Bacardi

Can anyone explain to me how come that in DWMX (I slowly start hating this app as it never ever does what I want it to, so I always have to hand-code) when I preview in every browser available, I often, but not always, do not get a link, while in the code it is there, the code is correct, identical in form to the code where it does show, the page exists and should be linked?

Bizarre is that where I have a dummy link (for pages to be added later on), instead of getting no link, I always get a link to the latest page I added...

Anyone else using this Nightmare Weaver MX who knows this behavior?

I am really not happy! Never in my previous versions of the site I ever encountered this.

If no one ever encountered this, I'll have to try a new install...
Just hope all the pages I created aren't lost! (these first first fifty pages will form the base for the hundreds of pages on the second level...)

Bacardi

I found the cause, although I cannt understand why it happened: somehow DW has put an # after all the .htm extension that I cannot see.

?????????

First I had to manually reset the sizes of columns and rows in a nested table, then non-breaking spaces were playing bingo with another table, and now this.
Luckily I didn't ever spend more money on an update!

Bacardi

The most bizarre thing of all: when I look at the code in DW, I have links to the pages.
Yet when I look at the code in a browser, I get # (dummies).
Also when I upload them to a server.
And I did save my pages.

Blinky2004

2 things come to mind here Erik:

1) in your prefs you have it set for DW to create a "temp" copy of your document instead of forcing you to save your changes first, prior to previewing the page. This might be the cause of the # getting added.

2) When you work on a site/page make sure to create a "Project" directory for it first. That, as i've found, can cause a lot of trouble in various degrees. I hate having to do this myself as i quite often just open handcoded/existing pages to modify/tweak some things.

lilwicked805

I agree with Mark on the possible cause. I, like Mark, usually open a few pages to edit or if I create a new site I just start with a new doc and DW hates that. DW, if a site folder has not been set up, is totally confused and will try to override what you are doing. I have seen DW rename every link in all my pages in a folder to my system path, not the one I coded in. So to stop the madness I created a dummy site and DW stopped the insanity. [confused]

Bacardi

Well, I always start with creating a root folder in my Sites Folder. I have one folder for experiments, but this site is created from scratch in its own root folder.

Bizarre is that on the same page some links work perfectly from the first moment, and others simply won't work. I follow the same procedure for both.
What's more, I'm a bit old fashioned, so I create basic pages (not DW templates as these block the head of the page) and these I add content to and save as-, so all identical data is indeed identical.

I create my new pages by right-clicking on the root folder, or folder inside that one and choosing "new link". This way the page is automatically saved. I also have the habit of saving anything (not only in DW) after any important change.

I do use a rollover, but apart from that only tables., and when things would be too complicated, nested tables. Nothing special there.

I create my links inside DW, mostly by using the point to file icon to the page I want to link to. Controlling in design/code view together shows how the code updates, and the link is formed. Inside DW the links are there (were there: I haven't reopened after a cold start for the night and day). But neither in the browser, nor in its view>code, not in Notepad the links are there. So the page is saved with a dummy # .
To be honest, I wonder why they use this # instead of the better javascript:;

I must sort this out, and I will (of course!), but it's discourageing when first I had to enter manually those tabular data, and now this...I'm afraid I will have to add all the links manually. Partly this can be done by using templates and creating specific editable regions, but I will still have to do more than a hundred links by hand, and may not forget a single one. This is not why I bought DW in the first place!

Yet, as I had no problems before with any of the previous versions of my site, I'm willing to think it might be something corrupted, or eventually badly loaded.
It's just that I want my things to work. I cannot "travel through the jungle" without trusting on my compass, knife and camera. When you've been painting for twelve hours, and then want to add another step in that site, which proves to be corrupted by bad mortar, the kerosene in the blood rises...

Thanks for your replies.
I'll keep you informed. (feel like B. must feel about his war right now!)

Bacardi

OK. So I changed all null links (#) in corrct new links, and now everything seems to work.
I don't understand it, but it looks like it's working.

I only discovered that Opera and Mozilla have enough with "normal" code, but that IE needs spacer gifs to respect a set table stucture.

Better save it to some secret location...

Blinky2004

Well that's an elusive one Erik, no doubt. Glad it seems to be working ok now. :B

lilwicked805

Ok the old tech support dog is coming out in me! I did recreate what you explained. I had a page open in DW and in Windows Explorer I moved the page to another folder without closing it in DW. Wham # signs on all my links. Then I had a page open in DW and renamed the page and wham, # signs for the links. So for one more round of testing I left a file open in DW and opened it in Notepad and made one edit and wham # signs for the links. Not sure if any of the above applies but I did recreate the problem. I am just glad you have it worked out now! :} :B

Bacardi

...and I am very glad you could recreate the problem.
It's quite assuring for me that a pro can reproduce it, so it must indeed be some kind of workflow the DW designers haven't thought about. Me, I thought it was due to a badly loaded DW and because I was very tired, it hadn't occured to me t restart the puter. Yet now...

I did know there was a problem with broken links when using templates: when you type you link into the properties manager, links just won't work. You really have to browse to the page you want to link to. Question of using relative links as far as I understand it.

But this one was new to me. A real close encounter of the sixth kind. The ghost in the machine.

Anyway, the advantage is that I've been forced to work with code directly, and that I learned a lot.

Thanks for your support, both of you!



[righton]