Populate
Sharing a website directory with the Dropspace server
Websites are shared with the Dropspace server by sharing a website directory that is stored in Dropbox with the Dropbox account installed on the server. The directories name should be the domain name reversed. For example, the directory for "https://dropspace.org" should be "org.dropspace".
It is recommened that these directories are shared with read-only permission.
DNS configuration
You need to ensure that both the website domain (example.com), and the domain with the 'www' prefix (www.exmaple.com), are pointed at the IP address of your Dropspace server using either a 'A' or 'CNAME' record in order for the 'run_certbot.sh' script to successfully run. Otherwise, you may simply run certbot manually - refer to certbot.eff.org for guidance.
Website directory structure
The directory that is shared using dropbox should have two top-level directories. The first '_content', contains the websites page content; while the second '_resources', contains the website's resources such as css, js, and image files. Resources stored relative to '_resources/' are available under the "/resources/" path from content files.
org.example/_content/ org.example/_resources/
Content structure
The whole point of Dropspace is that webpages are constructed from html page fragments stored as '.htm' files. Files in the special '_site' directory are used on all web pages unless overridden by having a matching file in a sub-directory. Files in the special '_index' directory are those used for the home page, i.e., 'example.com'. Files in other directories are used for sub-pages.
org.example/_content/_site/title.htm org.example/_content/_index org.example/_content/subpage org.example/_content/subpage-subpage
For example, when constucting the page for 'https://example.org/subpage/subpage', if searching for the 'title.htm' fragment, first, the directory 'org.example/_content/subpage-subpage' will be searched, then, the directory 'org.example/_content/subpage' will be searched, then, the directory 'org.example/_content/_index', then, the directory 'org.example/_content/_site'.
The figure below shows the names of the fragements that are searched for.
{html} {!-- document.htm --}
{head} {!-- head.htm --}
{meta/} {!-- meta.htm --}
{styles/} {!-- styles.htm --}
{javascript/} {!-- javascript.htm --}
{title/} {!-- title.htm --}
{/head}
{body} {!-- body.htm --}
{main} {!-- main.htm --}
{article} {!-- article.htm --}
{section/}
{/article}
{/main}
{footer/} {!-- footer.htm --}
{nav} {!-- nav.htm --}
{menu1/} {!-- menu1.htm --}
{menu2/} {!-- menu2.htm --}
{menu3/} {!-- menu3.htm --}
{menuX/} {!-- menu4.htm --}
{/nav}
{breadcrumbs/} {!-- breadcrumbs.htm --}
{header/} {!-- header.htm --}
{menu/} {!-- menu.htm --}
{/body}
{/html}
If a fragment cannot be found, if it is a leaf element - such as <meta/> - it will be ignored; otherwise, such as in the case of 'head.htm', the system will look for a fragment named 'head-start.htm', and if that does not exist, it will add a default start tag, it will then look for any files that should be included in that element, finally, it will look for a fragment named 'head-end.htm', and if that does not exist, will add a default end tag.
If a file representing a container element - such as <head> is found, it will be used for the entire content of the head element.
Nav
The nav menu fragments, 'menu1.htm', etc, are handled slightly differently to other fragments. For each menu fragment, it will be encompassed with the content of the files 'nav-start.htm' and 'nav-end.htm'. If the 'nav-start.htm' contains the string "%nav_id%", it will be replaced with the appropriate menu depth. For 'menu1.htm', the "%nav_id%" in the 'nav-start.htm' will be replaced with "nav1".
For example:
{nav id='%nav_id%'}
{!-- Content of 'menu1.htm' --}
{/nav}
Becomes:
{nav id='nav1'}
{!-- Content of 'menu1.htm' --}
{/nav}
Special overriding files
If certain cookies are set, for example, "idtype" => "USER", fragments suffixed with the value of the cookie will be searched for first. For example, "menu1-USER.htm" will be searched for before "menu1.htm".