Dreamweaver
Tutorials
Dreamweaver: How to Publish Files Using FTP
Before you can publish in Dreamweaver, you must set up a "home base"
folder where your website will live on the local hard drive of your
computer. Once this is in place, you can use Dreamweaver's FTP feature
to "get" and "put" the HTML files from your local folder to the remote
server. Here's how to set it up for a BASIC website that does not
include PHP, .asp or any "dynamic" elements.
Open Dreamweaver.
Go to the top menu and click SITE, then NEW SITE
The prompt will ask you for a name. Name it "Whatever Your Site's Name
Is" (you can space this - it's like a title bar, not a domain.)
Next Prompt: Do you want to work with a server technology?
Your Answer: NO
Next Prompt, Question 1: How do you want to work with your files?
Your Answer: Option 1
Question 2: Where on your computer do you want to store your files?
Your Answer: (Here, you will set up a folder hierarchy. Your heirarchy
might be, C:/Your Websites/Name of Website
Next Prompt: How do you connect to your remote server?
Your Answer: FTP
Now it will ask you the following questions:
What is the hostname or FT address of your Web server?
Your Answer: This will vary. Typically, it's
ftp.whateveryourwebsitenameis.com (starts with ftp, a period, and then a
domain name dot-com. The domain name could be your own domain name, or
it may also be the domain name of your hosting provider. You may want to
search for the term 'FTP' in your host's help instructions so you know
exactly what address to enter here.)
What folder on your server do you want to store your files in?
Your Answer: typically the answer to this is htdocs, but you have to
figure out where your main HTML files are stored on your server. (I know
that in Earthlink the folder is called webdocs).
What is your FTP login:
Your Answer: whatever your website login is
What is your FTP password:
Your Answer: whatever your password is
Now check off "save" and then click TEST CONNECTION to make sure you're
hooked up. If you can't connect, recheck the above information and
repeat the process.
Next Prompt: Do you want to enable checkin and checkout? Your Answer: NO
(This is up to you. If you have multiple designers on your team, then
checkin and checkout could be a good way of preventing file versions
accidentally overriding each other. If you work alone, just say NO.)
Note:
If you screw this up for some reason or want to change anything, go back
up to the top menu, click SITES again and select EDIT. you'll see the
name of your website (whatever you named it in Step 1) listed and you
can repeat this same process.
To use the FTP in Dreamweaver, just go to the far right hand window
where it says DESIGN, CODE, APPLICATION, FILES all stacked vertically.
Hit the arrow where FILES is located to open up the little FILES window.
Note: if you don't see any far right window, you may have chosen the
alternate view when you first launched the program. In this case, go to
the TOP MENU BAR and click SITE and then SITE FILES. A floating window
should open up that you can drag anywhere beside your main window.
In the FILES window, you'll see a little pulldown menu where you can opt
to view your server files.
Next to that pulldown is another pulldown menu that says REMOTE VIEW. By
default, you're looking at the server (as opposed to your local computer
folders, which is another choice in this pulldown).
Just beneath the word FILE in that FTP window, you see a little icon
that looks like a plug with a black dot next to it (far left). Click
that and it'll "connect" you and the dot will turn green, for "GO
Dreamweaver!"
To open a file from your desktop, mouse away from the FTP window and go
to the *usual* place in any program where you'd open a file. (Top menu
bar, far left, FILE.)
Open the file from the folder where it's located on your computer. Edit
the file.
When you're done editing the file, go back to the FTP window on the
right, that you just set up. Make sure you're connected (that dot next
to the plug doohickey should be green. If it's black, click the plug
icon again to connect).
To transfer the file from your local desktop to the remote server, do
this:
Mouse away from the FTP window again, and back to your open file. Focus
your gaze TOP CENTER. Next to the TITLE bar there are two arrows, a
green "down arrow" and a blue "up arrow." To PUT the file on the remote
FTP server, click the BLUE UP ARROW.
(The blue UP arrow stands for PUT or PUBLISH from your computer to FTP
server)
(The green DOWN arrow stands for GET or retrieve your file from the FTP
server to your computer)
Later on, you may want to open the file directly from the FTP server and
edit it.
So, go to the FTP window and click the icon to connect to your server
again. The list of files should appear.
Find the name of the file you want to edit, and while still in that mini
File window, click the name of the file once (to highlight). Then click
'FILE' and 'OPEN'. (this is all done in the little FTP window, not the
main window).
Now your file will open up in the main (big) window. Edit it, and then
click that BLUE ARROW by the center TITLE BAR to PUT or publish it
again.
NOTE: if you click the blue arrow located in the little FTP window, it
will PUT the ENTIRE SITE from your desktop to your server.
If you've already edited and put some files but not others, this will
mess your stuff up royally. Why?
Because it'll take the files from your computer and replace the "most
updated files on your remote server" with the old ones from your local
folder, thereby deleting your work. I have done this by accident and it
is no fun.
If you know that all the files on your server are the *correct* ones but
the ones on your desktop are the *old* ones, you can *get* the files
from the server by clicking the GREEN DOWN arrow in the little FTP
window on the right.
This will replace every file on your hard drive with the same named
files from your server.
If you royally mess up something, but as you remember it, the last file
that you PUT (or published) is still live on the web, you can type in
that file name in your internet browser and then do a VIEW SOURCE, copy
the HTML code, and paste that back into the file on your hard drive,
Save, and then PUT it again.
Generally, it's a good idea to work from your local folders and then PUT
the entire site (in the FTP window) all at once. But I am a jerk and I
don't do it that way.
Good luck, and happy FTPing, getting and putting!
Copyright 2006 Dina Giolitto, Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing
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