recommendations for working with files outside of the web document root

[Guest]

Hi all,

I've decided to give Dreamweaver another go now that I have CS4, rather than "hand coding" everything, it's been a while, and I'm just getting used to everything...

So the first site I've created is a PHP/MySQL site and I have everything setup. I have the local/testing/remote files view working great, trotting along, now I want to add some include files which I normally put outside of the web document root, e.g if the web root is /site/htdocs/ I like to put some files in /site/includes and include/require them as needed. The problem is I cant decide how to make Dreamweaver show these files/folders.

Is my only choice to move the document/site root setting up one directory? How will this effect site previews and other functionality?

Thanks

[David_Powers]

Thread moved to Dreamweaver Application Development.

[David_Powers · Accepted solution]

This is one of the least satisfactory aspects of site management in Dreamweaver, and several developers, including myself, have been pressuring the Dreamweaver team for some years to improve this. Who knows? They might eventually take notice.

The only way to do this at the moment is to create two site definitions, one nested inside the other. Set up the site definition normally based on htdocs as your site root. Then create a new site definition based on site. Dreamweaver will nag you that it can cause problems, but it won't actually stop you from doing it. The only potential problem is with site synchronization.

The problem with using site as the only basis for your site definition is that Dreamweaver automatically puts things like the Connections, Scripts, and other folders in the site root. So, everything ends up at the wrong level of the site hierarchy. Quite frankly, the whole thing is a bit of a pain. Dynamic site development was added to Dreamweaver only in version 6 (Dreamweaver MX), and no one had really thought through the need to store files outside the site root.

[Guest]

Hi Dave,

That is a shame really, but its clear to see how tricky this could get to implement with the current site system. This small feature is available in other applications such as ActiveState Komodo or Zend Studio and is implemented by defining projects... With all of the much appreciated effort they've put into making the workflow from Ps, Fw, Dw really slick it would be great if we could take it to the next level too.

I'll try your suggestion of site within another and see what happens, but it looks like for these sites I'll be back to just making page layouts up until Dw then whipping out ye olde text editors when its time to slice and dice the dynamic stuff...

cheers

[David_Powers]

You could always submit a feature request to the Dreamweaver team: http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform. Add your voice to those requesting this sort of functionality.

[Guest]

I realise that this is considerably late, but my workaround is to create a new site (above the htdocs directory) and then use that as a the 'remote server' for my main site. So I can continue to develop the files in my usual site ('locally') and then 'put' them to the 'remote' site when I save them. For example.

• c:/xampp
  • /abovesiteone
    • /includes
    • /pages
    • /classes
  • /htdocs
    • /siteone
      • /includes
      • /pages
      • /classes

It seems to work for me thus far, but I agree, it's really annoying. This doesn't help with FTP of course, that needs to be done separately for both sites.