Up and Running with Frontier Web Site Management

Building Web Sites with Frontier 5

The purpose of this tutorial is to get you managing your Web site with Frontier quickly and painlessly.

We're only going to scratch the surface of Frontier's powers for writing programs, storing data, driving other applications, customizing its own behavior, and even managing Web sites. And that's as it should be; the bulk of such matters belongs in a general Frontier reference, or a tutorial on Frontier as a whole.

When you've completed this tutorial, though, you'll be a solid beginning user of Frontier, ready to expand your abilities and knowledge whenever you want, yet perfectly able to run a Web site with Frontier effectively and confidently based on what you already know.

Welcome!

Table of Contents

About This Tutorial

 
The idea is to get you up and running with Frontier fast.

About Web Site Management

 
What a Site Management tool can do for you.

Why Frontier?

 
It has scriptable power, so it can do stuff other site management tools can't -- like put you in the driver's seat.

Starting Up

 
Learning what Frontier feels like.

Getting Comfortable With Tables

 
How to find your way around the database.

Exploring the Examples

 
Frontier comes ready to demonstrate its power: you barely have to lift a finger.

Your First Web Site

 
Enough with the introduction, let's build a Web site yet already!

Frontier HTML Basics

 
Some rudimentary HTML that Frontier does for you, and how directives apply to individual pages or groups of pages.

Getting Comfortable With Outlines

 
And you thought you'd left them behind when you graduated from sixth grade.

Templates

 
It's easy to tie your pages together with common header and footer material.

Outline Formatting

 
In which outlines magically become bulleted lists, tables, and (best of all) nothing.

Includes and Macros

 
Who needs server-side includes, when Frontier can include any Web page in any other? It's done with a macro, so we learn about macros too.

Handling Images

 
How to store pictures in Frontier's database, and generate references to them automatically.

Glossaries and Filters

 
Let Frontier save your typing fingers -- and make it easy to change stock phrases everywhere they occur.

Defines and Custom Directives

 
A further glossary-like mechanism that lets you do some interesting tricks.

Publishing

 
How to publish your whole site in one fell swoop.

Site Outline and NextPrev

 
Tables of contents, and links that lead to the next or previous page -- all done automatically.

Relative References

 
The glossPatch mechanism means your relative references won't break if you rearrange your site.

Leveraging Your Work

 
Frontier makes it easy to convert your already existing Web pages.

Narrative of a Rendering

 
From Frontier to browser, step by step.

Where To Go From Here

 
Or, what to do now that you're hooked.

Terms, Tips and Examples

 
A collection ot Terms, Tips and Examples linked to the specific pages in the tutorial.

Download

You can download this tutorial for off-line reading as a Windows zip file or as a Macintosh binhex file.