[MACCAWS] Filenames and directory structure conventions

Filename conventions

Don’t think I’ve seen this around as a proposal, so I’ll make it.

For websites in general

Filenames:

Should not exceed 64 characters in length, including extension (note 1)
Should be all lower case
Should not contain spaces but use underscores, even things like linked .doc files (note 2)
Should be meaningful reflecting the content
Filename extension for (X)HTML files should be .html not .htm

Directories

Names should not exceed 64 characters in length, including extension (note 1)
Names should be all lower case
Names should not contain spaces but use underscores
Names should reflect the content the content
Should not be nested more than eight deep for a working site (note 1)

For both files and directories, names should commonly be much shorter than the maxima quoted.

Notes (and reasons)

1. Many CD burners and software will not cope with filenames greater than 64 characters and directories nested more than 8 deep.
2. A space takes three characters ( ), an underscore one.

And the reason for me doing this is that I’m trying to establish a standard at work which gets rid of stupid names and allows us to back up websites quickly for distribution.

I stand prepared to be knocked down.

Regards

John