Getting Connected With DreamWeaver 8

Using DreamWeaver to connect to a subweb hosted on an ITS web server is fairly straightforward and is generally composed of the following steps:

Step One: Connect to the NAU VPN

To protect your password we have configured our FTP servers to only accept connections from specific Internet addresses. While not strictly necessary for many on-campus computers it's always a good idea to use the VPN. The extra layer of encryption provided by the VPN ensures that your account password is never sent across the Internet in a readable state. And if you're coming from off-campus then connecting to the VPN is a requirement!

If you've never connected to the VPN then ITS has a dedicated VPN site to help you get started.

Step Two: Define a New DreamWeaver Site

Setup Site Name and Web Address (URL)

Your next task is to define a new DreamWeaver Site. To do this, open DreamWeaver and from the main menu select Site --> New Site.... This should bring up the Site Definition dialog. (If it opens to the Advanced view then click the Basic tab.) The dialog should look similar to this:

In the Site Definition dialog fill in the two text fields. The first, the site name, can be anything you like but a good name might be your account username (usually your initials). But it can be anything you like because it's just a nick-name that Dreamweaver will display in the site list.

The second field, the HTTP Address URL, is more important. You should enter whatever URL was assigned to you. For individual subwebs on Pine or Oak this will usually be the server name followed by your username. So, if your username was abc1234 then your HTTP Address would be http://pine.ucc.nau.edu/abc1234 (if you were using Pine) or http://oak.ucc.nau.edu/abc1234 (if you were using Oak). In any case, you should have been given this information when you created your subweb so enter whatever URL was assigned to you.

Once you've filled in the correct URL for your subweb click the Next button.

Server Technology

On the next page click the Next button. To keep this tutorial simple we will not be using a server technology.

Local Storage Location

The next page wants you to select a location somewhere on your computer to store local copies of the web pages you'll be working on. You can change the location if you'd like but it's usually best to accept the default path entered by DreamWeaver. Once you've entered the location click the Next button to advance to the next page.

Server and Account Information

The next screen requires a little more input but isn't too bad:

You will need to change the drop-down list under How do you connect to your remote server? to use FTP. If you select something else other than FTP your connection will fail.

The text field under What is the hostname or FTP address of your Web server? should be set to whatever host your subweb is hosted on. For most students this will be pine.ucc.nau.edu and for staff and faculty it should be oak.ucc.nau.edu. However, if you're using some other server then type that host's server name there instead.

The folder path under What folder on the server do you want to store your files in? should usually be left blank as the FTP server should automatically open your subweb directory when you log in.

What is your FTP login? should be set to your Windows user account. If you are a student this will most likely be NAU-STUDENTS\(username) and if you are a staff or faculty member then use NAU\(username). Don't include the parentheses, though.

In the What is your FTP password? field enter your account password.

Leave the Use Secure FTP (SFTP) checkbox empty. If you select this checkbox then your connection will fail as our servers do not yet support Secure FTP.

NOTE: If you are using DreamWeaver on a Macintosh you may receive an error about the FTP client not connecting when you try to use your new site. This is usually caused by the Macintosh firewall. To work around this all you have to do is enable the passive FTP option in DreamWeaver. Don't disable your Mac's firewall!

To turn on passive FTP, simply click over to the 'Advanced' tab of the Site Definition dialog, select the Remote Info category from the list and put a check mark in the Use passive FTP check box. Here is an example:

If you click the Test Connection button you should see a popup dialog saying the connection succeeded. If you get an error after clicking the Test Connection button then it's likely you haven't connected to the NAU VPN or mistyped something in one of the previous screens or entered the wrong username/password.

Once you've successfully tested the connection then click the Next button to continue on to the next screen.

Check In and Check Out

To keep things simple we won't be using check-in and check-out so leave this option set to No, do not enable check in and check out and click the Next button.

Summary

Whew! Finally, the end! Click the Done button to finish the Site Definition wizard.

Step Three: Connect and Create a New Web Page

Now that you've defined a new Site you can now connect and start building new web pages. Connecting is easy. Over on the right side of the DreamWeaver window you should see the Files panel group. It should look something like this:

If you click the little blue "plug" icon in the Files Panel toolbar DreamWeaver should then connect to the web server. Change to Remote view by clicking the drop down list of views:

The two folders you see listed in the Remove view files pane are part of the FrontPage extensions ITS uses to administer subwebs on most of our servers. Because you're using FTP to access the server you don't need to use these two folders. To prevent problems with administering site permissions you shouldn't delete them, though.

To add a new web page to the site switch back to the Local view and then use the File --> New... option from the main DreamWeaver Menu to create a new Basic page:

You should then be able to edit the new page:

Once you save the document it will show up in the Files Pane:

If you select the newly created file (default.htm in this example) and then click the blue "Up" arrow in the Files Pane the file will be copied up to the server:

Switch back to Remote view in the Files Pane and you should see that the new page has indeed been uploaded to the server:

Conclusion

DreamWeaver 8 is a great tool for developing web content and can easily be used with ITS's Windows servers. Once you have defined a new site connection you can take advantage of most of DreamWeaver's advanced features including templates, ASP and ASP.NET server technologies, and more. However, using these more advanced techniques is beyond the scope of this tutorial.

Need Further Help?

Students:

Call the Academic Computing Help Desk at (928) 523-9294 or toll-free 1-888-520-7215. You can also e-mail help@dana.ucc.nau.edu.

Staff/Faculty:

Call the ITS Solution Center at (928) 523-1511 or e-mail Ask-ITS@nau.edu