouts now work again.
• Bug fix: Problem resolved where the layout of the main dialog/form looked "skewed" on some systems. (Possibly related to the use of large fonts.)
• A new option has been added to the Help menu - "Online Help" which provides a means of accessing either the on-line "Frequently Asked Questions" or "Troubleshooting" notes.

• Ability to export settings to a .wsp file, plus corresponding file import. This allows settings to be easily moved from one computer to another.
• A summary has been added at the end of the log indicating the number of files uploaded and deleted.
• Advanced log option allowing an explanation to be inserted into the log file showing why files are uploaded (e.g. because of date stamps or missing at server).

Bug fixes:

• Problem running on NT4 resolved.
• Time drift correction (which is the automatic correction for time differences between the local PC and the FTP server) now allows for time drifts of up to 24 hours. This reflects the international use of the product across extremes of time zones.
• Plus bug fixed where it could sometimes overcompensate for time drift.

• Some bug fixes, no significant functionality enhancements.
• New installer - almost halving the size of the download.

• Some bug fixes, no significant functionality enhancements.
• With this release Windows 95 is no longer supported.

• Major update to the interface. It is now tool-bar based rather than button based. This gives it a different look and feel and gives a smarter interface.
• New Turbo update option. The tool is already very quick at updating a website, however it did perform a directory list of each directory (or folder) on the server. The Turbo option eliminates this step by copying only those files added or updated since the last update. This eliminates the need to list the contents of each directory at the server and can considerably reduce the update time required. The downside of the turbo option is that it will fail to catch files that had been removed using other FTP tools, where a file had been added or where a source file had been replaced by an earlier version (perhaps from a backup).
• Automatic preserve of "Show publication log" and "Turbo" settings between sessions.

• When deleting or coping over files that are read-only on the ftp server, the utility now changes the permissions as necessary allowing the delete or copy to proceed successfully. This situation will only occur where other tools have been used to set file permissions at the ftp server.
• The web site properties dialog now includes a "browse" facility for changing the source directory/folder.

• The "about box" now includes the expiry date.
• An indication of progress is now displayed when copying large files - An "activity bar" is shown surrounding the main progress bar. This increments and cycles whenever there is any activity over the FTP connection. When copying large files this shows that activity is continuing even while the overall progress bar (which is based on the count of total files) remains unchanged.
• When a web site is being published its status is now shown as "Publishing" rather than its previous (pre-publishing) state.
• Timeout values can be configured. These are set under the "Properties" of a web site. The default time outs should normally be sufficient.
• Message box is now displayed when publication of a web site is complete.

• Ability to associate a dial up account with each web site - this allows the tool to determine automatically which publications can be updated. This is useful if you look after more than one web site and especially if a web site can only be updated if connected on a specific dial up connection.
• The 'Add web site wizard' now allows the source directory to be browsed for.
• New 'Publish All' button, which will publish all web sites - but only those which can be published on the currently active dial-up connection.
• Directory listing and file copying now timeout after a period of inactivity with an automatic reconnection to the server and retry.
• Terminology change: Previously each web site was referred to in the tool as a "publication". The term "web site" is more intuitive and in keeping with the functionality of the tool.
• Tool-tips added to most of the command buttons.

• The log window when opened now always has at least two lines visible. Previously with the default/minimalise-size only one line was visible.
• Automatic time drift adjustment. The copy algorithm relies upon file date-stamps being accurate at the FTP server in order to work out which files need updating. Automatic time drift adjustment compensates for differences between the local clock and the clock at the server.

Following feedback, product renamed from "WebPublisher" to "Web Site Publisher".

Identified bugs in this release:

• Publishing thread is assigned the wrong priority. It should have priority above all other windows functions. This means that publishing is slower than it should be.
• Assumes temporary directory is 'C:\Temp' (which is used for an error log file). Application fails if it needs to log an error and this directory does not exist.
• Fails to correctly negotiate the connection to use Active semantics (it only uses Passive). An Active FTP connection is required to connect to the server if the server does not support Passive connections.
• Does not always renegotiate to use Active semantics when required.
• Does not delete old files when configuration requires it.