Forgive me if this is posting in the wrong place but this is the best forum, I thought, for the topic. As I am new to the web word concept, I have looked around at numerous how to and getting started guides. While they were all helpful in their own little ways, I still have one question.
When setting up a website, why are they not more like file systems? I see everyone just combine all images in a folder, all html in a folder, or maybe even all the files are just in one folder. I think this becomes hard to navigate with larger sites and I would hope that the large sites do not follow such a method.
You have a root folder under which all your html content lies. Adjacent to the root, you have your various script folders, image folders, databases, and documents. I put these adjacent, because I read somewhere that html files cannot go up in levels to access other folders via code, but server side scripting could. I think this would protect files a lot more than most people currently do. Second, and more of the reason for this post, is why do developers not setup the structure in more of a directory like structure.
1. Use folders to create menus such as:
2. Name a document within the folder, the same as the folder and have that document display when the menu option is selected.
3. If there are additional documents within the folder, they are simply displayed as a menu option, based on their name.
NOTE: Users can use such naming schemas as name_hidden or _name or any other schema to differentiate files or folders that should not display in a menu but could be link to, such as an admin page, 404 page, or such.
Maybe I am way off or thinking about web design all wrong, but I think such a method would be much easier to develop for beginners as simply creating a folder and dropping in a web file, would be the extent of the work. The only required script would be the menu creation, which I am sure would not be that difficult to create as I have seen multiple directory scripts in php and ajax. This would also give a basic lesson in the server side script, recursive functions, variables, output statments, loops, and even objects.
Again, as I am new to the web world, I am looking for opinions on such a method, specifically, downfalls and / or advantages to such a setup, sites that follow such a methodology, if any, and any other comments from the group.