Managing sites and uploading

Managing the Site

(1) Finishing off the site for use

Web pages are made up of HTML and these document come in three parts

(1) Head - this identifies the document and contains information for use by search engines on the web

(2) Body - this contains all the web page content

(3) Footer - this identifies the author, date of creation and version number Head Content
Have a look at the head section HTML below.

(1) Head Content

Go to Insert Bar and select HTML. Head is the second icon in (MX2004)

The Title appears in the browser and is used to identify the purpose of the page

Keywords - Identifies what the page is about. It should fit on a single line but be informative as Web indexing search engines use these to create index record of your pages in their database

Description - a brief description of the main purpose of the site.

Meta - The 'meta tags' define information about the information contained in the document and it is important to include this if you want other people to see your site. Browsers and Web robots working for search engine robots read the <META> information and include this information in search engine databases, especially the keywords and description. When a site is submitted for inclusion in a search engine database this <META> information is vital.

Have a look at the separate Management2 page for more information.

(2) Footers

Any information you add at the end of the page counts as a footer.
If you want to put this after the body tag include the following base tag before the footer info and you will not get an error message.
e.g. <base href="index3.htm">

In this case this shows the base url for this section of the program

Open the code view and type in a copyright notice. It will not appear in the editor, but when browsing it will appear. Have a look at this page in a browser.

Transferring a Site on to the Web

You need to have some basic jobs done first before you do this

You need to have got an account with an ISP and either have registered your Domain Name
(eg http://www.joebloggs.co.uk) or have been allocated one as part of the ISP package (eg http://www.joebloggs.connectfree.co.uk)

You need to have purchased a 'hosting package' ie bought space on a server for your site. You will purchase so much web space for it. If you are using the free ISP web space the ISP will allocate your web space as part of the package

Have a FTP program or else use the site uploading facilities of Dreamweaver

You need to know the address of the FTP server at the ISP or web space company, together with the user name/password details you have been given. Most hosting companies require that the home page be stored as 'index.html' or 'index.htm'

What is FTP?
File Transfer Protocol is a method of communication designed to allow computers to communicate together for the transfer of files from one store to another. All web hosting/ISP companies will have a separate FTP server.

See the tutorial page FTPTutorial

Updating and maintaining the site

Dreamweaver has powerful commands that allow you to make sitewide changes. There are a number of commands in the main SITE menu or in the Site Files Site menu. Some of these are duplicated, others are not.
Have a look at the SITE menus below

(1) GET/Check Out/ Put are commands to do with uploading the site, as explained above.

(2) New Site/Open Site/Define sites are commands to set up a site structure.

(3) Check/Change Links Sitewide allows you to manipulate links throughout the site.

(4) Change Links allows you to change or correct a link throughout the site. Check links allows you to see the status of the links

Broken links do not work and need to be replaced or repaired

External links gives you a list of external URLs on the site.

Orphaned files have no incoming links

Reports
Dreamweaver can find or make reports on various aspects of the site or just a page. Reports are available on things like untitled documents, empty tags and design notes (check these out for this site)
(You make design notes by turning on in Site Definition dialogue box and add them from the File menu)

Synchronize
A facility to make sure your files are up to date both locally and on the web.
Open the Site Window and select the files to be checked
Select Synchronize command from menu and follow instructions. Be careful to preview first before making changes.

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