Disable "Do you want to save changes" popup in live view

[AmiAmigo]

I am using Adobe Dreamweaver CC 2020...My website is in PHP...So when I want to edit it I normally use the LIVE view...But the problem is it keeps prompting me to save every second...How do I disable it? 

[Nancy OShea]

You don't.  Save often with Ctrl/Cmd + S as I do or switch to Design from the Document Toolbar. 

NOTE:  If you don't save often in Live view, you may lose code changes when switching between document tabs.

[AmiAmigo]

The problem is tht Design view doesn't allow me to view PHP files...All the styling is gone when I view it in design view.

[Ben M]

This is part of Live View and is unavoidable. In order to show you the changes live the file must be saved.  If you would prefer the updates could be made in Code View or the old Design View to not have to constantly save.

[AmiAmigo]

Can't I at least adjust the saving time? Maybe it should save after one minute or so... It keeps prompting me to save every second that tt's hard to keep on writing...because after typing a few letters a pop up box appears...it's so irritating!

[Nancy OShea]

Maybe you would be happier working with HTML files.  So SaveAs HTML and work with that until you no longer need to see the layout.

[AmiAmigo]

Well! That's not possible because the changes are being made now and then...and am handing the final website to the client...so when they edit...with just one click they can upload the site. And I need PHP because I use php includes for navigation and footer. I thought this should be an easy fix...

[Nancy OShea]

Change to PHP before you hand off to client or upload or whatever.

I also work with PHP files but I mainly work in code view. 

[Ben M]

I believe the save prompts when you lose focus on the area.  Why are you typing so much in the header/footer?    I would agree with Nancy to change to PHP when you hand off to the client. Also you can develop the page by editing the pieces outside of Live View, ie: editing the header without seeing the entire page, and then live view or use your testing server/browser to test everything coming together at the end.

[AmiAmigo]

I don't type much in the header or footer...that was my answer to someone who asked why don't I just use HTML. I can't use HTML because I need PHP functionality. And am asking this for my client, I can easily edit in code view, but the client needs to be able to see the final page / live view which he is editing. Everything else works fine...but the behaviour of Live View editing isn't so friendly...You can't type a few words without a save pop up to show up. Adobe should look into this...

[Ben M]

To Nancy's point about saving as HTML, if you just save the bits that the client needs to edit as HTML and just use your PHP files to include things when they are published to the server, then the client can edit without the constant saving and just upload the editable bits and could potentially use Design View for their editing purposes and you would be able to use Code View for your more advanced edits that require dynamic content. In a way this would be like an offline CMS where they are editing HTML content in an offline editor and uploading as opposed to using a hosted CMS where this is done in the browser. Would that work?

[AmiAmigo]

That wouldn't work. Here is the website by the way...It's heavy in content (About 200 pages) Intensive Journal

The website is built from scratch using HTML and CSS, at first we were using Surreal CMS to edit...but that wasn't a surreal experience for our website. Then we switched to Dreamweaver...If it was a small website what you suggest might work. But this website keep adding and omiting info regularly...so your solution won'tbe ideal...and it will require more work of translating the edited HTML to PHP again then upload. If I won't find a good solution might just have to try the design view which of course takes all the CSS syling out of the PHP file.

[Ben M]

If the site is larger, then having Dreamweaver manage 200 pages of content might not be ideal either.  From what it sounds like you have a header, navigation, and footer being included via PHP.  Then you have 200+ pages of content (maybe using a template) with those includes on them.  The client then opens each file in Live View and edits the body copy of the page.  Then your concern is that the client will not see styling in the editor and have to assume that an H1 font looks like {x} and a P font looks like {y}.  Is this a correct understanding of the proposed solution/issue?

Given that is the case, while your intentions are right, DW was not setup to be a CMS Editor in the way you are thinking about it. It is targeted at the developer and not the content editor.  Going back through DW's history, this was the reasoning behind the development of the Contribute app and Business Catalyst solution.  Have you considered using a CMS like Wordpress/Drupal/etc. for the client?  This could end up being cheaper for the client in the long run because while they might pay for more development up front, the cost on the backend would be lower because they would not need the software investment of Dreamweaver to maintain their site and they get better word processing capabilities for their content?

[AmiAmigo]

Thanks again for your reply.

So the site was coded from scratch using HTML and CSS, I don't use any templating...and the little PHP I use is for the includes in the Navigation and Footer. From the beginning I didn't want to use any CMS like WordPress or Drupal because with those once you're tied...you are tied. So coding from scratch allowed for the flexibility of hooking up HTML and CSS with any platform I like. At first I tried the lesser known Surreal CMS to manage my content and allow my client to change and update info. It did some good work but it was not ideal.

Then I began researching other ways to tie my website with...then accidentally I thought of Dreamweaver. And what made Dreamweaver ideal was that it as very similar to Microsoft FrontPage, a software that the old website was built in...and the client was already used to FrontPage. If you have used FrontPage, you know exactly what am talking about...you have your:

Design View (Provides a WYSIWYG - what you see is what you get - view for editing),

Code View (Allows you to edit, delete, add, or customize HTML code),

PreviewView (Allows you to preview the page as it will appear in a web browser.)

If Ms FrontPage was able to do it...Adobe Dreamweaver 2020...can easily achieve the same. And as you can see if the views are kinda similar...the only difference is that Adobe Dreamweaver Design View doesn't have WYSIWYG especially for PHP files.

[Ben M]

Like I said before, I appreciate what you are trying to do, but DW will not work in the way you want. FP could not do live view, FP just did what DW does in Design View.  The web is a lot more complex then it was back in those days. I recall FrontPage back to probably 98, and Dreamweaver back to the UltraDev 4 days. Front page could display basic HTML (tables/etc) but even that was replaced by Expression Web and that is replaced by Visual Studio.  

In Live View for DW, that actually uses a live/testing server to execute code like PHP which requires server-side execution in order to show the view. Why you are being asked to save all of the time is because when you make a change the server needs to re-serve up the code.  DW tries to minimize this, but as you have seen it requires the saving very often regardless.  If you put an ASP code snippet in Frontpage you would notice the same thing that DW does in design view which is basically just say coding is here, because without the server to execute the code it cannot render in the editor/WYSIWYG interface.

[AmiAmigo]

Thanks Ben. I appreciate it. Any other CMS apart from Perch CMS you might recommend that can easily be hooked up with a website created with only HTML and CSS?

[Ben M]

The ones I would typically recommend for most users are the Wordpress/Joomla/Drupal setups.  Wordpress is the most user friendly, has tons of plugins, but if you are not careful with your plugins you could run into issues there.  Joomla would be a close second in usability and is more of a CMS than Wordpress was ever intended to be. The biggest negative for Joomla is its "menu" system. It does not give SEO-friendly URLs and does require someone to help set it up.  Then there is Drupal which is by far the most powerful.  It has some of the benefits of installers with Wordpress, but can take more time to setup than the other two.

Alternatively, you could look at OctoberCMS which can run off a database or flat-file and is based on the PHP laravel framework. 

Personally speaking with a smaller client I would keep it to those common solutions because once you get past that point, you are really moving into either a niche market with fewer installers and communities, or you move closer to the enterprise and technologies like a headless CMS.

[Nancy OShea]

Non-coding clients have no business editing PHP files. That's a recipe for disaster. And 200+ static pages is a site management nightmare.  Content belongs in a database. Client needs a CMS to use with coded files out of harm's way. Look at Perch CMS ($69 per site).

https://grabaperch.com/

[AmiAmigo]

Thanks Nancy...I will check it out. However the problem hasn't been solved yet. Would you pass this to the Dreamweaver Team? It's just a small problem...either the save pop up should disappear...or should be delayed for at least a minute. Me choosing a different platform won't still address the problem.

[Nancy OShea]

Submit Bug/Feature requests from your Help menu.  But as I said before, if you insist on using Live view and don't save often, you risk losing your work.  So there is no way to safely turn this off.

[AmiAmigo]

Now because you work in PHP. Would you try viewing your PHP files in Live view and start editing a few texts...? You'll see what I am talking about. I don't have problem working in code...but my client also use Dreamweaver in Standard Mode...to edit some of the files or add new content. For him he needs Live View...Because Live View shows exactly how the website will appear

[hs4u]

I am going to chime in here. I have been editing a client's php site for 3 years now using Dreamweaver. Today, for the first time, I experienced the save pop-up everytime I tried to change one letter in the live portion of my live/code split window.. I have edited this site in split live/code view the whole 3 years and today is the first time I have encountered it. I always use code for entering images and making changes, but I use the live editor window when changing item numbers as it is easier to view, and the two or three keystrokes to make the change is easier in  the live window rather than the code window. Something changed recently and the constant popup to save is very distracting and annoying. I did go back to code view to make the item number changes, but this needs to be fixed.

The thought that when you lose focus when changing to another page should be thought out more, and the prompt should occur when you try to change focus, not for every little keystroke in live view. I agree with AmiAmigo who says, switching to design view is not a clean answer as we want to see the formatting to be sure it does not break after our changes. I beta tested for Macromedia with Dreamweaver, and while Adobe has made some amazing changes, it still needs to address the designer/coder audience. Many small design firms use the software, and we expect software to save us time and resources. That's why we buy it. Otherwise, there are many free choices for coding only.

Thanks for listening. At least now I know why it does this and what to do to fix it.  As always, this forum is full of great information and answers.