Managing Multiple Web Folders

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After publishing a local Web Folder to the District Web Site, you will have 2 complete copies of your website!  Your local Web Folder, and your Web Folder on the District 99 Web Server.

When you make changes to one copy, the other copy is not automatically updated.  After each change, or group of changes, you need to re-publish your Web Folder so the two copies are alike.

It does not matter which Web Folder you work on first.

Local Web Folder

Web Folder on District 99 Web Server

If you work on your local copy, just re-publish it to your Web Server copy when you are done.

If you work on the Web Server copy, just re-publish it to your local copy when you are done.

However, if you work on the Web Server copy one day, then work on your local copy one day, without re-publishing the Web Folder, the two copies will be out of sync. There are fixes for this, but trust me, just avoid this scenario in the first place.

Advantages of Managing Two Web Folders

You will always have a backup.  If you accidentally erase a page, or don't like the changes you made, you can re-publish the opposite copy and start over again.

You can experiment and make many changes to your local copy without anyone seeing the changes until you publish them.  Otherwise, if you only have a copy on the Web Server, visitors will see your changes right away.  This is not necessarily a bad thing, just something to keep in mind.

Disadvantages of Managing Two Web Folders

The task of republishing and managing 2 different folders can be somewhat confusing and/or time-consuming.

If you wish to work on your website from both school and home, you need some way to get the Web Folder back and forth.  I can think of a few ways you can accomplish this, here's a few scenarios:

Scenario 1: Downloading your Web Folder off the Web Server

1. When you get home, open the Web Folder directly off the District 99 Web Server.
2. Publish this Web Folder to your local hard drive.
3. Close the Web Folder on the District 99 Web Server.
4. Open the Web Folder on your local hard drive.
5. Make changes to your local Web Folder.
6. When done, Publish the local Web Folder to the District 99 Web Folder.
7. When you get back to school, open the Web Folder off the District 99 Web Server, publish it to your hard drive or network drive, CLOSE the Web Folder from the District 99 Web Server.  Now your two Web Folders are synchronized!

Scenario 2: Work live on the District 99 Web Server when at home.

1. When you get home, open the Web Folder directly off the District 99 Web Server.  Any changes you make will be seen immediately.
2. When you get back to school, open the Web Folder off the District 99 Web Server, publish it to your hard drive or network drive, CLOSE the Web Folder from the District 99 Web Server.  Now your two Web Folders are synchronized!

Scenario 3: Work live on the District 99 Web Server all the time.

1. After you get your website live on the web, delete your local copy, and always work live on the District 99 Web Server.  This is the way I work, because copying the entire District 99 website back and forth would be very time-consuming.  Just keep in mind that any major changes you make, you have to live with!