Publishing: database driven website.

You certainly can run your website from your home computer, but there is no good reason to do so. Web hosting is cheap, and you don't have the skills to run a server connected to the internet.

The basic workflow for working with DW is to have a local copy of the site on your computer. You GET the pages from your remote site (if not already in your local), then edit the pages in your local site, and then PUT them back to the remote site.

Your computer is for working with local files prior to launching your site on a public web server space.  It's not a web server.

Commercial Web Hosting doesn't have to cost an arm and leg but "free web hosting" is no bargain.  You really must pay for reputable service.   As part of your hosting plan, you should have a unique IP address,  MySql databases, PHP Admin, e-mail accounts, and a web server maintenance plan that handles security patches & other upgrades over the life of your site.  When you sign-up for web hosting, your provider will e-mail you the FTP log-in credentials for your server.  Keep this information in a safe place and enter it into your DW Site Definition.  See screenshot.

Hit the TEST button.  If for some reason you can't connect to your server, click More Options triangle and toggle Passive FTP on/off.  Save site definition.

Domain Name Registration is what turns your server's IP address 123.456.78910 into a human friendly URL like http://yoursite.com.  Domain Names can be purchased per year, or well ahead for 2 or more years either through your web hosting provider or an independent Registrar like Network Solutions. See ICANN Accredited Registrars below: 

ICANN | ICANN-Accredited Registrars

When you register and pay for your domain name through an independent Registrar, you must log-in to your registrar's site and point your domain name to the servers your web hosting provider assigns to you.  It usually takes a few hours for this information to fully populate.  I have seen it happen in as little as 2 hours or as long as 24 hours.  If your domain name doesn't populate within 48 hours, contact your hosting provider.

You will need to log-in to your server and create a MySql database on your web server that matches the one you have locally in XAMPP.  Export your local MySql data from XAMPP and import it into your server's MySql.  I use PHP Admin for all of this.

From Dreamweaver Files Panel, click the PUT (up arrow) to transfer your local site files to your remote server.

That's it in a nutshell.

Nancy O.

Further to Bregents good information:

 

 

1. What is the best domain name provider, and how would that work/go about doing it (in general)?

 

Shop around on Google - there are plenty of hosts that you can buy the domain name from and buy server space from.

I'd be tempted to buy and register the domain yourself free of the web-space provider. The domain name will then be under your control (it should come with a control panel so you can log-in and point your domain name at the host providers web-servers) make sure you look for a domain name registration company that provides that service as standard.

Then you can buy web-space from a host, obviously purchase a package that is compatible with what you are using php/mysql and make sure phpMyAdmin is included in the hosting package so you can export and import your database between your local phpMyAdmin and the one on the remote server.

The host will usually provide a user and password to access the FTP portal where you upload your website files - php files, images etc and a separate username and password for your control panel, where you can create databases, set up email boxes etc. The host will also provide you with their 'named servers' details - this comes in the form of a series of numbers.

Once you have those numbers you can login into your domain name control panel and insert the 'named server' details in the appropriate boxes (pointing the domain name at the web space host servers).

Of course if you prefer you can buy a hosting and domain name package all together and the host will usually do all the domain name pointing. However if you ever want to switch the web hosting space to another company you always then have to go back to the original hosting company to point the domain name away from their servers.