Building a Website: Site Management Fall 2013

Introduction Web page consists of a collection of varied files – HTML – images – CSS – Flash movies – Etc. Must all work together – Broken link or missing graphic can interfere with the operation of entire site A good site has – Eash to understand structure – Content is divided into logical sections with a prominent navigation bar

Organize via Folders One primary folder – the root folder – Holds all the site’s web pages, graphics, and other files used in the ssite – Root folder is subdivided into subfolders for better organization

Typical Folder Structure Site Folder -- home Index.html contacts.html css global.css classified Index.html images horoscopes features img home global nav nav_store-f3.gif nav_store-f2.gif nav_horoscope_f3.gif.gif

Guidelines for Effective site Organization Plan for future growth Follow the site’s architecture Organize files by types – Create folders for each section of web site Add folders for storing other types of files – Graphics, css, external JavaScript files, PDF files, etc Create folder for graphics that appear on home page – Usually home page is visually distinct from other pages Create folder for graphics that appear on other pages For example – images_home folder – images_global that appear on other pages

Guidelines for Effective site Organization Use understandable names Don’t use names such as 1a.gif, zDS.html, or f.css Use names like site_logo.gif or directions.html Be reasonable with the names this_is_the_image_that_goes_in_the_upper_right_corner_of_the_home _page.gif is probably not a good name Be consistent

FAQ Why so many files named index.html? – If you type into a web browser, the browser goes to that location and looks for a file named index.htm, index.html, index.php. One of those files are not in that location you will get an error message. Otherwise you would have to type – For example, my web page is at To get to it you only need to type

Site Map Local View: shows the files in your local root folder Map View: shows a map of your site Remote View: Shows files on the Web server in the remote root folder Testing Server: used when creating dynamic database driven site

Local View Move or rename a file – Do this within Dreamweaver’s files panel, Dreamweaver will try to update all files that reference that name or location.