How can I publish my site to MobileMe? How can I publish my site to a server other than MobileMe? How do I publish to a folder? What is an FTP client? Why do I need it? And how does it work? Which hosting is the best?

This page is written for iWeb 3 (’09). For Publishing to a  folder in iWeb ’06/’08  go to File=>Publish to a folder and read Chapters 2.1, 2.4, 2.6 (2.7) of this page.

Chapter 1: Publishing to MobileMe

1.1 How to publish to MobileMe

1.2 Downsides of publishing to MobileMe (why you should use another server)

Chapter 2: Publishing to a non-MobileMe server

2.1 Notes about publishing to a server other than MobileMe

2.2 How to publish to a server from iWeb using iWeb’s integrated FTP

2.3 How to publish to a folder and why

2.4 How does an FTP application work (basic)

2.5 Why you need an FTP client even if you publish to your server from iWeb itself

2.6 How can I avoid uploading the whole site (which is really time consuming) each time I publish to a folder?

2.7 Which hosting is the best? And what server should I use?

Chapter 1: Publishing to MobileMe

1.1 How to publish to MobileMe

All you need to do is go into the System Preferences=>MobileMe=>Account and enter your Username and Password.

In iWeb select the site you would like to publish from the left menu

and you will see the following window:

Publish to: MobileMe

Site name:

Contact email: (if you want, I don’t)

MobileMe account: e-mail and your personal domain (if you have it).

Click “Publish Site” at the bottom left or go to File and choose “Publish Site Changes” or “Publish Entire Site”.

1.2 Downsides of publishing to MobileMe (why you should use another server)

Of course publishing to MobileMe is the easiest way but there are three downsides which you should keep in mind when choosing where you want to publish your website to:

- Speed: MobileMe servers are really slow. Which means that your website will take more time to load than it would take if you publish it to most of the other servers

- PHP/MySQL support: MobileMe doesn’t support neither PHP neither MySQL. Both are used of things like contact forms, forums, guestbooks and blogs you could install on your server.

- Multiple websites: Each MobileMe account can have only one personal domain using CNAME (unless you have a Family account). If you want to have multiple websites and want to have a personal domain for each of them you should really think of using a real server.

Chapter 2: Publishing to a non-MobileMe server

2.1 Notes about publishing to a server other than MobileMe

If you want to publish your website to a server other than MobileMe note that some iWeb features will not work when publishing to a folder.

Among the features that don’t work when publishing to a folder are:

- Hit counter

- Password protection

- Search feature in Blogs

- Comments and attachments

- RSS feeds (unless you specify the url when publishing)

For most/all of these features you will find alternatives on this iWeb FAQ site.

2.2 How to publish to a server from iWeb using iWeb’s integrated FTP

In iWeb select the site you would like to publish from the left menu

and you will see the following window:

Publish to: Choose “FTP Server”

Site name:

Contact email: (if you want, I don’t)

Server address: usually it is ftp.yourdomain.com (where yourdomain.com stands for the domain you choose when you signup, note the ftp. in front of it)

User name: the one you choose when you signup

Password: the one you choose when you signup

Directory/Path: that’s a little tricky. For most servers it is just a simple “/” (as on the image above). Other servers have a folder named “public_php” where you should upload the files to, in this case write “/public_php/”. On my server there’s a folder with my domain so I need to write “/iwebfaq.org/”  in there.

Protocol: FTP

Website URL: type in your URL as on the image above.

Click “Publish Site” at the bottom left or go to File and choose “Publish Site Changes” or “Publish Entire Site”.

2.3 How to publish to a folder and why

In iWeb select the site you would like to publish from the left menu

and you will see the following window:

Publish to: Choose “Local Folder”

Site name:

Contact email: (if you want, I don’t)

Location: Hit “Choose...” and choose where you want to publish to on your computer.

Website URL: type in your URL as on the image above.

Click “Publish Site” at the bottom left or go to File and choose “Publish Site Changes” or “Publish Entire Site”.

Even if iLife ’09 allows to upload the website via FTP in iWeb itself I still prefer to publish toa  folder and upload via Cyberduck (FTP application). The main reason for that is editing the HTML source code. Since I hate HTML Snippets I add HTML codes post- (after) publishing (see Alternative HTML). That’s not possible publishing directly from iWeb to the server. Also HTML Snippets don’t work for some codes.

2.4 How does an FTP application work (basic)

An FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is used to put files from your computer to a server on the web (upload) or get files from your server to your computer (download).

First thing to do is, of course, choose and download an FTP application. Have a look at the Useful Applications FAQ for this.

I will use Cyberduck for the example here. Cyberduck is Freeware (or Donationware), it is pretty good, really easy to use and the one I like the most...

First thing I have to do when I launch the application for the first time is configure it to allow it to access the server and retrieve/send data.

I click on Open Connection

and get a dialog window like this one:

In the FAQ’s and/or Support section at my hosting I am told what I have to insert in those fields

What the server is, what the username is to access and of course my password.

I check the Add to Keychain box (so I don’t have to insert the data each time) and click Connect.

It now is ready to connect to my server and retrieves the data from it. It displays the files that are on my server in the main window

To make things easier Bookmark the location you upload your files to in Cyberduck.

Next time you use Cyberduck simply go to

click on the downward flash at the right and a drop down menu will appear from which you choose the bookmarked location on your server to connect to it.

To upload a file go to the File menu and choose Upload, choose the files to be uploaded (index.html + Folder having the same name I named my site in iWeb) or drag&drop them from the finder into the main field.

When the upload starts a window will popup displaying upload progress

and that’s it...

To delete files select them in the main window, hit ctrl+click and choose Delete.

2.5 Why you need an FTP client even if you publish to your server from iWeb itself

The iWeb integrated FTP is an upload-only FTP. When you publish you site, then change it and republish there may be some files on the server that aren’t used anymore (example: you have an image on a page, publish, decide that the image doesn’t fit, remove it, publish again, the image is still on the server). To delete those obsolete files you need an FTP application.

You also need an FTP application to upload files that are part of the website but not in iWeb (example: a Flash slideshow, music, images, ...).

2.6 How can I avoid uploading the whole site (which is really time consuming) each time I publish to a folder?

Here are two things you could do:

1) Using Cyberduck. This is the one I like the most and always use publishing my websites. Please note that this works only up until v.3.3 unfortunately it doesn’t work with v. 3.3.1 and newer.

Cyberduck looks for the date a file was modified last and the size of the file. If the size of a file equals the size of a file on the server this file will not be uploaded.

All you have to do is Synchronise using Upload. And here’s how it goes:

Open Cyberduck and insert the data to connect to the server as explained in Chapter 1.

Go to your Bookmarks and select the server you want to use.

Go to Action

and choose Synchronize

Now you will have to choose the folder to synchronise with, thus the folder you publish to from iWeb (The folder containing the index.html file and the folder named with the name of your site).

A popup window will display. There choose Upload.

Click Continue.

Cyberduck now compares the files on your computer and on your server and uploads only the files that changed since the last time you published.

From time to time delete all files from the server and re-upload the whole website to delete obsolete files from the server (files that aren’t used anymore). I do that once every 4 month, about three times an year.

2) Manually select the files you want to be uploaded. Say you change something in the index file, you can go to your ftp client select the index file and then upload only the index file and the folder that contains the documents (like pictures) used in the index file or whatever file you upload.

If you add pages that do not appear in the nav bar, means that on a page you have links to that pages, in your ftp client you can select the pages you added and the page you inserted the links to those pages and upload only those.

It doesn't make it all that complicated if you change the navbar and now want to upload the files you added to the navbar.

You should just remember to upload

The Scripts folder

sitename/Scripts/

and the feed.xml

sitename/feed.xml

too.

It worked for me and as you can see it's not complicated at all. Scripts and feed.xml are not huge files less then 500KB together so it will not take you a lot of time to upload them.

I like 1) the most.

2.7 Which hosting is the best? And what server should I use?

Basically all hostings are iWeb-compatible. If you can choose what server to use to host your site choose a Linux server.

There are a lot of free hostings to be found on the web. I tried about ten or fifteen of them but I really wasn’t satisfied by any of them. I found them to be pretty unstable, sometimes even signing up for an account was a hassle and the support was poor. I’m glad I switched to a paid one...

The only problem is that there’s a jungle of hostings out there. As always in a jungle there are good hostings and there are bad hostings. The good hostings care about their customers, the bad ones don’t.

But it’s pretty difficult to know which hosting is good and which one is bad. Unless you know someone who has a website and ask him whether he’s happy with the service his hosting company provides or not.

If you’re looking for a good hosting I would really recommend you to use HostExcellence since I’m using it for my own websites. I think that’s already a pretty good reason. I know that it’s working great and that their customer support is great too. They are definitely on the good side of the jungle. Also I think it’s really easy to use.

HostExcellence currently mainly offers two hosting packages:

I’m currently using the Unlimited Business Plan since I have a lot of websites which I store on one hosting account. To me it’s really worth it. I barely ever run into problems and if I did their support was most helpful. Since I know how HostExcellence works I could give you better support if you run into problems with my FAQs.

If you signup select the Linux platform (default) not the Windows platform.

Here you will find some basic instructions and FAQs I wrote on using HostExcellence...

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OTHER HOSTINGS:

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- 600 GB of space

- 6000 GB data transfer

1. -7.95 $ per month
   

- Multiple domains

- MySQL, PHP Support

and more...

(If you signup select the Linux platform not the Windows platform)

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While GoDaddy is great for Personal Domain registrations it doesn’t seem to be as good for hosting too. A lot of users complain about the poor customer support provided for GoDaddy’s hosting. I didn’t try it myself.

If you have any other great (or not great) experiences with hosting companies please share them on our Forum to get the jungle solved!

iWebFAQ.org - Tutorials, Tips & Tricks is made with iWeb and for iWeb.

It’s presented by Cédric and hosted by HostExcellence.com

I would like you to give me feedback on this page by commenting in the appropriate section of the Forum. Tell me if it's been helpful. If it wasn’t please tell me why. If you think something is missing please tell me what. If you have questions about it post them there and I will probably try to give you an answer.

Thank you for visiting and supporting my website.

- Cédric -