Defining a Dynamic site in Dreamweaver

Hi,
I am new to ecommerce and I want to add eCart5 to my existing web site. I would appreciate it if you can help and guide me in different steps.
Information about my computer:

• iMac G5 OSX 10.4.11
  
• Dreamweaver CS3
  
• eCart5
  
• My existing website
  
• MAMP and Testing Server installed successfully (I see the Welcome PHP/MySQL testing server).

Now I am in “Defining a Dynamic site in Dreamweaver” step and I follow “Getting Started with eCart” in your website but I am confused and stuck at this step.
I need you to help me please to define the path for
Local Info > Site name, Local root folder, HTTP address
and Testing Server > URL Prefix inDremweaver CS3 with the information below regarding the files management in my computer.
In my computer the existing website’s files are organized under:
Macintosh HD >Websites > Local Root Folder .

Different question:
I have to add “Add to Cart” button for 440 items so I want to accomplish this in the correct way.
Q) Should I add “Add to Cart” button for 440 items for each item separately or there is a way to do it faster to save time that I ignore?
Thank you.

I'm not on a Mac but I think I can help.

The key to remember with defining the server path is that it has to be the "web root" and not just a folder on your hard drive. This is the special folder that your local web server uses to process the file as a web page.

This is the same folder that you used to get your welcome page. You need to create a folder for you web pages in the same root folder. When you type localhost in your web browser, it will take you to your local web root.

So if you copy your site into the new folder called classyjewelers, you would access it on your testing server with your browser by typing:
http://localhost/classyjewelers/

You only need one “Add to Cart” button. Dynamic web pages pull information from the database. You create one results page that displays the product and the “Add to Cart” button. You use repeating regions to display multiple items on the same page. This eliminates the need to have a separate page for every item in your database.

You might find this guide helpful:

E-commerce - Getting Started Guide
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Thank you for the reply.
I know that MAMP is installed in Application folder by default and I have to put a copy of website in htdocs folder in order to make it work with localhost.
But I want to keep my localrootfolder as document root because all my client’s website are organized in this folder.
According to MAMP FAQ we can change the path for the Document Root in the MAMP program under Preferences and then I changed it to the path /Websites/localrootfolder.
Now when I type http://localhost in the browser it shows the website, so it’s working but the only problem is that I have a Flash animation (swf) in the header that does not work. What could be the problem?

Does the flash path match the new configuration for your local server? Check the source for the flash to see if it is looking in the correct location for the resources. You can also test it by putting it on a page by itself to see how it works without anything else going into it.

Originally Said By: Eric Mittman

  Does the flash path match the new configuration for your local server? Check the source for the flash to see if it is looking in the correct location for the resources. You can also test it by putting it on a page by itself to see how it works without anything else going into it.  

The flash file (swf) works fine in Flash Player and also when I open index.html through FireFox (File > Open File) everything works fine, html and flash files.
I have another problem in Dreamweaver. After defining a Dynamic site in Dreamweaver when I want to preview the a file (eg.index.html) through FireFox I get this error message:


Not Found
The requested URL /index.html was not found on this server.
Apache/2.0.63 (Unix) PHP/5.2.11 DAV/2 Server at localhost Port 80

So I am wondering if I made a mistake in “Defining a Dynamic site in Dreamweaver” step.
Thank you

This seems like the correct document root based on your settings, the error is letting you know that the URL prefix that you have for the testing server is not rite. The location that maps to the URL prefix you have does not match the location of the files on your machine.

You should be able to use a browser to go to the page directly, if you can't do this in a browser then you are not going to get the correct result when you try to visit it from DW.

Generally speaking the webroot file location will match up with the URL localhost/, so if you have the files in the root of your webserver you should be able to access them by going to index.html. The URL for the root of the site should be listed somewhere in your control area for MAMP.

Hi Eric,
Thank you for your help.
I fixed the problem and now I can view the web pages through Dreamweaver CS3 except the Flash files(swf). I had not understood the Defining a new Dynamic Site in Dreamweaver. So if I understood well if I have to add eCart or Dynamic pages in the future client website, I have to create each time a new site in localrootfolder for different website. Is it correct?

Regarding the Flash Files, they are located in the same folder than the html pages and there is no problem with them because I have tested them separately with Flash player and through the Browser Fire Fox and they work fine.They play also in Dreamweaver CS3 in Design view but as soon as I preview them in FireFox through Dreemweaver CS3 they do not play!weird.
I would appreciate it for any assistance.

Is the flash small enough to post here in a zip archive? It would be best to see this occurring to get an idea for what the problem might be and view the source. It seems like you have things setup right but I'm not sure what specifically is not working with the flash. If you can post back with the page in question along with the flash in a zip archive this should help us determine what is going on.

Hi Eric,
I fixed the problem.
Now the Flash files play in the browser from localhost.
Thank you.
I will need also your assistance for the next step "Importing SQL file" and
"Creating a MySQL database connection in Dremweaver" in the topic that I will post soon.
Thanks again.

Was there anything special that you needed to do to get the flash working, or did you just adjust the paths?