Using iWeb with GoDaddy.com

When I originally created my web site for in the GoDaddy.com server, I did it on a Windows computer using Microsoft Expression.  It is a relatively easy program to use and syncs well with GoDaddy. 

Then I considered the fact that more often than not I would be updating my web site with a Macintosh computer and not a Windows, and therefore I became curious about how well iWeb would work.  After some tinkering and some searching the Internet, I have found a good procedure for setting up a web site on GoDaddy with iWeb.

As is normal for Macs, iWeb is pre-setup under the impression that you will be using the Mac web site server, MobileMe.  There is an option, however, to publish your web site to an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) Server, such as GoDaddy.  After attempting to enter in the correct information, I received an error, such as this one:

I reviewed my settings and it seemed correct.  So I instead searched the Internet for a solution.  What I found was in this link, which seems to disregard the built in FTP client within iWeb, and recommends the use of an open source program called Cyberduck.

A quick note:  This guide is assuming you have already set up a GoDaddy account and have your domain established.

The first thing you do is after you've created the design for your web site, click on the name at the top of the tree in the left panel.  In the middle section, the screen should have changed to Site Publishing Settings.  Where is says 'Publish to:' , click the drop-down menu and select Local Folder.  Give the site a name below (we'll use 'My Web site' as a default for demonstration purposes). 

Further down, you can set the Folder Location.  I used the 'Sites' folder in my home directory, but you may use the desktop or anywhere you want, only try to find a location where you can easily find the files you will be creating (not somewhere too cluttered with other things).  Further down, enter in your web site URL. 

Now, down at the bottom of the page you will see next to 'Add Page' a button that says 'Publish Site'.  Select the button.  In the Content Rights box that comes up, select Continue.  You may look at what your site would look like now, or press OK. 

Now on to publishing the web page.  For this, you can choose one of two methods: do it directly through GoDaddy, or use a 3rd party program (Cyberduck) to do it for you.  I tried both, so I can say a thing or two about the methods.  Doing it through GoDaddy requires you to login and go through a variety of menus in order to enter the info in.  Using Cyberduck allows you to quickly update the web site, and saves the upload info fairly easily so all you need to do is open the program and update whenever a change is made.

Unfortunately, this is where my instructions get a little iffy, because I more or less only stumbled onto the correct method of doing this. 

To upload using GoDaddy, login.  In the Hosting drop down menu, select 'My Hosting Account'.  Where it shows your domain, select 'Manage Account' to the right.  In the Hosting Control Center, select 'Content'.  Inside the Content menu, select 'FTP Client'.  A java page should come up (confirm the certificate), with your files on the left side and the GoDaddy client on the right.  navigate in the left pane to where the files are stored that you published form iWeb.  Select them, and move them over to the GoDaddy side.  After the files are moved over, you should be good to go, and you should be able to navigate to your domain, and see the page you designed with iWeb.

To use Cyberduck, first you'll need to download it from this link.  Open the program and click 'Open Connection'.  You will see some empty fields, fields that need to be filled with the GoDaddy info.  Now, the way I found the necessary information was when I was using the GoDaddy FTP Client.  If while viewing the client, you select 'Disconnect', then 'Connect', you should see a window that looks like this:

This shows you what to enter into the fields in Cyberduck.  Copy the Host field over to server, enter your Username and Password, make sure you're on Port 21, and then connect.  It should show your login name in the drop down menu in the top middle.  Click the down-arrow above 'Action'.  Select 'Upload'.  Select your web site files and press 'Upload'.  Now, whenever you need to update your web page, just upload the file again, and replace the existing one with the new one. 

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