Publish Changed Pages Only Error

[Hyde the darker side]

I'm using FP 2002 SP3, publishing via http to a FP enabled web site. OS is
XP Home SP2.

Web server is a unix server running Linux, Kernel version 2.4.26
Appache version 1.3.33 (Unix)

My publish settings are:-

Publish: Changed Pages Only
Changes: Determine changes by comparing source and destination webs

The error I get is that a number of html (*.htm) pages are published on each
occasion even though I've not made any changes to those files. I do not
receive any warning or error messages and each publish concludes with the
"done" view site / view log dialog box.

In addition the "publish web" dialog box that shows the folder and file
listings for both local and remote sites, shows that these files are up to
date.

It's only during the progress of the publish that I see these files
continually being copied up to the server and then have it confirmed in the
publish log.

Any thoughts as to why these unchanged files are being uploaded each time?

Many thanks
Hyde.

 

[Thomas A. Rowe]

Have these pages ever been edited/changed/replaced outside of FP?

Do these page contain Shared Borders or FP Navigation Components or other shared component, that
when updated, updates all pages using any of the components?

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, WebCircle, MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================

 

[Hyde the darker side]

Hi Thomas,

Thanks for coming back to me.

No they've not been edited/changed/replaced outside of FP.

Yes they do have shared borders, but then so does every other page in the
web. The shared borders do not change.

The majority are plain html files containing just text. Site navigation
(apart from the shared borders) is by way of a breadcrumb trail. The macro
for this was written by:- Stephen C. Travis and is available on a couple of
FP dedicated web sites as a free GNU download. All my html files have this
breadcrumb trail, so again I don't know why just this particular set of files
continue to get published.

A few of the files have the navigation webbot, but not all.

The site is http://www.htds.co.uk

Two of the offending files are:-
http://www.htds.co.uk/text_jokes/animals/animal_humour.htm which contains FP
webbot navigation bars.
and...
http://www.htds.co.uk/text_jokes/animals/a_defining_moment.htm
which contains the breadcrumb trail macro.

Regards
Hyde.

 

[Thomas A. Rowe]

So you are not making any changes to any content that is within a shared border area of your pages
and you are not modifying any navigation or navigation component, or the theme, correct?

Have you tried using the different options of comparing what files need to be published when
publishing?

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, WebCircle, MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================

 

[Hyde the darker side]

Correct, not making any such changes to borders components or themes.

I had stopped using the "use source file timestamps..." option as this left
sundry overlay/derived files on the server when I deleted the main html page.

I could try this option again if you believe that it should handle the
deletion of all the associated files?

Regards
John.

 

[Thomas A. Rowe]

I would use the option to directly compare files, and if that fails, then you would need to open the
live site directly in FP, and publish back to your local machine overwriting your local copy, this
should then bring both site in sync with each other.

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, WebCircle, MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================

 

[Hyde the darker side]

Hi Thomas

Changed the publish options to just compare the source file timestamps and
FP now only publishes those new files or edited files.

But, as I said in my earlier post, this option does not delete files from
the target web when they've been deleted in the local web. So this is not an
option.

The other option of publishing back to the local machine is also something
I'd rather not do. The web is just over a 100Mb and I've only got 56k dialup
;-(

Do you have any other thoughts on how we could progress this?

Many thanks
Hyde.

 

[Thomas A. Rowe]

You are going to have to do a complete publish one way or the other to get both sites in sync. You
must do this if you have re-installed FP or upgraded.

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, WebCircle, MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================

 

[Hyde the darker side]

Hi Thomas

Oh dear!

I have recently installed SP3 for FrontPage and may have run the Detect and
Repair following an issue with not finding the ActiveX control for Shockwave.

I think it may be easier to delete the offending pages and re-create them.

Regards
Hyde

 

[Hyde the darker side]

OK I've removed all the offending pages from the navigation structure,
re-created my top level pages under Home and re-attached all the offending
pages including those that weren't causing me any problems.

Result - Great, everything publishes just fine.

Then...

Tried to create some custom error pages (400/401/403/404/500.shtml) I added
them as top level pages to pick up the theme and top/left shared borders.

Published again, but the error pages just showed place holders for the top
banner and page navigation in the shared left border. In particular
404.shtml when activated at the root level of the site worked OK, but if
activated from anything lower in the folder structure, just gave the place
holders again.

So removed these pages from the top level navigation and published again.
Now I get another 20 or so pages publishing that have not been edited and I'm
back to square one.

My web stats are showing a number of 404 calls for the graphic overlay
files, which appear to be called with a path structure that is a
concatenation of paths.

Can someone enlighten me as to what's going wrong.

Many thanks
Hyde.

 

[Hyde the darker side]

STOP PRESS!

I've removed the shared borders from just the shtml customer error pages,
and now it's only those custom pages that get published, as I would expect.

The custom error pages now have a two column table. A webbot navigation
link bar in the left column to mimic the shared left border, and standard
text describing the error page. However, the place holder problem still
exists when the 404 error page is called from any folder lower doen than the
root.

Do I need to start a new thread for custom error pages, or can we continue
here?

Many thanks
Hyde.

 

[Thomas A. Rowe]

You have to add static menus to the .shtml page, you can not use shared borders, since the page are
generate as requested from the server, and FP can not adjust the links with in the page to match
your folder structure.

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, WebCircle, MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================

 

[Hyde the darker side]

Hi Thomas

Many thanks. I've stripped out all the webbot navigation and replaced them
with individual hover buttons.

I found that in order for these to work at all levels within the domain each
button has to have the full "http:///www.mydoman.co.uk/full path to graphic
file" to link to the _derived folder for that particular button.

I also had to manually edit the html code for each hover button so that the
full path to fphover.class held within the codebase tag also held the full
http address to the root of my domain which is where FrontPage has stored the
fphover.class file.

So all now works as I want it to. So many thanks for your help.

Regards
Hyde.

 

[Thomas A. Rowe]

Many users of Windows XP / IE6 and NS will not be able to navigation using the Java Applets, such as
the hover buttons, since MS no longer distribute the MS JVM and for NS users, it is an optional
install. Suggest you use standard text links on these pages.

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, WebCircle, MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================

 

[Hyde the darker side]

Hi Thomas, thanks for the tip.

Remind me again what the "custom" bit meant in "custom error pages" ;-)

I can't use the standard navigation features.
I can't use hover buttons without considerable tweaking.
Turns out it's plain old text that's the only thing that'll work since MS
and Sun had a bust up.

Isn't technology wonderful ;-)

Not your fault, not getting at you. In fact, grateful for all your input.

Many thanks
Hyde.