gurumarkb
New member
For those who need to support FrontPage customers using SSL (HTTPS web pages with forms) I have a working solution. It does require SSH-ing into the Linux server running DA but it is do-able. It gets a bit involved but does work.
1. SSH into the DirectAdmin server hosting the domain you have created already and have enabled Frontpage support.
2. Manually setup Frontpage extentions for the web site with the OWSADM tool. Refer to this link to thread 2119 on how to do that.
http://www.directadmin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2119
Running the OWSADM.EXE utility gets the needed <VirtualHost nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn:443> and all the other SSL info added to the domain's httpd.conf file. Running this in and of itself does not fix SSL errors, yet I believe FrontPage does need this additional information (although this is my educated guess).
3. Go to the domain you are working on to edit the httpd.conf file.
CD /usr/local/directadmin/data/users/<domain name>
The httpd.conf file is then edited so that the info under VirtualHost for the :443 that points to the private_html directory is changed to the public_html directory. There are 2 lines that you will find that show private_html in the directory path and change them to public_html. Save and exit the text editor you used (I used JOE, crude but it works).
4. Make sure there IS NOT a symbolic link file in the domain directory for private_html that points to the public_html directory. Apparently FrontPage doesn't like symbolic links. If you have a symbolic link for the private_html pointing to the public_html folder then delete it.
5. Frontpage has it's own directory in the /usr/local folder (/usr/local/frontpage). In that directory are domain name configuration files for each website that is using Frontpage extensions. In this directory, when Frontpage is enabled in DirectAdmin there is a config file created that has a <domain name>:80.cnf file name format with permissions set to the user for that domain. There is also a we80.cnf file. As suggested by a previous post copy the we80.cnf file to make a we443.cnf file and copy the <domain name>:80.cnf file to make a <domain name>:443.cnf file. Use the -p option for the CP (Linux copy command) to preserve user permissions.
6. I found a hidden problem, any changes made using the DirectAdmin control panel for the domain that has FrontPage enabled causes the httpd.conf file for that domain to be re-written thus losing the manual changes and the Virtual Host :443 SSL directories are pointing back to the private_html directory and not the public_html directory that it needs to point to. To keep this from happening here is the answer from DirectAdmin support:
--------------------------------------------------
Hello,
To make it (the manual httpd.conf edits) permanent, use:
Admin Level -> Custom httpd config -> domain.com
insert:
|*if !SUB|
|?DOCROOT=`HOME`/domains/`DOMAIN`/public_html|
|*endif|
which says, if this isn't a subdomain (must be the domain) then use the public_html for everything. It will be redundant for http, which is fine, but it will give you want you want for https.
To update DA:
Admin Level -> Licenses/updates -> Update DirectAdmin
fairly straightforward
Thank you,
John
--------------------------------------------------
There was no way to know how to keep DA from rewriting the httpd.conf file every time a change was made so I thank John very much for his research into this. Without this piece of code it would mean manually editing the httpd.conf file every time a change was made in DA (that would be an extreme pain for me since I have many FrontPage programmers using DA and would be constantly taking phone calls about web site SSL page errors).
Anyway, I hope this information is helpful to anyone supporting Frontpage with SSL forms and such.
1. SSH into the DirectAdmin server hosting the domain you have created already and have enabled Frontpage support.
2. Manually setup Frontpage extentions for the web site with the OWSADM tool. Refer to this link to thread 2119 on how to do that.
http://www.directadmin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2119
Running the OWSADM.EXE utility gets the needed <VirtualHost nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn:443> and all the other SSL info added to the domain's httpd.conf file. Running this in and of itself does not fix SSL errors, yet I believe FrontPage does need this additional information (although this is my educated guess).
3. Go to the domain you are working on to edit the httpd.conf file.
CD /usr/local/directadmin/data/users/<domain name>
The httpd.conf file is then edited so that the info under VirtualHost for the :443 that points to the private_html directory is changed to the public_html directory. There are 2 lines that you will find that show private_html in the directory path and change them to public_html. Save and exit the text editor you used (I used JOE, crude but it works).
4. Make sure there IS NOT a symbolic link file in the domain directory for private_html that points to the public_html directory. Apparently FrontPage doesn't like symbolic links. If you have a symbolic link for the private_html pointing to the public_html folder then delete it.
5. Frontpage has it's own directory in the /usr/local folder (/usr/local/frontpage). In that directory are domain name configuration files for each website that is using Frontpage extensions. In this directory, when Frontpage is enabled in DirectAdmin there is a config file created that has a <domain name>:80.cnf file name format with permissions set to the user for that domain. There is also a we80.cnf file. As suggested by a previous post copy the we80.cnf file to make a we443.cnf file and copy the <domain name>:80.cnf file to make a <domain name>:443.cnf file. Use the -p option for the CP (Linux copy command) to preserve user permissions.
6. I found a hidden problem, any changes made using the DirectAdmin control panel for the domain that has FrontPage enabled causes the httpd.conf file for that domain to be re-written thus losing the manual changes and the Virtual Host :443 SSL directories are pointing back to the private_html directory and not the public_html directory that it needs to point to. To keep this from happening here is the answer from DirectAdmin support:
--------------------------------------------------
Hello,
To make it (the manual httpd.conf edits) permanent, use:
Admin Level -> Custom httpd config -> domain.com
insert:
|*if !SUB|
|?DOCROOT=`HOME`/domains/`DOMAIN`/public_html|
|*endif|
which says, if this isn't a subdomain (must be the domain) then use the public_html for everything. It will be redundant for http, which is fine, but it will give you want you want for https.
To update DA:
Admin Level -> Licenses/updates -> Update DirectAdmin
fairly straightforward
Thank you,
John
--------------------------------------------------
There was no way to know how to keep DA from rewriting the httpd.conf file every time a change was made so I thank John very much for his research into this. Without this piece of code it would mean manually editing the httpd.conf file every time a change was made in DA (that would be an extreme pain for me since I have many FrontPage programmers using DA and would be constantly taking phone calls about web site SSL page errors).
Anyway, I hope this information is helpful to anyone supporting Frontpage with SSL forms and such.
Last edited: