Arctan Computer Ventures Ltd
uPnMove

Instructions

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 uPnMove v1.1 Help Page

Contents

Introduction

 Starting the Application Selecting / Amending Template

Registration & Contacts

 Configuration Generating forwards
Changes Location of Web Site on PC Upload Updates to New Site
Installation FTP Server Details Road To Hell...

Introduction

There are a proliferation of FTP applications available on the market. I've tried a lot of them myself. However, I find that most are somewhat over-complex for my basic few needs, and I've not found a tool that aids with the problem of having to transfer a site to a different service provider.

Having been forced to transfer to another provider following the collapse of one, and the exorbitant price for increasing the allocated space for my web site with my other, I decided to transfer the site to another, hopefully more stable, provider, and use a separate ISP for accessing the Internet. I keep a copy of my site on my hard disk, so there was no need to download the site first. However, I needed a way of ensuring the regular visitors to my site were directed to my new site. Users (and search engines) could potentially enter via any of the several-hundred pages on the site, so ideally, every page on the old site should either redirect the user to the new home page, or (even better) to the equivalent page on the new site. Can you imagine creating new pages to perform this task for every page on the site? Nightmare!

Hence this tool was born. It serves two purposes. First, to automate the creation of customized redirection pages for every page on the old site, and then to upload the site to the new location. The beauty of this is that the upload function to the new site can be performed again whenever any changes have been made. There's a simple little option which lets me choose how I want to do the upload too - wipe the site and upload the lot for a spring-clean, upload only to refresh everything without deleting (if i'm feeling a bit neurotic), or upload only the files that have changed (great for doing updates once the site's been moved).

The idea is pretty simple. To my surprise, so was the implementation, and to my utter delight, it was ridiculously easy to use! It took me about five minutes to put the FTP login details for my old and new sites, about 20 seconds to generate the redirection changes. One click (and a twenty-minute wait following this) to upload the redirections to the old site, and another click (and a good 45 minute wait) to upload my rather huge site to the new site. No pain, but plenty of gain!

So satisfied with the ease of it, I'll be using it to upload any changes to my web site, too. See if you agree with me, and try it for yourself. Register it, and you'll receive any updates, and also support me in my creation of future versions, and other useful little applications that occur to me. Indeed, if I can get enough income to support myself and my family from these apps, I might even be able to give up my day job, and have time to take up doing this full time!

All the best, and Enjoy. - Simon Huggins.

Registering uPnMove; Contacts; About the Author

Whilst being very simple, this really is a very useful little program, I'm sure (or at least I hope) you'll agree. If you do decide to use it, you should really register it for $5. This is a life-long license, so you don't have to pay for it every time I add any fancy new bits to it. Legally speaking, you have thirty days grace in which to register it, but my guess is you'll decide its useful well before this time, so feel free to register it before the deadline. As its a life-long license, there's no penalty for registering it early!

To register, visit the web site at http://www.simonhuggins.com/upnmove/register.htm and follow the instructions there. You can pay online using your credit/debit card, or send a cheque (a bit more long-winded). An unlock key / registration code will be e:mailed back to you.

When you receive this key, click on the button on the main screen to bring up the registration panel, and type the key into the panel. Click on the Unlock button to use this key to make the application registered. The will disappear, and you will no longer get the reminder screens when you start and quit the program.

If you have any enquiries or suggestions, feel free to e:mail me at upnmove@simonhuggins.com

The application is written in Borland Delphi, and makes use of the FTP Client component in the ICS Suite (Internet Component Suite); a piece of FreeWare by Francois Piette. The suite can be found at it website: http://users.swing.be/francois.piette or http://www.rtfm.be/fpiette - it's a great suite, under continual development, and has large community of active users that make suggestions, pass advice via the related newsgroup etc.

Finally, a bit about myself. My name is Simon Huggins, and I own a company called Arctan Computer Ventures Ltd, which has the equivalent turnover of a chip factory during the great Irish potato famine, which is why I have a full-time job - you know, in order to eat and all that.

I live in England, but never mind. I have been programming since I was eleven (that's seventeen years now), and have worked on a plethora of systems and languages, including Delphi, Basic, FoxPro, JavaScript, HTML, PeopleSoft, and goodness knows how many proprietary systems. I'm a graduate of the University of Sheffield, which is actually a really nice place and people only move away from it to get a job.

I've got a wife (called Pat), two (inherited) children, two feisty by lovable cats, and a step-granddaughter with an impressive kick on her. I am a sad geek, as my wife keeps on telling me, but I guess you wouldn't be getting this app if I wasn't, so who's to complain?

I maintain a number of other web sites, all of which are available from my home page at http://www.simonhuggins.com - they include a Beauty & The Beast Fan Site, Poetry site, Tarot site, and Company site which sell my software, including WordPuzzle Pro (a crossword creation program), Excel2Ingres (converts Excel spreadsheets to appropriate tables / load scripts for the Ingres database, and back again),  LogAnalyzer (looks at the log file generated by Microsoft SQL Server, and has filter functions), and ArcTel (A Telnet Client with Scripting facilities). Future plans - well, I'll not get into that one!

Changes

Date Release Details
  1.1 Help Page:
Added History Page, Corrected link to Introduction section.
Application:
Bug fix: Showed negative days on splash-screen when registration overedue.
2nd February 2001 1.0 Software Release

 

Installation.

OK. You can download the application from http://www.simonhuggins.com/upnmove/upnmove.exe and when you've downloaded it, double-click on it from Explorer or choose the option to execute it immediately after downloading.

You'll get a WinZip Self-Extractor screen that looks something like this:-

Click on the About button for more information about the authors, or click on the Setup button to commence the extraction procedure.

This extracts a compressed version of the installation program to your hard disk, ready for the installation to commence.

Wait a few seconds whilst the extraction proceeds, and the installation program is started. You will get a progress bar looking something like this whilst it is getting the installation program ready:

A blue graduated setup screen will be displayed, with a Welcome dialog box, showing the uPnMove logo. Click on the Next> button to continue.

You can now choose the destination directory, in which the application will be stored.. If you are happy to stick to the default, which will be:-
 c:\Program Files\Arctan Computer Ventures\uPnMove\
then simply click on the Next> button. Otherwise, click on the Browse... button and choose an alternative directory.

The next page details the Program Folder (or Group) that the Application will be available from on the Start / Programs menu. As Default, a new group called uPnMove will be generated. However, you can either type your own name into the text box, or choose one of the existing ones from the list box. Normally, you would stick to the default, and just click on the Next> button to go onto the next page.

You'll then get an information screen for you to check prior to starting the installation. Click on Next> to start the installation.This should be very quick. A new program group will be created which looks something like the picture on the right.

This is simply another way of looking at the group you find by clicking on the Start button and Programs then uPnMove menus. Click on the cross in the top right hand corner of the box to close it.

Finally, you will see the final dialog box in the installation process, which gives you the option of looking at the readme file (this document) and/or launching the application. Tick the boxes that apply to you, and click on the Finish button.

Installation is now complete.

Starting the Application

Start the application by:-

You will notice that a title screen will display for about four seconds when the application is launched. This lets you know how long you have left before being required to register the application (a paltry $5!). After thirty days, the writing will appear in red, and the delay will be a little longer. Note that you get the same flash screen when you exit the program too. Of course, if you register the application, you won't get this screen.

You can carry on and use the application whilst the screen is being displayed - it's just a bit tricky to see being it!

Configuration

Before using the application, you need to let the program know a few piece of information so that it can function effectively. These can be briefly summarized as follows:-

Once you've set this information up (which should take you no more than five or ten minutes, if you have the information to hand), you're ready to go. You click on the Generate Files at Old Root from HTML Source button to create the forwarding pages that are to be loaded onto the old web site, and then the Upload button next to the Old Root option on the main page to perform the uploading. It's just too easy!!!

Location of Web Site on PC


You can specify where on your PC your web site is being developed and stored (e.g. using a Web Editor such as Microsoft FrontPage) by typing the directory where the web site is being held (without a trailing backslash) in the box next to the New Root: text box. Alternatively, you can select a directory where the web site is held by clicking on the button to the right of the text box. If you type in the name of a new directory, that directory can be created from here.


You can specify where, on your PC, the files that will automatically route your users from the old web site to the new web site, will be generated. This can be a brand new directory, and should be in a different location to your main web site. You can type in the directory name, or click on the button to select a directory and/or to create a new directory.

Selecting and amending a HTML template


In order to generate a web page for each HTML page on your web site, you need to specify a template on which each page will be based. There are four supplied as standard:-

The default is auto.htm which will be the required choice for most users.

You can select any other template by clicking on the button to select a file.

The corresponding HTML that is stored in the file is displayed in the main text box. If you're not interested in delving into HTML customizations, don't read any further in this section!

You can amend this HTML to your requirements by changing the the text in this text box. When you make any changes, the filename will display in bold, indicating that the HTML has changed, and needs to be saved, press Ctrl-S or right-click over the text-box, and choose Save.

If you wish to save the changes to a different file, press Ctrl-Alt-S or right-click over the text-box and choose Save As... and choose a location / new file-name to save the file as.

When the web pages are generated, various Insertions are replaced with the details relevant for that page and saved with the web page. This is how the page is customized and made unique for each existng page on your site.

The insertion are available by right-clicking at the point where the insertion is to go in the text box, choosing the Inserts menu, and selecting one of the keywords. Alternatively, there is a function key that serves as a keyboard shortcut for each of the keywords:-

Have a look at the sample template HTML files supplied to see how these can be used.

When you right-click over the text-box, you also have the usual array of other editing facilities such as Cut, Copy, Paste, Undo, Select All etc.

FTP Server Details

Your ISP (Internet Service Provider) should be able to provide you with information about the FTP server for your Web Site. This is basically the same as a directory on your own computer, except its held on the ISP's server. The directory is allocated a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) which is unique on the Internet. Some people have a domain name registered to to their Web Site. For example, http://www.simonhuggins.com is a URL, and is held on an ISP's server. When I log onto the server using FTP (File Transfer Protocol), I am placed as default in a directory. With some ISP's this directory represents the directory where your web pages will be placed directly. Your home page will typically be called index.htm or index.html. Some ISPs have a html directory, in which you will place your web pages, and a cgi-bin directory, in which you place programs that can be called by pages on your web site.

You will need your FTP server and login details from both your original (old) server, onto which the generated redirection pages are to be placed, and the new server, to which the redirected pages will be redirected, and to which any new or updated pages will be placed. These can be obtained from your ISP, and were probably e:mailed to you when you first signed-up to your respective ISPs.

To put these details into the application, click on the button from the main screen. The same details are repeated in two sections - one for the old web site FTP server, one for the new one. These are described here:-

When you've finished setting up your servers, click on the Ok button to return to the main screen. That's your FTP servers, where your web sites are held for all to see, set up and ready to use! 

Generating Forwarding Pages for Old Web Site

So you've decided on the HTML template to use, and set up the details of how to connect up to the FTP servers, and set up where your web site is being held locally for the NEW web site, and where the old web site is to be held locally for the forwarding pages.

So now, to generate HTLM pages for each page on your web site according to this template, click on the button on the main screen.

The cursor will change the an egg timer whilst this being done, and then you will se a message pop up to tell you that the site has been generated, and the number of pages generated.

If you were to look at the 'old root' directory, where the generated pages are stored (e.g. using using Windows Explorer), you would see the same file and directory names as your main web site, but the file lengths will be small, as each file will designed to redirect the user to the new web page. If you look at one of the pages (e.g. by dragging it into notepad), you will see an example of how the Inserts have been changed into relevant URLs/Titles for the page.

Upload Forwarding Page to Old Web Site

The next bit's easy. Having created the forwarding pages, just click on the button next to the Old Root: heading on the main page (this is the bottom-most button). You will see a warning message which checks to make sure you wish to do this (in case you have clicked on the button by mistake). I would recommend at this stage checking to ensure that you are connected to the internet, e.g. through dial-up networking. Note that some ISPs rather  annoyingly insist that you are logged in using one of their Dial-Up Numbers in order to update your web site. If you chose the Wipe Site option, you will see a warning box which will give you the opportunity to cancel, in case this is not what you intended. 

A box is then displayed which shows you the process of transferring the files to the server - logging in (the password and its length are obscured), wiping the site (if chosen), creating directories, transferring files, and logging back off again. Once the display stops scrolling down, the process has finished, and you can click on the cross in the top-right hand corner of the box to return to the main screen once again.

If you wish to interrupt the process at any time, you can either break the connection yourself, or just press the Esc key once to stop the process, and again to close the screen.

You can copy the progress of the log at any time using the Copy log to clipboard button, and paste the results into a word-processed or similar document for further examination or record-keeping.
Note that as the log fills up, rows from 51-100 will be chopped to make room for new lines at the bottom of the log.

Upload Changes to Current Web Site

The final part of the process is to upload your original web pages to your new site. Having already set up the directory in which the site is held on your PC next to the New Root: heading, and the FTP server details where the site is to be newly located, you can upload the entire site to your web server by simply clicking on the button next to the New Root: heading on the main page (this is the top-most button).

You will see a warning message which checks to make sure you wish to do this (in case you have clicked on the button by mistake). I would recommend at this stage checking to ensure that you are connected to the internet, e.g. through dial-up networking. Note that some ISPs rather annoyingly insist that you are logged in using one of their Dial-Up Numbers in order to update your web site. If you chose the Wipe Site option, you will see a warning box which will give you the opportunity to cancel, in case this is not what you intended. 

A box is then displayed which shows you the process of transferring the files to the server - logging in (the password and its length are obscured), creating directories, transferring files, and logging back off again. Once the display stops scrolling down, the process has finished, and you can click on the cross in the top-right hand corner of the box to return to the main screen once again.

If you wish to interrupt the process at any time, you can either break the connection yourself, or just press the Esc key once to stop the process, and again to close the screen.

You can copy the progress of the log at any time using the Copy log to clipboard button, and paste the results into a word-processed or similar document for further examination or record-keeping.
Note that as the log fills up, rows from 51-100 will be chopped to make room for new lines at the bottom of the log.

Note that you can use this button any time you have updated your web site. If you have the Wrt Changes option set, the update should be quite quick, as only new/changed files will be written. However, deleted files will remain on the server. If you use the Wipe Site option, everything will be deleted and replaced with a fresh set of files on the server. This is great for small sites, and to occasionally spring-clean a larger site, as you know you've always go an exact replica of what's on your PC.

Road to Hell...

They say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Well, here's a few good intentions about how I'd like to change the application in the next release. Feel free to add your thoughts by e:mailing me at upnmove@simonhuggins.com - I'm sure you've got opinions on how the program works now, and how it could work better...