Contribute vs Dreamweaver?

Is there anyone else out there who used to use contribute and then switched over to Dreamweaver? I have been using contribute to make sites like http://rentalleaseagreement.com which if you look, dosen't look that great but it organically has 400-500 hits a day. I have started to use joomla and within 2 weeks bulit a site that looks like http://mortgagebrokeremaillist.com But I really miss using adobe because i think they make a great product. Would it be worth leaerning to use Dreamweaver for me in the long run? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
-Charlie

Depends on your ability. You can learn enough HTML and CSS to be somewhat productive in several weeks. To be really facile would take months if not longer, I think. On the other hand, each thing you learn will make you better. If you are going to be in the business of making web sites, this is something you *need* to know....

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Has anyone tried editing an iWeb site with Contribute or Dreamweaver?

Before iWeb, I liked using Adobe Macromedia Contribute to edit the.Mac homepages. I've been giving iWeb a spin, and it seems to occupy the same place in Apple's stable as the rest of its siblings — a pre-pubescent version of Contribute, which is a subset of Dreamweaver.
I haven't yet tried it, but it seems as if the iWeb templates would be a good starting point, and Contribute/Dreamweaver would be great tools to polish the site.
I'm still confused, though, as to what the .Mac WebDAV URLs are...that's the thing that always tripped me up. Dreamweaver 8 is a better at site management, it seems, but if anyone could post a "definitive" guide on using a third-party tool, it would be much appreciated.

yes you can use other websoftware to modify iweb sites either after it is on the webserver or if you save it to a folder before publishing.
I tried the demo of Dream weaver and it worked fine..also I used Rapidweaver which works too. Heck you could use anything that can edit HTML which is really just a text file.
The problem with iweb is it is using those stupid PNG files which are big and to make it worse it duplicates all your images rather than having them in a shared folder you can end up with dozens of the same image which when someone visits your site and changes pages it has to download the same image again!
pretty crazy stuff.
iweb looks nice and as long as people are viewing it with broadband you'd be ok but dialup users are "toast" even on a simple site.
I got the demo of rapidweaver which is not as intuiative but in someways is more complete and have done a 3 page site.. others are developing themes for it and also there are plugins which add alot of functionality.
at $35 USD it is cheap and if you go to http://www.screencastsonline.com there are 3 videos to show you how to use it and a discount code.
I personally thing iweb is great but has some design flaws that will need to be delt with.

Making a Template for Adobe Contribute - without Dreamweaver

Given the task of making a web page that must exhibit regions editable with Adobe Contribute CS5, and having only a plain text editor (not Dreamweaver), exactly what needs to be done to the associated XHTML file? For example:
1. Does the XHTML file need to be named with an extension other than ".html"?
2.   When denoting an editable region within the XHTML, what is the exact syntax of the "begin editable" and "end editable" tags?
3.   Is a CSS file referenced within the XHTML in the typical fashion, or must something special be done to reference a CSS file?
Are there other changes that need to be made to an XHTML file in order for it to work properly with Adobe Cintribute CS5?
Thank you in advance for your helpful responses.
*** Please note that this question was posted earlier; perhaps errantly, in the Contribute forum.

Template_Maker wrote:
Given the task of making a web page that must exhibit regions editable with Adobe Contribute CS5, and having only a plain text editor (not Dreamweaver), exactly what needs to be done to the associated XHTML file? For example:
1. Does the XHTML file need to be named with an extension other than ".html"?
The 'child' page can be named with any extension.
2.   When denoting an editable region within the XHTML, what is the exact syntax of the "begin editable" and "end editable" tags?


3.   Is a CSS file referenced within the XHTML in the typical fashion, or must something special be done to reference a CSS file?
It's all just HTML - and needs to work properly on the server. Nothing special needs to be done.
Are there other changes that need to be made to an XHTML file in order for it to work properly with Adobe Cintribute CS5?
No.
I assume your client IS using Contribute.
But - a word of skepticism. This sounds like a project bound to fail. I know templates like the back of my hand (liver spots and all) and would hesitate to take it on....

Contribute and Dreamweaver / Network Drive!

Hi All!
Due to security limitations, the site I manage has no ftp
access (the entire site is uploaded to a remote server each time as
a zip file). Also, we have no local testing server so the entire
site is actually administered on a local network drive. I have the
site set up in Dreamweaver but we have Contribute on a second
machine in the office and I'd like to set the site up so that I can
administer it through dreamweaver while an editor would be able to
make simple edits through Contribute.
The editor can connect to the local drive with Contribute
without issue but I'd like to enable Contribute compatibility in
Dreamweaver to allow check-in/check out. In the 'site definition'
dialog in dreamweaver, under the 'Contribute' category, I checked
'Enable Contribute compatibility' but it also asks for the Site
Root URL. However, this site has to be administered on the local
network drive (I tried using the path as the site rool url) so I
can't figure out if it even going to be possible to set it up to
work.
Is it even going to be possible to set up the site,
Dreamweaver and Contribute to work together on a local drive
instead of an actual server?
Thanks very much in advance.

Hi, Vicky,
In the site setup section there is a Contribute tab. Checkmark the "Enable Contribute Compatibility". It should walk you through the setup steps. It's been some time since I set one up so I can't recall exactly what you do. I do remember it wasn't particularly difficult. Hope that helps.
Don

Contribute and Dreamweaver

I was wondering if it is ok to work back and forth between
Dreamweaver and Contribute, also, I was wondering if I need to
change my ftp connection do I just need to make a new connection
key in contribute and also make a new connection to the server in
dreamweaver? I'm making a site for a client and they haven't
decided if they are going to host it or if we are going to host it.
If they decide to host it I'm going to have to change my whole
connection and I'm just wondering if I'm going to be able to do
this.

I would use containers outside the editable region to help
control styles. For example, if you wanted a styled list, but
wanted Contribute to work well with it, you could do something like
the following. Tables are also useful to use because they are
easier to edit in Contribute. You could also redefine p tags, h1-5
tags, li tags, etc. per div container.
#my-container{
/* any styles this may need */
#my-container ul{
/* any styles for the ul tag */
#my-container ul li{
/* any styles for the li tag */

Contribute CS3 & Dreamweaver CS3

I do volunteer work for a pet rescue website. I started out
editing their pages with Dreamweaver CS3. When the work load got
out of control, one of the rescue members decided to help out by
using Contribute CS3. After a few months, I noticed there was a lot
of lag loading this one page we were both updating on a daily
basis.
In Dreamweaver, in design mode, the page appeared to be fine
but when looking at the source code, there were thousands of empty
lines that had been generating for who knows what reason. The
amount of lines was over 50K. I manually went in there and deleted
all the empty lines and ended up with about 600 lines total of
code. Everything was back to normal and my helper continued using
Contribute CS3 and I used DW, until a few days later when I noticed
the blank lines were back. Not as many as there were before but
they were certainly adding up and were definitely adding to the
loading time.
I did what I could to clean up the code and although there
are some empty lines left at the top of the file, the rest of the
file is ok now. I asked the Contribute helper to not make anymore
updates for the time being. I haven't seen any more blank lines
added since she stopped. So my best guess is that Contribute CS3 is
causing all the problems.
Is there something in Contribute CS3 publishing preferences
that may be causing this problem? I couldn't find anything in the
manuals except something about Line Breaks but that didn't have
anything to do with the code. Could it also be a server problem?
Not sure where I would begin looking. Any help would be
appreciated.
Here is a link to the file I am referring to:
http://www.norcalgsprescue.com/adopt.shtml
Thanks!

I've had similar issues, but not to the extent you seem to be
getting it. I know if you are using templates or server-side code,
the lines that do not propagage to your web client are removed, but
the source code lines are not collapsed...
Anyway, when I had a similar problem, it would putting an
extra line for each line in the html code... If you are on a
Linux/Unix Web server... go to Administer Website...Edit Role
Settings...Select the 'Editing' option on the left side of the
panel... at the very bottom, make sure 'Line Break Type' is set to
'Unix (LF)'
Hope that helps

Issues with transfer between contribute and dreamweaver

Hello!
I just installed the Adobe Creative Suite 3 the Master
Collection for my macbook and I am having issues when I open
contribute and then try to edit the sites in external application
i.e dreamweaver an error message comes up saying make sure that
dreamweaver is installed and that there is enough memory.
Please help me remedy this issue!

Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
The usual reason for this is that you’re using a different colour space in Photoshop. Try using sRGB in both, see if it helps.
Regards
TD

Import contribute site in dreamweaver

I want to import the site I currently manage in contribute in dreamweaver to see if it is an easier way to manager. How do I do this?

Have you ever used Dreamweaver?
How good are you with HTML and CSS code?
Go to Site > New Site and tell DW where on your hard drive you wish to keep your local site folder.
Enter your remote server FTP credentials.
From the Files Panel, Click on the Down Arrow to GET files from your remote web server.
Nancy O.

Not sure how to enable Contribute compatability in Dreamweaver

I'm creating a site in DW CS4 for a client to edit in Contribute. I've enabled Contribute in Dreamweaver, but it ads an ASP extension to the dwt file name. Is this normal? Do I have to have Contribute installed on the same computer as Dreamweaver in order for this to work? Thanks in advance for any help you can give me, I'm having a very difficult time finding answers to these questions.

Contribute should not add any extension to the .dwt files. Rather when you create a connection to the site in Contribute, the templates will be downloaded and users can create the webpages using these templates.
Contribute is not required on the same machine.
Clients can install Contribute in there machines and connect to the site using any of the protocol supported like FTP/SFTP/Webdav and update the content.
Hope it helps,
Manoj

I am unable to log into the Contribute administration panel through Dreamweaver

I am using Dreamweaver CS5.5 and I suddenly am no longer able to administer Contribute through Dreamweaver. I click the "Administer Site in Contribute" button and the program appears to be checking files but, when this is finished, the password login window does not show up. Any suggestions for solving this issue?

Please try the following steps:-
Choose Site > Manage Sites.
Select your site and Click Edit.
Select the Servers category.
Select the server to modify and click the Pencil icon.
Change you password (set an incorrect password), then click Save.
In the Site Setup dialog box, expand Advanced Settings, select the Contribute category.
Click Administer Site in Contribute. It would show you an error message.
Now
Click on Select the Servers category.
Select the server to modify and click the Pencil icon.
Change you password (type the correct password), then click Save.
In the Site Setup dialog box, expand Advanced Settings, select the Contribute category.
Click Administer Site in Contribute. It would show you the password login window.
Hope it helps.

Editing dreamweaver with contribute

I am trying to edit a page using contribute. Previewing the page looks good and the page works fine. When I try to edit it, it only shows the bottom banner

I am using CS3
Contribute and dreamweaver, the banner is just something that is at the bottom of the page with the school district information on it
Link:http://http://www.usd320.com/HighSchool/Activities/CrossCountry/state.aspx

Using PHP with Dreamweaver and Contribute

I work for a small to medium government agency and we are re-vamping our website. Money and staff are very minimal here, so any hope of one or two full-time people managing the entire website, or of purchasing a content management system, are totally out of the question.
My question is: for a group of people that are capable of using either Adobe Contribute or Dreamweaver in Design View only, are there any disadvantages or problems with using PHP?
Here's more detail: In our situation, we really don't have the choice of editing straight HTML code, since many of our users would not be capable of doing so. If we could afford a full-time web person, that would be an option, but that's not possible at this point. Some of our users are going to be limited to using Adobe Contribute as well, which is a simpler option for some of the less-experienced users. Nonetheless we want our site to have a professional and consistent look, so a technology like PHP would allow us to repeat content across many websites. By the way, that's all we'd be using PHP for as far as I know; just to enable me to edit a single page and thus change the navigation content across the whole site.
Does anyone know of a reason why we couldn't build the site using very simple, limited PHP and allow people to edit it using Dreamweaver design view and Adobe Contribute?
Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions that you can provide!
P.S. We have also considered Dreamweaver templates, and so far that isn't working, due to the multi-login setup that we have.
P.S.S. Although I do decently in HTML and CSS and a teeny bit of JS, I know nearly nothing about PHP, other than this: <?php include("header.php"); ?>

You can use that extension if you like. You need to make sure that your page that has the SSI have an extension that will process the scripts as mentioned above.
.shtml, .php
I always name my SSI so I know that they are includes.
header.inc.html
header.inc.php
header.inc.txt as examples.
If you are using PHP, then it should process the includes.
A good simple test is to add a SSI to a page.
Do something simple like.
<p>Welcome to our website</p>
Name it welcome.inc.php
Then include it in a page, upload it to the webserver and visit the page.
I am using contribute for people to update areas of our website (hate it) and I manage the overall website myself.

Can't publish because Contribute converts flash fragment into java error

Hello Everyone,
I'm new with Contribute.
We designed a website with a flash navigation, embedded as
folows:
head: <script src="../js/AC_RunActiveContent.js"
type="text/javascript"></script>
body: <script type="text/javascript">
AC_FL_RunContent(
'codebase','https://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab##version =7,0,19,0','width','480','height','800','src','../haborn_homeh=0&s=0','quality','best' ,'pluginspage','
http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer','movie','../haborn_home?h=0&s=0'
</script>
(just the standard way of diplaying flash without the active
content message in explorer)
when i surf through the website in contribute, everyting goes
perfectly well, but when i edit the page, the flashfragment
disappears, and a javascript error occurs. the page then can be
published, but with an error so that the page can't be edited or
viewed again.
is there a way to define regions that are not touchable by
contribute in dreamweaver, the same way that you can difine an
editable region?
Tnx for any help!

A workaround for this problem could be using a SSI (with PHP
f.i.). Contribute won't touch the includes, so your code should be
save.

Templates without Dreamweaver

I'm trying to use the new Contribute CS4 to see if I can
build and use templates for client websites without the use of
Dreamweaver. This is probably a very elementary question, but can
this be done and if so could I get a little jump start on
methodology?
It seems that the default in a template is that no region is
editable except those around which the "editable tags" are used. I
can't seem to make that work that way.... One moment while I get
this egg off my face..:-)
Greatly appreciated:
Ray

I don't know how you got Contribute to accepr this template.
It should give an error message cause your code has a major error
in it. I think you copied you source from a page that was generated
from a Dreamweaver template either by Contribute or Dreamweaver.
This will not work, cause there is code added to the html file that
is created from a template to recognize this page as being created
by using that certain template.
You should remove the next code:

from your template.
Safe the file as name_template.dwt!
Upload the file to the server an place it in a root folder
named /Templates.
When you generate a page from the template you posted,
without that particular removed wrong code the page will look like
this:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0
Transitional//EN" "
http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="
http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=utf-8" />

<title>test</title>



</head>
<body>
Let's have some text that's not editable.<br />
<br />
And also a non editable image.<br />
<br />
<img src="logo.jpg" ALT="logo" /><br /><br
/>

Now is the time for all very good men to come to the aid of
their country

</body>
</html>

Contribute could not connect because the server is down"

My client tries to connect to the website with Contribute and
gets the error "Contribute could not connect because the server is
down" however I connect with no problems, using Contribute or
Dreamweaver.
I sent him a new connection key but the same error.
Only problem I ever have is that sometimes I get a "can't
save files to shared something-or-other" on exit after
administrating, but I don't know if that's related or not - it
never seems to affect anything at my end.
Please help! Thanks

OK, problem solved here:
The access denied or file does not exist error was being
caused by the fact there was a 0KB index file somehow.
Once we got rid of that we still had the "Contribute could
not connect because the server is down or not accpeting
connections" error to get round.
I had previously asked my client to go in an change the FTP
settings in the Advanced screen to be Choose FTP server settings
manually and select Use Passive FTP to connect to the server and
make sure Use FTP Performance Optimization is not selected. I don't
think this was ever done (and if it had been it would have saved me
HOURS of time spent trying to diagnose this problem).
Today I ended up backing up every contribute related file and
folder on the server to my local machine then deleting them. After
having done that I asked my client to create a new connection using
the FTP details (not a connection key). That still didn't work so I
got them to (and this time they did it) change the advanced FTP
settings as above and BINGO! they can now publish.
I'm guessing that if I had sent a connec tion key with the
same settings specified in the Advanced FTP then it still would
have worked.
I hope this saves someone else some time. I am going to have
a few beers now to celebrate.

Contribute vs Dreamweaver?

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