Enabling Contribute users to access templates without root folder access

In a Contribute site, you manage underlying file and folder permissions directly on the server. For more information, see Contribute file and folder permissions on the server.

When you set up a site, you must give users read access on the server to the /_mm folder (the _mm subfolder of the root folder), the /Templates folder, and all of the folders containing assets that they will need to use. It’s also a good idea to give users read access on the server to the /Templates folder.

If for some reason you can’t give users read access to the /Templates folder, you can still make the templates available to users.

To allow Contribute users to use templates without read access to the main site’s root folder:

1. Set up the Contribute site so that its root folder is the folder you want users to see as the root.
2. Manually copy the template folder from the main site’s root folder into the Contribute site’s root folder, using the Files panel.
3. After you update templates for the main site, recopy the changed templates into appropriate subfolders as needed.

If you take this approach, don’t use site root-relative links in the subfolders. Site root-relative links are relative to the main root folder on the server, not to the root folder you define in Dreamweaver. Contribute users can’t create site root-relative links. For more information about site root-relative links, see Understanding document locations and paths.

If links in a Contribute page appear to be broken, it’s possible that there’s a problem with folder permissions, particularly if the links link to pages outside of the Contribute user’s root folder. Check read and write permissions for folders on the server.