Understanding common scenarios

Most designers of dynamic content sites find themselves in one of several common scenarios.

Scenario 1: Everything is local--server, database, GoLive, Web site.

Use a Web server and a database that runs on the same machine as GoLive. You can configure the server to access your GoLive site pages directly, eliminating the need to upload. You can later upload the site to a staging or production server. This is by far the simplest configuration to work in for creating dynamic content sites. You don't have to deal with remote servers until it's time to upload your site to a staging or production server. This configuration is available on the Mac only on Mac OS X.

Server setup:

• Create virtual directory or alias pointing to the top-level folder of the site (not to the folder above, which also contains the .data and .settings folders).

Site setup:

• Select Served from Local Directory option in Site Settings or in the dynamic site wizard as you make the site dynamic.
• Include the localhost IP address of 127.0.0.1 in the GoLive authoring access control file (config/include/friends.asp, config/include/friends.php, or WEB-INF/friends.xml).

Production release of site:

• Set up FTP or WebDAV for later use to upload to the staging or production server.
• Change Data Source to point to proper database in server environment.

Scenario 2: Web site and GoLive are local; Web server and database are separate.

This is the most common environment. You run GoLive and edit the site pages on your own machine, and then upload the site to a server where dynamic pages are processed. The database may also be on the Web server; it might be on a separate server, as well. Usually, the server is a staging server and there is a separate server environment for the production site. Once the Web site is tested and approved on the staging server, it is transferred to the production server. This is a common configuration if you work within a corporate setting or have your production site hosted by an ISP.

Server setup:

• Set up staging and production server to run ASP, JSP, or PHP pages.
• Create a folder on the server to hold the site.
• Configure FTP or WebDAV on the server to allow uploads from the GoLive client.
• Configure the server to have a virtual directory or alias point to the folder on the server that will hold the site's pages once they are uploaded.

Site setup:

• Set up FTP or WebDAV for upload to staging or production server.
• Set friends.asp (or friends.php, etc.) to allow the development machine running GoLive proper access. You can do this in the dynamic site wizard or in the Dynamic Content pane of the Site > Settings dialog box.
• Set the URL of site or server in Site Settings.
• If you bypass the wizard, upload the config folder to the server. GoLive automatically uploads the config folder as part of running the dynamic site wizard.
• Modify your data sources and site root URL to reflect the production server database connection. You can do this in the Dynamic Content pane of the Site > Settings dialog box.

Scenario 3: GoLive and workgroup server are local; development Web server and database are separate.

Using a workgroup server site is similar to the scenario where the GoLive client machine and the Web and database server machines are separate. Creating the workgroup site is different (see Creating workgroup sites), and setting up the workgroup server to publish to the staging server is different (see Setting up publishing servers in the Workgroup Admin).