Fetch Softworks

Does exported website's new folder cause problem with Mirroring? (6 posts)

• Started 15 years ago by Patti7007
• Latest reply 15 years ago from Scott McGuire

• Patti7007 Member

  Hi, All,

  I've built a website with RapidWeaver and uploaded it with Fetch using dialup last night (it took almost 3 hours). Now I see two minor things I need to change on two pages. I read the instructions for Mirroring, and also saw another warning about keeping your files in one folder on your Mac so that when you update your website, the links don't get broken. The thing is, the only way I can upload the site is by first exporting it to my hard drive, then using Fetch to upload it. The exporting reduces the folder's size from 39 MB to 13MB, so the process is similar to publishing in that all of the extraneous date is eliminated.

  Here's my question: In order to update a couple of pages, I'll need to make the changes on the raw RapidWeaver files, then export THAT folder to my hard drive to be uploaded. This creates a second folder, i.e., not the same one that I first uploaded. So by using Mirroring to upload the second folder and all subsequent exported folders in the future, as I create more changes later, am I doing something that will cause broken links? This is my first website, and RapidWeaver doesn't require that you know HTML or CSS, so bear in mind you're talking to a virtual newbie here when you answer. I'm not aware of how real Web designers (like people who use Dreamweaver) upload things: do they also have to export the raw files to their hard drive before they upload using Fetch? I'm also not clear about the definition of "different folders"--if everything in two exported folders is identical except for a couple of updated web pages, would the links still work between the two?

  Thanks!
  Patti

  Posted 15 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Patti,

  First of all, you don't need to worry about broken links. That advice is just for some people who are creating their website by working on the raw HTML files directly. Every time you export your website from RapidWeaver, it recreates your entire website, including all the links, so you shouldn't have that problem and don't need to worry about it.

  So all you should need to do is export your website from RapidWeaver again, set up the Fetch mirror window, and go.

  However, you may find that the Fetch Mirror command uploads your entire website again, even though you only changed a couple of pages. The problem is that the Fetch Mirror command looks to see which files in the folder are new, based on the modification dates of the files. When you export your website again, RapidWeaver may create every file with the date and time you exported it, so that all the files will appear to be "new" (because the exported files were created at a later date than the first export) even though the content of the files hasn't actually changed. I'm not familiar with RapidWeaver, so I can't say for sure if this will be the case, but I wanted to warn you. (This was a problem with older versions of iWeb.)

  I'm not sure you actually need to export your files to a new folder each time; you should be able to exporting your website to the same folder you exported it to the first time, unless the RapidWeaver instructions tell you not to do that. If you export to the same folder as before, RapidWeaver may say, "oh, that file is already there, and it hasn't changed, so I don't need to create it again" and then only the changed files would be marked as new. Or, it could be that RapidWeaver would just export everything again anyway, and you'd run into the problem mentioned above; not sure.

  (And no, "real web designers" who use Dreamweaver work on the raw HTML directly, so they don't need to export the files.)

  I hope this helps clarify things more than confuse things.

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 15 years ago #

• Patti7007 Member

  Hi, Scott,

  Your answer clarified some things. But I don't know how to export the updated files a second time and keep them in the same folder. Rapidweaver automatically makes a new folder for them, with the same name, however, and it appears right above the original RW folder containing raw files. (I had already moved the old exported folder to another spot and dated it yesterday, so that I wouldn't confuse them). And yes, the new folder did have a different date/time. Actually, though, before you answered I plunged in and did the Mirroring, which just finished about a half hour ago. My new changes were added and all seems to be fine with the site. The only thing is, the files are all definitely new. I know this because last night, the first time I viewed the site with dialup, it took over an hour to bring up all the images of paintings. But then this morning, because they were already in my computer's cache, they loaded instantly. Now that Fetch replaced all of the files, though, they're back to being slow to load (I checked after the Mirroring). But the Fetch instructions do say that the first time Fetch Mirrors, it will probably replace all files so that it can synchronize them. Maybe there's hope, then, that in the future when I do Mirroring, only the updated files will upload. I guess I'll have to wait and see what happens.

  Thanks for your help!
  Patti

  Posted 15 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Patti,

  You're welcome, and I'm glad you got the updates to your website successfully.

  Unfortunately, my guess is that if you always have to export your website to a new folder, the files will always all be new, and so the Mirror command will always upload them all.

  Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 15 years ago #

• Patti7007 Member

  Hi, Scott,

  Oh, well, at least managing my website via dialup is do-able with Fetch. I had tried using RapidWeaver's publish button, which took 2 hours and only uploaded 6 out of 800 files. And then Filezilla couldn't do it either: in 4 hours it successfully uploaded about 700 and failed to upload 103. So I'm just glad that Fetch can handle dialup, slow as it may be. That was enough to make me buy it.

  Thanks,
  Patti

  Posted 15 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Patti,

  We're glad to hear that Fetch is working reliably for you, and thanks for buying it!

  I wish I had a solution that would let you upload just the changed files using the Mirror command, but it sounds like that's not possible due to limitations in how RapidWeaver exports.

  Please let us know if we can be of assistance again in the future.

  Best,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 15 years ago #