Tutorial: Connect using Dreamweaver

There are two steps to working with Dreamweaver in conjunction with our shared web hosting environment:

Before You Begin...

These instructions assume that you have already obtained a Georgetown Web account (or access to a Georgetown Web site), and will be using Dreamweaver to connect to a Georgetown shared-hosted Web server (www7-www12).

You need to have the following information for these instructions:

  • NetID and NetID password
  • Hostname
  • Path

This information should have been provided to you via email when your account was created. If you do not know your NetID and password, please contact the UIS Help Desk at extension 7-4949. If you have mis-placed your hostname and path information, please email the Georgetown webmaster.

These instructions assume that you already have a copy of Dreamweaver installed on your computer.  If you do not, you will need to purchase a license in order to use the program.  Please contact HoyaComputing at extension 7-0640 or email hoyacomputing at georgetown.edu for information on how to order from CDW-G. 

If you would like to learn more about the Dreamweaver program and its features, please visit Adobe Dreamweaver's website for online or in-person training courses.

If you run into problems with these instructions, faculty and staff should call the UIS Help Desk at  extension 7-4949, and students should call the UIS Student Help Desk at extension 7-4577.

Step 1: Set up your connection to the web server*

These instructions were created using Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 (v10) in a Windows environment.  However, you can use the instructions with Dreamwaever MX 2004 (v7) and later, and with Dreamweaver for Mac.

These instructions walk you through setting up a connection to our development server.  Please note that the same instructions can be applied for setting up your connection to your production server.  Just substitute wwwX for www7 where specified (wwwX being your production server).

  1. Open Adobe Dreamweaver (In Windows, go to Start > Programs/All Programs > Adobe Dreamweaver, In Mac, go to your Finder > Applications > Adobe Dreamweaver).
  2. Click on the Dreamweaver Site link under the Create New heading.

    Creating a new Dreamweaver Site

    (If you do not see the adove window when you open Dreamweaver, just go to your menu and select Site > New Site.)
  3. In the Site Definition window, enter the name of your Web site.

    Naming your Dreamweaver Site
  4. Next, enter in the URL of the site that will be associated the Dreamweaver Site.
    (For faculty, this will be http://www7.georgetown.edu/faculty/NetID/.
    For students, this will be http://www7.georgetown.edu/students/NetID/.)
    Then click the Next button to continue.


  5. You will then be given the option to use a server technology.  You can leave the selected default as No.  However, if you will be using ColdFusion in your site development, select Yes and select 'ColdFusion' from the drop-down menu that appears (please note that other server-side languages besides ColdFusion are not supported in our shared hosting environment).  Click on the Next button to continue.


  6. Select the Edit local copies on my machine, then upload to server when ready option. Also select a directory on your PC where your files will be stored. Click on the Next button to continue.

    Note to ColdFusion Developers: If you have selected to use the ColdFusion technology in the previous step, you will need to select the Edit locally, then upload to server option. However, if you have ColdFusion server installed on your PC, you may select the Edit and test locally option.


  7. Set up the Secure FTP connection
    • Select FTP from the drop-down list.
    • Type in www7.georgetown.edu as the hostname of your web server.
    • The folder on the server where you will store your files should be the full path of your directory. (i.e. /web/faculty/NetID/).  If you do not know what this is, please email the Georgetown Webmaster.
    • Your FTP login will be your NetID.
    • Your FTP password will be your NetID password.  For security reasons, please do not check the box unless you using your own personal or university-owned computer.
    • Select the option Use Secure FTP so a checkmark appears.
  8. You will also want to click on the Test Connection button. If everything is setup correctly, a pop-up window will appear and inform you that you connected to your web server successfully. Click the Next button to continue


  9. On the next page select No, do not enable check in and check out. Then click the Next button to continue.


  10. A summary will of your site settings will then be displayed (see below for an example). Click on the Done button to finish the setup. This will close the Site Definition window.

  11. Repeat steps 2-10, substituting instances of the development server (www7) for your production server. 

 

Step 2: Publishing content to your webspace

In order to publish content to your webspace using Dreamweaver, you will need to upload files using the Files panel.

  1. Navigate to the Files panel on the right side of the program (If you do not see the Files panel, press the F8 key to make it visible)

    Cropped screenshot of the 'Files' panel
  2. Select your site that you wish to upload files.

    Just below the Files tab you should see the name of your Web site (in the example above, 'My Website (Development)'). You can click on that drop down box Drop down, showing current site Dreamweaver is working with to select different sites.
  3. Change the view of the Files panel to Local view (if not already selected)

    Just to the right of the Web site drop down box you should see the view box. Clicking this box Drop down that determines whether 'Files' panel is showing content on the local host or remote server will allow you to select Local view (the directory on your PC where the Web site is stored) and Remote view (the directory on the web server).
  4. Connect to the web server

    Below the Web site drop down box you will see a Connect to remote host button "Connect to host" button. Click this to connect to the web server.
  5. Select the file(s) that you wish to publish to the server, and use the "Put" operation to upload them to the server

    To the right of the Connect to remote host button, you will see the Put files(s) button (Button used to upload files to server (a.k.a. the "Put" button)). Click this to upload files from your PC to the web server.
Problems connecting to the server?

Please visit our troubleshooting section of the site.