Dreamweaver Site Setup and Maintenance

 

Developed by Craig A. Cunningham

Goal for this lesson

Set up a new site and create two subdirectories, with a few linked pages. Upload this new site to the CUIP server.

Back to the top.

This document is available as a PDF Handout. (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you don't have it, click this button: )

Key Concept

In order to create a web site, you need to create a temporary place to store the files as you're working on them. This temporary place will be on your computer (the one you're sitting in front of), and it is known as the "Local Root Folder."

Local -- on your "local" machine, the one that is right in front of you; your computer.

Root -- root as in the root of a tree, the BASE of the site, or the entry point. (You can think of this as being at the bottom of the site, like the root of a tree, or at the top of the site, like a organizational chart.

Folder-- the container for the files in the website. Everything in the site must be in the folder or a subfolder of it, including images, HTML files, etc.)

Once you have created your site, or are done working on it for a time, you will "Put" or publish the contents of the Local Root Folder up to the CUIP Server.

Back to the top.

The "Define Sites" dialog

The Define Sites dialog box is accessed from the Site Files view.

To access the Site Files view, click Window|Site Files or click on the bottom edge of the page layout window.

To open the Define Sites dialog box, either click Site|Define Sites... or click the arrow on the Site drop-down menu and choose "Define Sites...".

The dialog box has two important categories: local info, and remote info. (other parts are optional). To choose the right category, click it under the "Category" list on the left side.

Here's the local info to set up my personal site on the CUIP server:

The Site Name is arbitrary (whatever you want it to be).

To choose the Local Root Folder, click the yellow folder icon . This brings up this dialog box:

DON'T use the Dreamweaver Program folder as your Local Root Folder. (If you do, you'll end up with lots of extraneous files in your site.)

Then, either find the folder you want to use as your local folder using the drop-down box or create a new folder.

When using a computer in a lab, it is probably best to create a new folder on the Desktop. To do this, use the scroll-bar in the drop-down menu to scroll all the way to the top, and choose Desktop. (Or, simply click the button to go directly to the Desktop.)

Then, use the icon to create a new folder. Call it something descriptive, like "Craig's Curriculum Web."

The name of the Local Root Folder does not matter. This folder will NOT appear on the server when you publish your site.

Back to the top.

When you first click the category "Remote Info," you'll get a screen like this:

Click the arrow on the drop-down menu and choose FTP.

Here is the remote info for my site on the CUIP server.

The "FTP host" will always be cuip.uchicago.edu if you're using the CUIP server. If you're using another server, it might be something like ftp.neiu.edu or webspaces.artic.edu. This field will NEVER include any slashes (/s).

The "host directory" field should be "www." This is a subdirectory of your main account directory. Any files that you create for the web MUST be in the "www" directory or a subdirectory of the "www" directory.

In the "Login" field, type your CUIP user name.

Leave "Password" blank for now. If you type it in, the "Save" box is checked, and anyone who uses the computer you're setting the site up on would be able to edit your web files. Only type your password in if you are using a private, secure computer.

If you DON'T type your password now, you will be asked for it later when you "connect" to the site you've defined.

Leave the other three boxes (Passive FTP, Firewall, and Check In/Out) UNchecked.

When you're done filling the fields, click OK. Then, at this box, click done:

When the computer asks if you want to create a Cache file, click yes. (Unless you already have lots of files in your Local Root Folder, creating the cache file will be very quick.

Back to the top.

Optional diversion: using telnet to look at the files and folders on the CUIP server.

Creating a new site:

  • Create local and/or remote folders to contain the site.
  • Set up local and remote info in the Define Sites boxes (this procedure is described above). (Local and/or remote directories can already contain files.) Call the site "My first site" or something like that. (If you already have files in your "www" directory, you will probably want to make a subdirectory of "www" as your remote host directory. See your mentor for help with this.)
  • Create and/or link files together into a site.
    • Suggestion:
      • Create three new files: index.htm, page1.htm, and page2.htm. (In the Site View, choose File|New File. The file will appear in the Local Root Directory with the name "untitled.htm." Rename the files what you want by right-clicking (or control-clicking) the file and choosing "Rename.")
      • Open each new file and add links to the other two files. (See Overview for basic instructions.)
      • Create two new subfolders (subdirectories) in the Local Root Folder, one called subfolder1 and the other called subfolder2. (In the Site View, choose File|New Folder. Then rename the folder what you want.)
      • Create new files in each of the new subfolders. (Highlight the folder name, and choose File|New File.) Call these new files index.htm. (Each folder can have an index.htm file in it. This file is always the "default" file loaded when a the user browses to a directory or folder.)
      • In the "index.htm" file in the local root folder, add links to the two new files, like this:

      • You'll end up with a site that looks like this:

  • Warning!! If you already have files in your CUIP account folder, do not PUT the new site directly into the "www" directory of your site, or you will overwrite any existing files with the same names (such as "index.htm." In this case, set your "remote host directory" to a subdirectory of your "www" folder. Please ask your mentor for help with this.
  • Now, "put" the site by going to site files view, and clicking the top-level folder you want to "put" (or hold shift and click individual files), then clicking the Put button:
  • ALWAYS check your "put" by using Netscape to browse to the URL you expected, and making sure files or changes were uploaded. In this case, your URL will be something like "http://cuip.uchicago.edu/~username."

Back to the top.

OPTIONAL SECTION: Downloading an entire existing site

  • If you have already created a web site and want to download it to a different computer (or the same computer in which the local root folder has been deleted or damaged), follow this procedure.
  • You'll also want to use this procedure to continue to work on a web site on another day, if your local root folder has been deleted or you're at a different computer.
  • Set up the local and remote info in the site define dialog boxes
  • Connect using the icon in the site files view that looks like:
  • Choose the highest level folder, or all the files you want to download. Click Get:

Back to the top.

Overview of site design process

See http://www.artic.edu/~kreute/web2/class3.shtml. After you've read this page, talk to someone in your section about what you learned.

 

 

Developed by Craig A. Cunningham