Website Wizard

 

Introduction

The Website Wizard guides you through a step-by-step process of creating a new website. If you are new to the Internet, you might want to follow the example below when creating your Website. If you would like a more comprehensive understanding of creating websites with HotDog, read the Beginner's Guide and/or Advanced Guide to Websites tutorials.

To change any of the settings you have specified after creating your website, just right-click on the website file and select Properties. All your website files can be identified by the following website file icon:

Step 1. Opening the Websites Manager Resource Panel.

  1.  First open the Websites Manager: On the View menu, select the Resource Manager submenu and then select Websites.

  2. In the Website Manager resource panel, make sure the Websites tab is selected.

Step 2. Starting the Website Wizard.

Step 3. Creating a New Website.

There are three ways you can create a Website:

Creating new Website

If you don't want to import an existing Website, select this option and then click Next.

Create from local directory structure

If you already have a Website on your computer, which you want to use in HotDog, select this option and click Next.

Create from WebServer (FTP)

If you have no local copy of your Website, but do have a copy on a Web server, HotDog can retrieve it for you and copy it to your hard drive. To do this, select this option and click Next. In the Choose Directory... dialog that appears, you will then be presented with a list of FTP servers. If your Website is not listed then you will need to define the location of your Website. To do this:

  1. From the FTP Server drop-down list, select Add Internet Site. This opens the Internet Site Wizard.

  2. Go through the Wizard steps to define the server address of the website you wish to retrieve.

  3. After creating the new server, use the FTP Server drop-down list, to select the new server. This will create a connection to this server and display the file directory there.

  4. Select the server directory where your website is located.

Step 4. Deciding Upon a Name and Location For Your Website.

  1. Now you have to decide upon a name for your website. This name will be used for your reference only - so make it anything you like.

  2. This location is a directory on your hard drive where your website will be stored. Choose a base directory on your computer for your website files. This directory is important because all files are referenced relative to it. This may be new terminology for you, so the concept of relative referencing is fully explained in the Absolute and Relative References tutorial. If you want to become familiar with HTML this tutorial is highly recommended reading. You may want to read it before proceeding.

  3. Click Next to continue...

Step 5. Publishing Options.

You can publish your website to a directory (if you were using an Intranet say) or to the Internet.

Publishing to the Internet.

  1. Click Publish to Remote Web Server.

  2. Use the drop-down list to select the web server to which you want to publish. If the server you want to connect to is not in the list you can define it now by clicking the Add Site button. This opens the Internet Site Wizard. You can use the Wizard to define the server address of the website you wish to retrieve. If you are not sure what your server address is have a look at the Beginner's Guide to Publishing tutorial.

  3. Click Next.

  4. A summary of your server details is listed here. After checking that the details are correct, click Next.

Publishing to Local Directory.

  1. Click to select the directory to which you wish to publish.

  2. Click Next.

Step 6. HTML Documents.

The file types in the list box are those that HotDog treats as HTML documents. It is unlikely you will need to change these settings, however, below are instructions on how to do so.

Adding a New File Extension.

  1. Click Add.

  2. Enter the name of the extension you want to add (with out the '.').

Removing a File Extension.

  1. Click on the extension you want to remove.

  2. Click Remove.

Step 7. Linked Files To Publish.

The linked files specify which files will be published along with your HTML files. Usually you will want to publish all linked files. To do this, ensure that every check box has been ticked.

Step 8. Publishing Options.

There are three publishing options. Each deals with the different ways HotDog treats files at the publishing location. Decide whether you want HotDog to overwrite existing identical files on your server or not. If you are unsure, select Always Overwrite Existing Files.

Always Overwrite Existing Files.

HotDog will automatically overwrite any existing files as it is publishing.

Ask Whether To Overwrite Existing Files.

If a file already at the publishing location has the same name as a file about to be published, HotDog will ask you to confirm whether you really wish to already published file.

Only Publish Files Newer than those at Publishing Location.

HotDog will only publish those files that are newer (i.e. changed) from those at the publishing location.

Step 9. Style Sheets.

Select the Create Default Style Sheet option if you want HotDog to automatically create a style sheet for your website. Otherwise you can link an external style sheet to your website.

Step 10. Create Website Home Page.

Ticking the Create Website Home Page check box automatically creates an index.HTML file for you. The index.HTML file is a webpage that is automatically passed to your viewers' browsers when they try to view your Website but don’t specify a file to open (this is the difference between entering the URL http://www.sausagetools.com and http://www.sausagetools.com/index.HTML).