Coding with Coda

Chapter 2. Creating a Site

While you could certainly open any single file and edit it using Coda as an editor, bigger projects require us to be wise and build upon a strong foundation. Coda enforces that premise with Sites.

A Site could have been called practically anything: pocket, container, jar, etc., but since Coda is typically geared toward the web designer and developer, Site seems as good a choice as any.

So what is a Site? It is simply a container for the project you’re working on that has related files and all the pertinent information that goes along to build and deploy it. A typical website will have HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files, as well as directories with things like images and graphic art. A more dynamic website will have files with additional functionality, such as a PHP script or page, and even connectivity to a database like MySQL.

And so, a Site is a placeholder that quickly allows you to access all this information so you can get working on your project from Coda’s launch screen. We’ll set up our first Site now and see how all of that works together.

First Run

Let’s go ahead and start the application by navigating to the Applications folder and double-clicking the Coda 2 icon (Figure 2-1).

Note

I prefer to use Mac OS X’s Spotlight app by typing Command and then the spacebar, then typing Coda 2. Spotlight will bring up the application, and then by pressing the Enter key, it will launch it. You should find what works best for your workflow, but since I love keyboard ...