Design and Deploy web sites with Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 1002004 and Contribute 3 training from the source [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Chapter 3. Implementing Common Elements

What You Will Learn

In this lesson, you will:

Learn more about server-side includes (SSIs)

Create a properly formed SSI

Explore SSIs in Contribute

Correct a legacy SSI

Set up Contribute administration

Open an SSI in Contribute for editing

Implement shared assets

Approximate Time

This lesson takes approximately one hour and 15 minutes to complete.

Lesson Files

Media Files:

None

Starting Files:

LessonFiles/Lesson_03/images/logo_wha.gif

LessonFiles/Lesson_03/images/ infoIconWin.gif

LessonFiles/Lesson_03/Templates/press_release.dwt

LessonFiles/Lesson_03/includes/legacy.inc

LessonFiles/Lesson_03/company/events.shtm

LessonFiles/Lesson_03/includes/slogan.txt

LessonFiles/Lesson_03/hr/policy

LessonFiles/Lesson_03/Library/HelpDesk.lbi

LessonFiles/Lesson_03/media/help

LessonFiles/Lesson_03/hr/training_schedule

Completed Files:

FinalFiles/Lesson_03/includes/footer.inc

FinalFiles/Lesson_03/Templates/press_release.dwt

FinalFiles/Lesson_03/includes/legacy_head.inc

FinalFiles/Lesson_03/includes/legacy_body.inc

FinalFiles/Lesson_03/includes/slogan.txt

FinalFiles/Lesson_03/hr/policy

FinalFiles/Lesson_03/hr/training_schedule

Within any given Web site, no single page is an island. By design, a site's pages often share a series of common elements: a header with a company logo, a navigation bar linking to primary site sections, and a copyright notice at the foot of the page are good examples. Mutual page elements and a shared layout enhance a site's usability and can prevent the user from having to figure out anew how to use each page.

Common Web page elements make sense from a maintenance perspective as well. Suppose that every page on a Web site includes the company logo as a GIF image and that all the src attributes point to a single file. Make any change to that image file, and the modification is instantly reflected on all pages after that graphic is published to the Web site. This example illustrates both the benefit and the danger of common elements. With multiple content contributors, unauthorized changes to a single file can have consequences across the site and remain possible until steps are taken to place such files out of reach.

The goals of this chapter are to demonstrate the proper use of common elements and illustrate techniques to avoid their misuse. The lesson starts by focusing on a frequently used common element, the server-side include (SSI). As the name implies, an SSI is a file that is incorporated into the Web pag109 by the server. To display th109 page with an SSI properly in Macromedia Contribute, an SSI must follow certain guidelines. You'll learn in this chapter how to create a properly formatted SSI from scratch and how to adjust legacy includes. SSIs typically are not intended to be edited by the content contributor; doing so could potentially wreak havoc on numerous pages throughout the site. You'll see how to protect your SSIs from unwanted changes, as well as how to set them up to be opened for editing from within Contribute.

When formatted correctly, SSIs use one file to represent common elements such as the navigation bar across a site.

[View full size image]

You'll also learn about a powerful Contribute feature called shared assets. Shared assets, new in Contribute 3, allow the designer to specify particular images, Flash movies, or even Dreamweaver library items that can be added to the page. The final section in this lesson sets up a series of shared assets to be applied by the Contribute user.