Site Definition in Dreamweaver CS3 for the University Templates
- You must set up a site definition inside Dreamweaver CS3 in order to use the templates and to make pages from these templates. The templates must reside in the templates folder. If they are not in there, you won’t be able to use them. You can save the templates as different names.
- Everything for your website must be stored inside ONE FOLDER on your local or shared drive. There can be problems with using shared drives to set up a site definition, as multiple people can work on files while they are not online and this can cause people to overwrite each other’s work unless the ‘Check In’ and ‘Check Out’ system is used. It is preferable to set up a site definition on a local drive accessible only to yourself.
- NB. Please use the CS3 version of Dreamweaver as this is the only version that fully previews html pages made from the templates properly before you upload them.
To Set Up A New Site Definition
- On the menu bar at the top Go > Site > New Site
- Use the Advanced tab
- Click on ‘Local Info’ (top left under Category) enter the required information:
- You can name your site anything (one word).
- Click on the yellow folder to at the end of the line ‘Local root folder’ and navigate to where you store your web documents – i.e. this your web folder inside which everything is stored on your local or shared drive (*see comments about shared drives above). In this example it is C drive/marcustest folder. All you need to see here is name-of-drive/name-of-web-folder. If you see any other pathway, especially a very long file pathway here, this is wrong. It is vital that you get this, you local web folder file pathway correct.
- Leave the default images folder blank.
- Another common mistake when setting up the site definition is to set links relative to the document. This is incorrect. Please set links relative to ‘Site root’ (in other words the links are relative to your local web folder)
- You can fill in the http address of your website if you know it, but through experience I have found that this address can sometimes cause problems when previewing files using the browser function in Dreamweaver CS3. In this case you can delete the address and leave this field blank.
- Click on ‘Remote Info’ (second from top under Category) enter the required information:
- From the drop down list indicated by the arrow pick FTP (file transfer protocol). FTP allows you to upload and download files and folders from your local web folder to the server so that they become live, are viewable online. In other words you work locally and can view globally.
- The information for the fields for ‘FTP host’ (your server address) and ‘Host directory’ (where the files are stored online) must be obtained from your IT person, as well as your username and password. Your IT person must also authorize that your computer can upload and download to the server, give your computer permission to do this.
- The University recommends that you tick the box ‘Use passive FTP’ for better file transfer.
- Click ‘Test’ to test the connection. If you get an ‘X’ you have some information incorrect or you do not have permission to connect to the server from your computer. Otherwise it will say that ‘Dreamweaver has connected to the server successfully’.
- Click OK.
- Dreamweaver automatically sets up a cache of all the files inside your local root folder and these can be viewed on the right hand side of Dreamweaver under the ‘Files’ Local View in GREEN.
To Connect to the Server and use FTP to Upload and Download Files and Folders
- Click the plug and socket button to connect to the remote server
- Click the ‘expand and collapse’ button to show both the local and remote site files (see image above). Local files are shown in GREEN on the right hand side and Remote Site files are shown on the left hand side in YELLOW (see image below). Yellow files are live!
- Do not get confused between local and remote files and overwrite new files either locally or remotely. Always make a backup of your local site regularly so that if things do go wrong you have a way to correct your mistake.
- To upload files or folders select them and then click on the BLUE arrow. To download files or folders select them and click on the GREEN arrow. Dreamweaver automatically puts the files and folders in their correct locations. Work locally and view globally.
- Use the ‘Refresh’ button to refresh the online files after uploading. Check the online version through your browser to make sure the changes have taken place by hitting the reload button on your browser for the page. This may take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes.
- IT IS IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER THAT BOTH THE LOCAL AND REMOTE FILES MUST BE IDENTICAL TO EACH OTHER. All folder and file names and the position of folders and files must be identical on both sides otherwise links will be broken and images will be missing.
- To exit the open remote and local site view, click on the collapse button again (see image above).
To Download an Entire Site
- In the expanded view that shows both local and remote files close up the remote site so that only one folder appears in yellow on the left hand side (see image above).
- Click on the folder to highlight it and then click on the GREEN arrow to download the entire site.
- The dialogue box as seen in the above image appears ‘Are you sure you wish to get the entire site’ and you click OK. The entire site downloads and this can take varying periods of time depending on how big the site is. For example the abp site takes a few hours to download whereas a small site like History and Philosophy of Science site takes about 20 minutes. It also depends on the speed of the server.
Please note that Dreamweaver Training Notes are supplied by Dr Marcus Bunyan August 2008
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