Hi everyone. My name is Anna and I’m writing from Italy. I have no computer skills and, for this reason, I use RW. In 15 years I have created various sites related to my hobbies and my work. This time I’m having trouble publishing it on SiteGround. It gives me a 404 error: it means there is a problem with the .hatcess files. My new site has a home page called “VETRINA” plus 12 other pages. When I start publishing it connects correctly to SiteGround but the .hatchess files window is empty and I don’t know what code to edit. Can someone help me?
Hi @emmeci47,
Not sure I understand, are you trying to visit the .htaccess file in your web browser? That wouldn’t work, you can’t access it like .html or .php pages.
Can you clarify what you are trying to do with the .htaccess file? Did SiteGround tell you that you should enter some code there? Did you read online about some code you should enter there?
We would need more information in order to help.
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Hi Dan.
When I try to publish my website https://leoccasionidianna.it/ I’ve verified that there is no code in the window of the .hatcess file.
This is the reason why SiteGround says that without a correct .hatcess file it is impossible to publish my website and Google writes “Error 505 page not found".
I’ve controlled the .hatcess file in the managing files page of SiteGround: the icon is present but it is empty, without any code.
So SiteGroun wrote to me to enter this generic code, with no results:
RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?/$1 [L]
I think they work well with WordPress but they are absolutely not familiar with RW.
Mind that on November 2023 I’ve published a previous version without this kind of problem and it is almost ten year I use RW to make five websites (having no programming skills: this is why RW is fantastic).
Unfortunately nothing from the previous site was saved, because it was outdated and needed to be completely redone, which is why I am unable to verify old .hatcess file and I’m asking for your help.
Kind regards,
Anna.
PS. My website is .an e-commerce business without a cart. My customers can choose and purchase from a vast gallery of wool and cotton yarns, since I live in Biella, the city that is the Italian capital of wool.
That’s .htaccess code for WordPress, not RapidWeaver. 
I agree with what @Heroic_Nonsense said below, check your path because it’s usually not just /
Hi @emmeci47,
That bit of code tells the server to point any request for a page or file that does not exist back to the index.php file to handle the redirect.
This won’t work on your website, as there is no index.php file to point to. So, in short, the advice that SiteGround is giving you, makes no sense.
It looks to me that your website is stored in the wrong folder on your server. If you go to the publishing settings in RapidWeaver, you should see the folder it stores your site in here:
(the folder (or path) on this image is of course an example)
Check with SiteGround if you have the correct path in this setting field. They should be able to tell you if it do, or what it should be if it don’t.
Cheers,
Erwin
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Hi, Dan.
I’ve two questions:
- Can you suggest me a wright cod for RW?
- Do you have a preferred host, instead of SiteGround?
I hope they’re the last two so as not to abuse your kindness.
Thanks for your time, Anna.
Thanks, Erwin.
Fingers crossed and I’ll try!
Kind regards, Anna.
Hi, can you see the files, when you look in your host server of via e.g. File Zilla or any other ftp-software?
Yes, I see all files. But if I open the .htachess file it is empty, without text…
hmm on the root of your site where you want the viewer to go first what is the name of the file. by the way none of these worked for now
https://leoccasionidianna.it/index.php
https://leoccasionidianna.it/index.html
https://leoccasionidianna.it/VETRINA.php
https://leoccasionidianna.it/VETRINA.html
Ciao, Scott.
Hi @emmeci47,
https://leoccasionidianna.it/VETRINA.html
… does not exist.
Please check the setting that I explained in my previous post - my guess is that that’s the answer.
Cheers,
Erwin
You don’t really need any .htaccess code for RapidWeaver unless you are using a third-party addon/plugin/stack that specifically calls for it. Other than that any .htaccess code you use would be optional. 
I prefer hosting on my own cloud instance, but SiteGround is ok for shared hosting, at least it was ~7 years ago, I haven’t really followed anything they’ve been doing since then.
Please feel free to ask as many questions as needed, that’s what we’re here for.
It’s recommended to give your pages a filename of either index.html or index.php. So your home page URL should be https://leoccasionidianna.it/index.html
I tried to see your sitemap (https://leoccasionidianna.it/sitemap.xml), but I got also an 404. Or did you disable the sitemap?
Is your webspace (the right folder) connected to your domain?
Can you post your sitemap code?
take a look here: Where to upload my website files? - SiteGround KB
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