Document-relative Template paths in templated files?

Question

Is it possible to make Dreamweaver use document-relative
paths to parent Templates rather than root-relative? My site
definition is setup so such that the local folder is the root of
the web site. However, on the server the site is actually in a sub
folder, so the real web root is not the same as this web sites
root. So, something like this:
Local root folder = C:\...\Project Name\www2\
(Local templates folder = C:\...\Project
Name\www2\Templates\)
HTTP Address =
http://www.mysite.com/clients/client-site/
(Remote templates folder =
http://www.mysite.com/clients/client-site/Templates/)
The end user will be using Contribute to manage the content
on this site, so I'm using Templates to control some aspects of the
site. My problen is that the path back to the Template is being
written as a root-relative link:
InstanceBegin template="/Templates/navigation-sub.dwt.php"
When I then connect to the site using Contribute and try to
edit a page, I get an error saying that it can't find the template
(which is true because the template is actually in
"/clients/client-site/Templates/navigation-sub.dwt.php" and not
"/Templates/navigation-sub.dwt.php"). I have the Links Relative to
Document option checked in my site definition, but that appears to
only apply to regular links and not paths to Template files.
Murray had mentioned some technotes that addressed this, and
I think I found the ones he was thinking of, but they seemed to
only address regular links and it wasn't clear if the Template
paths were affected by the solution (which was to set the Links
Relative to Document option which I mentioned above).
So is it possible to tell DW to use document relative paths
to its template files? I know you're thinking "Why not just create
the local folder with the client and client-name folders," but this
wouldn't work as the site will eventually be moved to the clients
own website where the site files really will be in the site root.
This is the whole reason for using document relative files in the
first place. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

OK, apparently I'm not explaining myself enough here because
you guys keep giving me the same answer to something that I've
already said isn't a viable solution. Let me explain in greater
detail why just updating the local folder structure won't work.
Let's assume that I did do what you suggest. My local folder
could technically stay the same but I'd add two additional
directory levels ('clients' and 'client-site') to match the site
structure on my testing server. I then move all of the existing
files into the lower 'client-site' directory *except* for the
Templates folder because DW likes that to be at the "root" of the
"site". So now assume my local site looks something like this:
C:\...\Project Name\www2\ (DW would consider this the "root"
of the site)
.....clients\
..........client-site\ (i'll refer to this as the client root
for simplicity sake)
...............articles\
....................doc_a.html
...............images\
....................img_a.jpg
...............index.html
.....Templates\
..........client-template.dwt
If DW is writing the Paths back to the Template file using
site-relative paths then file index.html in the client root (i.e.
/clients/client-site/) would have the path back to template
client-template.dwt written as follows:
InstanceBegin template="/Templates/client-template.dwt"
Also assume that img_a.jpg is the client logo that will be
used on all of the pages and so it is in a protected part of the
template. The document-relative path from the template
client-template.dwt to the image would be:
<img src="../clients/client-site/images/img_a.jpg">
Of course since my site is defined to use document-relative
links then this path would resolve to just "../images/img_a.jpg"
for index.html.
OK, so far so good. I upload all of this to my testing
server, give my client a connection key for Contribute and let them
test away. They love it (naturally) and want to move everything to
production. This is where your suggested solution falls apart.
In order for the site to continue to work as-is I would have
to copy the entire directory tree (/client/client-site/etc) to the
clients web site, so what should be www.client-site.com/index.html
becomes www.client-site.com/clients/client-name/index.html. I also
have to copy over the Templates folder, stripping out any other
Templates that might be in there (my own site template for
example). Not only is this cumbersome, but the client hates the
fact that there are all these subdirectories in their URL (as
finicky as clients are) and they think it is unprofessional. My
whole purpose for developing using document relative links is so
that no matter where I plop the site, it will work as intended.
OK, the first fox for this that comes to mind is to take just
the site files (so everything under /clients/client-name/) and plop
that into the root folder on production. All of the existing files
should work fine since they use document-specific links. However,
the client still needs to use Contribute to edit these documents so
I have to copy over the Template folder. I can put that into the
root since all of the paths back to the template are root-relative,
right? Wrong - because all of the links in the template still point
to the files as if they were in '/clients/client-name/', which they
no longer are. So any new files based on the template will contain
broken links, and any updates to the existing files might also
result in broken links.
So then I need to keep two versions of the site? And if I
make a change to the template on the testing site, I then have to
reconcile the changes to the production version? Way too much. And
all of this would be irrelevant if I could just use
document-specific links back to my templates.
Does it make sense now why updating the site structure isn't
as optimal of a solution as you are making it out to be.
quote:
Originally posted by:
Newsgroup User
Create a new site definition for this testing site that uses
the correct
root directory. Then it doesn't matter....