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N
N_Scott
Participant
February 24, 2010
Question

Using Dreamweaver to edit a Joomla site

  • February 24, 2010
  • 3 replies
  • 34667 views

Can someone explain how to set up a Joomla site in DW so that it will display in Design Mode.

I am using MAMP as a testing server and have opened a Joomla site in DW, but it will not display in Design mode. When I use Preview (selecting external browsers) the site works fine.

BTW, I have created another small (one page) php/mySQL site that works in DW using the same MAMP testing server setup, but it is one I started in DW from the start. 

Also, is there any current information on how to use DW to create your own Joomla Template?

Thanks for any guidance. I am using DW CS4, Mac OSX 10.6, Current MAMP config, Joomla 1.5.15.

This topic has been closed for replies.

3 replies

Freedom_942
Freedom_942
Participant
October 22, 2017

You can also copy a php file from Joomla files located on your localhost in htdocs or download a copy from your live server in public.html. Then drag copy into DW editor and edit the file in DW and click Save. (Keep the name of the file the same)

Then Save that file in a seperate location where you can store it for safe-keeping and upload it to live server or localhost to replace the same name php file.

Be sure to save a copy of the original php file in case you need it again.

J
jen4web
Participant
September 1, 2010

You can use DW to create your own Joomla template. I covered this in my Lynda.com video, "Joomla! Creating and Editing Custom Templates", http://www.lynda.com/home/DisplayCourse.aspx?lpk2=666

I am using DW CS4 in that title.

Jen

David_Powers
David_Powers
Inspiring
February 27, 2010

N Scott wrote:

Can someone explain how to set up a Joomla site in DW so that it will display in Design Mode.

You can't. End of story. It's a feature that quite a few people have asked for, so it's possible that this ability might be added to a future version of Dreamweaver, but the only way to handle WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal in Dreamweaver at the moment is to make a static HTML version of a page, and work with that. But Dreamweaver is not currently capable of displaying the output of a CMS in Design view.

A
Anonymous
December 30, 2011

I too am looking for ways to edit my Joomla site. Dreamweaver CS5.5 seems to offer a new range of possibilities for Joomla users.

I have downloaded an evaluation copy of DW 5.5 and have setup a local MAMP testing server. I have successfully previewed my main index.php page using the new Live View feature (but no other content) and can display dynamically-related pages in the DW user interface.

I would like to see how else DW can help me to make changes to my site. A start would be how to preview other dynamically-generated content.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance, Gerry

A
Anonymous
December 30, 2011

I recorded two videos on using Dreamweaver CS5 with Joomla in my lynda.com title "Joomla 1.6: Creating and Editing Custom Templates."

While it's possible to use DW in the context you describe, I strongly advise against it. It takes roughly 150 files to display a Joomla page, all of which are in the DW interface. You can use filtering to get to just the CSS, for example, and those files are OK to edit. However, you should never edit any of Joomla's core files -- the ones ending in .php. The only exception is your template's index.php file.

If you do edit Joomla's core files, you are asking for your edits to be overwritten when the next Joomla update comes out.

If you need to edit a core file, there are ways to do this via the process of template override. This is also covered in my lynda.com title.

My sense is that, for Joomla, the DW/Joomla integration is fairly limited in purpose. If you don't know CSS well and want to use DW's CSS editing capabilities to work on your Joomla site, the integration works great. Otherwise, it doesn't offer any particular advantage, and it could put you into trouble if you edit core files mistakenly.

Jen


Hi Jen

Thanks so much for your comprehensive response.

The main thing I want to achieve is this:

I use a 3rd party Joomla extension to manage the display and booking of holiday accommodation venues. I am not happy with the user experience and want to make some design and functionality tweaks.

While I am quite fluent with html and css, I am only 'somewhat' familiar with php. Further, the third party extension I have had developed was prepared by a Frenchman and he has used much of his mother tongue in the coding - I do not speak or read French.

I hope to use Dreamweaver to render a 'page', see all the bits of code that make up the page, then identify what code snippets I need to work with. For example, to move a 'booking button' to the top of a page, or to move the display of property availability information to the top of the page.

I read that Dreamweaver's user interface will allow the display of 'page' contents however so far I can only seem to do this successfully with the template's main index.php page. Do you think that Dreamweaver will be able to help me with this project? Will your videos help me? If so please send me the URLs to the videos.

Thanks so much in advance, Gerry

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