I’m trying to migrate a website developed on Dreamweaver CS4 that uses Templates and Library files. To me it looks like these would translate into PG Master Pages and Components. My thinking is that I can alter the Dreamweaver Templates and Library files to include their PG equivalents, programetically update all the website pages in Dreamweaver, then import them into a new PG project. Once there I’d be able to edit the PG Master Pages and Components to strip out the Dreamweaver Template and Library references, as they amount to nothing more than HTML comments. Then update the web pages in PG. Does this strategy seem feasible?
If not, is there a tutorial or other strategy for making a migration like this? I’m trying to avoid manually editing several hundred web pages.
Hi @BlackNWhite
Your strategy for migrating a website from Dreamweaver CS4 to Pinegrow (PG) seems feasible and well-thought-out. Dreamweaver Templates (.dwt) and Library files (.lbi) can indeed be translated into Pinegrow’s Master Pages and Components. By modifying the Dreamweaver Templates and Library files to include placeholders or references compatible with Pinegrow, you can programmatically update all associated pages in Dreamweaver. Once imported into Pinegrow, you would then clean up the Dreamweaver-specific references (such as HTML comments) and finalize the structure using Pinegrow’s tools.
This approach minimizes manual editing and leverages Dreamweaver’s ability to propagate changes across linked pages. However, you should ensure that the HTML code generated by Dreamweaver is clean and compatible with Pinegrow, as some older or proprietary code might require adjustments. No need to tell that testing this method on a small subset of pages (even only one page) before migrating the entire site is highly recommended to identify potential issues and to evaluate properly the way to follow.
Here are the general recommendations that came to my mind while reading your article. If possible, it would be helpful to have a link to the website in order to potentially provide you with better advice.
As you suggested, I’m working on a single page, and have already created a Master Page for it and Components for a footer and a couple of navigation menus. The next step would be to use a search and replace function to globally search/replace Dreamweaver html comments that contain the references to Dreamweaver Templates and Library files with the PG equivalents. Does such a thing exist?
Hi @BlackNWhite
you can use Pinegrow’s built-in search and replace feature if you are using version 8.1 or later. If you are using an earlier version of Pinegrow, or if you prefer an external tool, editors like Visual Studio Code (my preference), Atom, Sublime Text, or Notepad++ are good options. In Visual Studio Code, you can open your project, use the global search function and replace Dreamweaver-specific comments such as with equivalent content suited for Pinegrow, such as a comment indicating a Master Page. Once the replacements are complete, you can configure Master Pages and Components in Pinegrow to manage reusable elements like headers, footers, or navigation menus. This is how I would go about it but that’s just my opinion, maybe other people can provide other methodologies?