Editing web sites on the College of Law server

Access to edit web pages is via the WebDAV protocol. While some more recent operating systems can connect to our servers directly, Windows XP needs an added program to connect properly. The program we have tested to work best in XP is WebDrive. It makes your web sites look like a regular hard drive, usually given the drive letter "W".

We have a limited numner of licences  for WebDrive. Please submit a help desk ticket to get it installed on your office PC.

(Outdated) Instructions

These are the instructions for NetDrive - WebDrive is the successor to NetDrive, and operates essentially the same...

Access to edit pages and upload files on the College of Law web server is via the WebDAV protocol and your MyLaw ID. While Dreamweaver and Windows have built-in support for WebDAV, we are recommending the use of a free program called NetDrive that assigns a drive letter to your web space. NetDrive runs only on Windows XP. MAC OS X has built-in support for WebDAV. NetDrive is installed on some PCs in the College of Law, often with your web site address and MyLaw ID already entered. Once connected via NetDrive, you can edit your web site files by accessing the assigned drive letter. (Note: dashed-underline links provide more detail. )

To access your web site for editing:

1. Right click the NetDrive icon in the System Tray NetDrive Icon (you may need to unhide the tray icons) and select "Open NetDrive".
2. Your site will most likely already be set up in NetDrive, except for your password. If not, click the New Site button and enter description and address of the root of the site you want to edit: http:­//law.gsu.edu/sitename/.
3. The default drive letter is "T", which should only be changed if necessary.
4. "Anonymous/Public Logon" should be unchecked.
5. Enter your MyLaw ID and password. Note: If you enter the wrong password, you will have to hard reset/restart your PC in order to get NetDrive to work again. Do not check " Save Password" unless your computer is secure.
6. Click the Connect button - A window should open and show a list of the files. If not, re-check your settings.

At this point, your web site can be edited with Dreamweaver or other editor. Note that you cannot download .PHP scripts via netDrive, since you will get the output (HTML) of the script, not the script itself. Contact the Web Coordinator for assistance in retrieving .PHP files.

Sites may use the Simple Template System that makes it feasible to use Word to edit the Web pages.

Opitmizing NetDrive 

There are some optional settings that help NetDrive work best depending on your situation. To make these settings:

1. Again, right click the NetDrive icon in the System Tray NetDrive Icon and select "Program Settings".
2. Remove the annoying pop-up box: Under the "Display file transfer progress dialog"section, set the minimum file size to a larger number - suggested settings: 2000 on campus, 200 to 500 off campus. This will eliminate unnecessary pop-ups of the file transfer notification except for the largest files.
3. Current file listings: If there are other editors on your web site section, select the Cache tab and uncheck the Cache Files and Cache Directory Listings selections. If the display of the list of files is repeatedly slow, you may want to set these selections back to the enabled (checked) setting.
4. Auto-connect on boot-up: If you are on campus and have the NetDrive connection working correctly, you can set NetDrive to automatically connect at login/startup.