Understanding Contribute

Contribute's primary goal is to make Web sites as easy to edit as they are to browse. Although Contribute is built on the Dreamweaver engine, most of the complexities of working with Web pages are hidden from the Contribute user. For all the apparent simplicity, there's a lot going on under the hood. Let's take a look at the way Contribute works.

Each Contribute site has an administrator. The administrator may or may not be the site's designer, but administrators typically have access to all the site files and often administer the site through Dreamweaver. The connection informationwhether files are transferred over a network, via FTP, or through a secure FTP portis managed by the administrator. Connection information is either distributed by an encrypted file called a connection key, or enabled for the user by the administrator through the Connection Key Manager.

Like Dreamweaver, Contribute works with remote and local sites, but the process is transparent to the user: A built-in file transfer engine handles the retrieval and publishing of files. When Contribute is first started, any active connections are enabled, and updated template files on the remote site are transferred to the local system, if necessary. Although this process may slow the initial startup of the program, it speeds up editing sessions, particularly those that involve new page creation.

The home pages for any Contribute-connected sites are immediately accessible through a Start page link or the Home Pages button on the main toolbar. Contribute uses an in-program browser (Internet Explorer on Windows and Safari on Macintosh) to allow users to locate files on their sites as if they were browsing normally.

Although Contribute users can browse to any page within the program, they can edit only pages that meet three criteria:

• Users have to have a connection to the overall site. If there is no connection to the currently browsed page, a bar across the top of the page reminds the user of this fact.

• The user's assigned role must be enabled to edit the page. The administrator can specify which files on the site are available to any given user, depending on the user's role.

• The page must not be currently checked out by another site contributor or administrator.

If a page is editable, the Edit Page button becomes active. When the user opts to edit the page, the HTML file and any dependent files such as images are transferred from the remote site to the user's local computer. Files are stored in the user's application folder, typically hidden from the casual viewer.

The editing experience itself is intentionally limited. The limitations serve to make the interface less overwhelming than Dreamweaver's feature-rich environment and to restrict the changes the contributor can make. A Contribute user cannot modify a CSS style sheet that would affect multiple pages across the site, for example.

After a page has been modified, the Contribute user has several options, all of which are triggered by buttons on the main toolbar:

• Canceled. If the draft is canceled, any changes made are effectively lost. An alert informs the user of the consequences when this choice is made.

• Save for Later. This action keeps the file checked out to the current user and prohibits further editing from anyone else. The page is then saved as a draft and listed in the Pages panel for easy access.

• Send for Review. If this option is selected, a copy of the modified page is posted to the site in a temporary folder. A link to this newly posted page is embedded in a newly created email message, ready for addressing. The temporary page is removed after the draft is published or canceled.

• Publish. The Web page is saved locally and then transferred to the remote site, along with any dependent files. Newly added dependent filessuch as images or externally linked documentsare also transferred and stored in administrator-designated folders. When the process is complete, Contribute reverts to browser mode and displays the newly uploaded page.

Now that you have an overview of how Contribute works, it's time for you to experience it yourself.