Share via

Creating Custom FrontPage Component Libraries on Windows Systems

  • Article

This content is no longer actively maintained. It is provided as is, for anyone who may still be using these technologies, with no warranties or claims of accuracy with regard to the most recent product version or service release.

On Microsoft Windows NT and Microsoft Windows 95 systems, you can create a custom Microsoft FrontPage component Dynamic Link Library (DLL) using C or C++ with Microsoft Visual C++ (32-bit). Perform the following steps:

  1. Create a directory called bots in the main directory for FrontPage. By default this should be C:\Program Files\Microsoft FrontPage. This will make the new component available to all FrontPage Web sites hosted on your machine.
  2. Copy the contents of the WebBots directory from the FrontPage SDK distribution into bots directory for FrontPage. All of your custom component project directories should be in the bots directory.
  3. Start Microsoft Visual C++.
  4. From the File menu, click New, and select Project Workspace.
  5. From the New Project Workspace dialog box, choose the Dynamic-Link Library option.
  6. Click the Browse button next to the Location field, and select the bots directory under the main FrontPage directory.
  7. in the Project Name field type your new component short name and click Create.
  8. Open a C++ source file from one of the component examples, such as wbtest2.cpp, and save it into your project as botname.cpp. You may need to use the Insert Files into Project option. Modify the source so it uses the short name for your component.
  9. Select the Win32 Release target from the drop-down menu on the toolbar. Open the Project Settings dialog box.
  10. Select the Link tab.
  11. Change the Output file name from Release/botname.dll to botname.dll.
  12. From the Build menu, click Buildbotname.dll.
  13. Create the component description file (botname.inf) and the component template file (botname.htm), using the examples as a guide.
  14. From the FrontPage Tools menu, click Recalculate Hyperlinks.
  15. From the FrontPage Insert menu, click Web Component.
  16. In the Component type list, select Additional Components.
  17. Your component should now be displayed in the Choose a component list.