Stevie Ray
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Posted: 16 May 2006 09:59:01 ° Edited by: Stevie Ray
In case there are other novices who aren't coders like me around, I offer a couple of useful procedural notes. I invite others to share their best practices for keeping system stabililty in this thread.
The best way (that I know) to edit files like this is to do these steps:
1. Open the file, copy contents and paste into an empty notepad file, save on your local computer as FILENAME_ORIG_DATE.EXT (filename and extension match the original).
2. Open your new FILENAME_ORIG_DATE.EXT and save as FILENAME_MOD_DATE.EXT. Then edit merrily away on this version which has the same name as the original file.
3. Upload FILENAME_MOD_DATE.EXT to the server. Rename to FILENAME.EXT.
4. If your edits cause unexpected results when you navigate the site, you can go back by uploading the FILENAME_ORIG_DATE.EXT file, and renaming it to FILENAME.EXT. Voila, you are restored to your pre-changed state.
This is an nice orderly way of implementing changes. You know what you changed when and you can go back.
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Second thing learned the hard way:
It may not be the best thing for performance, but I always comment outrather tahn delete code when doing changes. I do something like this
<!-------CHANGE DESCRIPTION STARTS HERE------
---------END CHANGE DESCRIPTION----------->
I also add desriptions when cahnging code. It is nice to see what the old code did and what haws replaced it. Comments may not be pretty but they can keep you from making horrible mistakes. If modifications are in conflict you will see it right away if you do these things.
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