Re: [SMARTY] Dreamweaver Users - How do you manage sites?

Gary Smith wrote:
> What if I move my templates to a folder inside web root? How would I
> preview them locally and remote?

For what its worth, this is how I've handled similar situations:

 ~\htdocs                <- Apache's document root
 ~\htdocs\index.php      <- This is PHP
 ~\templates             <- Dreamweaver's document root
 ~\templates\index.html  <- This is HTML template
 ~\templates\img\        <- This is where I put images
 ~\templates\css\        <- This is where I put stylesheets
 ~\templates\js\         <- This is where I put javascript

(~ is just some directory on my web server under which all the site's files
are stored.)

This means that using ~\templates as the document root the templates work
fine in (eg) Dreamweaver - image paths etc are fine.

I then use aliases in the Apache config to map /img/ to ~\templates\img\,
etc, so that the site works when the PHP code is run (from Apache's document
root of ~\htdocs).

Advantages: All the design stuff is separate from the code logic, so the
designer has complete control over the ~\templates directory. But it is all
outside document root, except for the specific img/js/css stuff which is
mapped back inside document root by Apache.

On the occasions where I need dynamic css/js/img files (eg a stylesheet
which is generated through PHP and likely also through Smarty) I create
additional directories:

 ~\htdocs\dyncss        <- Dynamic CSS (ie PHP code)
 ~\templates\dyncss     <- Templates for dynamic CSS

.. etc. Therefore again there is separation between the work of the coder
and the designer.

A general point: be VERY careful if you move your templates under document
root (by which I really mean don't do it).

Consider:
    ~\htdocs\index.php
    ~\htdocs\templates\index.tpl

It's obvious what http://example.com/index.php will show (ie your webpage,
presumably based on the index.tpl tenplate), but you must also recognise
that http://example.com/templates/index.tpl will allow the site visitor to
see your raw (unprocessed by Smarty or PHP) template code, which may well
include things you do not want made available. You can fix this through
appropriate Apache configuration, but in my view it's safer to avoid
altogether.

[If you use a Linux/Unix server, as I do, then of-course all the \'s should
be /'s. However I think it's easier to distinguish between the file
structure and the URL's when they're written this way.]

Mark Rogers,
More Solutions Ltd

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