UPLOADING YOUR SITE

Finally, get all your pages online!

Before you go further, open the manage sites dialog box from the Site menu. Click on “cloaking” to access that panel.

Check the “enable cloaking” box, and the “cloak files ending with” box.

In the field below, type

.png .fla .psd .eps .tif .tiff .doc .innd

That way, these “originals” won’t be uploaded to the server. You don’t need them for your site to work, and they’ll just take up precious file space on the server.

Click OK, and then “done.” to exit the site management dialog box.

Now, to upload your site files:

Make sure that your site is the current site named in the files panel, and click on the connect to server icon.

You should see a folder called “public_html” at the top left. You may also see some other files—perhaps something you uploaded previously.

If there are old files in your public_html folder, you can open them by double clicking on the name. If they’re something you don’t need, select them in the remote site list and press the delete key.

Click on your index.html from the local site and drag it over to the public_html folder in the remote site.

Dreamweaver will ask if you want to include all dependent files. I usually click yes. Dreamweaver then not only uses its built-in FTP to move your index.html file to the server, but it also moves any folders and files used in that page. That means, if there’s a nav bar from Fireworks on the page, Dreamweaver moves the folder with all the slices associated with it to the server as well.

If you select “no” to including dependent files, you’ll have to move folders and other associated files by clicking and dragging them to the server manually. This isn’t a bad thing to do, either. It’s a matter of preference.

You can also move files/folders by selecting them and using the put arrow (the blue one).

Now, open your browser and type in your url (http://web.syr.edu/ ~yourusername). See if it works!

If there are missing image icons and broken links, fix them in Dreamweaver, and upload the edited files again.

I’ve found the biggest issue is that all the parts of a nav bar don’t always show. I just upload the folder where all the slices for the nav bar are located, hit the refresh file list button, and try again.

Don’t despair if you find you still have some work to do to make your site fully functional. It’s just the way of the web world and even the most professional and experienced webmasters have been known to scratch their heads, wondering why things don’t work.

When it’s all together and functioning perfectly, pat yourself on the back.

Congratulations!