File Structure on Server

[shaunymac]

Ok, first and foremost, this is my first website and it works. I am stoked that I figured out everything in dreamweaver, then using cyberduck to upload things to the server.

Now for a couple of questions from a newbie, myself, that I can't seem to figure out.

1. I understand, finally, that my home page must me called index.html and should be located in the public_html folder. How about the pages? Can I organize those outside of the folder to keep things neat or should I just not worry about it since it is working? It seems everytime I try to fix something on the site, it breaks and then I spend an hour or so hunting for a small problem.

2. I know I have another question for you guys....It will come to me. Oh well, I can't think of the question as of now. If you have any feedback or suggestions I would definately appreciate it.

www.shaunlavery.com

Once again, thanks for your advice.

 

[angelwatt]

Depends on the number of pages you have currently and expect to have in the next couple years. If a low enough pages, then keeping pages at the root level (not inside folders) is good enough. As you build up the site though it may make better sense to have folders. For instance, I have a food section on my site where I post recipes and food related links. It was different enough from my other content that I gave it its own folder.

Don't get carried away with folders though, especially folders in folders because all of that becomes part of the URL people are visiting so oyu don't want it to get terribly long.

Also, if you have a very focused site, like one that is blog-based, then you don't really need folders at all. People using WordPress may have thousands of posts, but they are all presented through a single page. The content is stored in a DB and the URL simply tells which post is being requested.

Just some things to think about, but don't worry too much about it.

 

[boast]

one suggestion, create thumbnails of the photos. Loading multiple 6mb pictures will suck for people with slow internet.

Having it in folders for each section, ../people/, and ../nature/, etc would be good.

 

[TodVader]

one suggestion, create thumbnails of the photos. Loading multiple 6mb pictures will suck for people with slow internet.

Having it in folders for each section, ../people/, and ../nature/, etc would be good.

That and if you ever have more photos, I suggest you have some way of seeing them all in a 100px (approx) size so we can choose which one we want to see in real size. Horizontal scrolling 10s of photos will be a nuisance to the user. I'm in 1920x1080 and it doesn't fit at all in full screen. Lots of people have 1024x768.

If I had 56k, It would have took over an hour to open one page even if I opened it in about 10 seconds on cable.

Nice pictures by the way. I really like the one with the girl in thousands of flowers.

 

[shaunymac]

Thanks guys. Those were just the answers I was looking for.

As far as the previews go, I think you are referring to a couple of images I forgot to resize before I saved them for the web. I noticed them last night before I went to bed. I pulled the site up on my iPhone today and noticed the how painful it was trying to load the pages.

Am I right in just resizing to 72dpi, then saving as .gif or is there another step I should take that would help increase load times?

Thanks for the comments/suggestions.

 

[TodVader]

I'm not 100% sure but I think that for actual photos, jpg would be a better choice. GIFs and PNGs are more for images with few colors. They are usually used to create styles in websites or to have transparency.

 

[angelwatt]

Am I right in just resizing to 72dpi, then saving as .gif or is there another step I should take that would help increase load times?

Yes, 72dpi is the standard for screen resolution. And as TodVader stated, JPGs are for realism pictures, whereas GIF and PNG are for images with less colors or have transparency. This will help keep file sizes down.

 

[shaunymac]

Yes, 72dpi is the standard for screen resolution. And as TodVader stated, JPGs are for realism pictures, whereas GIF and PNG are for images with less colors or have transparency. This will help keep file sizes down.

I noticed that when I was playing with some last night. I am definately going to go back and save them as .jpg's so things will load a little quicker.

Like I mentioned earlier, when I play with things, I seem to break things. Now, my logo in the top left corner does not work. I feel like I have tried everything. I have even gone so far as to delete all of my logos from my folder, re design one, and place it back in the folder. After I did this and set up all of my links again I thought it would work. But it doesn't. The strange thing for me is that if I preview it within dreamweaver, it works fine. However, if I open it in safari/firefox it is a no go.

I played with this for awhile last night and this morning. I'm going to go eat something. I know it is something simple but I just don't know what it is. This is where my inexperience comes in.

 

[angelwatt]

I think the image issue is due to your file structure. In your code you have the logo looking at,

../Logos/shaunlavery.png

which means it's up a level and in a folder named Logos. The problem is that the page is at your root level already, so the .. is looking above the root so it defaults to the root folder. There doesn't seem to be a Logos folder on the server. Make sure everything is uploaded and in the right spot.

 

[shaunymac]

I think the image issue is due to your file structure. In your code you have the logo looking at,

../Logos/shaunlavery.png

which means it's up a level and in a folder named Logos. The problem is that the page is at your root level already, so the .. is looking above the root so it defaults to the root folder. There doesn't seem to be a Logos folder on the server. Make sure everything is uploaded and in the right spot.

Angelwatt, thank you. I guess i needed to hear that from someone else besides myself. I thought that orignally and played around with the organization of the file but I couldn't get it to work. Maybe it was the lack of food. Thanks for your help.

 

[shaunymac]

Angelwatt, I see you are from dayton. I just moved up to Mason from Birmingham, Al a month or so ago. This weather is shocking to me. Lows in the 50's. That sounds insane to me.

Again, thanks for your help.