Deployment issues
13
Local area networks
When Contribute is used to connect to a web server through a local network, the web server must
be visible to the local network. Contribute can also be used with virtual private network (VPN)
servers to ensure that all file transmissions occur behind your firewall. If the web server is not
visible to the local network, you can create an FTP connection with Contribute to work with the
website (if the server you’re creating a connection to has an FTP server installed).
To ensure that you are entering the correct network path, use the Browse button of the
Connection wizard to locate and select the network folder. If the path to the folder is correct,
but Contribute still cannot create a connection, verify that the folder has proper read/write
permissions.
Tip:
Depending on how the server you are connecting to is configured, you might not be able to see
the complete path to the website folder. If you cannot connect to the server, make certain you are
using a fully qualified path.
To learn how to check your server’s network and folder permissions, see the documentation
supplied with your server operating system.
File transfer protocol (FTP)
Tip:
If you will be using FTP to connect to a website, Macromedia recommends using SFTP. In
addition to providing a secure connection when transferring files to and from Contribute and your
website, SFTP is a more reliable connection protocol. To learn more about SFTP, and the benefits it
provides, see
“Secure FTP” on page 14
.
If users will be accessing the website using FTP, ensure that the folder has delete, overwrite, and
rename privileges enabled. When anonymous FTP is used, these options are typically disabled by
default so that users cannot update pages or add new pages to the website.
When you create an FTP connection, Contribute attempts to auto-detect the FTP path, checking
that the FTP folder is the same folder that contains your website files. If the folder paths don’t
match, Contribute can’t write to the page displayed by your browser and prompts you to enter the
correct path.
To ensure that you are entering the correct FTP path, use the Browse button of the Connection
wizard to locate and select the FTP folder. If the path to the folder is correct but Contribute still
can’t create a connection, verify that the folder has proper read, write, and modify permissions for
the user. If you are creating an anonymous FTP account, the server must be configured to support
delete, rename, and overwrite permissions for the anonymous user. In some cases, file permissions
on UNIX servers may be configured in a way that prevents Contribute from operating, especially
if the server doubles as a file server. For more information, see “Setting up a site connection in
Contribute” on the Macromedia Contribute Support Center.
To test whether FTP is set up correctly for an end user, you can transfer a test web page to the
server. Then, using the login settings you provide to the user, attempt to view the page in a
browser.
