To Connect to an FTP Server Using Dreamweaver, follow the steps below. Please be sure to contact the Personal Support Center to obtain your FTP space login information prior to going through this tutorial. To learn how to upload your files, click here. To learn how to find your uploaded files online, click here. To view a brief video demonstration, click here.

 

Connecting To An FTP Server Using Adobe Dreamweaver

1.) Open Dreamweaver and navigate to the menu bar at the top. Click on the Site menu and select New Site.
Note: Once you have one or more sites set up, you can edit or delete them using the "Manage Sites" option in this menu.

 

2.) In the Site Setup box that appears, give your "Site Name" a label that will make sense to you. This is a name that only you will see and inside Dreamweaver only, so it can be anything that is logical. For the "Local Site Folder" use the folder icon to either create a new root folder for your new project OR navigate to the root folder that you have already created. This is on your "local" computer and is why it is called the "local site."
Note: A root folder is the "base folder" for your entire project where all pages and assets for your website should be saved. Images, audio, multimedia, and html pages should always be saved to your root folder. It is also recommended that each site or project have its own root folder to file organization.

 

3.) Next, click on the Servers option to the left of the Site Setup window. In order to set up the server (or the live, online web space) you must click on the Plus symbol.

 

4.) In the “Server Name” field, give the site a logical name that lets you know what this site is. Since this server site space is your School of Design FTP space, you can call it something as simple as "School web space". Only you will see this name.

Next, keep the "Connect using" set to FTP (File Transfer Protocol) which is the method you will use to upload files. For the "FTP Address"section, be sure to type in ftp.sotd.us exactly like that...no capitals, no spaces, no other information at all!

Next comes your custom web space information. For "Username"and "Password", type in your username and password as provided by the Personal Support Center.
Note: Your username must be entered in its entirety, including the @sotd.us text. For example, if your name is rassy moose, you must type in rassymoose@sotd.us in the "Username" panel.

 

5.) Once you have entered in this information, hit the "Test" button to see if you can successfully connect to your web space. If successful, you will see the message below. If you are NOT successful in connecting, go back to make sure all of your information was entered in properly, and that no accidental capital letters or spaces or commas instead of periods were used. User error is the #1 reason why students cannot initially connect. Once you successfully connect, hit Save and then Done.

 

 

Uploading Files Using Adobe Dreamweaver

Once you have successfully connected to your web space, you will now use the "Files" panel to work with connecting to your site, and working with your local files as well as remote files. Click on the plug icon in the toolbar to connect to your website. Remember, you have only set up your site thus far and tested the connection. You haven't actually plugged into your site just yet! Now you should be connected and ready to transfer files from your computer (local) to your live website space (remote).

1.) In the "Files" panel you will see your "Local view", or the root folder, saved on your computer. You can click on this dropdown to instead view your "Remote server", or live web space. Below each option is a list of files found in those locations. If you have never added content to your web space before, the area under "Remote server" will be empty.

 

2.) To transfer files from your Local site to your Remote site, click to select the file(s) or folder(s) you want to upload to your webspace and click the blue up-arrow that is used to "Put files." The green "Get files" arrow is used most often to pull, or get, a file from your Remote site down to your computer in case you lose or delete that file from your root folder.

When your file finishes uploading, you will get a message letting you know that the upload activity is complete.

3.) If your local or remote files are not showing recent changes you made (you added new files to your local folder, you renamed files, etc) you can click the circular "Refresh"arrow to tell Dreamweaver to "look" again.

4.) For a complete list of the Files panel toolbar options, please click here.

 

 

Finding Your Uploaded Files Online

Understanding the World Wide Web

Understanding URL web addresses can be complex, but to keep it very simple it is really just like a formula:
web server address/filename.html = www.rasmussen.edu/index.html
web server address/folder name/file name = www.rasmussen.edu/campuses/fortmyers.html

Websites an have multiple folders to organize the content of larger sites, and Rasmussen's site is a great example. If we look at the following page we can see how it was uploaded and stored: http://www.rasmussen.edu/locations/florida/fort-myers/

What we are really looking at is: web server address/folder name/folder name/folder name/

And don't forget...naming something "index.html" means it will be the home page of that site or that folder depending on where you save it. So if you want to add a home page to your student web space, name it index.html and save it to the main area of your ftp space (not in a folder).

 

How does this apply to you?

To view your live uploaded files online (beyond the "Preview in Browser" function in Dreamweaver), open your web browser and type in the EXACT web address of your file to be seen. Remember, the web address for your web space as a whole is http://sotd.us/yourusername but does not include the "@sotd.us" portion of your username.

For example, if your username is johndoe@sotd.us and you upload a file called "overview.html" to the main area of your Remote site, the exact web address would be: http://sotd.us/johndoe/overview.html.

Or, if you put a document on your site called portfolio.pdf in the main area of your Remote site, the exact web address would be http://sotd.us/johndoe/portfolio.pdf.

 

To view a brief demonstration of setting up a "New Site" in Dreamweaver using your FTP space, watch the video below: