How do I link between .web files?

[sdstren]

I am creating a website that will provide users with online access to homeschool lesson plans and curriculum. The site will be rather large, so I want to divide it into separate .web files for design purposes. I'll try to explain what I am trying to do as clearly as possible.

In my main .web file there are 5 pages as follows:
Home Page
Overview
Topics
Memberships
Contact Us

On the Topics page, there will be several categories such as:
Vertebrates
Plants
Human Body
Geography
History
.... and so on.

I want each topic to be in a separate web file because there will be several pages for each topic, up to 10 or 20 for each. For example, vertebrates.web, plants.web, and so on.

Each topic's .web file will have a main page and subpages. For example, plants.htm, the main plants page, may link to trees.htm, flowers.htm, seeds.htm, etc. All of the plant pages need to be together in their own .web file so that the site isn't too large in XWD. But, they all also need to be able to link BACK to the original main .web file.

Can someone please tell me how to specify the links on the web properties page, or how to store the files so that different .web files can 'talk' to each other?

Thanks

Sandi in AL

[steve.ledger]

Export each .web file into a common 'root' folder as a unique page file name (and title), then you can link to each page_name.htm as you would any other resource link (URL).

[Boy]

Export each .web file into a common 'root' folder as a unique page file name (and title), then you can link to each page_name.htm as you would any other resource link (URL).

In your example, wouldn't the home_htm_files folder be called index_htm_files?

Another thing: wouldn't this approach complicate publishing the site to the Internet once you're ready designing it? Wouldn't it be better to first export the home page to a folder on the HDD and then to export each of the other .web files to folders that are located within the index_htm folder of the original home (i.e., index.htm) page?

This will allow you to set up all the correct links and finish all parts of the web. Then, when you're finished designing your website, you only have to re-export all the .web files to their original folders within the index_htm_files folder on your HDD and only publish the .web homepage so that the complete website is automatically uploaded.

[steve.ledger]

Yes you're right - I completely messed up the illustration (I'll leave my excuses at the door )
Thanks for picking up on my errors.

I actually never use the built-in publish feature, always preferring instead to use a proper FTP client - but that's my choice (and in this case, my error)

Hopefully my corrected illustration will lessen the confusion.

[Egg Bramhill]

The link to the lower files would be:

vertebrates/index.htm

Whilst the link back to the upper file would be (include the "..")

../topics.htm

[steve.ledger]

The link to the lower files would be:
Quote:
vertebrates/index.htm

Why?

Naming the file vertebrates (Web Options>>Page>>Page File Name), would export is as vertebrates.htm with the resource files being vertebrates_htm_files no?

[jclements]

To diverge a bit, Steve.

I think the graphical representation is really great! It distills and clairifies nicely; especially for us neophytes where terminologies can be a real stumbling block. I appreciate the time you've taken AND I hope you continue to do this. THANKS!

A picture is worth a thousand words. And believe me, I think we all know how a thousand words can breed another thousand.

[jclements]

Egg, also thanks for the example.

I wouldn't be a bit surprised that there are newbies (and older) users who don't even what DOS is or its basic commands for directory navigation.

If you guys can think of other examples, post away. It can't hurt.

John

[Seagull]

Good morning Sandi

Your getting solutions here, but I think you might be misunderstanding something. When you design your pages or site, it is saved as a .web file, which is strictly internal and is for this particular program (every program has their own file format) ((you don't upload the .web files normally but keep them in your computer))

When you upload your site, you first have to save as html and it is this that you post to your server. Yes, html files have to be able to interlink but as far as I know (I may be wrong) .web files only link to pages within themselves.

Steve has shown you how to create different folders to save the html files. On your server you will need permission to be able to create and name new folders, and your llinks on your .web file will have to point to this new folder, pointing to the particular page you want. Don't know if this will help you but it may..........frank

[Egg Bramhill]

Why?

Naming the file vertebrates (Web Options>>Page>>Page File Name), would export is as vertebrates.htm with the resource files being vertebrates_htm_files no?

No specific reason Steve other than perhaps Search Engine Robots might find it easier to follow. Of course you can have as many idex.htm files as you wish provided they're in different directories.

If you place everything in the index_htm files folder you'll will upload the whole site every time you publish which is a bit of overkill if you've just edited/added one page. Hopefully if John manages to get the path to the server saved separately for each web file it will make this type of site easier to manage.