Best way to manage website files?

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[TheNothingMonster]

I was recently cleaning up some files here and there and wondered whether I was even doing it right. I have come across an endless sea of articles pointing out how site files should be managed and I did not know how to continue with certainty.

Setting up files and folders alike also requires changing some segments of code within the files which can get somewhat tiring when it comes to managing them all over again in large amounts. The most common method I have read is to insert all (x) types of files into an (x) folder and so on, but sometimes it gets more complicated than that. Especially if new additions are prone to happen, therefore making the position of certain files more flexible.

> What's an efficient method of managing website files for you? Are there different techniques varying from case to case? Anything else to keep in mind while organising files?

[Memory]

Personally, I have several categories that I put my (X)HTML files themselves in that correspond to the website's topical hubs: like Creative, Thoughts/Blog, or Shrines.
These are folders and they contain the individual subfiles for pages they contain and their main hub pages. For instance, my Music shrine is under /shrines/music/main.xhtml, whereas the Shrines page itself is under /shrines/main.xhtml.

As for images, they're all in a /graphics/ folder with additional subfolders for /graphics/gifs/, /graphics/img/ and so on. I also have /scripts/.

[brisray]

As with how you organize your own files, there are no hard rules for organizing site files. As you get a bit more experience you'll find something that works for you.

When I started I simply dumped all the files in the root of the website. That did not last long as it got difficult to find anything.

As I added more sections, I created a new folder for each section. Inside each of those there are folders for all the images for that section, and another folder for any specific CSS or JS files I need for that section. Other folder are added when I think I need them such as when a section needs a lot of documents kept in it.

In the copy of the site I keep on my computer, there's also section folders named "old" where I put files I no longer use on the actual site - just in case I change my mind about them later on.

I use relative links on the site rather than absolute ones and web servers still recognise the old dot notation such as ../images which means up a directory and go to the images folder in that and you can do things like ../../ which means go up two directory levels. It helps if you change your mind about a directory name and means you don't have to change the link to every file.

As a little aside, links to external sites are always a problem. If you have a list of about a dozen sites, within months at least one of them will stop working. Within a couple of years nearly all of them will be broken - it's called link rot.

Xenu's Link Sleuth was last updated 12 years ago, but  is great at finding link problems (images, files, anything) within your site and can help with the external links - it obviously can't tell if the content on those is still the same as you intended but will tell you if the page is no longer available at all or being redirected somewhere else. There are plenty of newer, much nicer looking link checkers around, but I like Xenu's.

[Lyonid]

I think folder structures reveal so much about the website creator, so definitely go with what you find most comfortable for you!

I personally have the habit of nesting my sites to a point where I get a little lost, haha. I like making a folder for every site like /about, /gallery, /reads. I try to get a little fancy with those names so the links look a little more fun! A link to one of my blog entries is /reads/codefile/virtual/ because I like calling my entries code files to fit the theme.

I usually store all general-use graphics in a /graphics folder. To not leave every folder empty with just their index.html, I throw in graphics in that are unique to the page content. I have fanlistings and blinkies folders in my /about folder, for instance.

I try to create css "modules" for very special pages like my qeycard maker or my image gallery, though I am currently rearraning everything every now and then. The same I do for my scripts if I use any.

Sometimes I am really lazy and throw stuff that is not really a part of my site at the root. It's rarely a good idea! 

[Melooon]

There is a pinned thread about this subject here where you can see a lot of peoples file structures!
https://forum.melonland.net/index.php?topic=55.0

The key thing Id say is; find a system you enjoy working with - its easy to stress about organising files, but if you are stressing about that then you are not working on your site! Often it pays to just be messy and not worry about it too much! 

In general I don't recommend reorganising your site in the future because that breaks anyone who's linking to your media and also because it erases your sites physical history. (I remember I moved a page into a folder once and I got multiple disappointed emails from people who thought Id deleted the page)

So just use a simple system at first (like putting images in an images folder etc) and then let it grow over time.