This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Working with the File Panel
The File panel, which is part of the File panel group, by default acts as the control center for managing your site. If your File panel is not visible, choose Window, Files. This launches the File panel. F8 is the keyboard shortcut to access this panel. If you look at Figure 3.15, you'll notice that the File panel has a toolbar; each option on the toolbar adds functionality toward managing your site. The File panel has been expanded. You can expand your File panel by clicking the Expand/Collapse button.
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Figure 3.15 The File panel's toolbar has options for managing Web site
files.
Site Files This button enables you to view the Site window in its default view, which is displaying all the files on the local side and remote side. Remember that the remote files are the files located on your Web server. You will see files on the remote side only if you are connected to the server.
Testing Server The testing server is a way for you to view your files located within the root folder of your testing server. Today the majority of operating systems ship with a built-in Web server. Windows XP Professional ships with Microsoft's IIS, and Mac OS X ships with an Apache Web server. Often, developers will use these local Web servers to test their pages. After they've tested okay, they'll move them to the remote Web server. When the Testing Server option is selected, the local files are still visible on the opposite side.
Site Map To view the site map of your Web site, click this button. Notice that this button offers two choices: You can either view only the map or you can view the map and the local files at the same time. If your site has any size to it, you may want to opt for Map Only. The site map can become large very quickly.
Show The Show drop-down menu is filled with all the sites that you have defined within Dreamweaver. This affords quick access to any site and lets you move between them with ease. Notice that toward the bottom is the Manage Sites option. If you choose Manage Sites, it launches the Manage Sites dialog box. This drop-down menu also offers you access to explore the local or any connected drive to your machine. If you need access to a file outside your local root folder, you can gain access without leaving Dreamweaver.
Connect to Remote Host This button connects to the remote host you specified in the Site Definition dialog box. You must have a connection to the Internet to make a live connection. After you've made a successful connection, the remote side of the Site Files will be populated with all the files on the server. The Connect button also appears to have green circles in it, indicating a connection. When you're connected, the Connect button becomes a Disconnect button.
Refresh What you specified in the Site Definition dialog box determines whether this button has any meaning. If you chose not to have the file list automatically refresh, you will have to press this button to see the results of any files being moved from the remote side to the local side, or vice versa. Sometimes when you're moving files, you may have to refresh regardless of whether the FTP utility is acting buggy.
Get File(s) The Get button retrieves files from the remote server by downloading them to your computer. There are a couple of ways to get files from the server to the local files, and one is to press this button. You can also drag and drop between the two sides, and you can highlight the file you want to transfer and press Command+Shift+D (Mac) or Ctrl+Shift+D (Windows).
Put File(s) This is the opposite of the Get button. This will allow you to Put, or upload, files during an active session with the remote server. Like its Get counterpart, there are a couple of ways that you can upload files. You can highlight the file on the local side and click the Put button. Drag-and-drop is also supported when transferring files from the local side to the remote side. Finally, you can highlight the files and use the keyboard shortcuts of Command+Shift+U (Mac) or Ctrl+Shift+U (Windows).
Check Out Files/Check In Files The Check In and Check Out buttons are active only when you have check in and check out selected in the Site Definition dialog box. These options let you officially check in and check out files, offering a visual cue to all the development team members that you are working on a particular file or files.
Expand/Collapse This feature collapses the panel to dock it within the panel group or expands it as its own independent, free-floating window.
When using the Show menu, notice that all local root folders defined with Dreamweaver appear green. All other folders will appear blue (Mac) or yellow (Win).
NOTE
When getting and putting files, an alert message pops up. The dialog box asks if you would like to include all dependent files. Although this may seem obvious, you may not want to include the dependent files. For example, if you uploaded a page and all its files, you may notice something wrong in the title of the page. You can easily correct that by changing it in Dreamweaver; however, you've changed the HTML only in the document. It would be necessary to upload only the HTML file and not all the images associated with it, because they're already on the server. If you check Don't Ask Again, it will assume you want to upload the dependent files. If you did check this earlier and now decide that you want the alert to appear, you can change that in the Preferences dialog box under the Site category.
When transferring files, you will receive transfer information via a dialog box on the Mac or via a progress bar, both on the Mac and PC. This progress bar indicates how long something will take to upload or download. In the bottom-right corner of the window or panel is a Stop Current Task button. This button enables you to terminate the active task of moving files.