Uploading Updating Your Site

Uploading & Updating Your Site

Now that you know about FTP and how it works, let's take a look at how you can use FTP to upload and update your Web site.

Local & Remote Folders, Revisited

Back in Chapter 8, I discussed the concept of having a local and remote Web site folder. The local folder is the folder on your hard disk that contains your entire Web site. You should have built the folder hierarchy before you started saving pages and storing resources. This way, all the references to resources and links to other site pages remain intact. You should also have tested all of your pages to make sure they appear the way you intended, with no missing resources or broken links.

When you upload your site to the remote folder, you're copying the contents of the local folder into the remote folder. When you're finished, you could open the remote folder and see the same files in the same file hierarchy as in the local folder. (Figure 10.5 shows an example of the two folders, side by side, within Dreamweaver. You may notice that the remote folder has a few extra files; these are files created by the Web server software that are not needed locally.)

Don't copy the local folder into the remote folder. Copy the contents of the local folder into the remote folder.

How To Do It

The method you select to perform the upload will vary based on the FTP software you use.

Using Built-In FTP

If you're using the built-in FTP capabilities of your Web authoring tool ”the method I recommend ”follow the instructions in the software manual to specify your FTP settings, including the FTP server name , directory (or path ), user ID, and password. You should get all of this information from your ISP or System administrator. Then select either the site's root folder or the contents of the site's root folder and use the appropriate Upload or Put command within the software to upload the entire site. If you correctly set up the server and directory information for your site, the files will be properly uploaded into the remote folder.

Using Graphic User Interface FTP Software

If you're using a graphic user interface FTP client software package such as FTP Explorer or NetFinder, connect to the FTP server using the information you get from your ISP or System administrator: FTP server name, directory, user ID, and password.

Next, open the remote folder so you can see its contents ”it should be empty (or almost empty) if you haven't uploaded your site yet. In Windows Explorer or the Mac OS Finder, open the local folder so you can see its contents.

Now select all of the contents of the local folder and drag it into the window for the remote folder. The download should begin. If it doesn't, check the manual that came with the software; the instructions may differ from these.

Using Command Line Interface FTP Software

If you're using a command line interface, you must be an FTP expert and you don't need my help. (If you do need my help, take my advice and don't use the command line interface!)

The First Time

The first time you upload your site to the Web server, all the files you add should be brand new to the server. You won't be overwriting anything ”except maybe a default Home page the ISP put there for you.

You should be able to check the upload right away. Fire up your Web browser and enter the URL for your Web site. Your Home page should appear. If it doesn't, either you incorrectly named your Home page or something went wrong during the upload.

Check the instructions your ISP or system administrator provided for assistance. If that doesn't help, call their technical support staff.

Updating Your Pages

Now, every time you make a change to any of the pages or resources on your site, you'll make those changes on the local copy of the Web site ”not the remote copy. The only way to get those changes onto the Web server so everyone can see them is to re-upload the page or resource.

Updating Web site files works the same way as uploading them for the first time. There are only two differences:

• You don't have to upload all the files for the site. Just the ones that have changed.

• Because the files already exist on the server, you will overwrite them with new versions.

Follow the instructions earlier in this chapter to upload the changed files. Select only those files that have changed. This will save time, especially if your connection to the Internet is at slower modem speeds.

Although you can update your Web site by re-uploading all pages, it's only necessary to upload the pages that have changed.