Using Dreamweaver to Manage Your Class Projects

This tutorial was written for the students in the ROP Web Page Design Program. Note to students: I would not recommend creating this site until you finish your tutorial work from the Dreamweaver MX 2004 New Perspectives book.

You may want to create a Dreamweaver site definition that contains all of your classroom projects. After creating this defintion you can manage all of your remote site content from Dreamweaver.

You should have already created a folder in your pm## directory called hosting index (students who have been in class longer may have named their folder f2o; if so, you can rename the f20 folder hosting index ). The hosting index folder should already contain the main index page for your web site and any necessary graphics and other files. You will create a site definition using the hosting index folder as the default root folder. You will then download all of the existing files on your web site to the local hosting index folder. You can then use the local folder to store any new projects you create including the following projects: Macromedia, Photoshop, and the final project.

To the left is a screen capture of my local site folders on my local hard drive. I save my sites in C:\My Documents\My Webs (your classroom folders will be saved to drive F:\).

This folder contains everything that I have uploaded to my remote site including: HTML homework (html and htmlxhtml folders), the Photoshop project (mollydog), the Dreamweaver New Perspective files (drm), and the Dreamweaver with PHP files (newlandphp). It also contains my site index page which can be viewed if you visit http://robin.robinshosting.com and other miscellaneous project folders and necessary files.

 

Creating a Dreamweaver Site Definition

In Dreamweaver click Site > Manage Sites and click New > Site. Make sure that you are working in Advanced view.

In the Local Info area, type your site name. Click the Browse button and navigate to the hosting index folder and select the folder as the local root folder. Do not select a default images folder at this time. You can always add the default images folder information at a later date.

Click the Remote Info Category.

Set the Access to FTP.

Type your FTP host address which uses the format username.robinshosting.com

Type public_html/ as the Host directory.

Type your username and password in the appropriate boxes.

Test your connection. Exit the Site Definition dialog box.

Downloading your Existing Site

Once you have created the site definition and tested the connection, you can download your existing site.

In the Files panel, select Remote view. Click the public_html folder once to select it. Click the Get button to download all of your site folders and files. You may be prompted to get the entire site, if you are click Yes.

Managing Your Site

After setting up the new site definition and downloading your files, you can use Dreamweaver to manage your entire robinshosting site. After the download has completed you will have an exact copy of your remote site in your PM directory. If you need to edit existing projects you can open the file in Dreamweaver. For example, you need to make some minor changes on your HTML project index. You can open the file from the Dreamweaver Files panel, make the change to the file and upload the edited file using Dreamweaver. As long as I have reviewed your HTML site you no longer have to use TextPad or WS_FTP to manage the HTML files. Note: If you have not already completed your HTML project and submitted it for instructor review, then you must use TextPad to modify your your HTML project files. You cannot use Dreamweaver to complete your HTML project.

When you need to create a new project folder use Dreamweaver to create the folder inside the hosting index site definition. When you are ready to upload the project files you can use Dreamweaver to FTP your files to robinshosting.com.

Note: This is how you would backup your entire remote web site. Also you can use this method to make a copy of your remote web site at home.

If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area and you're interested in learning more about web design and development, graphics, or computers in general, consider taking classes at the Contra Costa ROP Technology Center. We offer affordable computer training in a variety of subjects. Visit our web site for more information.

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©Copyright 2001-2006 - Robin Wood - Send Questions or comments to robin at tinkertech dot net.
Last Updated: December 19, 2006