Folder Structure in Left Sidebar

Prior to creating this post, I spoke to a fellow Blocs user privately to see if my idea was worthy. Based on their reply, I believe it is, hence this post.

While I transition my non-responsive websites to Blocs, I still use another web design app to maintain those sites. That app has been around since 1998 and I’ve used it since 1999. My corporate sites built in it have been online since the summer of 2001 and most of the complex folder structure has been around for almost that long too. As such, many links are registered not only in Google but linked in various online articles, news sources, and many of our product dealers throughout Japan. So as I re-build my sites in Blocs, I’d like to maintain the existing folder structure instead of using dozens and dozens of redirects. As most of you know, building a folder structure is not a feature of Blocs yet, which is why I would like to officially propose it in this post.

Here’s a screenshot from the left sidebar of that other web design app I use, showing how I have my folder structure right now (the site is in Japanese, hence the page names you see):

Note that in addition to nested folders, I also am allowed to color page names in the sidebar, which is really nice when you have a very large site of many web pages and you want to quickly spot certain pages for editing. Size info of individual pages is also given at a glance, which is nice. Also note in the screenshot I have a “jp” folder that holds my Japanese files, and in another website document I have an “en” folder that contains English versions of all those same web pages. Other languages could be added by adding another set of folders. But because there are many web pages, you can see the need to keep the languages distinct in separate folders. This is also important when using something like Google Custom Search to index sites, and I index our English and Japanese sites separately.

There is a preference setting in that other web design app that allows me to choose how I want Assets handled:

  1. Placed along side their corresponding HTML files separately in each folder.
  2. Placed all in a single Assets folder at the root of the site.
  3. Placed in separate Assets folders within each folder of the site.

I currently have #1 chosen in my preferences.

Why is folder structure important? Well, if you think about the time I would need to spend in Blocs right now recreating that folder structure in light of the fact Blocs won’t create that folder structure for me, it is time consuming and bothersome at best. I’d need to figure out how to reconnect Assets and fix links – all a huge mess to do manually.

Naturally, those of you with sites amounting to only 5 pages or those of you starting from scratch in Blocs and not repurposing existing web sites made in other web design apps may not care so much about this folder structure feature. But at some point when you have large websites in Blocs, you may begin to care. That is the sentiment I received from one fellow Blocs user in particular when I privately messaged him.

And so there you have it. Folder structure (once the left sidebar bugs have been fixed) would be a very welcome addition to an already great web design app. Go Blocs!

–James

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Checkout project attachments, this feature lets you add full directories of files to projects. It’s not as visual as the example you posted but it does let you manage a lot of this already.

Just add the directories in the project settings and then manage the contents via finder.

https://help.blocsapp.com/knowledge-base/project-settings/

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@Norm I read the following text that you referred me to…

https://help.blocsapp.com/knowledge-base/project-settings/#project-attachments

But that is talking about adding JavaScript or CSS files or “directories full of files.” I don’t see how it manages a directory structure within Blocs, which is why I am seeking.

To understand what I am seeking, please consider the screenshot of my opening post. That directory structure was built inside Freeway. I want to do the same in Blocs. More specifically…

Right now in Blocs, within the left sidebar’s Page Navigator, I cannot add folders. I want to add folders there and then be able to create web pages in Blocs and easily move them in and out of folders with the same easy that I can move Blocs or DIVs or other content within the Layer Navigator of the left sidebar. I don’t see how to do that using “project attachments” as per your recommendation. If it is possible, can you or someone else explain precisely how it is done?

Thanks.

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I am also in favor of the idea of using a folder structure for keeping things from getting chaotic an large sites. So this wish gets my vote.

Blocs sites have a “flat” directory structure - i.e. everything is in the root directory. Which is IMO not best practice.

The other end of the spectrum is WP which makes every page act as if it’s name is index and it has its own directory.

So I agree with JDW. If you want to increase the user base of Blocs, maybe one should consider all the users who built sites with WP or other tools and think about letting users build their own directory structure.

I cringe when I think about all the 301s I would need to write when I have to rebuild a site that has lots of directories in Blocs …

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@gary If you export with clean urls that should be less of a problem, since every page will have a unique folder, though at present limited to one level, so categories are out.

In Rapidweaver I can change the page order in the sidebar via drag & drop, which automatically updates the menu navigation. Subfolders can be created by dropping one page over another. Having control over the site structure this way makes it much easier to manage large projects, especially when adding new pages at a later date. It’s just not convenient having a similar new page in the same area 50 pages later in the side panel. The risk of mistakes increases.

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Its hard to see what those files are.

You can add directories full of any file type with project attachments. SO if those are directories full of mp3 files then you just drag that folder into the project attachments table in project settings.

This is what I am looking for:

/
index.html

/products
product1.html
product2.html

/about-us
about-us.html
history.html
team.html

/service
downloads.html

etc. etc.

What I get now with blocs is:

/
product1.html
product2.html
about-us.html
history.html
team.html
downloads.html

etc. … it’s just a lot easier to do housekeeping on the server when the files are organized into sub-directories … but that’s only one way of working. I’m sure there are a lot of people who like things another way.

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I honestly doubt if it’s really “a lot of people.“ Indeed, I think most people would prefer to organize their files within folders and subfolders and sub-sub folders within Blocs if they could.

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Really hope that @Norm looks at adding folder structure for Blocs as myself could really do with it. I am up to 200 pages on website at the moment and pages get added all the time. Blocs is manageable at the minute but as the website grows then Blocs would become unmanageable. I don’t want to leave Blocs but may have to in the future if this feature is not added.

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He must be because he Hearted my opening post! :slight_smile: And thank you for hearting my post as well. Sadly, only one other person hearted my post, which likely is telling Norm that it’s not so important. We really need solidarity here in the forum among Blocs users when it comes to Hearting important Wish List items like this!

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In particular it is not a topic that I would put first on the list! I think that blocsapp works in a very incredible way with the pages, (maybe being able to move the order of the pages would interest me) … But having to create a folder in blocsapp to create a page within each folder, I see it very tedious and unnecessary.

My projects before being transferred to blocsapp are prayed by Folders (home, us etc), and each folder has its content already defined, then only the layout in blocsapp, which is more feasible for me, I export with clean url and each page is in a folder! the images are where they should be and all the correct files.

So, for my blocsapp it works the right way for me!
but this is just my opinion!

Which mean you are open to change. :slight_smile: And that’s good because the rest of your post is basically resistance to change, even though the use of folders would be entirely optional. It’s kind of like saying you don’t want windshield wipers on your car because you never needed them before. The thing is though, if someone added those wipers to your car, you could still decide to leave them switched off. That’s the entire point. Having additional functionality is good for those who want to use it, and for those who don’t, simply don’t use it. It’s really that simple.

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This i what I need too - from an SEO perspective it’s best practice to organise a site with readable URL’s and category structure, and this means if you have blog pages they should be sat within /blog/, and if you have products they should be categorised as /product and then say /product/genre/product1.html (for example). Simply exporting with clean URL’s means each page is within its own folder and all this does is rename each page as index.html within a folder of the original page name so that does little for organisation, and satisfies nothing for SEO.
https://moz.com/learn/seo/url

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I totally agree. I want to build up my old page which i constructed with a folder structure as it is rather large. Would it be possible to have a folder structure as a selection feature? Not everyone wants to use folders, especially with small sites, but it would help me structuring my site with its content. I work now over 20 years with WYSIWYG, unfortunately I still cant code, and I am used to folders. Not everything that is old does have to be replaced :slight_smile: and as folder structures are still used with file organisation on desktops, people should be able to get used to it in Blocs intuitively.

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Welcome, Miriam! Not only are we happy to have you here, but I’m personally pleased my Wish List thread was the thread you chose to make your first post! :slight_smile:

I second this feature request, simply because I do want to (be able to) structure (larger) sites where you want different pages to live in certain subfolders.

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Hey,

are you referring to the full customisation of the URL structure for pages?

I don’t think so, the way I read it - and the way I’d like to see it i - say:

Home page
about
Gallery
Contact

For the main pages, as the left sidebar looks at the moment.
Then be able to add a folder to contain the drop down menu pages for ‘about’, another folder to contain the drop down menu pages for ‘gallery’ etc.
Lastly, the ability to grab one of those pages and drag to reorder into something logical in your head, just in case the client has added an extra page, which would appear on the site between ‘home’ and ‘about’, and blocs places it at the end of the site.
I realise this is just a visual thing, and it doesn’t really matter where they are in the great scheme, but I find it really helpful (maybe it’s coming from a graphic design background) to have things structured like a book or magazine, In a format flowing as they will appear when live.

If that all makes sense!

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Sounds like there are two different requests here.

  • Some folks want to visually “group” pages and reorder them in the sidebar. This would be an admin UI thing, not affecting the actual urls.

  • Others want to actually change the url structure to include urls with additional segments like this:

/blog/category/web-design.html

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“Freeway“ is a web design app from Softpress that has been around since about 1998. The left sidebar in Freeway allows you to do both – the folder structure allows you to group pages and is part of the output path generated by Freeway. I think this that is the most intuitive approach. If you don’t output the folder structure, it might be a bit confusing.

But the great thing about software is that it is highly customizable. Just add a preference setting to allow the user to decide if they want the folder structure to be internal only or if they also want to have it exported when they export the HTML files. It’s really that simple.

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