Cloak files and folders in your Dreamweaver site
Learn how to cloak and uncloak files and folders in your Dreamweaver site, and enable and disable site cloaking.

About site cloaking

Site cloaking enables you to exclude files and folders from operations such as Get or Put. You can also cloak all files of a particular type (JPEG, FLV, XML, and so on) from site operations. Dreamweaver remembers your settings for each site so that you don’t have to make selections each time you work on that site.

For example, if you’re working on a large site and you don’t want to upload your multimedia files each day, you can use site cloaking to cloak your multimedia folder. Dreamweaver will then exclude files in that folder from site operations you perform.

You can cloak files and folders on the remote or local site. Cloaking excludes cloaked files and folders from the following operations:

  • Performing Put, Get, Check In, and Check Out operations

  • Generating reports

  • Finding newer local and newer remote files

  • Performing sitewide operations, such as checking and changing links

  • Synchronizing

  • Working with Asset panel contents

  • Updating templates and libraries

Opomba:

You can still perform an operation on a specific cloaked folder or file by selecting the item in the Files panel and performing an operation on it. Performing an operation directly on a file or folder overrides cloaking.

Opomba:

Dreamweaver excludes cloaked templates and library items from Get and Put operations only. Dreamweaver does not exclude these items from batch operations, because it might cause them to become out of sync with their instances.

Enable and disable site cloaking

Site cloaking enables you to exclude folders, files, and file types in a site from sitewide operations such as Get or Put, and is enabled by default. You can disable cloaking permanently or just temporarily to perform an operation on all files, including cloaked files. When you disable site cloaking, all cloaked files are uncloaked. When you enable site cloaking again, any previously cloaked files become cloaked again.

Opomba:

You can also use the Uncloak All option to uncloak all files, but this does not disable cloaking; also there is no way to re‑cloak all files and folders that were previously cloaked, except to set cloaking again for each folder, file, and file type.

  1. In the Files panel (Window > Files) select a file or folder.
  2. Right-click (Windows) or Control‑click (Macintosh), and do one of the following:
    • Select Cloaking > (deselect to disable).

    • Select Cloaking > Settings to open the Cloaking category of the Site Setup dialog box. Select or deselect , and select or deselect Cloak Files Ending With to enable or disable cloaking for specific file types. You can enter or delete file suffixes in the text box that you want to cloak or uncloak.

Cloak and uncloak site files and folders

You can cloak specific files and folders, but you cannot cloak all files and folders or cloak an entire site. When you cloak specific files and folders, you can cloak multiple files and folders at the same time.

  1. In the Files panel (Window > Files), select a site that has site cloaking enabled.
  2. Select the folder(s) or file(s) you want to cloak or uncloak.
  3. Right-click (Windows) or Control‑click (Macintosh), then select Cloaking > Cloak or Cloaking > Uncloak from the context menu.

    A red line through the file or folder icon appears or disappears, indicating that the folder is cloaked or uncloaked.

    Opomba:

    You can still perform an operation on a specific cloaked file or folder by selecting the item in the Files panel and performing an operation on it. Performing an operation directly on a file or folder overrides cloaking.

Cloak and uncloak specific file types

You can indicate specific file types to cloak, so that Dreamweaver cloaks all files ending with a specified pattern. For example, you can cloak all files ending with the .txt extension. The file types that you enter do not have to be file extensions; they can be any pattern at the end of a filename.

Cloak specific file types within a site

  1. In the Files panel (Window > Files), select a site that has site cloaking enabled.
  2. Right-click (Windows) or Control‑click (Macintosh), then select Cloaking > Settings.
  3. Select the Cloak Files Ending With option, enter the file types to cloak in the box, and click OK.

    For example, you might enter .jpg to cloak all files with names ending in .jpg in your site.

    Separate multiple file types with one space; do not use a comma or semicolon.

    In the Files panel, a red line appears through the affected files, indicating that they are cloaked.

    Opomba:

    Some software creates backup files ending in a particular suffix, such as .bak. You can cloak such files.

    Opomba:

    You can still perform an operation on a specific cloaked file or folder by selecting the item in the Files panel and performing an operation on it. Performing an operation directly on a file or folder overrides cloaking.

Uncloak specific file types within a site

  1. In the Files panel (Window > Files), select a site that has site cloaking enabled.
  2. Right-click (Windows) or Control‑click (Macintosh), then select Cloaking > Settings.
  3. In the Advanced Site Definition dialog box, do one of the following:
    • Deselect the Cloak Files Ending With option to uncloak all the file types listed in the box.

    • Delete specific file types from the box to uncloak those file types.

  4. Click OK.

    The red lines disappear from the affected files, indicating that they are uncloaked.

Uncloak all files and folders

You can uncloak all files and folders in a site at the same time. This action cannot be undone; there is no way to re‑cloak all items that were previously cloaked. You have to re‑cloak items individually.

Opomba:

If you want to temporarily uncloak all folders and files, then re‑cloak those items, disable site cloaking.

  1. In the Files panel (Window > Files), select a site that has site cloaking enabled.
  2. Select any file or folder in that site.
  3. Right-click (Windows) or Control‑click (Macintosh), then select Cloaking > Uncloak All.

    Opomba:

    This step also deselects the Cloak Files Ending With option in the Cloaking category of the Site Definition dialog box.

    The red lines through folder and file icons disappear, indicating that all files and folders in the site are uncloaked.