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Connection keys

Using the Connection Wizard (Windows) or Connection Assistant (Mac OS), you can easily set up connections to websites for other users. The wizard enables Contribute users to collaborate by sharing website connections.

Contribute lets you share website connection information by embedding website information in a connection key file. Because the connection key is encrypted with a password, any network or File Transfer Protocol (FTP) login information you send in the file remains secure and can be accessed only through Contribute. The connection key file uses the filename extension.stc. You can either e‑mail the file to users, or save it to your computer for users to download and import. If you double-click the file, either on the desktop or as an e-mail attachment, Contribute starts and imports the connection.

FTP and Secure FTP (SFTP) connection keys can be used across platforms; LAN connection keys are platform specific.

The procedure for sending a connection key varies depending on the type of user model you’ve chosen to manage your website. If you’re letting users connect to a site by manually entering connection information or by using a connection key file, see Send connection keys for websites. If you’re managing users with a connection server, see Send connections for CPS managed sites.

Note: Connection keys are not available for blogs.

Collect the following information before you begin:

  • Your user name and e-mail address

    The user name and e-mail address identify users and the web pages or blog entries they are working on. Contribute prevents multiple users from simultaneously editing the same web page. (Contribute uses a system much like the Dreamweaver check in and check out system to avoid editing conflicts.)

    If you have multiple copies of Contribute, use a different user name for each copy. For example, Chris(laptop), and Chris(Mac). Using the same user name can cause problems because you can override checkouts you make on the other computer.
  • Web address of the website or blog server

    A website’s Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is its address either on the Internet or on an organization’s intranet. Website URLs usually have the following form:

    http://www.mysite.com/

    A blog server’s access point Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is its address either on the Internet or on your organization’s intranet. Blog server URLs usually have the following form:

    http://blogname.blogsite.com

  • Network path to the website (for connecting to local networks)

    The network path is the location of the website in your organization’s local network. The network path includes the name of the server on which the website is stored and the directory path of the website’s files on that server. For example, your network path might be \\mycomputer\wwwroot\ (Windows) or afp://server:volume: (Mac OS).

    Note: If you are a Mac OS X user, to create a LAN connection, make sure to mount the network volume of the server you are creating a connection to on your computer desktop before you create your connection. In the Finder, select Go > Connect to Server to mount the network to which you want to connect.
  • FTP or SFTP connection information

    FTP provides a secure way to transfer files to your local or remote web server. If you will connect to your website from a remote location (for example, telecommuting from home or another office) you may need to connect to the website using FTP, to transfer files from a remote location across the Internet to your website (for example, if you don’t have a local network connection to the website).

    If you or your users will connect to your website by using FTP or SFTP, you must know the address of the FTP server as well as the user name and password to connect to the FTP server. For example, your FTP server’s address might be ftp.mysite.com.

    Note: Websites that CPS manages require users to use their own FTP or SFTP account information to connect to the website.
  • Verification that Contribute directly supports your blog

    Blogs hosted on Blogger, TypePad, Roller, or WordPress are directly supported in Contribute.

    If your blog is hosted by another service, the host must support the MetaWeblog API. The MetaWeblog API allows Contribute and other external programs to make changes to the text and attributes of blog entries. If your blog host supports the MetaWeblog API, you must enter the blog’s access point URL, such as http://blogname.blogsite.com, as well as your user name and password for the blog hosted by that service.

    Note: You must have a blog account already set up with the blog host before you can connect to it using Contribute.