Directory Structures

Determining the directory structure for a website is much more than a site design issue it is a very important information management decision. Directory structure influences:

• Security - who can edit what sections of the site
  
• Domains - all files and subdirectories within a directory must be in the same domain
  
• Reporting - link analysis and usage reports are organized based upon directories and include statistics on which directories are most accessed.
  
• Search Indexing - search tools look for a robots.txt file in the root directory of a site to determine if the site should be indexed or not.
  
• Search Index Collections - search tool collections represent a set of pages for which a single index is to be created. A near term initiative of the Digital Ohio Office is to provide agencies with the ability to control the administration of their collections. Individual search options on an agency site will be directed to specific collections.
  
• Bookmarks - Internet Explorer looks for a favicon.ico file in the directory when a visitor creates a bookmark
  
• Default home pages - every directory should have a default or index file that functions as a home page for the files within the directory
  
• Application Objects - system variable properties in IIS are applied to directories and impact pages within the directory and any subdirectories
  
• Custom 404 error messages - all files and subdirectories within a top level directory will get the same custom 404 error messages
  
• IIS Redirects - are setup on a per directory basis
  

For a large agency that serves many constituent groups or has many different service offerings decisions on directory structure must be taken very seriously. It is strongly recommended that any agency that has fairly autonomous divisions and/ or programs establish a distinct website and directory structure for those divisions/programs.

The downside issues that will face an agency with autonomous websites and domains include:

• Common graphics must either reside in each autonomous directory structure or must be referenced with absolute urls
• Site creation and/or content management products will have to be configured to allow for multiple root or top level directories and must be able to support separate websites.

This whole area can be very hard to grasp. Please use the Send Request form to ask questions or to request a meeting.