Importing and Exporting Personal Web Packages | Microsoft Expression Web For Dummies

Expression Web allows you to package and export all or part of a Web site as a Personal Web Package. Personal Web Packages are useful for copying particular files and folders within a Web site into another Web site. For example, if you have a particular set of files that you always start with when building a new Web site, you can export them as a Personal Web Package and then import them into a new site, to give yourself a head start. Or, you may have a site that has a file structure and pages that you want to expand on to either build a new site or reuse in slightly different form. You can think of Personal Web Packages as a simple way of creating your own, personal Web site template.

To create and export a Personal Web Package, follow these steps:

With the Web site open that you want to export as a Personal Web Package, choose File Export Personal Web Package.

The Export Web Package dialog box appears. The Files in Web Site area shows all the files and folders in the Web site, as shown in Figure 13-6. The top-level folder is selected.

Figure 13-6: The Export Web Package dialog box.

To add all files and folders in your Web site to the Personal Web Package, click the Add button.

To select particular files and folders, hold down the Ctrl key and, in the Files in Web Site area, click to select each file or folder you want to include. When you've selected the files and folders you want to include, click the Add button.

If you add a folder that has files in it to the Files in Package list, a message appears, asking whether you want to add the contents of the folder. Click Yes to add the folder and its contents; click No to add just the folder.

Tip

You may notice that when you add a particular file or folder to the Personal Web Package, a bunch of other files are added along with it. Most likely, the file or folder you added is dependent on those other files or folders for some of its content. For example, it may need an associated image file or a Dynamic Web Template that supplies some of its content. For the file to work in its new home, it needs to bring its buddies (known as its dependencies) along with it.

You can take a look at a file's dependencies by clicking the Show Dependencies button, which pops open another section of the dialog box. Click a file or folder in the Files in Web Site list to see any other files and folders it needs. Control the criteria that Expression Web uses to pick which files or folders need to go along by selecting an option in the Dependency Checking list box (if you change the option, click the file or folder again to force the list of dependencies to refresh):

Check All Dependencies, Except Hyperlinks: Choose this option if you want to include files and folders that the selected file needs, but not pages that it links to or that link to it.
Check All Dependencies: Choose this option if you want to include all dependencies-image (or other) files, folders, and pages that link to and from the selected page.
Do Not Check Dependencies: Choose this option if you don't want to include the files or folders that the selected file depends on. Just the file or folder itself is added to the Files in Package list.

Tip

Even the simplest Web site can be a quagmire of dependencies, and trying to sort them out and figure out what to include and what not to is confusing. If you're not sure, err on the side of including all dependencies rather than excluding them. You can always delete the ones you don't need when you import the Personal Web Package and start working on it as a new Web site. (You also have the chance to say yea or nay to the files in the Personal Web Package when you import it.)

To remove a file or folder from the Files in Package list, click the file or folder and click the Remove button.

After you add all the files and folders you want included in the Personal Web Package, click OK.

The File Save dialog box appears. The name My Web Package.fwp appears in the File Name text box.

Using the options in the File Save dialog box, navigate to the location and folder where you want to save your Personal Web Package and, in the File Name text box, type a new name for the file.

Tip

Unlike with Web folders and files, you're not limited to lowercase filenames with no spaces. You should still keep your filenames short, however; there's no use in wearing out your typing fingers.

Click Save.

Expression Web shows you an encouraging dialog box which says that your Web Package was saved successfully.
Click OK to close the dialog box.

When you're ready to import your Personal Web Package, launch Expression Web and create a new Web site (or open the Web site into which you want to import the Personal Web package).

Tip

If your Personal Web Package already contains a home page, you can create a new, blank Web site and simply pull in all the files and folders from your Personal Web Package. In a few clicks of a mouse, you have a brand-new Web site up and running with all its content in place.

To import a Personal Web Package into an open Web site, follow these steps:

Choose File Import Personal Web Package.

The File Open dialog box appears.
Navigate to the folder containing the Personal Web Package you want to import, and then click to select it.

A Personal Web Package's file icon looks like a little file cabinet, and the filename has the extension .fwp.
Click the Open dialog box.

The Import Web Package dialog box opens, listing the items included in the Personal Web Package.

To import all items, click the Import button.

If you want to exclude an item from importing, click its check box to deselect it. You can include or exclude any files or folders. Then click the Import button, watch what happens, and respond accordingly:

Warnings

Depending on your computer's settings, a Security Warning may pop up. Don't be alarmed. Just click the Run button.

If the site into which you're importing the Personal Web Package contains a duplicate filename (such as the default or index home page), a Confirm Save dialog box appears, asking whether you want to overwrite the file. This situation can happen if your open Web site contains a home page named default.htm or index.htm. (You can avoid this problem by importing the Personal Web Package into a new, blank Web site).
Click Yes to overwrite the file in the open Web site with the file in the Personal Web Package. Click No to stop the duplicate file in the Personal Web Package from importing.

When the file is done importing, Expression Web pops open a dialog box telling you that the Personal Web Package import process is complete.

Click OK to close the message.

The files and folders from the Personal Web Package appear in the Web site's Folder List task pane.