This is a great idea if you want to password protect only one page on a large site. I actually did this at one point to include a password protected webcam on my site. It lasted less than a day because I decided it was too invasive, even with the password. But, I was quite pleased with the results while they lasted! Even though the webcam page existed in a separate iWeb “site,” I was still able to give it the same look and the same navigation bar as the rest of the original site.
This is also useful if you have multiple sites but want them all to link back to one main site.
Here’s how to do it:
First, create the groundwork...
Make a page IN THE ORIGINAL SITE called whatever you want the secure page to be called, and make sure it is included in the nav bar.
Then, create a password protected site with only one page, with the same name you chose above. This page should be the only page included in it's site's nav bar, in fact it should be the only page on the site. Then, publish!
Next, work with the “dummy page” on the original site...
Open up the original Pagename.html file after publishing and copy the navbar code that is on that page. It shouldn’t be too hard to find. The code on this page, for example, starts something like this:
< div style="height: 26px; margin-left: 0px; position: relative; width: 700px; z-index: 0; " id="nav_layer" >
And ends something like this: < /div >
The key is to look for something that says “nav_layer.” If you need more direction on this, just email me!
While you have that file open, you should also add a re-direct meta-refresh code to that header of that page.
< META HTTP-EQUIV="refresh" content="0;URL=”../securesitename/newpagename.html" >
(remove the spaces beside the quotation marks - I had to put them there to prevent my MassReplaceIt script from replacing this code!)
Put it right before < /head >. This is to make it so that when all the other pages in the site go to the original page they will be instantly redirected to the NEW Pagename.html page. (Another alternative would be to Find “originalpagename.html” and Replace it with “../securesitename/newpagename.html” in all pages of the original site, so they automatically go to the new page.)
Moving on to inserting the nav bar in the new page...
Open the new page, find it's navbar code. The code on this page will be much shorter because it only has one page in the nav bar. Select that code and paste the navbar text from the original page in its place.
Tweak the links (For example, instead of "Home.html” change the link to "../OriginalSiteName/Home.html") so that they will go back to the original site/page. The ../ is important! It tells it to go up a level (folder) and then find the site/page. You need to do this wherever you see href= or url( ) in the code you copied.
Hopefully, when you open the new page, it will have a nav bar to match the original site! Just as if it were naturally a part of the site.
(Enter username “Guest” and password “Password” after clicking the link to view the Secure Page.)
* I don’t believe this page is actually password protected anymore. I don’t have it on .Mac anymore. I had set up a password for a while with GoDaddy but I think I lost it somewhere along the way... But you can still see the transferred nav bar.
Remember, if you make a change to a page like this post-publishing, and later re-publish, you have to make the html changes again! Set up a Find/Replace command in MassReplaceIt and you can do this very quickly.
Please, leave a comment in my GuestBook if you are confused and need clarification, or just to let me know this has been helpful!
Or, maybe you are feeling really grateful and generous... care to buy me something off my Amazon Wishlist? Just about everything on there is intended for my classroom, so you would be making a great donation!
