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File Naming
Conventions & Directory Structure
File and directory naming conventions are key to creating a well-organized
site. Organization provides many benefits, not the least of which is helping
your visitors navigate your site.
Web users often try to guess or remember URLs. A consistent directory
structure helps people to navigate intuitively . For example, if they
can find bios for faculty members under medschool.ucsf.edu/bios/faculty/,
they are likely to look for student bios under medschool.ucsf.edu/bios/students/.
When sites are well organized to begin with, directory and file names
are less likely to be changed later, avoiding broken links and bookmarks.
A well-organized, orderly site can easily be understood when the time
comes to pass along responsibility for the site.
- Important: File names must end in .aspx,
not .htm or .html.
- File names may not contain uppercase letters, spaces, or special characters
(e.g., &,#,/ ,$, etc). They may, however, contain letters, numbers,
underscores, and dashes (e.g., image01.gif, not image#1.gif; newsletter_010203.aspx,
not newsletter_01/02/03.aspx, not newsletter_01.02.03.aspx.)
Please keep this in mind when creating
a PDF from a Word document. More than likely, you will need to rename
the PDF to something more 'web-friendly.
- Use separate subdirectories for major subsites or content categories
linked from the main site.
- Keep PDF's in a separate file, do not mix them in with your .aspx
files. Name this folder 'PDF'. If you use many PDF's on your site and
they fall under various categories, place a folder called 'PDF' in each
category folder.
This same principal applies if you use .doc or .rtf files on your site.
If you have PowerPoint
presentations on your site, organize them into a 'PPT' folder. Give
each presentation a separate folder of its own within the 'PPT'.
Equally, all images must be in the images folder, not strewn amongst
the other folder types on your site.
If you have several batches of images, pdf's or doc's that specifically
relate to certain subsections of your site, such as 'policies' or
'bios', consider creating a subfolder in that section to house these
files separately from more general files.
In this example, there are several pdf's relating specifically to
news, so they have been grouped in a directory called pdf which resides
within the news folder.
- Make sure that file names clearly denote their content. Try to avoid
abbreviations that may not make sense to the user (e.g., patient_info.aspx,
not patinfo.aspx; admin_services.aspx, not adminser.aspx.)
- Delete all extraneous, nonlinked (orphan) files. Notify the WebResources
team of the files you have deleted so that we can remove them from
Staging and Production
Do not keep working files in your site only current web files. If a
page needs to be stored for work or reference later, please do so on
your C drive or on a shared department drive.
Please do not leave .psd files on your site.
- URLs must be as logical and clear as possible and make sense to people
not familiar with the School of Medicine or your with department. Use
unabbreviated words or common acronyms. They should be easy to remember
and easy to spell (e.g., medschool.ucsf.edu/patient_info/ not medschool.ucsf.edu/patinfo/.)
With that in mind, URLs should still be as short as possible Longer
URLs are harder for people to remember and to type and are often broken
when sent through e-mail (An e-mail allows about 70 characters per line).
- File names should be based on the page title. Avoid overly general
file and directory names (e.g., about.aspx, contact.aspx, not file1.aspx,
file2.aspx).
- Use numbers only if there is a compelling reason to do so, such as
a date (e.g., not review1.aspx but 09_03_review.aspx.)
- The home page of a directory/folder should always be named index.aspx.
This allows for shorter URLs as users can "chop off" the file
name and still get to the page (e.g., medschool.ucsf.edu/ defaults to
medschool.ucsf.edu/index.aspx.)
- Divide larger groups of files into subdirectories.
If you have several files in a directory called policy_lunch.aspx, policy_smoking.aspx,
policy_sicktime.aspx, move them into a subdirectory called policy and
call them lunch.aspx, smoking.aspx, sicktime.aspx.
- If you have a document that is updated periodically such as an application
form, do not affix a date or a version number to it. That way, when
it is time to update the file, you can just overwrite it with the updated
file of the same name and you will not need to locate all links to the
file to update them, they will point to the correct file automatically.
For example, if you have a yearly application form and it is named application_2003.aspx,
you will probably call the updated one application_2004.aspx. In this
case all the links pointing to the application will have to be changed
accordingly. However, if the file is simply called application.aspx,
you will not have to change any links when you update it.
Additionally, keep in mind that though you can upload files to the live
site, you cannot delete them from there, so versions will accumulate
there. A search may turn up these pages, displaying outdated or inaccurate
information.
If your site has a large number of files, consider using the following
directories to help organize your content.
about/
Information about people in the program, organizational charts and
responsibilities, policy, mission, vision, success stories, outreach
activities, and contact lists.
about/bios
Specific bio pages for each faculty member, student, etc. If you have
more than one type of bio, group similar ones together (e.g., /about/bios/faculty/
; about/bios/students/ etc.)
news/
Current program or industry news.
news/archives
Archived articles
events/
Information on any related conferences and events.
/newsletters/
NOTE: This convention will depend on the frequency of publication.
Annually
annual_report/2001.aspx
annual_report/2002.aspx
annual_report/2003.aspx
Monthly
newsletter/2003/january.aspx
newsletter/2003/february.aspx
Weekly
newsletter/2003/0107.aspx
newsletter/2003/0114.aspx
newsletter/2003/0128.aspx
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