Controlling SSI Editability


SSIs are truly a powerful, double-edged sword. The major benefit of having one file-control element on multiple pages is equally balanced by the danger of such a configuration. The key factor that controls which way the sword swings is SSI editability. If your SSIs are never to be edited by anyone but a developer in Dreamweaver, steps must be taken to ensure that access to the SSIs is restricted. If you want a group within your site to be able to modify SSIs through Contribute, the SSIs must be handled a bit differently. With judicious care, you can even set up some SSIs for editing via Contribute while keeping others off-limits.

In this lesson, you'll see how the user typically experiences SSIs in Contribute, and how particular SSI files can be opened for editing in an external application through Contribute.

1.

In Contribute, select the link to the Design_Deploy Web site on the Start page. Next, select Choose and, in the Choose File on Website dialog box, expand the company folder. Select the events.shtm page and click OK.

The just-opened page actually has an SSI located in the top-left corner that displays the current slogan for the organization.

2.

Select Edit to open the page for changes. Try to select the SSI in the upper-left corner to alter or delete it; notice that you can modify any other region of the page except the SSI.

Note

If you're familiar with Dreamweaver templates, you'll notice that the visual clue present when you move your mouse over a locked region is not displayed with SSIs. The cursor stays the same; it's only when you try to change the region that you realize that the region is locked.

This particular SSI is stored as slogan.txt in the includes folder. As an administrator, you have permission to edit anything in the site root, including files in the includes folder. You can edit this file with an .inc file extension, you can edit it in Contribute, but you can't edit it as a .txt file. (However, text files can be updated in your system's standard text editor, launched, and published in Contribute.)

Note

SSIs can also end in .htm, .html, .shtm, or .shtml and be editable from within Contribute itself. Rather than illustrate a procedure you already know, the following steps show how to edit a file in an external application through Contribute.

Contribute informs you that the selected file cannot be displayed in its browser; however, if the Edit button is available, it can be modified.

3.

Select Edit to open slogan.txt in your system's text editor. Leaving the surrounding tags and the " character entities in place, change the inner text to Your everyday health center. Save the file and close the text editor.

Contribute now displays a message that a draft is being edited in another application.

4.

Select Publish to post the altered SSI file on the Web site; if necessary, click OK to dismiss the Congratulations alert. From the Drafts panel, click the previously saved draft of the events.shtm file.

The slogan has now been updated on this pageas it has been on every page on which the SSI is embedded.

5.

Click Cancel to remove the draft; when prompted, confirm your choice.

Because no changes were actually made to the events.shtm file, there's no need to republish it. All the necessary changes were contained in the SSI.

The primary lesson to take away from this section is to understand which options you have when editing SSIs. In summary:

  • Store the include files in a folder in which only authorized personnel can edit them.

  • Give the SSI files the extension .inc or .ssi to prevent them from being edited in Contribute.

  • Use a .txt extension to allow editing in a text editor through Contribute; use .htm, .html, .shtm, or .shtml to edit an SSI in Contribute itself.



Design and Deploy Websites with Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 and Contribute 3(c) Training from the Source
Design and Deploy Websites with Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 and Contribute 3: Training from the Source
ISBN: 032128884X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 130
Authors: Joseph Lowery

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