WordPress "locks out" Frontpage

[TwoRocks]

I've noticed that installing WordPress (2.0.x) in the root directory of a domain disables / defeats Frontpage authentication when a user chooses "friendly URLs" in the WordPress options.

This activates Apache's RewriteEngine, and as a result Frontpage gets "locked out". The error message in Frontpage is: "The server could not complete your request [...] make sure that the server has the Frontpage Server Extensions [...] installed"

I observed these changes to the .htaccess file in the root directory, and my best guess is that these changes cause Frontpage authentication to fail.

Before:

# -FrontPage-
IndexIgnore .htaccess */.??* *~ *# */HEADER* */README* */_vti*
<Limit GET POST>
order deny,allow
deny from all
allow from all
</Limit>
<Limit PUT DELETE>
order deny,allow
deny from all
</Limit>
AuthName www.DOMAIN.com
AuthUserFile /home/USER/public_html/_vti_pvt/service.pwd
AuthGroupFile /home/USER/public_html/_vti_pvt/service.grp

After:

# -FrontPage-
IndexIgnore .htaccess */.??* *~ *# */HEADER* */README* */_vti*
<Limit GET POST>
order deny,allow
deny from all
allow from all
</Limit>
<Limit PUT DELETE>
order deny,allow
deny from all
</Limit>
AuthName www.DOMAIN.com
AuthUserFile /home/USER/public_html/_vti_pvt/service.pwd
AuthGroupFile /home/USER/public_html/_vti_pvt/service.grp

# BEGIN WordPress

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]


# END WordPress

Is there any way to use the RewriteEngine and get Frontpage authentication to work at the same time?

[Jeff]

Hi David,

As this is more of a support related issue, I will need you to open a ticket with the helpdesk so we can investigate. Please be sure to provide your account details when opening the ticket, thanks.

[TwoRocks]

Jeff,

I'll open a support ticket, as you suggested, but the reason I posted here first was that there is a distinct possibility that others might run into the same problem. Maybe turning this into a knowledgebase article after a solution has been found might be a good idea... or you could put it in the "How-to" section here on the forums... just a thought.

[Jeff]

Definitely a good idea. I'd be happy to add it to the Knowledge Base. We have a pretty extensive Knowledge Base currently, and we are always happy to add new things to it. From the customer perspective, it is so much simpler to be able to search the KB and find a solution immediately. We will always do whatever we can to ensure running your business is as simple and time effective as possible. Thanks for the recommendation, I will follow up on this once the issue has been resolved.

[TwoRocks]

Well,

after opening a support ticket, according to your own esteemed John Kata there's no way to get WordPress (installed in the root directory) and FrontPage to "co-exist peacefully".

If that is in fact the case, I'd at least like to offer my (less-than-ideal) work-around:

Whenever the need arises to access the site through FrontPage, strip the WordPress-inserted part from the .htaccess file in the root directory temporarily. I know... it's a pain in the [bleep], but that's what I've been doing :eek:

Anybody got a better solution?

[John]

TwoRocks,

I've done some research on the issue, and I'm happy to reveal that there actually IS a solution.

Quoting http://codex.wordpress.org/permalinks#Permalinks.2C_.htaccess.2C_and_MS_Front page
Finally, A solution.

There have been a number of threads on this issue in the support forums, and until now, no solution to the problem.

Normally, on a Unix server with the Microsoft Frontpage Server extensions installed wordpress works just fine and you are able to edit and publish pages (with MS Frontpage) - UNTIL - you make a change to the permalinks (for example to the date based kind that I like /2005/04/etc). I often suggest that type of URI to folks asking about permalinks etc, as that is the method recommended by the w3c (see http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI ).

Now, the problem is that MS Frontpage uses the .htaccess file (which the wordpress mod_rewrite rules must go into) for it's "publishing" and "web authoring" configuration. As soon as the wordpress mod_rewrite code is added to the file, two things happen - the permalinks don't work, and the MS Frontpage Server extensions become corrupted.

I have tried countless ways to get around this, including trying to use rewrite rules that "ignore" the %{HTTP_USERAGENT)% used by Frontpage, to using a second AccessFilename .wpaccess to the httpd.conf file, and a host of other things, and nothing worked so that a person would be able to both use MS Frontpage to manage the website and use the permalinks for wordpress at the same time.

The solution is acctually quite simple, and I kind of figured it out by accident.

If you are using or wish to use MS Frontpage (or that's just how your hosting company has things configured) along with wordpress you'll need to take the following simple steps on your server (or have your hosting company do it for you).

MS Frontpage creates the following directory _vti_bin

Nested within that it creates both _vti_adm and _vti_aut

In addition to in your website (or wordpress) root folder in all of those directories you will find additional .htaccess files.

In all three of these directories AND in the root directory, at the top of ALL of the .htaccess files you simply need to add one line -

Options +FollowSymlinks

There may or may not already be a line in each like Options None Edit and save each .htaccess file and you're done. Now everyhting works perfectly, including MS Frontpage, AND the permalinks of your choosing.

If you need help following the above steps, please respond to the ticket you've created and we'll be more than happy to assist you. I'll also be adding this to our KB.

*Edit: Newly created KB article: https://secure.myriadnetwork.com/my/index.php?x=&mod_id=2&root=9&id=236*

[TwoRocks]

Excellent "detective work", John! I've already made the changes, and it's working. :)

You can see for yourself here (http://planetsundancer.com/2006/08/12/wordpress-and-frontpage-peacefully-coexist) that "friendly URLs" are functional, and after uninstalling and reinstalling the FrontPage extensions via cPanel, plus adding the stated "Options" parameter to all 4 .htaccess files, Frontpage is once again able to open the site, as well! Whoo-hoo! :D

One word of caution for others who might want to follow this procedure: if you do uninstall & reinstall Frontpage, it completely overwrites / recreates the .htaccess file in the root folder, so make sure you copy the WordPress section into a text file before you do the uninstall/reinstall of the Frontpage extensions, then paste the WordPress section back in afterwards.

Great team work on this!

[John]

TwoRocks,

I'm glad to see it worked out - not a problem =]