Adobe Dreamweaver: Multiple editors in distributed locations

Posted in Adobe Dreamweaver by Adam Lofting

Before you begin

The first thing to do is make sure that your website is set up correctly for working with Dreamweaver - please see our Dreamweaver setup guide for help with this.

Why we work this way

It is far too easy when two people are working on a website at the same time to accidently overwrite each other's work and then waste valuable time correcting the mis-haps. This problem is made even worse when people are working from different locations and it becomes impossible to talk through every website amend as it is being made.

How the problem occurs

1. There is a webpage on the live server
2. The webpage contains the text "123"
3. Person A downloads the webpage to his computer and changes the text to "123A"
4. The webpage on the live server is unchanged at this point ("123")
5. Person B downloads the page to his computer and changes the text to "123B"
6. The webpage on the live server is unchanged at this point ("123")
7. Person A uploads his amended page to the live server
8. The webpage on the live server is now ("123A")
9. Person B uploads his amended page to the live server
10. The webpage on the live server is now ("123B")
11. The amends made by Person A are now lost and Person A is usually pretty upset

How to check-out and check-in files

Once your website is setup correctly in Dreamweaver, you should be able to see which files people are working on and which files are available to edit:

• The red tick means that somebody is editing that page and it is checked-out to them.
• The padlock means the file is currently checked-in to the server. If you check-out this file, then you can edit it.

When you open a file

When you open a file, Dreamweaver will ask if you want to view the file or check-out the file. If you want to make any amends to the page, you will need to check-out the file.

When you have finished making your changes

You can then upload the file to the live server. If you Put the file, your amended page will go live, but the page will still be checked-out to you. If you check-in the file, then you amends will go live ad the page will then be available for other people to edit.

Getting the latest version of the website pages

Sometimes you will need to update your local collection of files. This may be because templates have changed or new pages have been added to the live server. You can get the latest version of these files for either the whole website or for a specific folder.

Select the root of the website, or the folder you wish to get. And then press the Get File(s) button.

This will update your local collection of files but without checking-out the files to you.