Microsoft "Internet Studio" Beta Release Notes  

© Copyright Microsoft Corporation, 1996. All rights reserved.

This document provides late-breaking or other information that supplements the Microsoft "Internet Studio" Beta Release documentation. Late-breaking information about Microsoft "Internet Studio" Database Tools are provided in a companion Readme.

Contents

Support for the "Internet Studio" Beta

Versions

Installing

Installing Client Components
Installing Server Components
Special Notes and Known Problems for Installation

Uninstalling

Using the "Internet Studio" Beta to Deploy Production Applications

Installing Sample Applications

Special Notes and Known Problems

Support for the "Internet Studio" Beta

A peer-to-peer support newsgroup, monitored by Microsoft AnswerPoint (formerly PSS) support engineers, is available for usage questions and issues about the "Internet Studio" Beta. Go to HTTP://www.Microsoft.com/IStudio for information about how to access this newsgroup.

Versions

This section lists the versions of all of the components in the "Internet Studio" Beta:

Client:

Server:

Installing

Installing Client Components

"Internet Studio" client components require Microsoft Windows 95 or Microsoft Windows NT 4.0. To use the "Internet Studio" database tools with Microsoft SQL Server, you need SQL Server version 6.5, upgraded with the Microsoft SQL Server Service Pack 1. This service pack is included on the "Internet Studio" CD.

Minimum Configuration

Operating system Memory (RAM) Processor
Windows 9516M 486/66
WindowsNT424M 486/66

Recommended Configuration

Operating system Memory (RAM) Processor
Windows 9532M P90
WindowsNT432M P90

Important: Before you begin, if you have a previous release of any of the Microsoft "Internet Studio" client components, please use the Add/Remove Program icon in the Windows Control Panel to remove your previous copy before installing this version.

To install: Run Setup.exe on the root of the "Internet Studio" Beta CD. This displays the "Internet Studio" Master Setup dialog box. Choose the components you want to install. To use the "Internet Studio" product, you will need a Web server with the "Internet Studio" server components installed. See "Installing Server Components" below for more information.

Note: You must keep the "Internet Studio" CD in order to uninstall Microsoft Image Composer later on.

Notes for Installing Microsoft Image Composer

Installing Server Components

To use "Internet Studio", you will need a Web server with all of the "Internet Studio" Server components installed. "Internet Studio" Server components support any of the following Web servers: IIS 2.0 Web Server (NT 4.0 Server only), Peer Web Services Web Server (NT Workstation only), or the Personal Web server (Windows 95 only). We have included the Personal Web Server on the master setup dialog box for Windows 95 users who want to install it. The Windows NT Servers come packaged with the shipping versions of Windows NT 4.0.

To use the "Internet Studio" database tools with Microsoft SQL Server, you need SQL Server version 6.5, upgraded with the Microsoft SQL Server Service Pack 1. This service pack is included on the "Internet Studio" CD.

Minimum Configuration

Operating system Memory (RAM) Processor
Windows 9516M 486/66
WindowsNT424M 486/66

Recommended Configuration

Operating system Memory (RAM) Processor
Windows 9532M P90
WindowsNT432M P90

Important: Before you begin, if you have a previous release of any of the "Internet Studio" Server components, please use the Add/Remove Program icon in the Control Panel to remove your previous copy before installing this version.

To install "Internet Studio" server components: Run Setup.exe in the root of the "Internet Studio" Beta CD. This displays the "Internet Studio" Master Setup dialog box. Choose the server components you want to install.

Special Notes and Known Problems for Installation

Running "Internet Studio" and VC 4.1 or the Released Version of Visual J++ on the Same Computer

To do this you must install "Internet Studio" in a different directory from the directories in which you installed VC or Visual J++.

Uninstalling

All Microsoft "Internet Studio" Client and Server components should be uninstalled by using the Add/Remove Programs icon in the Windows Control Panel. Uninstalling by any other means (for example, by deleting directories or files) may cause system instabilities or problems for future installations of these products.

Using the "Internet Studio" Beta to Deploy Production Applications

As with any Beta software, it is recommended that you wait until the commercial release of "Internet Studio" to deploy production applications developed using this software. This Beta version optimizes for browser performance, but does not optimize for server load. The final release of "Internet Studio" will provide the additional option to optimize an application for high scalability. Specifically, this Beta version of " Internet Studio" persists all database connections in the Active Server Pages Session Object, and therefore applications developed with the Beta should not be deployed in situations where you expect large volumes of users to be connected concurrently. The final release of "Internet Studio" will provide the option to draw database connections from the Internet Information Server connection pool on a per-page basis, providing the scalability required for high traffic Internet applications.

Installing Sample Applications

To install the "Internet Studio" sample applications, use the Sample Application Wizard. To do this:

  1. Launch "Internet Studio" and choose the New command on the File menu.
  2. Click the Projects tab and choose the Sample Application Wizard.
  3. Select the sample application you want to install, and follow the instructions in the wizard. If you have downloaded the sample applications from our Web site (http://www.Microsoft.com/Istudio) you will need to instead point the wizard at the .inf file that appears after expanding the compressed file that holds the sample you downloaded.

Special Notes and Known Problems

Please remember that this is the "Internet Studio" Beta release of Microsoft "Internet Studio" and that the following is not a complete list of problems. Late-breaking information about Microsoft "Internet Studio" Database Tools are provided in a companion Readme.

Paging Data Range Header Controls Will Become Non-paging After Opening Them with the Beta; Some Won't Work

The default values for some of the Data Range Header control properties have changed since the "Internet Studio" Alpha version. If you created a Data Range Header control using the Alpha version and kept the defaults, you would have a Paging data range, using a keyset cursor, and optimistic locking. If you open this Data Range Header control in the Beta version of "Internet Studio", these values will switch to Non-paging, using a forward-only cursor, and read-only locking.

If you changed the PageSize property of the Data Range Header control and left all of the other defaults, opening this Data Range Header control in the Beta version will result in a Data Range Header control that won't work since it will get set to Forward only with Paging support. These two options don't work together. To fix this, you will need to change the cursor type to Keyset, and the locking model to Optimistic on the Advanced tab in the Properties window.

Choosing a Scripting Language for Active Server Scripting

"Internet Studio" allows you to design Web applications using the scripting language you are most comfortable with. You can specify the default scripting language in the HTML tab of the Options dialog box.

New .asp files automatically include a language command line that sets the primary scripting language for the page based on this setting. For example, the following line is added as the first line in new .asp files if your default language is VBScript:

<$@ LANGUAGE="VBScript" %>

If you change the Options dialog box setting, new files you create will reflect the change, but the specified scripting language in your existing files will not changed. You will need to change these yourself by editing the file. To change the scripting language for a single file:

  1. Change the <% @ LANGUAGE= attribute to VBSCRIPT, JSCRIPT, JAVASCRIPT, or LiveScript
  2. Refresh each design-time control in the page by opening in the Object Editor and then closing. This causes the run-time text for the control to be regenerated in the correct language depending on the current value in the language command line.
  3. Update any other server scripting code as necessary.

If you delete the <% @ LANGUAGE %> line in a file, the page is processed using the default language that has been set in the .asp registry on the Web server. Any "Internet Studio" design-time controls that are added or reopened will use the language that is currently set in the Options dialog box.

Your application can contain VBScript files and JScript files, but the script inside the <% %> delimiters in a single file must contain a single scripting language.

If you add data connections to your project, they will use the language specified in the SCRIPT tag of the event handler in the Global.asa file if this event handler already exists. If the event handler does not exist, or if no language attribute is specified, the default from the options page is used.

Enable Guest Account If Running SQL Server or Using an Access Database on a Different Computer Than Your Web Server

If your "Internet Studio" Web server is on a different computer than a Microsoft SQL Server or Microsoft Access database you want to access, and this computer is running Windows NT, you must enable the Guest account on the computer that is running SQL Server or that contains the Access database in order to access your databases from the Web server.

To enable the Guest account on the computer where you have SQL Server installed:

  1. From the Start menu, click Programs, then Administrative Tools, and then User Manager for Domains.
  2. If the domain is not the computer domain, click User/Select Domain. Type in the computer name for the domain, and click OK.
  3. Select the Guest user account.
  4. Click Properties on the Edit menu.
  5. Clear (uncheck) the Account Disabled option.

ActiveMovie Control Crashes When Setting Properties

If you use the ActiveMovie control in HTML pages or ActiveX Layout pages, it may crash when setting properties in the Properties window.

Setup Won't Install If Future Version of IE Is Installed on the System

If you have installed a pre-release version of Internet Explorer later than IE 3.01, "Internet Studio" setup may ask you to install Internet Explorer 3.0 instead. To do this, first uninstall the pre-release version of Internet Explorer, and then install the version that ships with "Internet Studio".

Using Session State on Personal Web Server Causes Administration Tools to Hang

If you use the Active Server Pages Session() object to maintain global state on the Personal Web Server (Windows '95 only) you will be unable to use the Administration services for the Personal Web Server in the Control Panel. In addition, you may get errors that refer to an RPC DLL when shutting down Windows. The workaround when shutting down Windows is to choose the End Task button when Windows prompts you. There is no current workaround for administering the Personal Web Server in this situation other than restarting Windows.

Cannot Browse ASP Pages on Personal Web Server from Another Machine

You may be prompted with a Password dialog box that won't accept any valid username/password combinations when trying to access .asp pages running under the Windows 95 Personal Web Server from another machine. To workaround this problem do the following:

  1. Go to the Network applet in the Control Panel
  2. Choose Personal Web Server from "List of Installed Components" and select the "Properties" button. Set Local Security to True, and close the dialog box.
  3. Select the "File And Print Sharing" button on the Network dialog box. Enable the checkbox for "I want to be able to give others access to my files".
  4. Choose the "Access Control" tab on the Network dialog box. Choose "Share Level Access Control". Choose "OK" and close the Network dialog box.
  5. In the Windows Explorer, go the WebShare directory on your hard disk. Select the "WWWRoot" subdirectory. Right-click and choose Sharing.
  6. Choose Share As. Set the Access Type permissions to what you want them to be (for example, Read for everyone, Full for specified people. Note that Full permissions is necessary to edit the directory remotely).
  7. Click Web Sharing. Check all of the options listed under "HTTP:"

Using Project/SourceControl/SourceSafe Menu Item will Crash IStudio with SourceSafe version 4.0 Installed

Don't use this menu item in this Beta. If you want to enable source control for your "Internet Studio" project:

  1. Make sure you have SourceSafe version 5 installed on your server.
  2. Open or create a project on that server and choose the Project/Web Project/Enable Source Control command.

Data Form Wizard Generates Errors Using Filters that Return No Records

The Active Server Pages that the Data Form Wizard generates do not properly handle a filter that returns no records. You will see an ADO error message. This will be fixed for the final release.

Setting Runtime Username/Password on Data Connection Properties Window Causes an Error

If you set the Username or Password on the data connection Properties window, you will get an ADO error when you try to run pages in your project. If you need to set the username or password for your data connection, do the following instead:

  1. Open your Global.asa file.
  2. One of the lines in Global.asa will contain ConnectionName. Open. The string after the Open method is the ODBC connect string. Edit the UID and PWD tokens in the string to be the User ID and Password you want to use. For example, "UID=sa;PWD=sapwd;"

"Unexpected Error" When Using the CopyWeb Command with Spaces in a Name

The CopyWeb command does not support spaces in the name of the target Web. You will get an "Unexpected Error" if you use a name that contains spaces.

"HTTP 500: Server error" when running Adventure Works Sample Application with NT Challenge/Response Only

If you set up your Web server to use only NT Challenge/Response, and then try to run the Active Server Pages "Adventure Works" example, you may get an error "HTTP 500: Server error". The workaround is to check "Basic (Clear Text)" in the Service Tab of the Properties window for the Microsoft Internet Service Manager (on NT) or on the Personal Web Server Administration UI in the Control Panel on Windows 95.

Installing Windows NT Workstation "Peer Web Services" After Installing "Internet Studio" Will Install Incorrect ODBC Files

To correct this problem, rerun the "Internet Studio" Server item in the "Internet Studio" Master Setup dialog box.

Departmental Site Wizard Generates Pages that Look Bad

When this wizard is run, the Cascading Style Sheet (style1.css) file is not being copied from the Themes folder in the installation location to the Web project. Although this doesn't affect the functionality of the created site, it does affect the appearance on browsers that support Cascading Style Sheets. To work around this problem after the wizard has completed, perform the following steps:

  1. In the "Internet Studio" project, Expand the Images Folder, then expand the next folder (which is your theme name).
  2. Right-click this theme name and choose New Folder…
  3. Type in Stylesheet, and click OK.
    You now need to add an existing file to the project which the next steps will help you locate.
  4. Right-click the Stylesheet sub folder and choose Add Files...
    You will need to change your Files of Type to be All Files (*.*).
  5. Locate the Themes directory in your "Internet Studio" installation directory (for example, C:\Program Files\DevStudio\IStudio\Themes).
  6. Change directory to the specific subdirectory containing the Theme chosen when the wizard was run (for example, RedSide).
  7. Change directory to StyleSheet.
  8. Select Style1.css and click OK

Departmental Site Wizard: Need to Provide DSN If Using Feedback Form

If on page three of the Departmental Site wizard you choose the checkbox to include a Feedback Form(default) and later on wizard pane 7 of 8, if you don't select a DSN via the Select DSN button, then the feedback form generated by the wizard will not work. Attempting to Submit Comments through the form will produce a VBScript Runtime Error.

Always select a DSN if you include the Feedback Form in your site.

Data Form Wizard: Adding Records to an Empty Table Will Fail

If you use the Data Form Wizard to build a data form against a table with no records, and then try to insert the first record using the wizard, the ASP page will fail. The workaround is to open the table from the DataView tab and insert at least one record by hand first.

Can't Enable Source Control on Personal Web Server with SourceSafe 5.0 Installed

The only workaround to this problem is to use an NT Server or Workstation with SourceSafe 5.0 installed for your projects.

Opening More Than Eight Instances of Link View May Crash

If you have limited memory in Windows 95, opening more than eight instances of Link View is not recommended; the attempt may crash the "Internet Studio" session.

Using a Proxy Server for Intranet Addresses May Cause LinkView to Fail Verifications on ASP Files

We suggest that you do not use a proxy server for intranet addresses. Link View cannot verify .asp files if Internet Explorer uses a proxy for intranet addresses and anything other than NT Challenge/Response is turned on in IIS. You can avoid using a proxy for intranet addresses by making sure that the "Do not use proxy server for local (intranet) addresses" checkbox is checked in the Proxies tab of the Tools/Options dialog box.

Server-side Include Files Awes Rendered as Verified

Server-side include (*.stm) files will always be rendered as verified if the directory in which they reside on the server has execute permissions turned on. If the directory on the server has execute permissions turned off, *.stm files will appear correctly (that is, they will appear broken if they do not exist and verified if they do).

Secure-Sockets Not Supported in Link View

The https:// method of naming links so that they use Secure Sockets is not supported in Link View.

Project Data Connections Not Recognized by Link View When Using JavaScript

Project Data Connections in Global.asa are not recognized when JavaScript is used as the primary scripting language.

Wizards Will GPF When Using the Left Arrow Key to Navigate

The "Internet Studio" wizards will GPF if you press the left arrow key while focus is on a command button in the wizards.