Dreamweaver.MX.1002004.The.Missing.Manual [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

16.1 Defining a Remote Site

As you create your Web site on your computer, you keep it in a local site folder (Section 14.1.1.4), often called a local site for short. You can think of a local site as a work-in-progress.
As your site is under constructionwhether you're building it from scratch or adding and modifying pagesyou'll routinely have partially finished documents
sitting on your computer.

Then, when you've perfected and tested your pages using the techniques described
in Chapter 15, you're ready to transfer them to a Web server that's connected to the
Internet. Dreamweaver refers to the Web-server copy of your files as the remote site,
and the program provides five methods for transferring files between it and your
local site:

FTP. By far the most common method is FTP, or File Transfer Protocol. Just as
HTTP is the process by which Web pages are transferred from servers to Web
browsers, FTP is the traditional method of transferring files over the Internet, and
it's the one to use if a Web-hosting company or Internet Service Provider (ISP)
provides the home for your Web pages.

Over the local area network. If you're working on an intranet, or if your company's
Web server is connected to the company network, you may also be able to transfer
files just as you would any files on your office network (using the Network Neighborhood,
My Network Places, Chooser, or Connect to Server command, depending
on your operating system), without even connecting to the Internet.

The last three optionsRDS, SourceSafe, and WebDAVare advanced file management
systems used for collaborative Web development. They're discussed in
Section 16.1.3.

16.1.1 Setting Up a Remote Site with FTP

You can set up a remote site only if you've first set up a local site on your computer.
Even if you're just putting up a temporary site while working on your real Web site,
you must at least have the temporary site constructed and defined in Dreamweaver
(see Section 14.1.1).

NOTE

Dreamweaver MX 2004 lets you edit directly on pages located on a Web server, using an FTP connection
(or if you're working with Cold Fusion files, an RDS connection). This new feature isn't always the best
way to go: It's slow, and leaves your works-in-progress open for the world to see on the Internet.

Once that's done, here's how you go about creating an Internet-based mirror of your
local site folder:

Choose SiteManage Sites.

The Manage Sites dialog box opens, listing all sites that you've defined so far. You're
about to create a living, Internet-based copy of one of these hard drive-based local
sites.

Click the name of the site you want to post on the Internet, and then click Edit.

Alternatively, just double-click the site name in the list. The Site Definition window
appears for the selected site, as shown in Figure 16-1.

You can also define the remote site and the local site simultaneously, when you first begin creating a Web site (as described in Section 14.1.1). Even then, however, Dreamweaver requires that you first give the site a name and choose a local root folder. At that point, you rejoin the steps described here.

If a Web hosting company or ISP will host
your Web site, you'll use FTP to put your
site on the Web. To make sure you have
all the information you need to connect
to the Web server, ask your ISP for these
four pieces of information: (1) the FTP
host name of the server, (2) the path to
the root directory for your site (3) your
login name and (4) your password. (If
the Web server comes with your email
account, your login and password may
be the same for both.)

Click the Advanced tab.

You can also use the Site Definition Wizard (Basic tab) to set up a remote site.
However, since the wizard requires you to step through screen after screen of
setup informationeven after you've already supplied most of itthe Advanced
tab is faster.

In the Category panel, click Remote Info. From the Access pop-up menu, choose
FTP.

The Site Definition window now shows menus and fields for collecting your connection
information (see Figure 16-1).

Fill in the FTP Host field.

Your FTP host name may be a name like www.nationalexasperater.com or ftp.
nationalexasperater.com. It never includes directories, folders, or slashes (like
www.nationalexasperater.com/home), never includes codes for the FTP protocol
(ftp://ftp.nationalexasperater.com), and is never only a domain name, such as nationalexasperater.
com. It might also be an IP address, like 64.226.43.116. In most
cases, it's the address you would enter into a Web browser (minus the http://) to
get to your site's home page.

If you don't know the host name, there's only one way to find out: Call your Webhosting
company or ISP or check its Web site.

In the Host Directory field, type the path to the root directory.

You're specifying which folder within your Web hosting account will contain your
Web page files and serve as the root folder for your site.

Just as on your own hard drive, all the files of your Web site on the Web will be
completely contained inside a master folder referred to as the root folder. But when
you connect to your Web server using FTP, you're rarely connected to the root
folder itself. Instead, you usually connect to a folder that isn't accessible over the
Websome administrative folder for your Web account, often filled with folders
for log reports of your site's Web traffic, databases, and other files not visible over
the Web.

UP TO SPEED Make Wizard Disappear with One Click Dreamweaver's Site Definition Wizard makes the process of defining a new site easy. You encountered it in Chapter 1 (Section 1.3.1). If you're defining a new site and you already have a remote site set up on a Web server, you can go ahead and use the wizard to add all of your remote login information. Once the site definition is done, you can immediately start transferring files to the server. The information requested by the wizard is exactly the same as described in the instructions on these pages. However, if you've already defined a Web site, it's a lot easier to click the Advanced tab. This way, you can skip all of the information you've already supplied and jump immediately to the Remote Information category.

Your hosting account's root directory folder (or even a folder within it) is where
you place your site's root folder; that's why you're typing its name here. Common
names for the root folder at ISPs or Web-hosting companies are docs, www,
htdocs, public_html, or virtual_html. (Call your Web hosting company or ISP to
find out.)

The information you give Dreamweaver here represents the path from the FTP
folder to the root folder. It may look like this: www/htdocs. In effect, you're telling
Dreamweaver: "After connecting to the Web server, you'll find a folder named www.
Inside this folder is another folder, htdocs. Put my site files in there." In other words,
htdocs is the Web site's root folder on this particular remote hosting account.

In the Login field, type your user name; type your password in the Password
field.

Dreamweaver uses bullets (•••) to display your password so that passing evildoers
in your office can't see what you're typing.

If you want Dreamweaver to remember your password each time you use the program,
turn on the Save checkbox. This way, you won't have to type your password
each time you connect to the Web server.

NOTE

For security reasons, don't turn on the Save box if you access the Web using computers at, say, your
local library, or anywhere else where people you don't trust may use the machine. Otherwise, you might just
awake one morning to find the following splattered across your home page: "Hi there! Welcome to Jack's
house of illegally acquired and unlawfully distributed music, featuring Metallica's greatest hits."

Turn on the Use Passive FTP or Use Firewall boxes, if necessary.

If you're building sites from your home, home office, or small company, you may
never need to use these technical options.

Many corporations, however, use firewalls: hardware- or software-based gateways
that control incoming and outgoing traffic through a network. Firewalls protect
the company network from outside hackers; unfortunately, they also limit how
computers inside the networkbehind the firewallcan connect to the outside
world.

If your company's system administrator confirms that you have a firewall, you'll
need to also get the name of the firewall host computer and its port number. Click
the Firewall Settings button, which opens the Site Preferences dialog box). Your
firewall configuration may also require passive FTPa method of connecting using
your local software, rather than the firewall server. Check with your administrator
to see if this is the case, and, if so, turn on the Use Passive FTP checkbox.

More troubleshooting tips await at www.macromedia.com/support/dreamweaver/ts/documents/ troubleshooting_ftp.

If your Web server uses SFTP (a secure, encrypted form of FTP), turn on the Use
Secure FTP box.

The Secure FTP option, new in Dreamweaver MX 2004, replaces the SSH Login
feature of Dreamweaver MX (which was tricky to use and didn't provide good
security). Secure FTP encrypts all of your data, not just your user name and password,
so information transferred in this way is unintelligible to Internet snoops.
It's ideal if your site isn't open to the public (password protected) and contains
sensitive information like personnel records. Unfortunately, unless you can set
it up on your own Web server, few Web hosting companies offer this advanced
option.

By the way, leave Automatically upload files to server on save turned off. Because
it makes Dreamweaver upload the file each time you save, it slows you down and
runs the risk of putting half-finished Web pages on your server for all the world
to see. It's better to just upload the page after you're completely finished with it.

Turn on "Enable File Check In and Check Out," if you like.

Turn it on if, for example, you and your team of Web developers all use Dreamweaver.
Fill in the corresponding options (see Section 16.3), you can save yourself
some clicks by turning on Check Out File when Opening. (Fill in your name and
email address, too, as shown in Figure 16-2.) Now you can "check out" a file from
the remote server just by double-clicking its name in the Site Files list.

If you work on the site in several different locations (for example,
from home and your office), use a different name for each location
(BobAtHome and BobAtWork, for example). In this way, you can
identify which files you've checked out to your home computer and
which to your computer at work.

Click OK to return to the Manage Sites dialog box; click Done.

The Manage Sites dialog box closes, and the Files panel opens.

At this point, you're ready to connect to the Web server and transfer files. If you're the
only person working on the site, Dreamweaver's Get and Put commands will do the
trick (Section 16.2). If, however, you're part of a development team, use Dreamweaver's
Check In and Check Out feature, described in Section 16.3, instead.

16.1.2 Setting Up a Remote Site over a Local Network

If you're working on an intranet, or if your company's Web server is connected to
the company network, you may also be able to transfer your Web files just as you'd move any files from machine to machine. Dreamweaver provides the same file transfer
functions as with FTP, but setup is simpler.

Follow steps 1 and 2 of the previous instructions; but in step 3, click the Remote Info
category, and then choose Local/Network from the Access pop-up menu. Menus and
fields for collecting your connection information appear in the Site Definition box
(see Figure 16-3).

Now click the folder icon next to the Remote Folder field. In the resulting dialog box,
navigate to and select your site's remote root folder. On a local network, this folder
functions as the root folder on your company's Web server (see Section 14.1.1.4), even though
it's actually still within the walls of your building. (For differences on selecting root
folders on Windows and Macs, see Section 1.3.1.)

Wrap up with steps 10 and 11 of the previous instructions. At this point, you're ready
to connect to the Web server and transfer files.

Clicking the Refresh Remote File List Automatically
box updates the list of files in the Files panel. Changes
to the remote site, such as when someone adds a file,
are listed automatically. Because automatic updating
slows down the process of moving files to the remote
site, however, you may want to deselect this option
when you begin a session of moving many files. You
can always refresh the file list manually by clicking the
Refresh button on the Files panel (Section 14.1.5).

16.1.3 Setting Up a Remote Site with RDS

RDS (Remote Development Service) is a feature of Macromedia's Cold Fusion Server.
It lets designers work on Web files and databases in conjunction with a Cold Fusion
application server. If you aren't using Cold Fusion, then this option isn't for you.

To create a remote site in Dreamweaver that will work with RDS, follow steps 1 through
3 in Section 16.1.1. In step 4, click the Remote Info category, and then choose RDS from
the Access pop-up menu (see Figure 16-1).

The Remote Development Service, is a feature of the Cold Fusion
application server. However, even if you use Cold Fusion, you
may not be able to use RDS, since most Web hosting companies
that offer Cold Fusion servers turn off RDS due to potential
security problems.

NOTE

For more information on RDS, visit:
www.macromedia.com/support/ultradev/programs/rds/rds02l.

The Site Definition window displays a version number, a short description, and a Settings
button. Click Settings to open the Configure RDS Server window, shown in Figure
16-4. Fill in the dialog box as directed by your server administrator or help desk.

16.1.4 Setting Up a Remote Site with WebDAV

Dreamweaver includes two other methods of accessing a remote site: WebDAV (an
open-source program, meaning a collaborative effort by volunteer programmers all
over the world) and Microsoft's Visual SourceSafe. Both technologies are designed to
address one of the biggest problems when collaborating on a Web site: file management
and version control.

For instance, all kinds of havoc can result if two people edit a page simultaneously;
whoever uploads the page to the Web server second winds up wiping out the changes
made by the first person.

What you need is a way to prevent more than one person from working on the same
file at the same time. WebDAV, short for Web-based Distributed Authoring and
Versioning, provides one such solution. It integrates seamlessly with Dreamweaver's
Check In and Check Out feature, described in Section 16.3.

NOTE

Both WebDAV and SourceSafe are advanced options usually used by large organizations that require
a good deal of technical expertise. Consider using them only if you have someone on staff who can guide
you in setting them. (Or, of course, if you happen to be a technical wiz.)

Both Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) and Apache Web Server can work
with WebDAV. To find out if your Web server can handle WebDAV (and to find out
the necessary connection information), consult your Web server's administrator.

WebDAV, short for
Web-based Distributed
Authoring and Versioning,
is a powerful tool for
working on a large site
with other people. It's built
into several Web server
packages.

To create a remote site in Dreamweaver that will work with WebDAV, steps 1 through
3 in Section 16.1.1. In step 4, click the Remote Info category, and then choose WebDAV
from the Access pop-up menu.

The Site Definition window displays a version number, a short description, and a
button labeled Settings. Click Settings to open the WebDAV Connection window,
shown in Figure 16-5. In this dialog box, type the URL of the root directory on the
WebDAV server (beginning with http://), your user name, email address, and password.
(If you don't know these three bits of information, ask the server administrator or
help desk.) Click OK.

As a final step, turn on the Check Out Files when Opening checkbox in the Site Definition dialog box. Click OK, then Done. You're ready to connect to the Web server
and transfer files, as described in Section 16.2.

NOTE

You can find more information on WebDAV at
www.webdav.org/.

16.1.5 Setting Up a Remote Site with SourceSafe

Microsoft originally created Visual SourceSafe for managing team software development.
Like WebDAV, SourceSafe makes sure you don't accidentally stomp on someone
else's hard work by overwriting a Web page they just modified. In addition, this
sophisticated program tracks different versions of files and lets an administrator "roll
back" to previous versions of a Web page, or even an entire site; it's the granddaddy
of Undos.

To take advantage of this power, however, you need a Visual SourceSafe (VSS) server
and VSS database already set up. In addition, Windows users need to install Microsoft
Visual SourceSafe Client version 6 on their PCs.

NOTE

The Visual SourceSafe option is not available to Mac users of Dreamweaver MX 2004.

Once you've installed the VSS Client software, and you've created and defined a local
site (see Section 14.1.1), you're ready to configure Dreamweaver for SourceSafe using the
Site Definition window. Basically, you tell Dreamweaver where to find the SourceSafe
database and how to sign on to the server.

Once again, follow steps 1 though 3 in Section 16.1.1. But in step 4, click the Remote Info
category, and then choose SourceSafe Database from the Access pop-up menu. In
the resulting dialog box, click Settings to reveal the Open SourceSafe Database dialog
box, shown in Figure 16-6.

Dreamweaver supports Microsoft's Visual SourceSafe
system. Many corporations use this powerful file-control
system to control access to files in large projects involving
many people.

Click Browse to select the Visual SourceSafe (VSS) database file on your computer
(or type in the file path, if you know it, into the Database Path field)the srcsafe.ini
file that Dreamweaver uses to initialize SourceSafe.

Then, in the Project field, fill in the name of the project within the VSS database that
you wish to use as the remote root folder. (A VSS database can have many projects
and Web sites listed in it. Make sure you enter the right project name for this site. If
in doubt, contact the administrator of the Visual SourceSafe database.) Type your
user name and password into the appropriate fields; again, ask the administrator for
guidance.

Click OK. But before dismissing the Site Definition dialog box, turn on Check Out
Files when Opening, so that Dreamweaver's Check In and Check Out feature (see Section 16.3) will work with the VSS system. Click OK, then Done. You're ready to connect to
the Web server and transfer files. Both WebDAV and SourceSafe use Dreamweaver's
Check In and Check Out process, described in Section 16.3.1, for transferring files.