Chapter 11 - Securing Web Publishing

Abstract

Internet information services (IIS) 6.0 offers two Web publishing technologies, such as Web distributed authoring and versioning (WebDAV) and front page server extensions (FPSE). This chapter reviews the steps involved in enabling both WebDAV and FPSE publishing. Traditional web publishing involves the use of FTP clients and servers. This method has a number of downsides such as it requires an extra server (FTP) on the Web server, it requires additional ports to be opened in firewalls, it requires a dedicated FTP client on the user's machine, and updating content cannot be done “in place” on the server. Instead, it must be downloaded to the user's machine, edited, and uploaded again. WebDAV obviates these problems by allowing editing over HTTP. Additionally, it supports a rudimentary file-locking system that prevents two users attempting to write to the same file at the same time. After enabling WebDAV, appropriate security permissions need to be configured to allow authorized users an appropriate level of access while denying unauthorized users permissions to perform publishing actions. An alternative publishing technology to WebDAV is Microsoft front page server extensions (FPSE). FPSE, however, extends beyond authoring. Using FPSE, clients can create and manage site themes and utilize server-side FPSE components that allow dynamic content to be created without the user having to write much, if any, code.