Publishing Your Site

Publishing Overview

Once your site has been created, publishing your site can all be handled from within RapidWeaver via MobileMe, FTP and SFTP.

Simply click the Publish button on the main toolbar to get started. In the sheet that pops up, you simply choose from FTP or MobileMe and enter the necessary server settings.

You can then ensure that your settings are correct by clicking the 'Test Connection' button and when you're ready - click Publish.

Figure 1: RapidWeaver's Publishing Sheet

On the first publish, RapidWeaver will upload every file required for your site. But after this, it uses Smart Publishing to update only the files that have changed.

If you ever need to change your Publishing details, you can edit them by choosing the File menu’s ‘Publishing Settings’ option.

Tip: To re-upload your entire website to your webhost, choose the ‘Re-Publish All Files’ option from the File menu.

Publishing via FTP

RapidWeaver allows you to publish sites directly to a webserver using the built-in FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client. To publish your site using FTP, you will need to provide four things: the server’s URL or IP address, your account’s Username and Password, and your webserver’s Site Path (directory) to which you must publish your website’s contents. If you are uncertain about any of these points, contact your hosting provider before you attempt to publish your site. Click the ‘Publish’ button on the main toolbar, and click the FTP tab.

Server:

The name or IP address of your webserver. The name is often the domain name of your website (e.g., ‘my-domain.com’), but may also be an explicit server name provided to you by your webhost. This varies from one webhost to the next, so check with your hosting provider if you’re not sure which settings to use.

Note: Should you need to append the port number in your FTP settings you can do so in the 'Server' field by adding a colon and the port number after the server name or IP address. For example www.mysite.com:22
However, most users will not need to append the port number unless instructed so by their webhost.

User Name:

This is the username required by your webhost to log into your web publishing account.

Password:

This is the password required by your webhost to log into your web publishing account.

Site Path:

This is the path to your website’s publishing directory on the webserver. This varies from one webhost to the next, but commonly-used site paths include ‘/’, ‘/www/’, and ‘/public_html/’ (without quotes). If you are unsure, contact your webhost or ask on the RapidWeaver forum.

Advanced Settings and SFTP

Figure 2: Advanced FTP SettingsThe Advanced settings box (Figure 2) allows you to enable and configure Secure FTP (SFTP) file transfers and other settings.

Passive Mode:

Selected by default, most webservers use this transfer option. Deselect this option only if your webserver requires active file transfer.

Log in Anonymously:

Whilst rarely used, selecting this option will tell RapidWeaver to attempt to log into your webserver without a username or password.

Publishing with MobileMe

RapidWeaver includes built-in support to publish to your RapidWeaver website on your existing account on MobileMe. If you already have MobileMe setup correctly in the System Preferences, RapidWeaver will automatically use these as defaults when publishing.

RapidWeaver, by default, publishes to http://web.me.com/username/ however you can change this address to either http://web.mac.com/username/ or http://homepage.mac.com/username/. You can also use a MobileMe Personal Domain. To change where your site is located, simply change the Web Address field in the Site Setup sheet to the corresponding address you want to use. When you publish your site, select ‘MobileMe’ and RapidWeaver will upload it to the correct location for the address specified.

All you need to enter in the MobileMe Publishing area is your username and password, if not correct (or autofilled).

User Name:

If you are not using your MobileMe System Preferences settings, type your MobileMe Username in this field.

Password:

If you are not using your MobileMe System Preferences settings, this is the password required by MobileMe to log into your account.

Creating FTP Bookmarks

You can create FTP bookmarks to save off your favourite FTP destinations for quick access.

To add a new bookmark select the Bookmarks button in the main toolbar and click on the 'Add' (+) button in the bottom left corner. You can then fill in your server credentials exactly as you would in the Publishing Settings window and save multiple bookmarks.

Figure 3: The Bookmarks Manager

Selecting your saved bookmarks in the future is simply a case of opening the Publishing Settings window (Cmd + K) and clicking on the bookmarks button located next to the 'Server' field and choosing your saved bookmark from the list.