Connecting to your site

Meditate can read website content stored in three ways: Contemplate content files, Dreamweaver template files or MySQL database tables. When you install Meditate, you'll configure its access in the config/constants.php file. Read on for more info.

Contemplate content files

If you used the Contemplate™ Web Templating System to build your site, your content might be stored in standard HTML or XML files or a custom database. In this case, edit constants.php to set the CONTENT_TYPE to "contemplate." If you're using the default Contemplate file structure, with your assembler.php script in the contemplate directory and your content files in the content directory, you're done; but you can override these values with the CONTEMPLATE_DIRECTORY and CONTEMPLATE_CONTENT_DIRECTORIES settings.

Dreamweaver template files

Another common approach to web templating is to set up templates with Macromedia Dreamweaver, and then use either Dreamweaver or Contribute to edit your content. Meditate can replace Contribute in this setup (but you would still need Dreamweaver to make global template updates). In this case, edit constants.php to set the CONTENT_TYPE to "dreamweaver," then set DREAMWEAVER_CONTENT_DIRECTORIES to the directory or directories where you've saved your content files. This setting is recursive, so you only need to specify the top-level directories. Meditate will read the files and look for the editable regions inside, and display those for editing.

MySQL database tables

If you've built your own content database or are using a pre-made database, Meditate can connect to that, too. Edit constants.php to set the CONTENT_TYPE to "database," then set the various DATABASE_ settings. These include the standard database connection info (HOST, NAME, USERNAME and PASSWORD), plus a few settings that describe the layout of your database. TABLES is a list of tables where your content is stored. ID1_COLUMN and ID2_COLUMN allow you to set keys for retrieving content. For example, if your content table contains columns for "section" and "page," you would enter those as the ID1_COLUMN and ID2_COLUMN and Meditate will display those values in the editor. Finally, specify the table column that contains the editable content in CONTENT_COLUMN.

If you haven't built your site yet, you can choose from these three approaches for content storage. Here's a brief comparison:

Dreamweaver template files

This is the easiest approach; all you have to do is add <!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="main" --><!-- InstanceEndEditable --> tags around the content in your HTML files that you want to make editable.

Contemplate content files

A Contemplate site is a little harder to set up, but it lets you keep your templates and your content in separate files. This allows you to make site-wide changes to your design by editing just your template files. You can learn more at the Contemplate™ Web Templating System website.

MySQL database tables

Storing your content in a custom database requires the most knowledge and experience, but offers the greatest flexibility in building your site. It's also the best choice if you need to access content in an existing database.