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Using dreamwever instead of Front Page |
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| message from tgieske on 25 Jul 2004 |
I'd like to pick up my Front Page pages in DW but there doesn't seem to be any such thing as shared borders, which I rely on at www. tonyspage.com. Does DW have something like shared borders?
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| David B replied to tgieske on 25 Jul 2004 |
I used to work with FrontPage, but I can't even remember what shared
borders are. Are they something like FrontPage includes, or whatever
Mickeysoft called them? In other words, is it an element that several
pages share in common?
At any rate, Dreamweaver has library items, which are a sort of include,
and it also has templates, which can be used along with library items.
However, it's been ages since I touched either templates or library
items. If you have the time and energy, it's much better to start
learning a server side language, like PHP. You can do so much more with it.
Frankly, I found templates a little frustrating to work with, though
library items are pretty straightforward.
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| Murray *TMM* replied to tgieske on 25 Jul 2004 |
Yes. More or less.
In FP, shared borders are common elements that FP automatically places on
each page - usually they are navigation elements and masthead things and
page theme elements, I believe. Dreamweaver has Library items, Templates,
and the ordinary server-side include for doing such things.
Library items and Templates are pretty simple - like shared borders, they
are *DESIGN-TIME* tools. This means that they only work on your local
files, and only when you are running Dreamweaver. Server-side includes, on
the other hand, are *RUN-TIME* snippets of code that are placed in the page
by the server/host before the page is handed to the requesting browser. The
latter has a huge advantage on larger sites, since you would only need to
change and upload a single file (the include file itself), whereas with
Library items and Templates, you must upload each changed file for the
changes to take effect.
Library items are good for single page entities, like navigation elements,
that may change from time to time. A single change to the Library item is
propagated to all containing pages as with shared borders.
Templates are good for entire pages, and (unlike Library items) can contain
regions that will be editable in child pages. Imagine a complete page with
a single editable region in which you can write unique content on the page.
All other areas are not editable.
Here's how I recommend you convert your site from FP to DW -
1. I'd define a Dreamweaver site that points to a location on your hard
drive for the local site's root, and to the current FP site as the remote
site
2. I'd use Dreamweaver (if your host supports FTP connections) to download
the remote site to the root of the site you just defined on the hard drive.
This will
pick up all the pages *after* webbot action so that shared borders and all
are already present. This will also pick up all of the server script
(Note - in the event that you are not able to connect using FTP since some
FP hosts block that protocol, you will have to use a third party 'site
copier' like Black Widow, QuadSucker, or WebCopier, to connect and download
using http protocols. Doing it this way will *not* retrieve any of your
server-script code. You will have to recreate that in Dreamweaver).
3. I'd create a DW template for the pages that captures the "shared border"
effect.
4. I'd copy and paste content from the FP pages to the template child pages
and then save the new child pages with an easily identifiable nomenclature
that is distinct from what was used on the FP site.
5. When the basic site is completed, I'd upload to some staging area, and
by using the browser, I'd verify that the site (as it exists remotely) is
complete.
6. Then I'd create a new DW site in a new location on the hard drive,
connect to and download all the files from the staging site.
You now have a complete site (minus any of the FP extension server-side
code) that has no FP footprint.
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