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Dreamweaver Manual		Start
Acronyms		Introduction
		Tips
Diese Seite in deutsch		Windows		WYSIWYG
		Half-static tables		Editor
		JavaScript special		Properties
				Site
				Behaviors

The Site window

In Dreamweaver, a "Site" is the same like a project - i.e. for example a homepage or a manual like this one. A site consists of all single HTML pages of the project, all images used in them etc. In this connection, Dreamweaver can only regard a project as the entirety of all content of a certain folder.

Note: Try to avoid installing site structures in which one site is part (sub folder) of another. Problems that can crop up can often be with relative paths (Dreamweaver may assume by mistake that a file or link refers to a path that is under the root of the other site). If you want to apply certain actions on only one folder (which would normally a separate site), you can also reach that aim by selecting that folder and determining "Selected Files" with the action.

You can define an own, new site using "File/New Site". For that purpose, you have to give it at least a name and define the start folder (i.e. the higher directory relative to the project) - only then you can use the possibilities of a site (search and replace in all pages of the projects, link check of the project or parts of it, ...).
To simply search in all files of any folder, use the "Search in Folder..." function!

Having defined such a site, the site window appears which can also be reached from the WYSIWYG window: either with "Window/Site Files" or the small icon down right in the very left corner (circle with arrow to the right).
On the right side (normally ;-)) you see all objects which are directly under the determined path. On the left side either appears the content of the directory on the remote host (usually the FTP server for upload) when you're connected or the site map after having called "Window/Site Map".

The buttons in the row below the menu bar serve to establish a connection or the FTP transfer, beyond that there's also a popup for the selection of the site (the project).

In the left corner at the bottom of the window there's a small triangle with which you can switch between the views remote host, local and both.

But now over to the individual functions:

• FTP upload
• search and replace
• links and image references (check and correct)
• Check Target Browsers

FTP upload

Having switched to "Window/Site Files" or changed nothing at all, you could start at once - if you would have already done the settings for the FTP server... So here's an example for a homepage site at the Jugendnetz FFM:

Go to "Site/Define Sites/Edit/Web Server Info" and set as follows:

From now on, all you have to do is establish a connection with the FTP server using "Connect" and then send files or whole groups or folders with "Put" or "Get". But before that, you should check the whole site once to be sure that all links and references work. Since Dreamweaver 3, the very useful function "Synchronize" came along which makes it easier searching for files that are to be updated online. It does not only work site wide but also for selected objects (files and folders) on- and offline.

Note: Upload problems might appear if you have no or wrong permissions for the start directory online (on Linux servers like the one of the Jugendnetz FFM this is determined by the higher folder). The internal FTP client of Dreamweaver seems to try to create a directory as a test for writing permissions which is normally deleted directly afterwards. But if this is not possible, the client tries a dozend times until it sometime gives up and carries out the Upload nevertheless. Now the problem is that this procedure is run through every upload of such a site!
To put things right, either try (let) giving write permissions or if possible use a sub folder as online start directory in which you have or can get write permissions. This problem has been fixed in Dreamweaver version 3.01.

Search and replace

This is simply either: just select the files to be searched (only if you do not want to search the whole site) and then call "Edit/Find" or "Edit/Replace". According to what you chose, a dialogue appears with or without replace function. ;-)
Note: This function can also be called the same way (all but the file selection) from any WYSIWYG- or editor window: just Control-F or Control-H!
Now you only have to decide where and what to search - do that with the "Find What" popup. Select from these:

• Text: the page's content visible in the browser
• HTML Source: HTML source code
• Text (Advanced): continuation of "Text" (inside/outside tag, with attribute etc.)
• Tag: search for tags, if you want with attributes, different actions (e.g. change/remove tag with/without content; set/remove attribute, insert text before/after start-/end tag).

I think it's unneccessary to explain what is to be inserted in the first big field and maybe in "Replace with" - only that: there's much to set additionally...

• Find In:
  • Selected Files (only Site window)
    only search in the selected files
  • Current Document (only WYSIWYG- and editor window)
    only search in current document
  • Current Site
    search in current site
  • Folder...
    search in any folder
• check boxes:
  • Ignore Whitespace Differences
    ignore differences only concerning normale (i.e. no non-breaking ones) spaces.
  • Use Regular Expressions
    interpret regular expressions in the search string Note: these are not the normal regular expressions (all-quantor: * and existence quantor: ?), instead you have to use combinations of the present ones (see "Help/Using Dreamweaver")!

Links

With this funktion, Dreamweaver replaces a whole program! No uncertainty: "Have I linked everything the way it should be or is there a wrong image left...?" is no more! Instead the link checker in Dreamweaver, which is, by the way, accessible both from the site- and WYSIWYG window.
At first you have to decide whether you want to check single files or the whole site - then you have to select objects or not, according to that. After that you can start:

Check links and image references by choosing "File/Check Links/Selected..." or "File/Check Links/Entire Site" [ split into File and Site in Dreamweaver 3]. Then the program will immediately start checking and showing statistics in the bottom area. In the large field in the middle appear all links that "go into nirwana", i.e. have no existing target.

Now use the half-automatic link correction: If you click onto a link you can edit it and then let it be corrected with Enter/Return. If more than one link points to the same wrong target, you will be asked if you want all the other links pointing wrong the same way, to be corrected automatically. Normally you can confirm that in any case but if you have not completed your project yet and some links have no existing target because of that. If the same corrected link appears again, the input was obviously no existing address either. If the entry disappears instead, the new link exists.

Note: the checker may regard directory statements with leading slash (/images/) as correct. Please note that these links are root-relative then. On the server, that is the root directory (e.g. http://ffm.junetz.de/), but locally it is the site root which might be not the same like the server root! Further more please mind not to create sites which are part of another site site, because in that case relative paths might be tried to be adjusted to the wrong site structure!

If you're not sure, you can also double-click the link - then the corresponding document is being opened in the WYSIWYG window and you can correect the link using the Properties window for example by calling the file selector and selecting an existing link. If it's an image, you should press the "Refresh" button to be sure to have the size of the right image.

Unfortunately, you cannot use "External Links" to check these types like the Xenu checker does, but only show them in order so that you can edit them fast if neccessary.

Finally, you can search for Orphaned Files, i.e. files that seem not to be used by any page of the site (so no link or reference points to them). Of course, often the index page belongs to those files (if there's no link back to it) and all files (e.g. images) that are embedded with JavaScript functions.
Note: This function can only be used with the whole site! If files are displayed you suspect that they are referenced somewhere in the site in fact, you should call the function "Site/Recreate Site Cache" before trying again!

Note: For single, but all the same wrong links you can also use "Site/Change Link Sitewide".

Check Target Browsers

This function, accessible from the WYSIWYG- or Site window under "Edit/Check Target Browsers", lets Dreamweaver check the current document or the whole site for one or several browsers and its HTML support. After having chosen this function a dialogue appears in which you can select the browsers to be checked (multiple choice possible!) - but that does not mean that these browsers are really called, but only that its HTML capabilities, i.e. its "knowledge of languages", is checked (which is directly at Dreamweaver's disposal, as it is internal).
After having selected these "Target Browsers" the check follows and afterwards the output into a temporary HTML document which - if everything has been configured correctly - is being displayed immediately. You can delete this temporary file located in the root directory of your site after you have read the information (if no site has been created, with the checked document).

Jens Hatlak Mai 17, 2000