Publish!

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Overview

This page explains how to publish your content to a web server. The term "content" includes a lot of different things, from the files and folders that define your libraries to lesson files. We suggest that you review our Workflow Overview page at this point, so that the big picture will be clear to you.

These instructions assume that you are using our standard workflow, as explained on that page. If you're not, you'll need to do some mental translation to adapt them to your situation.


Prerequisites

In order to apply the concepts on this page you'll need to understand how use FTP software to transfer files from your computer to your web hosting server, or have the assistance of someone who does.


How To Publish

The process of publishing content to the server works like this:

  • Stuff that is created within the Publish Staging folder - it's subfolders, library XML files, etc. - is simply copied to a web server via FTP. If and when content is changed - e.g. XML files are edited, etc. - the files are re-copied to the server.
  • Publishing new lessons is a bit more complex:
    • Lesson XML files and lesson ZIP files are created within lesson development folders. This process includes a number of steps, which are explained in detail on previous Creating Lessons pages.
    • The lesson files are copied into an appropriate lesson library subfolder. (If you're not clear on what the appropriate subfolder is for a specific lesson, you can review these explanations.)
    • If the "appropriate subfolder" doesn't exist, you'll create one. If you do this be sure to edit the library XML file so that its libraryContentInfo element contains information that corresponds to the new subfolder.
    • The lesson list XML file within the subfolder is edited so that it lists the lesson appropriately.
    • The lesson files, new subfolders (if any), and any XML files that you have modified are copied to the server via FTP.
  • Updating lessons is similar to publishing new lessons, except that you'll be modifying and/or creating new versions of existing files. We provide details on this process here.


Two Web Servers?

You may want to use two web servers:

  • A private server, for testing new lessons.
  • A public server, where your public libraries live. You'll put your lessons here once they are tested, polished, and ready for prime time.


Questions?

If you have questions about the lesson creation process, please contact us on our Creating Lessons forum. We're here to help.


What's Next?

Next we'll explain how to let your users know about your libraries, and how users enter this information in Language Mentor.

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