Web server index pages

The index page for a website is the default web page that appears when a visitor enters a website (such as www.mysite.com) but doesn’t specify a page on the website. A web server can be configured to look for a page with a particular filename if no page is specified; the most common default index page filenames are index.htm, index.html, default.htm, and default.html. If you are unsure of the index page filenames that your web server uses, see your web server’s documentation.

In addition to the primary index page filename, most web servers are configured with alternative index page filenames, specifying pages to be displayed if there is no page with the filename requested as the primary index page.

For example, a web server might look for the following index page names (in this order):

1. index.htm

2. index2.htm

3. 404error.htm

If a page is named index.htm, the server sends that page to the browser to be displayed; if such a page isn’t present, the server sends index2.htm to the browser. If neither of those index pages is available, the server sends the 404error.htm page to the browser. Secondary pages such as these often provide an alternative entrance to the website or inform the visitor that the website is unavailable.

Contribute includes a list of popular index page filenames, using most of the popular document type extensions (.htm, .html, .cfm, .asp, .jsp, .php, and so on). If the index page filename that you use for your website is listed in the Index files section of the Index and URL Mapping dialog box (index.cfm, for example), you can most likely ignore this configuration option. If, however, your index page filenames are not included among those listed in the dialog box, you must add your index page filenames to the list, and arrange the names in the order in which your web server is configured to look for them.

For example, if your website uses an Adobe ColdFusion application server that uses the document type extension .cfm, and the index page for your website uses the filename main.cfm, add the filename main.cfm to the list of index pages in the Index and URL Mapping dialog box, and list that filename as the first page that Contribute should find on the website. Add index page filenames explains how to add an index page filename to your Contribute settings.

 community help (adobe.com)