Putting a website on a cdrom

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Putting a website on a cdrom

aspdaddy

6:26 pm on Jul 18, 2006 (gmt 0)

I have a site using asp/mssql/flash, its in 4 different languages, has 1800 asp files, and 100Mb of flash animations. A lot of the content and management comes from a 3rd party hosted CMS.

Now the customer wants 1000 printed Cds with a static version of the site on. I have explained the dynamic stuff wont work ;)

Does anyone have any commercial experience doing a project like this, that theyare willing to share? like what are the big issues, processes and rough costs?

Thanks!

Nutter

1:30 pm on Jul 19, 2006 (gmt 0)

Could you download a offline browser type program and just download your entire site?

Receptional Andy

1:31 pm on Jul 19, 2006 (gmt 0)

Or you might be able to put a mini web server on the CD ROM itself.

[edited by: Receptional_Andy at 1:31 pm (utc) on July 19, 2006]

aspdaddy

2:34 pm on Jul 19, 2006 (gmt 0)

Or you might be able to put a mini web server on the CD ROM itself

That would be nice, but I dont think its possible. I will flatten the site manually

I just found some combined cd duplicators/printers, its actually worth investing in the kit even for 1000 items.

j_h_maccann

4:12 pm on Jul 19, 2006 (gmt 0)

When I made CDs from a website, the most elusive detail was the necessity to add the "mark of the web" to the HTML files.

The goal is to allow the pages when on CD to run Javascript (etc.) without always triggering the security warning added in WinXP SP2. If you just copy HTML files to a CD and then browse them from the CD, you get security warnings that you don't get on the website.

Microsoft applies stricter standards to "local zone" security than to "internet zone" security. So, when a webpage is saved from the web to local storage, MS writes a "mark of the web" comment into it before the <html> tag; this allows that local file to be run with internet-zone security (or even the security of a specific domain--e.g., the domain may be a "trusted site"). You can add the mark to your files yourself, as though they had been saved from the web.

The "mark of the web" is a special comment inserted between the doctype and the <html> open bracket, and here is the generic non-specific form of it:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

<html>
<head>
...

(The "0014" is a count of the characters in the following URL or in a special string such as "about:internet", the case here.)

This generic comment or a specific-domain alternative should be inserted into every HTML file on the CD to avoid the unwanted security warnings.

REFERENCE:
[microsoft.com...]

(note that this page contains a typo--it counts the characters in the string "about:internet" as 0013, but the accurate count 0014, as shown above, works correctly).

or search on Google for

[local zone sp2 mark of the web]

The whole issue is more than a little weird, but browsing a website on CD produces irritating and intrusive security warnings on SP2 unless this magic-incantation comment is added to each HTML file.

P.S. The same "mark of the web" will prevent the bogus security warnings when the HTML files are browsed on a hard disk or on a USB flash drive--same issues as on a CD.

txbakers

12:30 am on Jul 24, 2006 (gmt 0)

I've always wondered why I was getting that warning when developing pages on my local machine.

Now I know! thanks!

aspdaddy

9:58 am on Jul 25, 2006 (gmt 0)

Yes, thanks j_h_maccann thats usefull info.

Getting the site converted by hand now, thats the easy part. Looking at various copy protect and Install shield options, disk types, duplication costs and thermal vs inkjet prints.