Dreamweaver Issue.

Like SharedBorders in FrontPage...

[g1smd]

I am going to be tidying up some code for a site next month. They have used Dreamweaver to edit the site for the last 2 or 3 years, a site which was originally built using NS Composer.

Rather than give me server access to get a copy of their site, they said to me to just download all the files from their site using a web browser. I actually now have HTTrack and will probably use that instead.

Their site does not use PHP, ASP, etc, so I can be sure that they don't use includes or any scripting that my browser download would miss. I feel quite safe on that issue. If scripting was involved I would have to have server access to get copies of the scripts. Copies of just the generated output would be no use at all.

However, I have seen SharedBorders at work in FrontPage, and M$ Themes, etc. Those features usually leave various comment tags throughout a document so that FP can auto-update every page when you make a global (common to every page) change in the design. It seems obvious when a designer has used those.

What I need to know, is if such a thing (SharedBorders, etc) exists in DW, as all that stuff will break if I simply download their site through my browser, edit the pages, email them the new pages back, and they install the new pages on their site. If I "lose" any of the "smarts" then they will not be able to update their site in the same way they have been used to doing, and not be able to make Global changes the same way either.

Are there any other things that DW has that could break if I simply edit pages downloaded by the browser, rather than gaining proper FTP access to the site?

I would ask them the question, but they are technically clueless, and would have no idea what I was talking about. We have already failed on much simpler things being discussed. I have tried getting them to FTP the site to their own computer, ZIPing the whole lot up and emailing it to me, or just placing the ZIP in a /temp folder on their site and sending me the URL. They couldn't do it; didn't know how (and couldn't follow my instructions on what to do either). It was "too difficult".

Can anyone help me out here? I don't want to download their pages, work on them, and then find a major snag in getting them back on their server...

[martinibuster]

Maybe Library Items may cause a problem. I used them once or twice a years ago, but never again. It's shorthand that DW uses to insert a repetitive item into one spot. Like an include, but I think it works locally withing Dreamweaver. In the code you will see something with the letters lib.

I can't think of anything else outside of DW template codes.

[g1smd]

These "lib" items; does anything appear in the code uploaded to the server, or is it only found on the local copy?

I see nothing like that in the page code, using "View Source" in the web browser when looking at their site.

The site has the same navigation menu on every page, I need to find out if that is a simple copy, or a "global" feature.