is there some type of order u follow?

i need some tips cuz when i log into the ftp, all is crzy!

thx for any tips

Are you refering to the order of the individual page, or how to store it in your webspace?

same all ....my what's inside my FTP is like my closet ..horrible

in my space, i usually have my index page, sub pages and a few other bits and pieces in the initial folder, but then i have image folders and old stuff that i want to keep on there in another folder.

In my opinion, having all your images, as well as your pages can get a little confusing, but i think more organised than most lol

Just put images on images folder and let the pages (.html/.php/.asp) on the main folder (public_html). That's how it looks for me. Except for the sql database :) It's on another server.

Slower to access but with greater safety.

I would subdivide that image folder aswell, particularly if you're using a lot of graphical elements. That way you'll be able to find something really quickly if you need to edit anything.

And create a scripts folder to put your javascripts in, and perhaps a CSS folder for your style sheets if you're using more than one on different pages.

If you have a lot of pages, subdivide the sections into folders aswell.

If you're using a DB, put your connection scripts in their own folder aswell.

It takes a bit more time to begin with but you'll save yourself a headache in the long run.

Most of my sites I organize the pages by sections, ie Dial-a-Ride, Fares, Timetables, etc. They all get seperate folders. Regardless part of the FTP area is a mess, like my desk and I should clean it up sometime...

I typically set sites up with the index and main pages on the main folder (along with any remotely linked files), then add subfolders for levels linked from the main pages (and subfolders within subfolders if necessary). Images have their own folder and have subfolders within for each subject.

The most common way to order files, images, scripts, configuration is to put them into different folders. Of course, label them with a name that you will know what it is 12 months later.

Symlink the images folder into every other folder that you might have and the pages. Seperate images into different sub-folder if it's needed.

For example, if you have a 100 tutorials related pages that are stored together with other files. You can rename all the files name started with "tutorials" or "guides" then follow by its own label. So in the future, you can list or view the files easily and more organize from FTP clients or shell prompt.

You shouldn't put all your web pages and images into just one single folder, it makes life a lot harder to maintain and upgrade the webpage.

That's a good point by cyberservers about filenaming, not just for pages but images aswell.

If you write down a spec for naming your files and folders and specifying a folder structure then stick to it for all of your sites it'll make things much easier for you in the long run when you revisit those sites in the future, or if anyone else ever needs to work on them. Eventually it'll just become second nature and all of your sites will follow the same patern.

Most of the graphical titles in my sites images\titles folder would be something like TitlesAboutUs.gif,TitlesSales.gif etc. For buttons start them with the name Button and so on. That makes it very easy to see what everything does and if you stick to the same conventions over all of your sites it'll make updates much much easier. If you're looking at an alphabetical list of files it'll group together the files of the same type aswell which is very handy.

If you don't like using long file names use abbreviations (btnAboutUs.gif etc..) but stick to the same scheme for everything more or less and you'll find things much easier.

I try to avoid adding things like "button" to an image....I prefer to have a seperate folder for the buttons and then just name them for what they are.

/images/buttons/login.gif

I'd tend to group buttons and other navigational elements into a folder called images/navigation so adding a btn prefix can be quite useful so you can see what's what in an alphabetical list. I guess that woud be overkill if you've got a seperate buttons folder though like you say.

I guess it depends how far you want to take it and how big the site is.

Originally posted by EthicalEpi
I guess it depends how far you want to take it and how big the site is. Any more I just establish the same hierarchy no matter what size it is. In the past I've had sites that I built simple because I thought they'd stay small only to have to go back in and reorganize everything later once the site outgrew its current framework. Now it's just second nature....

Some sites I've worked on are never going to grow that big (typical small product brochure site for example), and you get to a point where creating seperate folders for things that are only ever going to contain two or three images becomes harder rather than easier to manage.

Good point about bearing in mind future expansion though, so I can see why you might want to do that if the job in hand could end up evolving into some massive site, or from the point of view of a degree of consistency across all your sites but /images/layout/navigation/buttons/about.gif to point at a button seems like overkill and harder to manage if you're working on a four page site that doesn't have the likelyhood of ever growing much beyond that.

At the end of the day, all of this stuff should be common sense as everyone should be organising all of their files (not just websites) in a logical and easy to use way that works well for them (and hopefully makes at least some sense to others if their site could ever end up in the hands of another developer).

I have an images folder for website's visual elements. I have a photos folder for pictures that I will add to my photo gallery or want to hot-link to some webpage.

I have a folder for all my course works since my site consists of a lot of my academic materials. In this folder I divide them into different folders for each class. Every time a semester ends, I moved all of them in to a single dir and name it accordingly to the semester.

In web root I also have folders for different projects (most are accessed through sub-domains) for my teams to communicate.

I have a password protected folder for my own & private storage (.pdf, .dwg..)

Another folder name empty for files that I don't need to store longer than 1 or 2 days (like when you need to print something somewhere else and you don't have a floppy..)

When I want to clean up a folder, I move all potential files into a folder named delme12 if it's june. All will be deleted in december if none found useful. I believe after 6 months (or less) if you don't need a file, that file is really not needed.

ML

in public_html I have all content files, and relevent "main sections". Also contains stylesheets and .htaccess

I have a folder for images, inside of that a folder for thumbnails.

If there are any "large" sub-sections of the site, I generally give them their own folder (includes pointing to the home directory though still!).

nice thx you for all your tips ill be going though all the folders and files very soon, i dont know what happend it just got messy and i lost track :) thx again for all your input