Macromedia Studio MX Bible

A Web server is a special computer connected to the Internet that contains software to serve — send — Web pages upon request. A Web server is required to publish or "make public" your site's pages. Where your site is located depends upon how you aquire Web server access. Whether you use space at an ISP, have hosted space, or run your own Web server, moving your files to the Web server requires server access. You provide the access method and information to Dreamweaver using the Site Setup options:

• You may use the Site Definition Wizard (Basic site setup) and provide the information in the screen "" as shown in Figure 45-4. Choose Site ® Edit Site and click the Edit button for an existing defined site or choose Site ® New Site when starting from scratch.

  Figure 45-4: Questions in the Site Definition Wizard are designed to elicit the proper information about how you connect to your Web server and where the server is located.

• You may click the Advanced tab and choose the Remote Info category and enter the information there, as shown in Figure 45-5.

  Figure 45-5: The Remote Info category is accessed in the Site Definition's Advanced screens.

In both cases, after you select the proper Server Access method and provide the information about the server, you can test the connection with the Web server by clicking the Test Connection button. A successful connection message occurs if Dreamweaver can connect using the information, as shown in Figure 45-6.

Figure 45-6: A successful connection test

Server access options

No matter how you choose to set up your remote server access — using Basic or Advanced site setup — certain information is required. You must choose from the following methods of accessing the Web server:

• (LAN) Local Access Network — To access a Web server that is part of a local network or Internet Information Services (IIS) or Personal Web Server (PWS) folders on a computer in the network.

• (FTP) File Transfer Protocol — To move files to a remote Web server using specific protocols for handling the various files as binary or text files.

• (RDS) Remote Development Services — Remote HTTP-based access to files and databases for Web servers that support ColdFusion.

• (VSS) SourceSafe Database — Connect to your Web server using a SourceSafe Database. SourceSafe Database support is only available for the Windows platform when Microsoft Visual SourceSafe Client version 6 is installed.

• (WebDAV) Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning — Connect to a Web server using WebDAV protocol. For this access method, you must have a server that supports the protocol, such as Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) 5.0 or Apache Web server.

The vast majority of sites are uploaded via FTP. Besides the FTP server access option, you must provide a minimum of information in your site definition, as shown in Figure 45-7.

Figure 45-7: The Remote Info panel using FTP server access

• FTP Host — This varies depending upon how you aquire Web server access. For a domain, it might be www.mydomain.com or simply mydomain.com. It may be the actual IP numbers (as in 121.23.983.4) or, as most ISPs require, may start with ftp://

• Host Directory — This is the top-level folder to which you have access if nothing is added to the field. To specify a subfolder, add its path here.

• Login — Your username or ID to access the Web server.

• Password — The password used to verify your username. Adding the password in the Site Definition saves it. If you choose not to add it here, you will be prompted for it when connecting to the Web server.

Optional information

Other information is optional or required only for specific servers that are protected by a firewall — hardware and/or software that prevents unauthorized access to the server. Add firewall information by enabling the Firewall option and clicking the Firewall Settings button. Passive FTP and SSH — encrypted secure logon — are server-specific options.

If you are using space provided by your ISP, chances are that your site lives in your account's directory, and the URL to get to your site may start with the ISP's domain name. A domain is an "alias" for a set of Internet Protocol (IP) numbers that represent a computer on the Internet. Anyone may purchase a domain name, and many online companies provide a service that lets you do this. The alias must be unique and is actually "rented" for a year or more at various prices. Common domains are.com, .org, and .net among others. Some domains are reserved for government or educational institutions. A bevy of newer domain types relate to countries other than the United States.

A virtual Web server — generally a "hosted" solution where a company specializing in Web server access rents you server space for your domain — contains many sites. The actual location of your site's folder (its physical path on the computer) is different from the URL for your domain. For example, the site www.n2dreamweaver.com lives buried in the folder structure of a hosting company at www.cravis.com. Similarly, the site for Habitat Alert has a URL of www.habitat-alert.org, but it lives on a server at Nexpoint (www.nexpoint.com).

Uploading design notes

Design notes are files saved into a special _notes folder in the site. Information about source files (as in Fireworks or Flash design files) or added status files that contain information about the state of a site file are saved as .mno files. By default, design notes are uploaded with the rest of the site. To disable uploading or to disable the keeping of design notes, click the Design Notes category of the Advanced Site Definition. Use the check boxes to disable or enable.