Advanced Guide To Websites

Introduction.

HotDog Websites are simply directories on your computer. Everything in these directories (and the directories themselves) gets copied to your server when you upload. This means that the directory structure of your website on your server is exactly the same as the directory structure of your website on your local computer.

What Happens When You Create a Website.

When you first make a Website you define your base directory. The contents of the base directory you define are copied to your website when you upload. This includes any sub-directories. For example, say you have a directory structure on your computer as shown in the following picture:

If you define your base directory as:

C:\Program Files\Sausage\HotDog6\HTMLFiles\websites\art_website

then, when you upload your website, all the contents of the art_website directory are uploaded. The fact that the directory structure is duplicated is important because of the way your files are linked to each other. Each link to another file that you have made (whether it be an image or another HTML document) should be referenced relatively.

For example, assume that all your HTML files are saved in the art_website directory and your images in the art_website\graphics directory. Further, assume that in a HTML document about_me.html you have the following link to an image in your graphics directory:

<IMG SRC="graphics/me.jpg">

When a browser reads this link it looks for the file me.jpg in the graphics directory. The browser assumes that the graphics directory is located under the directory where the current file (about_me.HTML) resides. This is what is meant by relative referencing. By using it, you are forced to maintain identical directory structure on your computer and your server. Using websites makes this easy to accomplish. If you are careful to keep all the files you link to under or in the directory you defined as your Base Directory then, when your website is uploaded, HotDog will automatically create the required directory structure on your server. For more details on relative referencing read the Relative and Absolute Links tutorial.

The Difference Between the Base Directory and the Web Server Directory.

By now, you have probably defined a web server directory using the Internet Site Wizard. This directory is the directory on your FTP site where your server looks for all of your HTML files. This directory is usually called www or public_html. Your base directory is the directory on your hard drive where you store your website. It is these two directories that determine exactly where your website is uploaded.

Using the example above, say Elise has a website defined within the base directory art_website with the following properties:

Web Server Address:

www.woodnet.com

Web Server Directory:

public_html

When Elise uploads her website, everything in the art_website directory is copied to her server at: public_html

Everything in the art_website/graphics directory is copied to her server at: public_html/Graphics

Example 1

Say Peter had the following website defined with the following properties:

Base Directory:

D:\Program Files\Sausage\Websites\Cthulhu Website

Web Server Directory:

www

Peter has the following files in different directories in his Website:

index.HTML	D:\Program Files\Sausage\Websites\Cthulhu Website
bosch.HTML	D:\Program Files\Sausage\Websites\Cthulhu Website\Horror
azathoth.HTML	D:\Program Files\Sausage\Websites\Cthulhu Website\Horror
lovecraft.HTML	D:\Program Files\Sausage\Websites\Cthulhu Website\Horror Writers
waterhouse.HTML	D:\Program Files\Sausage\Websites\Cthulhu Website\Painters
borges.HTML	D:\Program Files\Sausage\Websites\Cthulhu Website\Writers
tmbg.HTML	D:\Program Files\Sausage\Websites\Cthulhu Website\Music\Classic

When Peter uploads his website, in which directory do the files listed above end up on his server?

Answers

Filename	Server Directory
index.HTML	www
bosch.HTML	www/Horror
azathoth.HTML	www/Horror
lovecraft.HTML	www/Horror Writers
waterhouse.HTML	www/Painters
borges.HTML	www/Writers
tmbg.HTML	www/Music/Classic

Example 2

What files and where would the files be uploaded to if Peter changed his base directory to:

Base Directory:

D:\Program Files\Sausage\Websites\Cthulhu Website\Horror

Server Directory:

www

Answers

Filename	Server Directory
bosch.HTML	www
azathoth.HTML	www

Example 3

What about if Peter changed his Base Directory and Server Directory to:

Base Directory:

D:\Program Files\Sausage\Websites

Server Directory:

www

Answers

Filename	Server Directory
index.HTML	www/Cthulhu Website
bosch.HTML	www/Cthulhu Website/Horror
azathoth.HTML	www/Cthulhu Website/Horror
lovecraft.HTML	www/Cthulhu Website/Horror Writers
waterhouse.HTML	www/Cthulhu Website/Painters
borges.HTML	www/Cthulhu Website/Writers
tmbg.HTML	www/Cthulhu Website/Music/Classic

Example 4

What if Peter changed his base directory and server directory as follows:

Base Directory:

D:\Program Files\Sausage\Websites\Cthulhu Website

Server Directory:

www/Cthulhu

Answers

Filename	Server Directory
index.HTML	www/Cthulhu
bosch.HTML	www/Cthulhu/Horror
azathoth.HTML	www/Cthulhu/Horror
lovecraft.HTML	www/Cthulhu/Horror Writers
waterhouse.HTML	www/Cthulhu/Painters
borges.HTML	www/Cthulhu/Writers
tmbg.HTML	www/Cthulhu/Music/Classic