Template feature (.dwt)

[christophegilles]

Hi all !

I would like to know how many pages is it possible to manage with @dreamweaver template feature (.dwt) ?

Thank you !

[Nancy OShea]

About 50 pages.

Nancy

[christophegilles]

Thx Nancy but is there really a technical limit or is it only an advice ?

[osgood_]

gillesc38450340  wrote

Thx Nancy but is there really a technical limit or is it only an advice ?

My advice - don't even go there. dwt is a poor choice for anything over a few pages, say 10. I certainly would not be wanting to manage 50 pages let alone over 50 pages. I used to have sites with well over 100 pages which used a .dwt template from a previous developer, was a pain in the bum. Now all my sites are produced with php include files.

I would only recommend using a .dwt template for a small site these days.

[Nancy OShea]

Templates are not a replacement for server-side technologies. If your static site exceeds 50 pages, you should be thinking dynamically -- databases + server-side scripts.    With serve-side scripts,  the heavy lifting is performed by the server.  With DWTs the burden is all on Dreamweaver to manage the files locally.   And it's not at all uncommon for Templates to become corrupted over time.  The bigger the site, the bigger the risk of that happening.

Personally, I don't use DW's proprietary Templates or Library Items.  The same things can be performed with Server-Side Includes.  And includes work with any editor.  See link below for details.

Alt-Web Design & Publishing: Server-Side Includes with PHP

Nancy

[osgood_]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Nancy+OShea  wrote

And it's not at all uncommon for Templates to become corrupted over time.  The bigger the site, the bigger the risk of that happening.

Phewwwwwy tell me about it - was a nightmare managing .dwt built sites with loads of pages. I had to keep detaching pages from the template to edit them whilst others updated perfectly ok.

I think .dwt templates are fine for very, very simple sites with few pages. A lot of websites only have a handful of pages and its perfect in that situation if you can't use includes but I would never use them now personally, not even for small sites.

Murray was the master of dwt templates and swore by them. He doesnt get here that often these days since defecting to Wordpress.

[Nancy OShea]

I have been using SSIs for many years on ALL sites -- big and small.  Some clients were amazed I wasn't using Templates.  But once they learned what SSIs can do, they were sold & forgot all about Templates.

[osgood_]

This question has been answered - posts 3, 4, 5 or 6 - take your pick for anyone else looking for advice when using .dwt templates.

[john stephanites]

Hey Nancy, is this similar to Handlebars? Do you like that? Only reason I ask is I am finding out about Handlebars (Foundation uses it) and how awesome it is and really similar to Liquid with its includes. I'm not Php at all yet so was wondering if this is something similar and can cross over knowledge wise and I would have a leg up when I get there. By the way you are a wealth of info and I appreciate the time you take here!

[Nancy OShea]

Foundation itself is no big deal.  It's merely a coding framework similar to Bootstrap.  But Liquid & Handlebars are a complete unknown to me.  I've never tried them.  Maybe someone else knows more about them.

Nancy

[BenPleysier]

Handlebars, Smarty and the like, are great template engines. However I prefer to keep it simple. If your site facilitates PHP then have a look at this ianburris.com | Object Oriented PHP Template Engine

[john stephanites]

It doesn't facilitate but totally worth a look. I think because I have been using Foundation that Handlebars seems simpler to me. They make it easy to use with their framework. Liquid is very similar to Handlebars the way I see it. BC uses Liquid and it may have a larger learning curve than what I'm doing now but I am going to try to set things up that way. From what I understand it gives much more functionality to anyone using their CMS. Just have to get in there and figure it out. Thanks Ben and Nancy, as always great info!