Where to save your Dreamweaver stuff?

[Vanilla_Vanilla]

Where to save your Dreamweaver stuff?

I was thinking, maybe I could just save it on OneDrive, the Google Drive, another Drive. But always I see people save it all directly on their Desktop.

As webdeveloper, where do you save your files? Desktop, First Hard Drive, Second Hard Drive, SSD, External Hard Drive, Cloud?

[osgood_]

Personally I store back-ups on Google OneDrive, an external hard-drive and of course the local drive. Github is a poplular choice too, if you use git.

[Vanilla_Vanilla]

You say back-ups. But where do you save the folders for websites in general? On your Desktop?

[osgood_]

No, I save them in the local web-server folder. Most website pages these days have some kind of dynamic code associated with them, like php, asp etc - for local dynamic development you need to install a free local web-server like MAMP or WAMP, XAMPP. All of these have a folder where you store your local websites.

If you are just building using html/css/javacript pages then I guess you can store them in a folder anywhere on your computer but most serious developers will soon move on to more complex proceedures, which will require a web-server. Plain old html, css, javascript files will run in a web-server environment, so I would be starting from that point if I was planning to pursue web-devlopment as a long term objective.

If you are a node.js developer then of course you can spin up a local server without the requirement to install MAMP, WAMP, XAMPP and store your files in a place of your choosing on your local machine........just saying, in case I get accused of overlooking node.js as a dynamic environment.

I dont think it matters where you store your files if you are not using MAMP, WAMP, XAMPP as a server envirionment, just make sure you back the files up

[Paul-M]

Two different questions - your working directory, where the files you are directly editing needs to be on a local drive IMO, if your working directory is on a network drive,  inside a cloud folder like Dropbox, OneDrive etc then you could be asking for performance issues, conflicts and problems.

If you're looking for a good backup I personally would learn how to use the GIT features inside Dreamweaver as once you're familiar, it will be a conventient way of keeping backups/versions of your files. Some people will have a differing opinions I'm sure but I find it convenient and you can use a service like Gitub or GiTLab; both offer free private repositories.

[Jon Fritz]

Sites are saved in the local testing server installed on my development machine (specifically within the installation's htdocs folder on my machines main hard drive).

Back-ups are saved to a local external drive/networked drive and a remote/off-site back-up service like Backblaze.

Plus hosting company back-ups of the site and databases.

[cdeatherage]

Saving your files to the desktop may make it easier to find them, but be careful if you do because it may also wreck havoc with your system. The best practice I was given to understand a long time ago is to use the desktop only for shortcuts, especially if you are Mac OS because of how the computer maps and remembers pathways.

As for my DW projects, I have one folder ("Websites") on my desktop hard drive in which all current projects reside. Each project, in turn, is separate folder ("Client-Name") within that primary one and will contain subfolders to organize any files I wish to keep that are not required for the active website ("Archive," "NewContent_ddMmmyyyy" e.g.). And the folder holding the files for the active website is the one named in the site definition (usually some form of the URL).

Everything is backed up onto one or more external drives and/or CDs or DVDs. (I like the latter two options because the discs can be formatted for "Read Only," thus preventing accidental overwriting.) I also duplicate the PC folder on a laptop in the event of an in person client meeting or need to update a site while away on vacation.

I have sort of half-heartedly played with One Drive, but I confess I rarely think of trying to use it.

Chris

[osgood_]

Chris,

My experience with OneDrive isnt great, its really slow. I was thinking about buying some space over at WeTransfer because that seems to be blazingly fast, at least when I send multi-megabyte documents to dtp clients. Im not impressed with OneDrive - I bought into it without realising how slow it transfers even small files!

I toyed with the idea of Backblaze, like Jon mentions he uses, but it backs up literally everything on your computer. As far as Im aware you have no choice which folders to tell it to back-up or it didnt have that option when I explored using it as a back-up service. I have sensitive info on my machine which I prefer not to release to 3 party services.

[cdeatherage]

Os,

I cast my mind back to when I was playing with One Drive, and I think the reason I didn't do more with it was for the same "slow" assessment you cite. And I also seem to recall that it didn't like large files.

Now, WeTransfer is great for sharing larger files or even whole projects. Use it all the time.

Chris

[osgood_]

Thanks Chris,

Will most likely give WeTransfer storage a go shortly, although they offer less capacity than other back-up services it should be enough for storing website files.

I use the free version of WeTransfer for pushing around huge files to my desktop publishing clients frequent and the speed is fantastic.

Os

[Vanilla_Vanilla]

Do you know hat I have to do here?

I tried to 'put' the website online.

[Jon Fritz]

This error typically happens when you forget to enter a Root Directory for your server in DW's site settings. Testing the connection will generally work fine, but uploading will fail because you're trying to add information one level above your publicly-accessible site directory.

Most of the time, the Root Directory will be "public_html"  "www" or "htdocs" but verify it with your hosting company first...

[Nancy OShea]

My local site folder reside on my primary hard drive (C).  And if I'm using a local testing server to support PHP & MySQL, I keep the site folder in my local server's default web directory.  See screenshot. 

Local site folder

And I keep backups on remote cloud servers.  For nightly file backups and recovery, I use a service called Backblaze.

https://www.backblaze.com/