Project Folder Structure

Creating an organized folder structure is critical to establishing an efficient and productive environment. Typically, there will be a folder set for each document source, and this set along with the created html folder will be copied to a folder for publishing or distribution.

Input (Source) Folders

An example source folder set is illustrated here:

sourcePath/projectName
    |-- css/
    |-- glossary/
    |-- htm/
    |-- images/
    |-- javascript/
    |-- My_Notes/
    |-- pdf/
    |-- videos/

Items in these folders should be self evident based on the names of the folders.

Running dynadoc.php generates the output html folder. Typically this will be created in the project folder along with these other folders, but it can be directed to a different path if desired.

Output Folders for Viewing

An example output folder set is illustrated here (note that most of these folders are the same as the input folders, so you do not necessarily need multiple copies of these folders):

outputPath/projectName
    |-- css/
    |-- html/
    |-- images/
    |-- index.html
    |-- javascript/
    |-- My_Notes/
    |-- pdf/
    |-- videos/

index.html is created in the html folder, and a link-adjusted version of index.html is created in the project root folder. This allows the URL to be shortened from http://projectName/html to of http://projectName.

dynadoc_stage.php can be used to stage the project, without the source folders and files, to an output destination for publishing. See the Document Creation manual for more information.

The DynaDoc script would typically be stored in the projectName folder.

File Names

DynaDoc convention is to use .htm for source html files. These files are rename using .html on output.

Dynadoc and its utility programs create a variety of output files. The filenames for these output files are prefixed with "_" in order to signify that these files are automatically generated and can usually be deleted. The "_" prefix is not applied to output html files.

Common Folder

In addition to project folders, DynaDoc can take advantage of a common folder for elements that are required by multiple document projects. This eliminates the need to duplicate common resources. See the Advanced Techniques section for more information.

VideoRay's common folder is named required/.

Documents for Products Sharing Common Features or Elements

Some documents may have multiple versions or variations (this is not a reference to sequential version numbers used for document revisions). For example, a product may have several models that share a common base. DynaDoc can be used to manage the common elements of the individual models. In this case, source files can be stored in the project folder in a base_model folder, and the output can be created in html_model. See Multiple Versions Example for more infomration.