PagePorter

Parastream PagePorter™ is an entirely new web site design add-in for Microsoft^® Visual Studio^® .NET. PagePorter fills the gaps in Visual Studio .NET with features found in more user-friendly web authoring tools such as Microsoft FrontPage^®. PagePorter was created to address scenarios such as these:

• "Visual Studio .NET would be better suited for creating web sites if it had more of the features found in FrontPage..."
• "My web application is in Visual Studio .NET, but I wish I could do some of my web page layout and design work using Microsoft FrontPage and then turn it into ASP.NET to add the code..."
• "I want to add ASP.NET pages to a FrontPage site and have them look like the rest of the site. Can't I use FrontPage and Visual Studio .NET together on the same web application?"
• "I have a web site that was done in FrontPage, and I'd like to move the whole project over to Visual Studio .NET..."

Key Benefits

• Enhances Visual Studio .NET with many powerful new web development features, which make web site development as easy as with FrontPage.
• Works equally well with or without FrontPage depending on your personal preference and needs.
• FrontPage webs can be converted to ASP.NET all at once, or you can keep the web in FrontPage, and convert just those pages that will really benefit from the .NET framework.

PagePorter is for web developers who want a more productive environment than Visual Studio .NET by itself. PagePorter contains:

• A Visual Studio .NET add-in that:
  • Visually edits a web site's navigation structure with the Navigation View window.
  • Manages a site's hyperlinks with the Hyperlink Manager so you can move and rename project files at will without breaking links.
  • Applies FrontPage themes to a site and/or pages.
  • Converts web sites and pages created in FrontPage to ASP.NET including most FrontPage web controls.
  • Can manage a converted web site with Visual Studio .NET and FrontPage.
• A web page base class (derived from System.Web.UI.Page) that adds:
  • Support for shared borders as in FrontPage.
  • Support for FrontPage themes.
  • Optional http/https redirecting for secure web pages.
• A suite of seven ASP.NET web controls that emulate FrontPage web control functions.

By itself, PagePorter adds new web site development capabilities to Visual Studio .NET with support for themes, shared borders, hyperlink management, a GUI site navigation editor, and seven FrontPage compatible web controls. If you want to use FrontPage with Visual Studio .NET, PagePorter is the component that bridges the gap between them.

The site management capability of PagePorter consists of a Navigation View window that is compatible with the FrontPage navigation structure, and a site hyperlink manager. To enable conversion of FrontPage web pages to ASP.NET, PagePorter comes with a suite of controls that provide the functionality of the FrontPage controls (formerly called "webbots"). Since the "look and feel" of the PagePorter components is the same as FrontPage components, your site visitors will not see any difference between your old FrontPage site and your new .NET site (except for the new features you can now add to your site in .NET!). Most of the controls are supported in this release of PagePorter, please consult the Supported Features page for more information.

Features

• Works with Visual Basic^®, C#^®, or J#^® languages.
• Shares the FrontPage Navigation Structure, Themes, and Parameters with the Visual Studio .NET project.
• Can keep the Visual Studio .NET project "in sync" with the FrontPage project.
• All ASP.NET pages inherit the shared borders and other functionality from a base class that you control.
• All of the custom controls come with full documentation to support writing your own code.
• The "look and feel" of the supported .NET component features are identical to their FrontPage counterparts.

Documentation

You may browse the on-line documentation here, or you can browse our FAQ. Decision-makers should read Why PagePorter? Techies might want to take a look at the PagePorter White Paper. Click here for screen shots. You may also view the Readme file.

We highly recommend that you view the walkthrough to see how PagePorter works.

Licensing

PagePorter requires a license per developer. A license may be used on any number of projects that are owned by either the developer or the developer's employer. If you are a contract developer and turn over the project for the client's maintenance, the client must purchase a copy of PagePorter. A contract developer that solely maintains their client's projects does not need any additional licenses. Each copy of PagePorter comes with one license. If you wish to order PagePorter on CD and require more than one license, you may order the additional copies as ESD instead of CD. The entire EULA is available for reading on-line.

Demo

The demo version of PagePorter is intended to let you to become familiar with PagePorter's features and capabilities, and even build a small web site with it. You can download and use it, but it has the following limitations:

• The graphic "Powered with Parastream Technologies PagePorter" will display on the bottom of the web pages.
• The FrontPage converter will only scan the selected pages and display any potential conversion error messages. No actual converted pages will be generated. You may use the Import Page command instead, but hyperlink references will not be fixed as a result of the import.
• The Navigation View will handle a maximum of 6 pages when adding or moving pages.
• The PagePorter Class Library help is not included, but you can access it on-line here.
• Intellisense is not enabled.
• PagePorter Add-Ins are not supported.
• The add-in expires on March 15, 2005. Web sites published with the demo version never expire.

There are no limits to the number of pages that may be in a web site (which is independent of the Navigation View limitation). Pages in a web site and the web controls never expire, and they will run forever on the web server. The licensing of the free demo version basically says that you may freely distribute it as long as you don't modify it or charge a fee. The entire Demo EULA is available for reading on-line.

You may submit individual FrontPage web pages to the PagePorter Conversion Checker to see how well your pages will convert.

Support

Visit the Parastream Support Forums for free community-based technical support. The forums are moderated and your questions will be answered by knowledgeable forum members or a member of the Parastream Technical Support staff. There is a separate PagePorter Programming Forum for questions and issues about developing applications in Microsoft Visual Basic .NET, C#, or J#.

System Requirements

• Microsoft Visual Studio .NET or Visual Studio .NET 2003 (Visual J# only available in Visual Studio .NET 2003). Visual Studio 2005 is not currently supported.
• Microsoft Internet Information Services and FrontPage Server Extensions.
• Microsoft Windows^® 2000 SP3+, Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003.
• Microsoft FrontPage 98 or later if web site co-management is desired.

Pricing and Ordering

Below are the part numbers for the different versions of PagePorter. Orders for CD media are shipped within 48 hours. ESD (Electronic Secure Delivery) orders will receive instructions to download the product by email within 30 minutes. To order, select the version from the list and click on the or button. If you have problems getting the order form to display after clicking the button, try disabling your popup blocker.

PagePorter is a trademark of Parastream Technologies, Inc. Parastream is a registered trademark of Parastream Technologies, Inc. Microsoft, FrontPage, Visual Studio, C#, J#, Visual Basic, and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.