Organize Your Site

Routine maintenance requires you to rename files, or reorganize your site. Folders grow until they're hard to deal with. Stray files proliferate, and you don't know what's safe to delete. Maybe your site's changing, and needs to be reorganized. Unfortunately, because of the way web pages are linked to each other, this type of work is both time consuming and error prone. Synthesis automates these tasks, making the job quick and easy.

Using Synthesis, you can move, or rename, your web pages just like any other file. Any changes that are required (to fix up the links, copy graphics files, etc.) are handled automatically. And stray files can be tracked down and deleted with the push of a button.

There is also a cleanup operation for your web server. So after you've updated your web site, you upload the changes and press the cleanup button to remove any stray files from your site.

Move File

Files can be moved between folders by dragging it from its current location and dropping it into the new folder. Files will be processed, as required, to maintain the links, copy images, etc. Any type of file can be moved this way including: web pages, images, and style sheets.

You can also move sets of files in a single drag-and-drop operation. Select a range of files by pressing the Shift key when you select them, or add/remove individual files to the selection by using the Ctrl key when they are selected.

Rollovers

Whenever Synthesis moves a web page, it analyzes the page for graphics "rollovers". (A rollover is an image that changes when the mouse is over it.) Rollovers are tricky, because the rollover-image is not actually part of the web page*. For this reason, Synthesis will ask you about possible rollovers, and produces a dialog that gives you a chance to identify the rollover image. This information is added to the page, so you won't need to do it again and again.

*Rollovers are created by embedding a small program into the web page that changes the image as the mouse moves across it. The name of the new image is known to this program, but is not part of the page's HTML markup as displayed by the browser.

Rename File

Files can be renamed by right-clicking on the file and selecting Rename. Synthesis will make any changes required to maintain your site's links, etc.

Any type of file can be renamed including: web pages, images, and style sheets.

Delete File

Files can be deleted by right-clicking on the file and selecting Delete, or by selecting the file and pressing the Delete key. Synthesis will make any changes required to maintain your site's links, etc.

When you delete files from the Site portion of your website, Synthesis will, if possible, redirect the link to another page. If the link cannot be properly redirected, it will be updated to the Construction page.

Any type of file can be deleted including: web pages, images, and style sheets.

Cleanup

As you update/maintain your site, you will occasionally leave a file or directory that is not reachable from your web pages, and is no longer used. These files can be easily found and deleted by using the cleanup button When you press this button, Synthesis will search your site and delete the unused files.

At this time, there isn't a cleanup button for the Library, as you will probably want to keep some of these unused files for future use. We may change this policy if there seems to be sufficient interest...

Example

Synthesis comes configured with an example site that you can experiment with. Click the Generator tab and you're ready to go. (If the example site is not shown when you select the Generator tab, make sure that File >View > Example is checked.)

In this example we're going to move a file between two folders.

Synthesis allows you to move files around without worrying that you'll break your site's links. And, with push-button cleanup functions, you can 'tidy up' in seconds.

Move the mike.html file

Double-click the mike.html document, and view it with your browser. Notice how mike.html and eric.html files are linked to each other.
Select mike.html and drop it into another folder. Double-click mike.html in its new location and verify that the mike.html and eric.html files are still linked to each other.
Select mike.html and drag it back to the links folder. Double-click mike.html, now that it's back in its old location, and verify that the mike.html and eric.html files are still linked to each other.

Note: moving mike.html may cause a new graphics folder to be created, along with an extra copy of the mike.jpg image. As this is the Library, this folder will have to be deleted manually. To delete the graphics folder, select it and press the Delete key. Alternatively, you can right-click on the graphics folder and select the Delete item from the pop-up list.