Dreamweaver CS5: The Missing Manual

Check In and Check Out

If you’re the sole developer for a website, the Files panel’s Get and Put buttons are fine for transferring your files. But if you’re on a team of developers, those simple tools can get you in trouble.

For example, suppose your boss emails you an important announcement that she wants posted on the home page immediately. So you download the home page from the web server and start to edit it. At the same time, your co-worker Bob notices a typo on the home page. He downloads it, too.

You’re a much faster worker than Bob, so you add the critical news to the home page and move it back to the server. But then Bob transfers his corrected home page, overwriting your edits and eliminating that urgent notice you just uploaded. (An hour later, your phone rings. It’s the boss.)

Without some kind of system to monitor who has what file and to prevent people from overwriting each other’s work, collaborative web development is a chaotic mess. Fortunately, Dreamweaver’s Check In and Check Out system provides a civilized answer to the problem, specifically designed for group web development. It works like your local public library: When you check out a file, no one else can have it. When you’re finished, you check the file back in, releasing control of it, and allowing someone else on the team to check it out and work on it.

To use the Check In/Check Out feature effectively, keep a few things in mind:

• When you develop a website solo, your local site usually contains the most recent ...