FPSE2002: "Unable to Retrieve Folder Information from the Server" Error Message When You Try to Run an Executable in a Root Folder (810740)

SYMPTOMS

In Visual InterDev 6.0, when you try to run an executable in the root folder of a Web page through the FrontPage 2002 Server Extensions, you may receive the following error message:

Unable to retrieve folder information from the server. An HTTP error occurred. The server could not complete your request. Contact your Internet service provider or Web server administrator to make sure that the server has the FrontPage Server Extensions installed, and that the Web application exists on that server.

Additionally, Execute permissions for the whole site (including _vti_bin) are then set to None.

CAUSE

This issue may occur when you select all items in the list of subnodes after you are prompted to make a selection -- for example, when you follow these steps:

Open Internet Services Manager, and then select the Web project.
Open the Properties for the project.
On the Home Directory tab, click Scripts and Executables for the Execute permissions.
Click OK or Apply to display the list of subnodes that currently are not inheriting the root permissions. By default, nothing is selected.
Select all subnodes in this list.

You receive the error message described in the "Symptoms" section of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

The _vti_bin child node inherits its Execute permissions from the Web root. When you subsequently open a project with Visual InterDev for the Web site, Visual InterDev sends a request to the server to set Execute permissions on the root of the Web to "None" for increased security. Because all the previously selected subnodes are now inheriting this setting from the root, no executables can be run in any _vti_bin folders, and therefore, the Front Page Server Extensions cannot run the executable as expected.

RESOLUTION

To prevent this problem, do not select _vti_bin to inherit the root permissions.When you set the Scripts and Executables permissions to the root of a program, a list of child nodes is displayed. You can decide which of these child nodes will inherit the permissions of the root. To permit the FrontPage Server Extensions to work with these permissions settings, select any child node in the list for the root except_vti_bin. All _vti_bin folders in that list must not inherit their application settings from the root application.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, create a separate folder for the executable. In Internet Services Manager, apply Scripts and Executables permissions only to the folder. Make sure that the folder does not contain any subnodes. If a list of subnodes appears that contains any _vti_bin folders, clear the selection of these folders to prevent these nodes from inheriting the root permissions.