I would like to be able to supply my customers with a complete web-site including the ims file so they can make minor changes themselves. I exportd the site locally, and got an ims file in the local folder, but this is just a copy of the one I'm working on.

1. I don't think Backups should really be stored in the publish folder - a separate option for backup locations would be better.

2. It would be great if SiteSpinner could produce a copy of the ims file where the links to all graphics used were relative and pointed to the image folder in the publish directory.

All hyperlinks that point to documents and media files that are going to be a part of the local site should also be relative to the ims file and point to the file that has been collected and stored in the local publish folder tree.

Comments?

Nick

Hello Nick,

I'm only a learner and not real techno when it comes to some of these things. But, my understanding is that the IMS file is the working file for your local machine. While you build your project, you can use files of any type from anywhere on your own machine, even other installed hard drives (I have four).

When you publish, these files are "gathered" into your published root directory (or sub directories where neccessary), so basically, this is a relative link.

If you send the IMS file to another machine, it will not work, either because the linked files do not exist, or the files are in a different location.

I like the way it works now, as it saves you copying and pasting files as you need them. I do understand where you are coming from, but it defeats the original purpose of SP. It is meant for a single user developer with limited HTML experience, and in that area, the program is brilliant.

To make all of the links relative, you would also need to export the complete directory to the other user to coincide with the IMS. However, when he/she makes changes, the whole shebang would have to be sent back to you.

It is not all that hard to do what you want. After publishing, relocate your files and change the links in an HTML editor (or Notepad even).

Another thing I don't understand is that if your "clients" want to make changes, aren't you their developer? It should be up to you to do their work for them. If they are savvy enough to make changes, they should be able to develop their own with SP.

Sorry for prattling on, but just some of my uneducated thoughts.

Best regards,
Terry

I think you can do most of what you want already.

1. You can turn auto-backup off from the Publisher > Profile tab. In that case you would need to make your own arrangement for backups.

2. You can make your project much more portable by keeping all your source resources in one place -- one folder or group of folders. If your client duplicates that folder structure with the same resources, they can run the project unchanged. Even with a different structure, it fairly easy to set different folders via the Geometry Editor.

3. You are probably using the 'gather' option where all resources are gathered from all over your hard disk. I suggest investigate the 'relative' option where you place the resources in your publish folder. If you make that publish folder in a simple location like "C:\MySite", you should be able to easily duplicate the project on another computer.

Another thing to try is using the 'Use Relative Directory Paths' when saving your ims file. That will set the ims file to look for images and media relative to its current location so that if you move the ims file to another drive, for example, it will find its media in the relative locations.

The way projects are split into different places is my only gripe with SiteSpinner.

I use a laptop and a desktop and find my productivity severely limited by the way the project is split up to different locations. I also had the misfortune of a hard drive failure on my desktop. Although I'd backed up the IMS file, all my graphics were missing. I managed to mount the failed drive as a second unit and then go into My Projects and save the geography eelements of my site. Unfortunately when I re-loaded my new hard drive with Windows, I forgot a space in my Windows user name, which meant that Site Spinner didn't know the paths to anything. I had to edit each items geography manually to get my pictures back. A truly tiresome experience ... but I got there in the end :-)

It would be much better to have the whole project saved in one location.

The geometry/ and image/ folders are published folders, not source folders. When you backup your project files, you also need to back up your external files, such as images, video/audio media, and any external script/CSS files.

When you find the paths for your images have changed, you can adjust the path for all the images in the project by using the Geometry Editor->Options tab, "New Dir" button. This allows you to reset the path for all images in the project in one action.