[Xitami] Testing sites

[Thomas J. Hruska]

At 10:14 PM 7/7/01 +0200, you wrote:
>   Hi, I'm a new Xitami user. I want to use it just to  test the websites I
>create, including server-side scripts, etc. What I want to  do is to have
>the possibility to browse a site with the browser in "online" mode  and
>using full addresses. For example suppose I create a site at the address
>www.geocities.com/my site; I create  my pages including full addresses in
>links, images etc., identical to the pages  that will be published on the
>geocities server. What I want to do is testing the  site when it's on my
>local hard disk but typing the correct full address on the  browser which
>is set in "online" mode. Is it possible? I think yes, because it  is done
>by default by Xitami, with the base address set at the pc name. What I 
>want to chenge is simply that base address. I hope I explained well my 
>problem. Thanks in advance, Franco 

Actually you can't do that unless you host your own DNS server as well...of
course you would then not be able to upload anything to geocities.com until
you disabled the DNS server, uploaded, then re-enabled the DNS server.
That's too much of a pain in the neck if you ask me.

My question is, if you are using a static host for your site, why bother
with a web server?  You can write static-HTML on your computer and it will
look the same both locally and remotely (providing the remote host doesn't
use case-sensitive filenames...but that just requires a bit of fore-thought
- and Xitami is _NOT_ a case-sensitive server under Windows).

All the "online" and "offline" browsing modes do is determine whether to
use already cached pages or to get them from the remote server.  It really
has little relation to web page development since you want to be in
"online" mode anyway or nothing will change when you reload the page.

If you want to have more power, you can host your own web page with
Xitami...which is what its true purpose is.  If all you are going to do is
create static webpages for some other host, you are probably missing the
point of a web server (the point is to serve web pages from your computer
to other people...not to test static pages to upload to geocities).  I
suggest checking out <http://www.dhs.org/>.  It may be a bit confusing for
you, but I highly recommend their dynamic DNS service if you want to host
your own website (and don't have a static IP address).

Hope this helps!


           Thomas J. Hruska -- shinelight@crosswinds.net
Shining Light Productions -- "Meeting the needs of fellow programmers"
                  http://www.shininglightpro.com/