QuickTips: Different Connection Details for the Same Workgroup Site

QuickTip: Using Different Connection Details for the Same Workgroup Site

This question came up on the excellent Blueworld GoLive Talk mailing list so I decided to include it here.

It may happen that you need to connect to the same Workgroup Server site from the same computer but using different connection details depending on where you are. For example, inside your local network you may connect to the Web Workgroup Server using an internal IP address. From outside the local network, on the other hand, you need to use a domain name registered with a dynamic DNS service or the externally recognised IP address in order to reach the Web Workgroup Server.

When you mount a Workgroup Server site on your machine you are creating a location for downloading files from the server to work on in the local environment. The locally mounted site stores temporary copies of the files for you to work on. Only after these temporary, local files are checked in to the Workgroup Server do they officially become part of the site.

The locally mounted site also stores such things as connection settings for accessing the Workgroup Server. If you try to open a site which was mounted with a particular server name or IP address from a location where that name or IP address is no longer valid for the network, you will not be able to connect.

There are a couple of ways you can address the need to access the Workgroup Server using different connection details.

1: Mount the site twice, once for each connection

The first way is to create a different local mount of the site to handle the different details required to connect from a given location. For example, if you need to connect with the server IP address 192.168.1.2 from within the local network and mydynservername.org from outside the local network, you could mount the site once while connected to your local network using 192.168.1.2 as the server address when asked for login details in the Site Wizard.

To work on the site from within the local network you would open that local mount of the site. Then, when working outside the local network, you can mount the site again this time using mydynservername.org as the server address in the Wizard.

This second local mount of the site has to be saved to a different physical location on the local machine than the one you used the first time you mounted the Workgroup site (screenshot below).

Remember, these are not separate sites in the conventional GoLive sense. They are simply two different local working environments for one Workgroup site. The "real" site always remains what is on (checked into) the Workgroup Server.

If you work with two local mounts of the site like this, you have to be careful that you check in all files you have been working on before switching between the locally mounted sites. Otherwise, these files may show up as checked out and unavailable to work on (even though they were checked out by you while working in the other local mount). At best, you may lose changes not checked in before switching local sites.

If you always remember to check in your files this way of doing things will probably work for you. If you have a bad memory, you might want to consider the alternative below.

2: Edit the Workgroup Server settings file

The second way involves using one local mount of the site and switching the server address in the Workgroup Server settings file.

If you look in the containing folder for a mounted Workgroup site on your computer, you will see three folders (shown in the file system screenshot further up the page):

sitename
sitename.data
sitename.settings

In the sitename.settings folder of the mounted Workgroup site, you will find a file called workgroupsettings.xml. As its name and extension suggest, it is an XML file which contains settings pertaining to the Workgroup Server from which the site was mounted. Here's what the file's content looks like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

      <!DOCTYPE sitesettings SYSTEM "sitesettings.dtd">

      <!--Adobe GoLive settings file-->

      <sitesettings section="workgroup" version="1.0">

      <attributes>

      <attribute name="password" value=""/>

      <attribute name="port" value="1102"/>

      <attribute name="refresh" value="60"/>

      <attribute name="rememberPassword" value="no"/>

      <attribute name="server" value="192.168.1.2"/>

      <attribute name="site" value="simpleSite"/>

      <attribute name="site_id" value="10002"/>

      <attribute name="uid" value="Mjk0ODgwNTQyMTIwMzk5Mjk2"/>

      <attribute name="useSiteSettings" value="yes"/>

      <attribute name="user" value="arthur_askey"/>

      </attributes>

      </sitesettings>

The attribute which interests us here is the following:

<attribute name="server" value="192.168.1.2"/>

This is what tells the GoLive site which server address it should use when connecting to a Workgroup Server to open a previously mounted site.

By changing the value of the server attribute in the workgroupsettings.xml file you can connect and open the same locally mounted site with a different server address. You can open the file in GoLive and edit the server attribute to reflect the name or IP address required to reach the Workgroup Server in a particular network context. So, with the example details we have been using up until now, editing <attribute name="server" value="192.168.1.2"/> to read <attribute name="server" value="mydynservername.org"/> would allow you to connect from outside the local network but continue to use the same local mount of the site.

Do not edit any of the other attributes in this file unless you are 100% sure of the effect it will have.

Working this way, you do not need to check files back in before switching from one location to another. You can leave files checked out and they will still be available, with any changes made in the meantime, when the site is re-opened with a different server name.