Tool used: dreamweaver 8.
Defining Root folder could be said as one of the initial steps in web development. This article explains how to define the “root” folder in dreamewaver.
Start Dreamweaver, go to “Site” Menu, go to “newsites” menu item; now you get Site Definition window, there you have to define all properties of the site.
You can see two tabs on the site definition window.
1.Basic (wizard)
2.Advanced
Step:1
Go to the Basic tab… Then specify your site name
step:2
wizard will ask if you are using some server technology.
a.) If no, just click “next”
b.) If yes, choose from the list items choose the server script you are using. Then Click NEXT
step:3
Incase of a.) choose the radio button depends on your case. (normally choose first, “Edit local copies on my machine,then upload to the server when ready”
Then choose folder you have created as the root folder.It will be your local root folder.
Incase of b.) choose the radio button according to your need ( how you are planning to work with the testing server. If your testing server is local system choose the first option. This will require the necessary server facilities installed in your system.)
Then choose folder you have created as the testing folder. Suppose you have selected ASP javascript in the previous step and you are using a windows operating system having IIS or PWS installed your testing folder can be “c:inetpubwwwrootYOUR SITE NAME”.
Step:4
Incase of a.) you have to define the remote server and its folder. If you are not using any server scripts you can just choose none to avoid confusion. In this case, your local root folder will be the master folder and all the previewing will be from the same local root folder.
Click next to see your site settings…..Then press done.
Incase of b.) In this step dreamweaver will test and see whether the specified site settings including the testing server connectivity. If the Test result says “The URL Prefix test was successful” All the steps you have done is correct. If any other messages come, it means there were errors while setting up the site properties.in this case please go through the error message and try to rectify the mentioned error.
Step:5
Only incase of b.) choose whether you want to use a remote server or not.
If yes in the next step you can define where is the remote folder to be paced. If you are using a remoter server folder as the remote folder, you can specify the folder settings & location here.
If no just choose None and click next and preview the site settings…then click done.
Understand the these terms well:
1. Local folder: the folder in which you store all the site files. This folder is in the local system.
2.Testing folder: The folder which is used to test the applications and the scripts. It could be on the local system or at a system in a network or on a remote server.
3. Remote folder: The folder in which the whole site will be stored once you use “put” action. It could be on the local system, or at a system in a network or on a remote server.