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Windsor, CT 06095
(860) 285-0172
support@invisiblegold.com

Your Website Should Be Easy to Edit

Directory Structure

Directory Structure
Creating sites usually involves uploading them to the server, or perhaps making changes right to the files themselves online. There are a few things you should know first.

1) There are 5 main directories in an Invisible Gold website: Data, Frameworks, Images, System, and Templates.

2) Each directory behaves a little differently. If you follow the rules, you are free to upload files, and make changes to the way the site works.

3) If Caching is turned on (and it should be), you will need to login to the site and click a Reload button, or simply add ?resetcache=true to any of the pages before you can see your changes.

4) Don't change any of the .asp files in the home directory except for Settings.asp.


Data
The Data directory holds all of the text images and files for the site. These are primarily modified through the web browser by the site owner. All of the text files are encrypted so you won't be able to load them or make changes directly.

You will notice that the data direction matches the structure of your site exactly. You can move pages around, delete images, rename folders, and even upload files right into them.

Note: Images automatically generate an .xsl.dat file once they have been loaded through the web browser. Delete the data file if you delete the image.

Note: Everything in the /Data/System directory is important. Be careful that you don't change the major section names here. However, you can delete users from the /Data/System/Users directory for example, or delete old traffic logs from /Data/System/Visitors.

Frameworks
The Frameworks directory holds the site's page designs. Each design has its own folder containing HTML files with a few special tags to display content. Every page in the site specifies a Framework by its directory name, or inherits the one its parent page uses. If no Frameworks are chosen or the correct one is missing, it uses one called /Frameworks/Default. If default.htm isn't loaded, the system uses the default default.htm.

You can also store images, css, and javascript files in subdirectories.

Images
The Images folder should just have blank.gif. This is a single pixel GIF image (transparent) that you can use for positioning things on your webpage. However, don't rely on this folder to exist. You are far better off putting images for the design into a Framework directory, or images for custom templates into a /Template directory.

Note: You can point image tags to a framework folder to source images like this https://invisiblegold.com/frameworks/default/ and your image name in your content, Frameworks, and custom Templates. It will automatically be replaced by the complete path (including website address) to the directory holding the current Framework and display images.

System
The System directory should be considered Read-Only. You don't want to make changes except for upgrading to new versions of Invisible Gold.

Upgrading a site is simple. Take the CurrentVersion and rename it something like Ver2.8 and then copy the new CurrentVersion directory from the latest version. There is more information in the Hosting docs as this is more of a Host task.

However, you might want to explore the /system/currentversion/templates directory to see how the templates are created.

Templates
Any directory found in /Templates will be a Custom Template. Templates are written in XSL which is a "strictly typed" language. It's not too bad once you get the hang of it.

Plus, there is a huge library of sample Templates to start with in the /system/currentversion/templates directory.

Note: Be sure to change the path to system.xsl file at the top of all of the XSL files if you move them from the system to the Custom Templates area.

The old path will be "../system.xsl". The new path should be "../../system/currentversion/templates/system.xsl".

Note: Custom Templates need to be upgraded manually for each version. Usually this is minor, but stay in contact with Invisible Gold if you are creating Custom Templates.


See Also:
Online Documentation Home, Advanced: Using Drop Down Menus With Calendars, New CSS Menus, Overview, Directory Structure, Frameworks, Custom Templates, Web Designer Tip: Customize the Page Title, Creating Drop Down Menus, GetHTML Tags

Keywords:
Authoring, Templates, Frameworks

Invisible Gold, LLC was founded in 2001 as a web design and internet software company. The owner, John Waiveris, wanted to enable people to manage their own websites. John is active in the Windsor community and the Invisible Gold website software is used daily by 600 businesses.

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(860) 285-0172
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