Dreamweaver doesn't show templates in assets

[amroa37220882]

I can see all the assets but not templates. Any idea?

[BenPleysier]

When you have deployed the Dreamweaver Template system, you will see the template(s) used for your site.

[amroa37220882]

Sorry what you mean by deploy? Actually, I am in a new job, and the boss asked me to work on a website that already developed by a previous developer. when I open Dreamweaver I can see all the assets except for the templates. I don't know what's the problem.

[Jon Fritz]

In Dreamweaver, there are templates and there are Templates.

The program has a very specific thing in mind when it talks about Templates (capital T). That is, a special file only used by Dreamweaver locally with a .DWT file extension. The program uses those files to create Child Pages that stay linked to the .DWT Template for easier updating in the future. The Templates area of the Assets window is specifically talking about these .DWT files.

Does the site use any actual Dreamweaver .DWT Template files?

To find out if you have any .DWT Templates attached to your site, go to the Files window and look for a Templates folder. If that doesn't exist, there are no Dreamweaver Templates in use and the Templates area of the Assets panel will be empty.

That doesn't mean your company doesn't use some kind of design template (lowercase t) though. It's pretty normal, with a .php driven site, to have several include files that make up the overall design template. Changes to those includes would be "modifying the template" for many manager types.

[BenPleysier]

deploy = bring into effective action.

[amroa37220882]

it is OK now. when I created a new site from inside Dreamweaver, I chose the parent folder of the website where we save the files, so the "Templates" folder wasn't in the website root. I deleted the site and created another one, then I chose the actual folder where we save the files, and it works. Now, I can see the templates in the assets panel.

But again, does "Templates" folder have to be in the site root? Why other objects appear in the assets panel even if they are not in the site root?

[Jon Fritz · Accepted solution]

Yes, the Templates folder needs to be in the root folder of the Defined Site in order for DW to manage the Template and Child pages locally. That's just the way the program was designed to work.

Neither the Templates folder, nor any of its content, needs to be uploaded though. They are only for DW to work with locally and don't affect anything on a live site if uploaded.

Templates in DW are essentially, "the poor man's replacement for a server include". They work best with sites under maybe 50 pages where no server-side technology is in use (like PHP). The Child Pages controlled by a template get updated by DW locally when the .DWT is saved (the reason DW needs them to be in their standard location). You then need to upload all of those changed Child Pages to the server to update the live site.

Creating PHP include files for your template, on the other hand, only requires modification and uploading of the include file(s), and the server handles the rest of the heavy lifting.