Publish Points


Publish points are, in essence, pre-configured connections to FTP servers. The idea behind publish points is that once a user has created a survey, it should be very easy for them to publish it, or to insert that survey into a web page of their choice. Many websites provided by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) automatically come configured with FTP access so that users may transfer files to their website. Such situations are ideal for eSurvey's use of publish points. Once an Administrators has configured a publish point for a website, any user can quickly insert a survey into a page on the site.

The Publish Points screen allows for the management and modification of publish points. This screen is broken down into the Publish Point Details section (left side) and the Publish Point List section (right side). Administrators may access the Publish Points screen through the main navigation bar by clicking System->Publish Points.

Publish Point Details
This section displays all of the connection information for an FTP site. A description of each field can be seen below.

  • URL/IP Address
    The URL or IP address entered into this field tells eSurvey what FTP server to connect to. Common values for this field might look like the URL, "www.mysite.com" or the IP address "12.34.56.78" (without the quotation marks).
  • User Name
    A valid User Name is required to connect to an FTP site.
  • Password
    In conjunction with the User Name, a Password is also required to gain access to an FTP site.
  • Retype Password
    For security reasons, a user cannot see the exact characters typed into the Password field. To ensure that the user has correctly typed the publish point Password, they are prompted to reenter it in the Retype Password field. If the user has entered values into the Password field and the Retype Password field that do not match, an error will be generated when attempting to save.
  • Port #
    Internet applications communicate using port numbers specific to an application (like FTP). The standard port number that FTP communicates with is 21, which eSurvey defaults to. Some businesses change this for various reasons and hence is made available to Administrators to change.
  • Passive Mode
    The details of FTP's passive mode operation are beyond the scope of this help document, however, it is beneficial to know that the use of Passive Mode may allow users to connect to FTP sites on servers that are firewalled. If you are experience difficulties in connecting to an FTP server, try setting this field to 'Yes'.
  • Default Path
    The Default Path is simply a directory path on the FTP server. Sometimes a user may have to repeatedly navigate through an FTP site to find the files they're looking for. To save the user a few clicks, an Administrator can set the publish point up so that when a user connects to a publish point, they are automatically redirected to the appropriate directory path. For example, putting the value "/webroot/www.mydomain.com/html/" (without the quotation marks) into the Default Path field will cause all connections to the publish point to start in that folder.

The Publish Point Details section also contains a button towards the top ('NEW PUBLISH POINT') and one towards the bottom ('TEST CONNECTION'). These buttons can be used to Create a Publish Point or for Testing a Publish Point's connection.

Publish Point List
This section displays all of the publish points stored in the system. Each entry in the Publish Point List is formatted like "@", where and correspond to the form fields described above. The following are several examples: "john_doe@ftp.mydomain.com", "jane_doe@12.34.56.78", "MyDomain\Jdoe@www.mydomain.com"

To the right of each entry in the list are two action buttons. These action buttons can be used to Edit a Publish Point, or to Delete a Publish Point. The currently viewed user publish point will appear highlighted in the Publish Point List section.


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