SiteStudio 1.5 Frequently-Asked Questions

Table of Contents

1.General

2. Payment and Licencing 3. Administration 4. Customization 5. Troubleshooting 6. Installation and Compatibility

1. General 1.1. What is SiteStudio? SiteStudio is industry leading browser-based web site design and construction tool. It is fully and seamlessly integrated with H-Sphere. By using SiteStudio you add value to your Internet service by providing your customers with the easiest way to build a website. With SiteStudio, your users need not know anything about FTP, HTML, Telnet, HTTP, or imaging software. If they can surf the Internet, they can build their own professionally looking website.


1.2. What is the difference between H-Sphere and SiteStudio? H-Sphere is integrated control panel and back end system for providing web hosting services. SiteStudio is browser-based web site design and construction tool, it can be used independently of H-Sphere, but for user's convenience it also can be seamlessly integrated with H-Sphere.


1.3. How does SiteStudio publish sites? SiteStudio can use FTP publisher for remote file publishing or use filepublisher to publish files on the local filesystem or on the network filesystem.


1.4. What's the purpose of real_login? It is the name of FTP user account, if login name to SiteStudio is different.


1.5. Is discussion board plugin available? Not as yet. Users will be notified when it becomes available for integration.


1.6. What is Tomcat? SiteStudio is a servlet and requires a servlet runner/engine to get it running. According to the Jakarta developers, "Tomcat is the servlet container that is used in the official Reference Implementation for the Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages technologies. The Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages specifications are developed by Sun under the Java Community Process." For more information, visit http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat/index.html


1.7. What is Apache JServ? SiteStudio is a servlet and requires a servlet runner/engine to get it running. According to Apache developers, "Apache JServ is a 100% pure Java servlet engine intentially build for use with the Apache webserver and fully compliant with the JavaSoft Java Servlet APIs 2.0 specification." For more information, visit http://java.apache.org/jserv/index.html


1.8. What is tgz? This is one of the most popular file compression formats for Unix systems.


1.9. Does SiteStudio support IBM or Java Caffee? No, SiteStudio works only with Sun Java 1.3 and higher.


1.10. How can I see and set environment variables in my computer? To see the list of environment variables, just type set in the console window. To set environment variable for current console, type:
set <var_name>=<value> (for Windows)
<var_name>=<value>; export <var_name> (for Unix)
e.g. to set JAVA_HOME variable in Windows®, open 'Command Prompt' window and type:
set JAVA_HOME=C:\j2sdk1.4.0\

to set environment variable for all Windows® console sessions, you need to:

  1. Click Start -> Control Panel -> System (or press the Win+Pause keys)
  2. Choose 'Advanced' tab
  3. Press the 'Environment Variables' button
  4. In the 'System Variables' section press 'New' and type the variable name and value.
  5. Press OK button for all three screens.
for Unix you need to edit your shell .profile file which is located in your home directory, e.g. you can insert to your shell.profile:
JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/jdk1.3
export JAVA_HOME
to set JAVA_HOME variable.


1.11. Is there a manual that I can give to my clients on how to use SiteStudio? Sure. The on-line help is available in SiteStudio. Find the Question mark in the top right corner of SiteStudio screen and click it.


2. Payment and Licencing 2.1. Where can I buy licenses for SiteStudio? Please contact sales@psoft.net.


2.2. Are there any hidden charges? No, you pay once for one user.


2.3. How much does SiteStudio cost? Please, see the price information


2.4. Are these fees monthly (annual) or one time per user? SiteStudio is been licensed only ONE TIME per user.


2.5. I had 100 users for 100 licenses, then I deleted 10 old users and added 10 new users. Do I have to get a license for the new 10 users? No, you don't. You need a license only for the current number of users.


2.6. I have 200 users, but only 100 are using SiteStudio. How many licenses do I need? 100. You pay only for those users who actually user SiteStudio.


2.7. I've bought the H-Sphere, and I'd like to have SiteStudio with it. Is there any discounts for SiteStudio? If you buy H-Sphere, you get SiteStudio for free.


2.8. Do you provide support? Yes, we do provide support for our customers, but we DON'T provide support of end-users (hosting providers' customers). It means that if end users have problem with our products, they should contact their hosting provider and we will help hosting provider to resolve the problem.


3. Administration 3.1. What should I do to have my domain name instead of my IP in the SiteStudio URL? Change all *_URL variables in all *.properties files located in the psoft_config directory.


3.2. I've changed some variables in the masonry.properties file, but the changes are not applied After making changes in the masonry.properties, you need to reboot SiteStudio.


3.3. We've configured CP to work through https but SiteStudio still isn't working... SiteStudio is not a part of Hsphere, but a separate product that does not work via https. There is no sense to configure SiteStudio to use SSL. Because if the sites that is to be build does not not work via SSL, then users will always get warning messages every time they click any link of SiteStudio. That will confuse them. It's really unnecessary feature.


3.4. When I remove a user from the SiteStudio Admin CP, the user's data is not removed from the system and the login still works? If you change anything in the user data, and even if you delete users and want your changes to be applied immediately, you still need to restart SiteStudio.


3.5. After I've changed user's settings from the SiteStudio Admin CP, new settings still didn't apply... If you change anything in the user data and want your changes to be applied immediately, you still need to restart SiteStudio.


3.6. How do I back up the SiteStudio website files for data backup purposes? To back up the SiteStudio's user info, you need to store the .../var/websites directory and have the dump of your users DB in case if SiteStudio is configured to use DB.


3.7. When a site is published, does a virtual host need to be setup on the server? SiteStudio is not a hosting system, it is just a tool to build a site. So you need to create site manually or using you hosting system and add site access info to SiteStudio DB using SiteStudio admin panel.


3.8. With FTPpublisher, can the user specify his own FTP server on the login screen? No. If you want SiteStudio to take this info from the login page, you need to configure it appropriately. To avoid errors, first enter the server name in the database.


3.9. How do I hide the "studio/servlet/psoft.masonry.Builder" URL? Your browser's URL prompt shows something like:
http://smokin.somwhere.org/studio/servlet/psoft.masonry.Builder?
In order to open SiteStudio in a window without this prompt, insert the following code into the source html page:
-------------------
<script>
function open_builder() {

new__window=window.open ("http://smokin.somwhere.org/studio/servlet/psoft.masonry.Builder?","_blank", "width=860,height=480,resizable=1,scrollbars=1");
}
</script>
<a href="javascript:open_builder();"> Open SiteStudio in a new window! </a>
--------------------
To see the result, click on the 'Open SiteStudio in a new window!' link. A new window will popup, and the URL will be hidden.


3.10. How do I enable users to open SiteStudio without re-entering the password? The way to do so is to create a link that will provide password-free access to SiteStudio.

NOTE: this introduces a security risk, because, if intercepted, the html page will expose plain text password. It is not common for SSL pages to be intercepted persistently, but you cannot rely on this.

Go to the HTML template and substitute @@LOGIN@@ for SiteStudio login and @@PASSWORD@@ for SiteStudio password.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
<script language='JavaScript'>
function myescape(str) {
    var res="";
    for (var i =0; i<str.length; i++) {
         if (str.charAt(i)=='/') res+='%2F';
         else res+=str.charAt(i);
    }
    return res;
}
var url = myescape( escape( 'http://www.psoft.net/ssdemo/psoft.masonry.Builder?' + '&no_cache='+(newDate() ).getTime() ) );
var login = myescape(escape('@@LOGIN@@'));
var passwd = myescape(escape('@@PASSWORD@@'));
function open_builder() {
new_window=window.open( "http://www.psoft.net/ssdemo/psoft.masonry.Builder?useraction=login&action=useraction&requestURL=" + url + "&login=" + login + "&password=" + passwd + "&edit=Go","_blank", "width=660,height=480,resizable=1,scrollbars=1");
}
</script>

This line opens SiteStudio without user's interaction:

<script language='JavaScript'>open_builder();</script>

This line requres a click:

<a href="javascript:open_builder();"> Open Builder </a>


3.11. Is it possible to put a restriction on the length of an idle user's session? Automatic logoff is not included into SiteStudio. Adding this feature will require changing SiteStudio source code.


3.12. Where do I go to modify help files? Help files are stored in html format in the following directory:
path_to_SiteStudio/public_html/masonry/widgets/simple/help/


3.13. Can I configure SiteStudio to use FTP publisher and filepublisher on the same box? No, but if you have a configured FTP server, you can use FTPpublisher instead of filepublisher. For this you need to reconfigure SiteStudio and change the DB stucture.


3.14. I am using Windows NT. How do I run a Java process before logging on to your computer? You should use the AutoExNT service.
For instructions please see http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q243/4/86.ASP
In addition to files listed in the link above, you will need the winsta.exe utility. You must put it in SiteStudio root directory and include it in AutoExNT.bat to start the process in Window station for services. After you include the required commands, your AutoExNT may look like this:
======================================
@echo off
c:
cd [[SiteStudio home directory]]
winsta imaker.bat
======================================

imaker.bat must contain the following:

======================================
java -cp
[path_to_SiteStudio];.;[path_to_SiteStudio]\Acme.jar;[path_to_SiteStudio]\ecs-1.1.jar;[path_to_SiteStudio]\ss.jar;
[path_to_SiteStudio]\activation.jar;[path_to_SiteStudio]\freemarker.jar;[path_to_SiteStudio]\jai.jar;[path_to_SiteStudio]\xerc es.jar;[path_to_SiteStudio]\com.fooware.net.jar;[path_to_SiteStudio]\gnu.regexp.jar;[path_to_SiteStudio]\mail .jar -mx128m psoft.imaker.ImageMakerServer 1922 [path_to_SiteStudio]\masks [path_to_SiteStudio]\var\imaker [path_to_SiteStudio_without_disk]\image.xml
======================================
Comment: All paths would look similar to: C:\studio\
except the last one, which would look similar to: \studio\


3.15. Where can I store plugin information? You need to use a database, such as PostgreSQL, mySQL, MSSQL


3.16. How do I add more users to SiteStudio? If you have a trial version of SiteStudio, you cannot add more users to it (see why). If you have a full SiteStudio version, Admin panel helps you to add users. It's available at http://<YourHostName>:8080/servlet/psoft.masonry.Admin


3.17. When I make changes to the SiteStudio lang.properties file, what do I have to do, besides rebooting the whole computer, to make them take effect? You should restart SiteStudio. (See how to do this.)


3.18. How do you add new users to SiteStudio without using H-Sphere? Is there a web-based admin for adding new users or does it have to be done manually to a file? Yes, starting with version 1.52 SiteStudio has an admin interface. If you have experience in web programming it will not be a big problem for you to create automated sign up.


3.19. When my users click SELECT IMAGES FROM OUR GALLERY", they get no images. Are they supposed to come with Site Studio? No, you need to add your own images to the gallery so your users can use them.


3.20. Where do I put images for my picture gallery? Put them into ../public_html/masonry/gallery/
This directory can also include subdirs with .gif or .jpg images.


3.21. How can I add my own images to SiteStudio gallery? Upload images into <SiteStudio_dir>/<templates>/public_html/masonry/gallery
Run SiteStudio, browse to SiteStudio gallery and press the 'refresh' button to generate thumbnails.


3.22. Where can I download filepublisher? You can download filepublisher here.


3.23. Does the interface allow a limit on the number of pages published and the space occupied on disk? There is a feature to limit a number of pages. But regarding disk space, it is what is needed to take care of your hosting system.


3.24. What is the correct USER_LOGIN_QUERY string for MS SQL? USER_LOGIN_QUERY = SELECT id, rtrim(login), rtrim(real_login), rtrim(pass), rtrim(email), rtrim(dir), rtrim(host), rtrim(server), rtrim(port) FROM users WHERE login=''{0}''


4. Customization 4.1. Is the interface available with commands written in <my language>? No. But you can translate it to any language you want by yourself.


4.2. Can end users work with interface customized with my site's colors and logo? Yes.


4.3. What should I do to replace your logo with mine? To do this, set the LOGO_LINK variable to the URL of your home site and the LOGO_IMAGE variable to URL of image (your 120x60 banner)


4.4. Am I obliged to keep copyright notices on the pages? You are free to delete or change them after you purchase our product. To do so, change the following lines in massonry.proporties to your own:

BANNER=<TABLE width=468 height=60 Border="1"><tr><td align="center">You may define your own banner on the settings page.</td></tr></TABLE>
COPYRIGHT_TEXT=<a href="http://www.psoft.net"><font face="helvetica,verdana,arial" size="1">Copyright 2002. Positive Software Corporation. All rights reserved</font></a>

To get rid of the copyright text you may change this variable to
COPYRIGHT_TEXT = &nbsp;

To turn off logo "Powered by SiteStudio" at the bottom of every page, change the variable NOLOGO to

NOLOGO = true




4.5. Which file loads the login/logout screen? path_to_SiteStudio/templates/login.html
path_to_SiteStudio/templates/logout.html


4.6. Can I add my own templates to SiteStudio? You can add your own template and create predefined site structure with predefined content. It is not a problem if you are familiar with HTML and XML.


5. Troubleshooting 5.1. We and our users cannot access to Our Gallery. Make sure that the GALLERY_BASE variable is set properly in masonry.properties. It must be set to GALLERY_BASE=http://<your domain or IP>:8080/masonry/gallery/


5.2. When a user tries to generate images, the page with the clock repeatedly refreshes, but nothing else happens. Make sure ImageMaker is running. Also, make sure you have no more than one SiteStudio and Imaker process running. You could have started SiteStudio or Imaker more than once.


5.3. My SiteStudio says it's generating images, but actually it doesn't. Make sure that Xvfb and ImageMaker are starting with server reboot.


5.4. My ImageMaker keeps crashing every time it's called from Apache Jserv. IBM's jdk always crashes for ImageMaker. Instead, it is recommended to use SUN's jdk 1.3 available at http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/index.html


5.5. I rebooted the system and the error file had this:
[Thu Jan 25 10:23:16 2001] [crit] (98)Address already in use: make_sock:
could not bind to port 443 This port is used by SSL. Please check your configuration.


5.6. Why do I get numerous instances of:
/usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -DSSL and /usr/local/jdk1.3/bin/i386/native_threads/java...? These repetitions of processes are usual and, among others, include processes originating from the SiteStudio imagemaker and JServ. They all are required by Java Virtual Machine for servlets.


5.7. I am getting this error:
java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError: psoft.user.UserException: init error:Invalid authorization specification: Access denied for user:' admin@domain.com' (Using password: YES) Try running the following query against your MySQL database:
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON db_name.* to db_user@'%' IDENTIFIED by 'your_password';
Don't forget to substitute db_name.*, db_user@'%' and 'your_password' with real values.


5.8. When a user submits their email address in the form, the mail gets sent to postmaster@site.com and tomcat/apache log shows this error:

URL: http://domain.com/email.html
email:<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
Email to : <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
399ms takes psoft.customform.CustomForm.doGet()
In the massonry_properties file, set the following variable:
SURVEY_IP = all
Then restart SiteStudio.


5.9. How do I restart ImageMaker and SiteStudio? If you run SiteStudio with H-Sphere, run the following commands:
--------------
1. Stop Control Panel:
FreeBSD: /usr/local/etc/rc.d/apachecp.sh stop
Linux: /etc/rc.d/init.d/apachecp stop
2. Find imaker.sh process:
ps -ax | grep imaker
3. Kill imaker process:
kill -9 [process number]
4. kill all java processes:
killall java
5. start imaker java:
FreeBSD: /hsphere/shared/SiteStudio/imaker.sh > & /hsphere/shared/SiteStudio/var/error_log &
Linux: /hsphere/shared/SiteStudio/imaker.sh 1>/hsphere/shared/SiteStudio/var/error_log 2>&1 &
6. Start Control Panel:
FreeBSD: /usr/local/etc/rc.d/apachecp.sh start
Linux: /etc/rc.d/init.d/apachecp start
--------------------------

If you run SiteStudio without H-Sphere, do the following:
1. Change to SiteStudio instalation directory.
2. Run the following commands:
ss.sh -stop
ss.sh -start


6. Installation and Compatibility 6.1. What do I need to install SiteStudio on my server (account)? To have SiteStudio installed you need to fill the request form out and contact sales@psoft.net regarding payment.


6.2. Can I have SiteStudio installed if I'm a hosting reseller and (or) I have only FTP access to server. The only way to have SiteStudio installed in case like this, is to ask your provider (hosting administrator) to contact us to set up SiteStudio.


6.3. How can I get SiteStudio on-line demo, like at the psoft site? If you would like us to install SiteStudio in the demo mode, please, e-mail us. The nonrefundable fee for SiteStudio Demo installation is $75.


6.4. Can we run site studio on port other than 8080? SiteStudio can be configured to use any port you want, if it is not occupied by another software.


6.5. Can SiteStudio be installed to a FreeBSD server? Yes, but we recommend Linux, as it permits to run java in multihtread mode.


6.6. Is SiteStudio itself updateable when a newer version is released? No, but our support staff can do it for you at your request.


6.7. Which popular control panels can SiteStudio be integrated with? H-Sphere, PLESK, Cobalt Raq, CPanel, and Ensim. If you buy H-Sphere, you get SiteStudio for free.


6.8. Can SiteStudio be installed on RAQ4 (or RAQ3) servers? Yes. Both on RAQ4 and RAQ3


6.9. I'd like to integrate SiteStudio with PLESK Hosting System, is it possible? Yes, easily. Here you can find instruction on how to do this.


6.10. I'd like to integrate SiteStudio with Ensim, is it possible? We can integrate SiteStudio with Ensim user base but it doesn't mean that you will have the SiteStudio icon and user will be able to login into SiteStudio through Ensim control panel. To login into SiteStudio your users will have to specify the login/domain/password, and SiteStudio will become accessible for all of your users. If you want to have the feature to enable or disable SiteStudio for your users, you need to have standard installation with admin panel for manual user management.


6.11. How do I uninstall SiteStudio? Stop SiteStudio, clear the /etc/rc.d/rc.local file in order not to start SiteStudio, and remove the SiteStudio folder.