Parallels Plesk SiteBuilder - 4.5 - Unix Reseller's Guide
Parallels® Plesk Sitebuilder
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Contents
Preface 5
About This Guide ........................................................................................................................... 5
Who Should Read This Guide ....................................................................................................... 5
Typographical Conventions ........................................................................................................... 5
Feedback ....................................................................................................................................... 6
About Plesk Sitebuilder 7
Plesk Sitebuilder User Roles ......................................................................................................... 8
Overview of Plesk Sitebuilder Business Logic .............................................................................. 9
What's New in This Version ......................................................................................................... 10
Getting Started with Plesk Sitebuilder 11
Logging In to Plesk Sitebuilder .................................................................................................... 12
Recovering Forgotten Password ....................................................................................... 14
Learning Plesk Sitebuilder Administrator Panel Interface ........................................................... 15
Navigating in Plesk Sitebuilder .......................................................................................... 16
Working with Lists ............................................................................................................. 21
Using Context Help ........................................................................................................... 23
Getting Help ................................................................................................................................. 25
Configuring Settings Related to Your Account 26
Changing Your Password and Updating Personal Information ................................................... 27
Choosing Language, Skin and Number of Items to Be Shown per Page ................................... 28
Setting Up Global Account .......................................................................................................... 29
Creating Global Account ................................................................................................... 30
Connecting Local Accounts to Your Global Account ........................................................ 31
Switching between Accounts ............................................................................................ 32
Editing Global Account Password ..................................................................................... 33
Disconnecting Local Accounts from Global Account ........................................................ 33
Viewing Information about Your Copy of Plesk Sitebuilder and Service Plan Limitations .......... 34
Setting Up and Maintaining Plesk Sitebuilder 35
Rebranding Your Plesk Sitebuilder ............................................................................................. 35
Setting Up Logo and Title Bar Text ................................................................................... 36
Customizing Help and Support Button Links .................................................................... 36
Viewing and Configuring Plesk Sitebuilder Wizard Presets and Modules .................................. 38
Specifying Site Design Templates Available to Certain Users ......................................... 39
Managing Site Structure Templates (Page Sets) .............................................................. 39
Managing Site Templates (Site Families) ......................................................................... 46
Managing Modules ............................................................................................................ 52
Specifying Hosts Used for Publishing Sites ................................................................................ 66
Requirements to Host ....................................................................................................... 68
Adding Host ....................................................................................................................... 68
Specifying Hosts Available to Certain Users ..................................................................... 70
Modifying Host Settings .................................................................................................... 70
Removing Host from List of Available Hosts ..................................................................... 70
Preface 4
Setting Up Plesk Sitebuilder Wizard for Anonymous Visits......................................................... 71
Distributing Link to Plesk Sitebuilder Demo Version ......................................................... 72
Setting Up Service Plan for Anonymous Users ................................................................ 73
Setting Language and Skin for Anonymous User Sessions ............................................. 74
Configuring Advertising Banner Shown on Trial Sites ...................................................... 75
Setting Up Message Displayed at Publish Step of Wizard ............................................... 77
Configuring Notification Message Sent at Trial Site Publishing Attempt .......................... 79
Inserting Macros, Links, and HTML Code into Notification Message ............................... 80
Serving Your Customers 84
Setting Up Service Plans ............................................................................................................. 85
Adding Plan ....................................................................................................................... 87
Assigning Plan to User ...................................................................................................... 90
Modifying Plan ................................................................................................................... 92
Changing Plan Status ....................................................................................................... 92
Removing Plan .................................................................................................................. 92
Signing Up Customers ................................................................................................................ 93
Creating User Account ...................................................................................................... 94
Viewing List of Sites Belonging to User ............................................................................ 95
Suspending and Unsuspending User Account ................................................................. 95
Changing User Password and Contact Information .......................................................... 95
Removing User Account ................................................................................................... 96
Managing Sites ............................................................................................................................ 97
Registering Site in System ................................................................................................ 99
Assigning Trial Site to Your Account ............................................................................... 102
Renaming Site ................................................................................................................. 103
Changing Site Owner ...................................................................................................... 103
Editing Site Publishing Settings ...................................................................................... 104
Publishing Site................................................................................................................. 104
Creating Your Own Site in Plesk Sitebuilder Wizard ...................................................... 105
Previewing and Editing Site ............................................................................................ 105
Promoting Site and Tracking Site Popularity .................................................................. 106
Removing Site from Plesk Sitebuilder ............................................................................. 108
Appendix. Troubleshooting Plesk Sitebuilder 109
Typical Site Publishing Errors ................................................................................................... 109
General Publishing Issues .............................................................................................. 110
Known Issues with Third Party Components .................................................................. 111
Preface 5
In this section:
About This Guide ............................................................................................... 5
Who Should Read This Guide ........................................................................... 5
Typographical Conventions ............................................................................... 5
Feedback .......................................................................................................... 6
Formatting
Convention
Type of Information
Example
Special Bold
Items you must select,
such as menu options,
command buttons, or items
in a list.
Go to the Hosts tab.
Titles of chapters, sections,
and subsections.
Read the Getting Started chapter.
Preface
About This Guide
This guide instructs you how to set up Parallels Plesk Sitebuilder system preferences and
manage and maintain web sites created in Plesk Sitebuilder.
Who Should Read This Guide
This guide is intended for users who manage Plesk Sitebuilder and all its components using
a reseller account.
Typographical Conventions
Before you start using this guide, it is important to understand the documentation
conventions used in it.
The following kinds of formatting in the text identify special information.
6 Preface
Italics
Used to emphasize the
importance of a point, to
introduce a term or to
designate a command line
placeholder, which is to be
replaced with a real name
or value.
These types of users are called Plesk
Sitebuilder user roles.
Monospace
URLs, names of
commands, files, and
directories.
For example:
http://[Sitebuilder_host]/Login
CAPITALS
Names of keys on the
keyboard.
SHIFT, CTRL, ALT
KEY+KEY
Key combinations for
which the user must press
and hold down one key
and then press another.
CTRL+P, ALT+F4
Feedback
If you have found a mistake in this guide, or if you have suggestions or ideas on how to
improve this guide, please send your feedback using the online form at
http://www.parallels.com/en/support/usersdoc/. Please include in your report the guide's title,
chapter and section titles, and the fragment of text in which you have found an error.
Parallels Plesk Sitebuilder consists of two parts: the Wizard and the Administrator
In this chapter:
Plesk Sitebuilder User Roles ............................................................................. 8
Overview of Plesk Sitebuilder Business Logic ................................................... 9
What's New in This Version ............................................................................... 10
C H A P T E R 1
About Plesk Sitebuilder
Panel.
Plesk Sitebuilder Wizard is a web application enabling its users to create web sites and
publish them on the Internet.
The Administrator Panel is a tool for managing Plesk Sitebuilder system-wide
preferences and maintaining web sites created in the Wizard.
8 About Plesk Sitebuilder
Plesk Sitebuilder User Roles
In Plesk Sitebuilder, different types of users have different levels of administration
privileges. These types of users are called Plesk Sitebuilder user roles. Each user role
has its own Administrator Panel, in which users can manage Plesk Sitebuilder objects
they own within the privileges provided by their service plans.
There are three user roles in Plesk Sitebuilder:
1 Administrator manages all Plesk Sitebuilder elements.
2 Reseller is a distributor of the Plesk Sitebuilder services.
Resellers may perform the following main operations:
Add and manage hosts, that is, servers used for sites publication.
Create and manage plans, that is, tariffs regulating the distribution of Plesk
Sitebuilder resources.
Create and manage reseller and site owner accounts.
Add and manage sites.
Configure system settings, such as the settings of Plesk Sitebuilder presets and
modules.
3 Site owner is a user who has purchased the hosting service bundled with Plesk
Sitebuilder. Site owners are registered in Plesk Sitebuilder after they purchase
hosting service and receive their credentials (login and password) upon this
purchase. Their main tool is Plesk Sitebuilder Wizard, which is described in Parallels
Plesk Sitebuilder for Linux/Unix Wizard User's Guide
(http://www.parallels.com/en/products/sitebuilder/docs/). Site owners can manage
their own sites only.
Besides, you, as a reseller, can make Plesk Sitebuilder Wizard available for
anonymous visitors, who are, in fact, potential site owners. They can create trial sites in
Plesk Sitebuilder but cannot publish them on the Internet. After anonymous users
create trial sites, they are offered to purchase hosting service to publish their sites on
the Internet. Anonymous users can use Plesk Sitebuilder Wizard only.
About Plesk Sitebuilder 9
Overview of Plesk Sitebuilder Business
Logic
Read this section to understand the logic of Plesk Sitebuilder application, learn
information about its major features and functionalities, and work out the most
reasonable and time-saving order of operations to be performed.
The tasks you can perform in Plesk Sitebuilder can be logically divided into the
following categories:
Configuring the settings of your Administrator Panel and account
At this stage you customize the basic settings of your Plesk Sitebuilder:
Configure your account information.
Choose the language and skin for your interface.
Preparing Plesk Sitebuilder for serving your customers
This stage implies several preparatory steps:
Rebranding Plesk Sitebuilder:
Uploading the logo and specifying your custom title bar text for the Plesk
Sitebuilder window.
Specifying your custom links for Help and Support buttons.
Viewing or configuring Plesk Sitebuilder Wizard presets and functional modules:
Site structure templates, or page sets (creating your custom page sets).
General site templates, or site families (creating your custom site families).
Functional modules (Area Map, SitePal, and eShop).
Preparing publishing host(s) for working with Plesk Sitebuilder and specifying them
in Plesk Sitebuilder system settings.
Configuring Plesk Sitebuilder settings for anonymous user sessions:
Obtaining your promotional link to Plesk Sitebuilder Wizard demo for distributing
among your potential customers.
Creating a special trial service plan for anonymous users.
Setting up the message displayed on the Publish step of the Wizard, the
advertising banner to be shown on trial sites, and configuring the automatic email notification sent to users after the creation of a trial site.
Serving your customers
At this stage, you integrate Plesk Sitebuilder into your business processes and start
working in it.
10 About Plesk Sitebuilder
Creating service plans to configure Plesk Sitebuilder limits and permissions for
certain users. In service plans, you also specify the hosts, modules, site families,
page sets, and site design templates available to users.
Creating user accounts (resellers and site owners) in the system and assigning
service plans to them.
If necessary, registering sites for users.
If necessary, providing basic site promotion services and monitoring site
performance:
Submit users' sites to Google and MSN search engines.
Enable and view site attendance statistics.
The current Reseller's Guide is structured according to this logical order of operations.
What's New in This Version
Plesk Sitebuilder 4.5 offers the following new features:
Site Map module. Allows site owners to display a clickable hierarchical model of their
site structure to visitors
Removing design template from pages. Site owners can now remove design template's
layout and graphics from the desired pages.
External Page module. Allows site owners to link site menu items to external web
sites.
Save button. A handy way for site owners to save changes they make while working
on their site.
Counter settings are moved to the Wizard. Site owners can now enable a counter on
their sites at the Pages step of the Wizard, which previously required them to go to
the Administrator Panel.
Site visitor management is moved to the Wizard. Site owners can now manage their
registered visitors through the Registration module editor at the Edit step of the
Wizard, which previously required them to go to the Administrator Panel.
Updated WYSIWYG editor to fix a series of issues.
This chapter guides you through the initial steps that should be taken to start using
In this chapter:
Logging In to Plesk Sitebuilder .......................................................................... 12
Learning Plesk Sitebuilder Administrator Panel Interface .................................. 15
Getting Help ...................................................................................................... 25
C H A P T E R 2
Getting Started with Plesk Sitebuilder
Plesk Sitebuilder.
12 Getting Started with Plesk Sitebuilder
Logging In to Plesk Sitebuilder
To log in to Plesk Sitebuilder:
1 In your browser's address bar, enter the URL to your Plesk Sitebuilder
Administrator Panel.
For example, http://sitebuilder/login
where 'sitebuilder' is the domain name of the server where Plesk Sitebuilder is
installed.
2 Press ENTER.
3 In the User name field, enter your user name.
4 In the Password field, enter your password.
5 From the Interface language list, select the language of Plesk Sitebuilder
interface.
6 Click Log in.
You receive your Plesk Sitebuilder URL and your default Administrator Panel access
credentials from your Plesk Sitebuilder administrator.
You can change your password at any time. For details, see section Changing Your
Password and Updating Personal Information (on page 27).
Figure 1: Logging In to Plesk Sitebuilder
Getting Started with Plesk Sitebuilder 13
In this section:
Recovering Forgotten Password ....................................................................... 14
14 Getting Started with Plesk Sitebuilder
Recovering Forgotten Password
To recover your forgotten password:
1 In your browser's address bar, enter the URL to your Plesk Sitebuilder
Administrator Panel.
For example, http://sitebuilder/login
where 'sitebuilder' is the domain name of the server where Plesk Sitebuilder is
installed.
2 Press ENTER.
3 Click Forgot Your Password?
Figure 2: Recovering Forgotten Password
4 On the Reset Password screen, enter your user name and e-mail
address registered in the system.
5 Click Send.
After your e-mail address is received, the system checks if it is stored in the
database and sends the password recovery link and instructions to your e-mail
address.
6 Click the password recovery link in the automatic message you
receive from Plesk Sitebuilder.
7 On the Change Password screen, enter and confirm your new password.
8 Click Change.
Getting Started with Plesk Sitebuilder 15
Learning Plesk Sitebuilder Administrator
In this section:
Navigating in Plesk Sitebuilder .......................................................................... 16
Working with Lists ............................................................................................. 21
Using Context Help ........................................................................................... 23
Panel Interface
Read the following section to learn the basic principles of working with Plesk
Sitebuilder interface.
16 Getting Started with Plesk Sitebuilder
Navigating in Plesk Sitebuilder
The Plesk Sitebuilder Administrator Panel interface enables you to use two ways of
navigation through the application: desktop view and standard view.
The standard view (see page 18) is a customary view of the control panel divided into
two main areas: the navigation pane on the left and the work area, where operations
are performed, on the right.
Figure 3: Plesk Sitebuilder Standard View
The desktop view (see page 19) displays system statistics and shortcuts to the main
functionalities of the Administrator Panel.
Getting Started with Plesk Sitebuilder 17
Figure 4: Plesk Sitebuilder Desktop View
In this section:
Using Navigation Pane ...................................................................................... 18
Using Desktop Interface .................................................................................... 19
Using Path Bar .................................................................................................. 21
On second- and deeper-level screens, there is a path bar (see page 21) to help you
navigate back to the main screen.
18 Getting Started with Plesk Sitebuilder
Using Navigation Pane
The navigation pane is located in the left part of the Plesk Sitebuilder screen.
Figure 5: Plesk Sitebuilder Navigation Pane
The navigation pane gives you access to the following administrative functions:
Users. Enables you to manage your dependent users and all data related to their
accounts (including service plans).
Sites. Enables you to add and manage sites.
My Profile. Enables you to configure your account parameters.
Server. Enables you to view and manage various system parameters, such as
trial site settings, branding settings, Sitebuilder Wizard presets and modules, and
so on.
System Info. Enables you to view information about the Plesk Sitebuilder program
and the limits and permissions of your service plan.
Log out. Finishes your current session with Plesk Sitebuilder.
Support. Enables you to submit a request to your technical support
representative.
Help button opens the context-sensitive online help on the corresponding page.
Getting Started with Plesk Sitebuilder 19
Using Desktop Interface
Plesk Sitebuilder desktop is the first screen you see after you log in to Plesk Sitebuilder
using your administrator account. When working in Plesk Sitebuilder, you can access
the desktop by clicking Desktop on the top of the navigation pane.
Plesk Sitebuilder Desktop looks as follows:
Figure 6: Plesk Sitebuilder Desktop Interface Structure
The Desktop screen is logically divided into the following parts:
1 If you have not signed up your Plesk Sitebuilder to the Google Maps API service
yet, a warning message is displayed at the top of the Desktop screen. You do not
have to sign up for the service immediately - you can do it at any time later on. For
details, read section Setting Up Area Map Module (on page 54).
2 Short tips describing basic management options of the Plesk Sitebuilder
Administrator Panel and shortcuts to these options.
20 Getting Started with Plesk Sitebuilder
3 Shortcut to Plesk Sitebuilder Wizard. If you have not registered any sites yet,
clicking this link will automatically register a site and will open it in the Wizard. If you
have already registered a site or a number of sites, following this link will open the
Wizard on the Overview page, where you can select which site you want to edit. If
you have a number of regular sites, and wish to create a new one, refer to Creating
Your Own Site in Plesk Sitebuilder Wizard (on page 105), further in this guide, for details.
Information about working with the Wizard is provided in the Plesk Sitebuilder for
Linux/Unix Wizard User's Guide
(http://www.parallels.com/en/products/sitebuilder/docs/).
If you do not want these options to be displayed ever again, click Close in the
bottom right corner of the section. When you log in to Plesk Sitebuilder next time,
this section is not displayed.
4 Statistics section, which displays the following statistical data:
Users. The number of created user accounts and the maximum number of user
accounts allowed by your service plan.
Regular sites. The number of sites in the system and the maximum number of
sites allowed by your service plan.
Hosts. The number of registered publishing servers and the maximum number of
publishing servers allowed by your service plan.
5 Tasks section, which contains shortcuts to the main functionalities of the
Administrator Panel.
Getting Started with Plesk Sitebuilder 21
Using Path Bar
To work with the second- and deeper-level screens of the application, use a path bar: a
chain of links that appears in the upper-left part of the work area, above the screen title.
Use a corresponding path bar link to return to the main screen, or to one of the
intermediate screens.
Figure 7: Navigating in Plesk Sitebuilder Using Path Bar and "Up Level" Button
You can also use the Up level button in the upper-right corner of the screen to return
to the previous screen.
Working with Lists
On the management pages of various system objects (sites, users, etc.), information is
present in the form of object lists.
In such a list, each object record is a table row displaying the object name, status, and
relevant parameters of the object (for example, for each site, the owner and creation
date is shown). Above and below each list, the total number of items contained in the
list is displayed. Below the list, you can adjust the number of items to be displayed per
page (5, 10, 25 or 100). In multi-page lists, you can navigate between the pages by
clicking the page number shortcuts above and below the list. To go to the first/last page
of the list, click First Page or Last Page, accordingly.
To configure the number of items to be displayed per page in all Plesk Sitebuilder lists,
see section Choosing Language, Skin and Number of Items to Be Shown per Page (on page
28).
In lengthy lists, you can find items using the search function, or sort items by one of
available parameters. To find an item, type a search criterion into the input box above
the list, and click Search. The list will show the items matching the search criterion. To
return back to viewing all items, click Show All.
Figure 8: Searching for Objects
To sort list items by a certain parameter in ascending or descending order, click the
parameter's title in the column heading. The order of sorting will be indicated by a small
triangle displayed next to the parameter's title.
22 Getting Started with Plesk Sitebuilder
Figure 9: Sorting Objects
In some lists, you can filter items by a number of additional parameters by selecting
one of such parameters from the View box (for example, on the Sites screen, you can
choose to view My sites, My and my users' sites, and My trial sites).
Figure 10: Filtering Objects
To choose an object for further operation, select the check box to the left of the object's
name.
Figure 11: Selecting Particular Objects in a List
To choose all objects in the list, select the check box at the head of the column.
Figure 12: Selecting All List Objects at Once
To perform operations with objects in a list, select the required objects and click the
group operation shortcut above the list (for example, Delete, Activate, Add to plan, etc.).
Getting Started with Plesk Sitebuilder 23
Figure 13: Performing Operations on List Objects
To proceed to editing a list item, click its name in the list. The non-editable items (for
example, most of the Plesk Sitebuilder modules) are not clickable.
In all major Plesk Sitebuilder lists, the status of an item is indicated by a status icon in
the Status (S) column ( or ). For sites, their status (published or unpublished), is
indicated by or icons.
In some lists, individual operation shortcuts are displayed for each item. For example,
for each site on the Sites screen, there is a Preview icon, a Publish icon, and an
Edit icon.
Using Context Help
Below the Help icon, there is a context help tip area. It provides a brief description of the
current screen and the operations available from it. When you place the mouse cursor
over a system element or status icon, additional information about this element is
displayed.
24 Getting Started with Plesk Sitebuilder
Figure 14: Using Context Help
Getting Started with Plesk Sitebuilder 25
Getting Help
If you encounter a problem while using Plesk Sitebuilder, there are several resources
available to help you troubleshoot the problem:
Use on-screen context-sensitive help.
At the bottom of the navigation pane, you can find short instructions on the
operations that are available on the current page.
Refer to our knowledge base (http://kb.parallels.com/en/products/sitebuilderlinux).
The knowledge base provides solutions to the most common problems with Plesk
Sitebuilder.
Go to our forum
(http://forum.swsoft.com/forumdisplay.php?s=f2b895fc3636e705ec9b9a85ef81f040
&forumid=99).
Here all users can post questions, exchange ideas, and troubleshoot issues not
described in the knowledge base. Note that Parallels does not provide official
support through this forum.
Contact technical support.
If you have any problems or questions that are not covered in the user
documentation or knowledge base, you can click Support located on the
navigation pane and submit your problem to our Technical Support team.
This chapter describes how to configure your account, view information about the Plesk
In this chapter:
Changing Your Password and Updating Personal Information .......................... 27
Choosing Language, Skin and Number of Items to Be Shown per Page ........... 28
Setting Up Global Account ................................................................................ 29
Viewing Information about Your Copy of Plesk Sitebuilder and Service Plan
Limitations ......................................................................................................... 34
C H A P T E R 3
Configuring Settings Related to Your
Account
Sitebuilder software and limits and permissions set in your service plan.
Configuring Settings Related to Your Account 27
Changing Your Password and Updating
Personal Information
To change your password:
1 On the navigation pane, click My Profile.
Figure 15: Changing Your Password and Personal Information
2 On the Personal Info tab, click Change Password.
3 Type your old and new passwords in the respective fields.
The password cannot be empty and cannot contain more than 255 characters.
4 Click OK.
To update your personal information:
1 On the navigation pane, click My Profile.
2 On the Personal Info tab, you can update your first, last name and e-
mail address in the corresponding fields.
3 Click OK.
28 Configuring Settings Related to Your Account
Choosing Language, Skin and Number of
Items to Be Shown per Page
To customize your Administrator Panel interface:
1 On the navigation pane, click My Profile.
2 Go to the Interface tab.
Figure 16: Choosing Language, Skin, and Number of List Items Shown per Page
3 From the Language list, select the desired language.
The set of languages available to you is determined by your Plesk Sitebuilder
administrator. If you wish to obtain extra language packs, contact your Plesk
Sitebuilder administrator for assistance.
4 From the Skin list, select the desired skin.
5 In the Items per page field, specify the number of items to be displayed
per one page.
Configuring Settings Related to Your Account 29
Setting Up Global Account
Global Account is a Single Sign-On technology feature that allows you to log in to
different Parallels products using a single global login and password. If you have
several accounts in Plesk Sitebuilder, you can connect them all to a global account and
switch between these accounts without entering a password every time. You can also
connect all your accounts in other Parallels products to your global account and switch
between them without providing credentials.
After you create a global account and connect local accounts to it, you will be able to
choose from any account connected to your global account when logging in under your
global account.
Single Sign-On technology and the ability to use global accounts can be activated only
by Plesk Sitebuilder administrator.
If the SSO feature is enabled in your Plesk Sitebuilder, you can proceed to managing
your SSO settings by clicking the Global Account shortcut in the navigation panel.
Figure 17: Proceeding to Managing Your Global Account
30 Configuring Settings Related to Your Account
In this section:
Creating Global Account ................................................................................... 30
Connecting Local Accounts to Your Global Account .......................................... 31
Switching between Accounts ............................................................................. 32
Editing Global Account Password ...................................................................... 33
Disconnecting Local Accounts from Global Account .......................................... 33
Creating Global Account
To create a global account:
1 On the navigation pane, click Global Account.
2 Click Connect to Global Account.
3 Select Create new global account.
Figure 18: Creating a New Global Account
4 Provide the login and password for your global account.
5 Provide an e-mail address to be used for password recovery.
6 Click OK.
Your global account is active now, so you can proceed with connecting other accounts
to it. Refer to Connecting Local Accounts to Your Global Account (on page 31).
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