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IntroductionWeb Site Maestro is the top model of a range of website optimizers offered by Tonbrand Software. The four applications, in order of increasing features, are HTML-Optimizer, HTML-Optimizer Plus, HTML-Optimizer Pro, and Web Site Maestro. Web Site Maestro makes your web files load faster by optimizing both HTML and script code such as JavaScript, Java, LassoScript, CFscript, VBscript, PHP, ASP, JSP, CSP, TPL and CSS. It also optimizes JPEG images and PNG images. To start the operation you can select on the main window a file, a folder or your entire web folder. If you select a folder, you can choose to handle the folder recursively, i.e. handle all of its subfolders in one pass. If you select or drag the entire web folder, the operation is always recursive. When you have optimized your entire web folder the log displays a report showing the original size of your web folder, the total number of bytes saved and the total percentage saved, plus the average load and display time speed up percentage of your site. If your web folder contains files that are never loaded in the customer's browser, for example download files like myBook.zip, then the report shows two percentages saved, one for all files and one for web files. Of course, only the last one is relevant. Note that this report does not appear when Smart Handling - see later - is on. A summary of the functions of Web Site Maestro is presented next. After that are detailed descriptions of the features, menus, commands, and so forth.
Back to topWeb Site Maestro offers 4 functions:![]() 1. Optimizing Web Files: The main function offered by Web Site Maestro is optimizing web pages and JPEG/PNG images. That is, it cuts down image size considerably and it saves space on your web pages by removing unnecessary characters and tags. Most HTML Editors add such things for their own purposes and to make the code easier for the user to read. On your website, such coding is unnecessary. Furthermore, it slows down load time. 2. Optimizing and Uploading Web Files: The second function offered by Web Site Maestro is a combination of Optimizing and Uploading in one pass. You can optimize and upload all web files, a single web file, or the ones you have "dragged and dropped". More details about this feature are presented in the chapter "Drop Window." 3. Checking Tagged Pairs: The third function is for checking the tagged pair structure of your original web pages. Dangling tags will be reported. IMG tags are checked for the presence of the Width, Height and Alt attributes. You can choose to add missing Width and Height attributes with their pixel values. AREA tags are checked for the presence of Alt attributes. You can also choose to add missing Alt attributes to IMG and AREA tags and attach an empty string or, for example, the string "FindMe" to enable you to easily find and replace a string by a more meaningful caption. You can perform this job in a separate, resizable text window and save the changes to the original file. 4. Checking the Validity of Hyperlinks: The fourth function is checking the validity of your hyperlinks. Your original pages are checked for broken "href" and "src" links. These are checked for the file to which they point. Links that start with "../" up to "../../../../../" are checked for their real path. Broken hyperlinks of the type <a href="#item1"> and <a href="page1.htm#item1"> are also found, even if only "item1" has changed. If you have used the Check Tags function or the Check Links function then you have the option of editing the code in a separate, resizable text window and saving the changes to the original file. Without leaving the program you could, for example, correct a broken link, save the changes, and perform the Check Links function again to determine if the broken link has been fixed. Back to topSmart Handling![]() Web Site Maestro features an option called Smart Handling. If you have a large web folder, you may choose to optimize only the pages and images that have been changed. For example, if you have a website consisting of 500 pages and you have worked on 25 pages, then you would not like to check and optimize all 500. Instead, you can turn on Smart Handling, choose Entire Web Folder, and start. Only those 25 pages out of 500 pages will be processed. This can be a significant time saving.
There are several ways that you can use the Smart Handling feature. In Options, you can choose between "Date + Time", "Today", "Since <date>" and "File Size". In "Date + Time" mode the modification date and time are compared between the original files and the duplicate files. On the Main Window the current Smart Handling mode is displayed as a link under the checkbox. When you click on this link you can toggle between the four modes. Customized "Since <date>" mode settings are not remembered when you quit Web Site Maestro. If you have recently updated contents, synchronized or refreshed your duplicate web folder, you cannot use the 'Date + Time' mode for smart-uploading files other than web pages or JPEG/PNG images. The reason is that the modification dates of the original and the duplicate files have become equal. If you have optimized your entire web folder without Smart Handling and you wish to select web files that have been changed since a certain date, then you can click in the Optimizer Log on the header of the "Y-M-D" column to sort that column. Then you can drag-select the lines in the Log, starting from the date you want. Back to topAbout OptimizingWeb Site Maestro analyzes the code of your web pages prior to optimizing and separates the different code blocks from each other. Thus, pure HTML code is treated differently from script codes. Script codes are also treated differently from one another. For example, JavaScript gets a different optimizing approach than Java, LassoScript, CFscript, VBscript, PHP, ASP, JSP, CSP, TPL or CSS. Each of these script codes gets its own special treatment in order to get the best result without corrupting the code. When optimizing is finished, the codes are synthesized again to form a complete, optimized web page. Optimized web files are by default written to your Duplicate Web Folder. The Duplicate Web Folder is located in the WSM Output Folder. The WSM Output Folder is, by default, located in the same folder where your Original Web Folder resides. You can relocate the WSM Output folder if you want to do so. However, you should not move it manually and you should never rename it. See the chapter about the Configure Menu. In Preferences, under the Extra Tab, you can choose to have your duplicate web folder name spelled in CAPITALS to distinguish it from your original. Of course, you should not do that if this folder is part of your uploading scheme. If you check or optimize a file or folder not belonging to any web folder, then it will be saved directly in the WSM Output Folder. WARNING: If you open an optimized web page in the HTML Editor that originally created it and save any changes, most of the optimizing will be undone because the Editor adds its own formatting again! In Preferences you can indicate which subfolders in your web folder should not be handled by Web Site Maestro. Some HTML Editors, for example Dreamweaver, save data in specific folders that should not be optimized. You can choose to support nested folders up to 5 levels deep. If you want to exclude subfolders deeper than 5 levels, you can enter subfolders that are at level 5 and ultimately exclude subfolders up to 10 levels deep. Comments in HTML code, CF code and script code can be removed. Comments that start with '<!--#' will be removed if the special option is selected, but never from web pages with the '.spm' or '.spml' extension. MS Conditional tags that start with '<!--[' are not removed. "\n" and "\t" or "\t\t" or "\t\t\t\" etc. can be removed from FluxBB code. Directory URLs like "http://www.xyz.com" can be qualified; i.e. they will get their missing trailing slash, which makes it twice as fast for a browser to access that URL. Also any occurrence of '&' in a URL is replaced with '&'. This option works for HTML and script code. Embedded email links can be encoded against spam harvesters. This option works only for HTML code. Optimizing ImagesWeb Site Maestro optimizes JPEG images and PNG images. You can choose to convert PNG images without a mask to JPEG and then optimize them while retaining their .png extension, so that hyperlinks in your code pointing to these images are not broken. Every browser will display the converted image with .png extension correctly, despite the fact that its file format has been changed from PNG to JPEG/JFIF. In most cases converting PNGs without masks to JPEGs results in higher savings in bytes. ![]() ![]() If you have optimized your images and you want to revert them to the original state, then uncheck the "Optimize JPEG Images" and/or "Optimize PNG Images" checkboxes. Then the original images will be copied to the duplicate web folder when you optimize your files. Back to topWeb Folder Drop Down MenuIf you have more than one Original Web Folder, then the Web Folder Drop Down Menu enables you to easily switch between Original Web Folders. The currently selected Original Web Folder is called the Current Web Folder. When you open the Web Folder Drop Down Menu, then you will see the names and paths of the various Original Web Folders that have been added to the menu. Related settings, such as the transfer settings, are automatically retrieved for the Current Web Folder. ![]() This contextual menu duplicates some commands from the Configure Menu. For example, the "Sort Web Folders" command in the Web Folder Drop Down Menu enables you to sort the items in the Web Folder Drop Down Menu. Items are sorted alphabetically. Also, the Current Web Folder name can be changed by choosing "Apply Custom Label to Current Web Folder" from the Configure Menu. If you work with Web Folder A and you choose, maybe by accident, a file or folder from Web Folder B, then Web Folder B is automatically selected in the Web Folder Drop Down Menu. This also works when you drop files or a folder on either the program's special drop spot or on the Drop Window. If you switch between Original Web Folders and/or switch between functions, then the caption of the Hide/Show Button will change to "Show Current Log" if a listing for the Current Web Folder and the selected function is available. Back to topThe Log![]() You can select a file shown in the Log by clicking on its line in the Log. You can also control-click (right-click) on a line to evoke a contextual menu. Multiple selection is supported but is available only for uploading. You can press the Command (Apple) key to make multiple selections or choose "Select All" from the Edit Menu. You can save the Log by choosing "Sace Current Log" from the File Menu. If you double-click a line in the Log, you copy that line to the clipboard. Optimized or checked files appear in the Log display. If a file belongs to the Duplicate Web Folder or to the Original Web Folder, this is indicated in the Log's heading when you select the file. If a file does not belong to any of your web folders, it gets an asterisk after its name. You cannot drag and drop files that do not belong to any of your web folders. Optimized pages are put in the Duplicate Web Folder. Checked pages without changes remain in the Original Web Folder. Changed pages appear in the Duplicate Web Folder. The View Code Button, the View Page Button, and the Upload Button are only enabled when a file is selected in the Log. If a button is still disabled after you make a selection, this could mean that its action is not permitted for the selected file. For example, it's possible to use the Upload Button when you are selecting an optimized file but not with a checked (non-optimized) file. Neither can you view the page when you have made a multiple selection, because the program can't tell which file you want. The "Y-M-D" column, showing modification dates, is available only when using either the Optimize or the Optimize and Upload function. You can sort the Current Log, but not the History Log, by clicking on the column heading. That makes it easy for you to select the most recent web files for uploading. You can do it that way instead of using Smart Handling. You can drag selected lines to the Desktop from the Current Log but not the History Log. You can also drag them to a text editor's window. In Text Edit the columns are lined up if the font type is non-proportional, e.g. Courier or Monaco. Also, you can save the Current Log by choosing "Save Current Log" from the File Menu. You can adjust the column widths by placing the cursor on the dividers in the heading. If the Log is not wide enough to properly display the results, then you can widen it by widening the main window. ![]() The Log Display can show a practically unlimited number of lines but you will be prompted when the History Log gets so full that performance would slow down. You can empty the History Log by choosing "Purge History Log" from the File Menu. The logs are located in the Web Site Maestro Logs folder which is in the Preferences folder. The History Log Button enables you to see what you have done in the past. The dates are included. Note that you cannot upload files when they're called from the History Log. From the File Menu, you can choose to open the History Log with Text Edit. The type of Log depends on the selected function, i.e. Optimizing, Checking Tags or Checking Links. When you optimize or check a web folder, each individual listing of the results for each individual Original Web Folder, i.e. the "current" Log, will be remembered until you overwrite the listing or until you quit the program. Back to topThe Configure Menu![]() From the Configure Menu you can add additional Original Web Folders to the Web Folder Drop Down Menu. You can also remove Original Web Folders from the Web Folder Drop Down Menu. However, the Web Folder Drop Down Menu must always have at least one remaining Original Web Folder. Note that when you add an Original Web Folder, you should select the folder that contains in its root the index file (the home page). The "Apply Custom Label to Current Web Folder" command allows you to enter a different display name for the Current Web Folder. This name will appear in the Web Folder Drop Down Menu. The "Move Web Folders in Web Folder Menu" command enables you to move the items in the Web Folder Drop Down Menu to a different position. The "Sort Web Folders in Web Folder Menu" command enables you to sort the items in the Web Folder Drop Down Menu. Web Folder names or custom labels are sorted alphabetically. The "Relocate WSM Output Folder" command allows you to move the entire WSM Output folder to another location on the same volume. If you want to move the WSM Output folder to another volume or partition, then you should choose "Reset Configuration". WARNING: Never move the WSM Output folder manually. Do not rename it. Should things ever go wrong and corrupt the program's configuration, an easy way out is to choose the "Reset Configuration" command. After this action you must configure Web Site Maestro again but your registration data, transfer login data, and preferences are remembered. If using the "Reset Configuration" command does not solve the problem, then choose the "Reset Configuration" command again while holding down the Alt key. The Web Site Maestro Preferences File will be cleared. Back to topThe Manage Menu![]() The Duplicate Web Folder is the folder from which you upload optimized files to the server, so it must stay up to date after you have changed your original web folder. To accomplish this, the Manage menu has two commands: "Synchronize Duplicate Web Folder with the Original" and "Refresh Duplicate Web Folder. The "Synchronize Duplicate Web Folder with the Original" command adds files that are missing from your Duplicate Web Folder. Moreover, it will remove orphaned files and folders from your Duplicate Web Folder. The time it takes to remove orphaned items depends on the number of levels of your web folder. If your web folder has only one level, i.e. no subfolders, the minimum number of passes is 3. One pass is added for each subsequent level. The "Refresh Duplicate Web Folder" command should be used when the previous command fails to restore the integrity of the Duplicate Web Folder. This command will delete the corrupted Duplicate Web Folder and create a new one. Then you will need to optimize your entire web folder. The "Show Refresh/Sync Log" command enables you to view the Log again after you have clicked the Hide Button or performed other tasks that made the Refresh/Sync Log disappear. Back to topThe Transfer MenuAt left is the default Transfer Menu and at right is the Transfer Menu that appears when you have chosen to upload to MobileMe iDisk.![]() ![]() The "List Non-Optimized Files for Uploading" command enables you to upload your non-optimized files such as GIFs, PDFs, MOVs, SWFs and MP3s, or a selection of them. You can select Smart Handling to upload only changed files. The "File Size" mode does not work with non-optimized files. The "Get Remote Directory Listing/Download Files" command enables you to check which files you have uploaded and when. The total file size is displayed at the end of the listing. If you select in the listing one or more lines referring to a file, the Download File Button is enabled for downloading the selected file(s) to a destination preset by you. For downloading you may choose to restore carriage returns in pure HTML code to make the code more readable to humans. You cannot download directories. They can be recognized by their names in bold text. ![]() The "Get Server Root Directory Listing" command (or "Get MobileMe iDisk Directory Listing" command if your host is MobileMe iDisk) could help you determine the initial path that you should enter in Transfer Settings. In the listing you may see a number of files and folders of any kind. Just look for a name such as "www", "web", "public_html", "htdocs" and try it as initial path. For iDisk the initial path is "Web/Sites/" followed by the name of your web folder in iWeb. In the next picture the initial path is "www". ![]() If you click on a disclosure triangle (left in the picture), a sub-directory list is received from the server, up to a maximum of two levels deep. The "Upload to MobileMe iDisk Folder" command enables you to upload stuff to your Public folder and other available folders. The "Synchronize Web Site" command enables you to synchronize your website with your Duplicate Web Folder. You can choose to either update older files with newer files or to update files and also delete orphaned files. It is recommended to perform a test run first. During this test procedure, the Sync Log will display what actions would have taken place, for example creating folders, uploading files, deleting files or deleting folders. If you don't see any unexpected actions, you can safely perform a live synchronization, otherwise you may have entered a wrong initial path in Transfer Settings. Synchronizing your website is a very convenient method to update your website after you have made many changes in your web folder. Under the Sync Tab of Preferences you find several options to customize the synchronization process. When you select to skip a folder in the synchronization process, the setting applies to two different conditions. The first condition is when you have a folder, "local test" for example, in your web folder that does not exist in your website on the server. If you select to skip this folder then, when synchronizing, this folder will not be created in your website on the server. The other condition is if your website on the server has a folder, "remote test" for example, that does not exist in your web folder. If you select to skip this folder then, when synchronizing, this folder will not be removed from your website on the server. Note that remote files and folders that are not accessible by the public - often residing before the initial path - are not of interest here. If you are connected with a WebDAV server, synchronizing your website can take several minutes because most WebDAV servers do not support recursive listings. The "Synchronize Remote Folder" command enables you to synchronize a remote subdirectory on the web server with a local subfolder in your Duplicate Web Folder. This comes in handy when you are sure that you do not need to synchronize your entire website. See the previous paragraph for further details on the synchronize process. If you notice, after having optimized your web folder and synchronized your website, that the images on your site have not been replaced by their optimized versions, then you should do the following for each of your web folders (or just your web folder if you have only one site): The three following commands are automatically executed if required by the synchronize process. They are available anyway for occasional use. The "Rename/Move Remote File or Folder" command and the "Delete Remote File or Folder" command allow items to be handled that belong to your currently selected Duplicate Web Folder. You may press one of the Select Buttons in the dialog to indicate what file or folder in your Duplicate Web Folder must be deleted, renamed or moved at the server. The path/name will be displayed so that you can be sure that the right item is going to be handled. If you want to remove a remote folder, the name of the folder must end with a slash. Note that paths and names are case-sensitive. The "Restore Original Web Folder" command comes to the rescue when your Original Web Folder has been lost or corrupted, for example after a hard disk failure. Start with an empty folder with the name of the lost web folder. You can choose to only restore the local directory structure or to restore and download everything. You can choose to restore most carriage returns in pure HTML code to make the code more readable to humans. Those returns were deleted in the optimizing process before you uploaded your files. You could also use the restore method to update your Original Web Folder with your website (reverse synchronizing but not mirroring). In that case it's recommended to get the server time offset again first. The "Reset Transfer Settings" command comes in handy when for some reason the transfer settings have become corrupted. Back to topThe Select ButtonThe Select Button does the obvious. It shows an Open Dialog, with the Current Web Folder as the default directory. If you select "Entire Web Folder", the Select Button changes its name to Start. Your entire web folder will then be processed. There is no limit to the number of levels. Note that when you select "Folder" instead of "Entire Web Folder", you can choose to handle the folder recursively, i.e. handle all of its subfolders in one pass. If your web folder includes a WebObjects application bundle, then you can only optimize the web pages in this bundle if you select "Entire Web Folder". The Stop ButtonOf course, you can always safely abort a process by pressing the Stop Button. The Same Again ButtonIf you press this button, then you start any selected action on the same file or folder that was recently selected or dropped, so you don't need to navigate through an Open dialog again. You can repeat this action for as long as you wish, until you select another file or folder. This button will prove to be very useful when you want to perform consecutive actions on the same file or folder, e.g. checking tags, checking links, and finally optimizing, in that order. Back to topThe View Code or Edit Code ButtonDepending upon which function has been most recently finished, the button will be named either View Code or Edit Code. View Code Button Edit Code Button ![]() The text window includes a Find Button. If you click the Find Button, then a Find & Replace Dialog appears. The dialog automatically includes a character string, for example, a broken link that was detected if you checked for broken links. Note that when you press the Find Button on the Edit Code Window, the string to be found is already present in the Find Field of the Find Dialog. However, if you choose "Find" from the Edit Menu, then the Find Field is empty. If the Log indicates that there are more occurrences of the same broken link then you can press the Find Next Button (or type Command - G) to locate the next occurrence. When you have finished correcting the broken links, then you can press the Save Button. This will save the changes that you have made and also close the window. Then you can select another line in the Log and press the Edit Code Button again. It could be another file or the same file with a different broken link. Then you simply repeat the foregoing actions. The View Page ButtonUse this button to view an optimized or checked page in the program's own HTML Viewer. Choose a page by selecting its line in the Log. When you get a remote directory listing and you select a file in that listing, the View Page Button will change itself into a Delete File Button. When you return to optimizing or checking web files, the button will revert to View Page Button. Back to topThe Upload File ButtonThis button enables you to upload one or more web files to the remote server. Simply select their line(s) in the Log. You can press the Command (Apple) key to make multiple selections. Then, press the Upload Page Button. If you choose Select All from the Edit Menu, then all lines in the log will be selected. Note that you may also sort the "Y-M-D" column in the Log in order to easily select and upload web files that have recently been changed. Transfer Settings
Before you can upload, you have to complete the Transfer Settings. The settings must be completed for each Web Folder separately, but only the first time, of course. Start with entering the name of the remote server. In the next box you enter the initial path. You may find the initial path by choosing "Get Server Root Directory Listing" from the Transfer Menu. Look what has been written about this in the Transfer Menu chapter. For iDisk the initial path is "Web/Sites/" followed by the name of your web folder in iWeb. After you have entered your login data, you can set the server time offset (only required for the FTP protocol). Press the "Get FTP Server Time Offset" Button. If this button is disabled you may have selected the WebDAV protocol. Within a few seconds after you have pressed the button, the difference between your time and the remote server time will be displayed. This is required to be able to accurately synchronize your website with your local web folder. Repeat this procedure for each individual web folder. The option for choosing an alternative FTP upload method should only be used if the default FTP method does not work, which could happen with an FTP server with an unusual configuration. If you ever find that your transfer settings are corrupted, you should choose "Reset Transfer Settings" from the Transfer Menu. Back to topThe Preferences
The Preferences window is a very important part of Web Site Maestro, giving you maximum flexibility. You can choose to show or hide advanced settings. Pressing the Save Button will save changes to your settings. Pressing the Cancel Button will close the window without making any changes to the previous settings. The Default Settings Button is effective only for the current tab panel. As all checkboxes and radio buttons have help tags, their properties are not explained here. The Preferences Window has seven functional tab panels: the Filters Tab, the Optimizer Tab, the Smart Handling Tab, the Miscellaneous Tab, the Transfer Tab, the Sync Tab, and the Extra Tab.
1. The Filters Tab enables you to specify which files are to be handled. If Web Site Maestro gives an error when accessing the Internet, you should check your firewall settings. It may be required that you have to enter a rule to allow Web Site Maestro to make a connection via port 80 (http). Local and Remote Setup of your Web FolderTo avoid possible errors when uploading your files or synchronizing your website with your local web folder, the local and remote setup of your web folder must match. In the first place this means that the initial path in Transfer Settings must be correct. For MobileMe iDisk this is "Web/Sites/" followed by the name of your web folder in iWeb. Then you should check if your web folder that has been loaded in Web Site Maestro contains in its main directory the main index file. If you do not feel sure about this, you should perform a test run when synchronizing your website with your local web folder. If you do not see any unexpected actions in the Sync Log, everything should be OK. Back to topDropping Files or a FolderThe Drop Window is a little window that you can select from the File Menu. It can receive dropped files and/or folders.
Of course, you can also drop files on the program's icon or its alias. If you do that while the program is not running, then it will be launched and the dropped file(s) will be optimized. From Trial to Full CopyWhen you start using Web Site Maestro as a demo, your trial period is limited to 30 days and the number of web files to be optimized in one pass is limited to 70% of your total number of files. You will get a warning when you have only 10 days remaining until the expiration date, and again for each day thereafter. Please register in time so that you can continue working with Web Site Maestro without delay. To purchase a license, choose "Register..." from the Web Site Maestro menu and follow the directions. License PolicyWe offer 'Single User' licenses only. Your serial number will be based on the name of your user account of your computer, in short the 'user name'. Other user accounts on your computer are supported. You may install Web Site Maestro on a maximum of two computers of your own. For example, you may install the application on your desktop computer and on your laptop computer. However, the two computers must share the same user name. If the user names of the two computers are not identical, then your serial number will not work automatically on both computers. In that case, you will need a second serial number for the other computer. You can contact sales@tonbrand.nl to request a second serial number. If the two computers have user names that believably identify the same individual, then we will supply a second serial number. Otherwise you will need a second license. |
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