Hi there! So I know nothing about RapidWeaver or building a site in general really, but I’m trying to make changes to my boss’s website and his former assistant’s notes aren’t helping. First I make changes directly in RapidWeaver to the page I want to change and then hit publish. When I visit the website, it does not reflect the changes I made.
Then I tried, in Chrome, to follow the former assistant’s instructions (below), but still the changes are not reflected.
• Open FTP client
• once logged in open the public_html file
• drag and drop the necessary files from the folder that has the most recent version of the website into the public_html window of the ftp client
• go to website, refresh page, see if changes were made
When I do this, the page that I’ve changed in RapidWeaver appears in Chrome with the changes, but that’s because it’s linking to the file on my desktop. The changes are not reflected when I visit the site. Maybe I’m not dragging the right file? I’m making changes to his “speaking” page, so the file I’ve been dragging over to the FTP client is the speaking.html file.
I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong, and I’m hoping someone has the knowledge to help me. Thanks!
The notes you are working from are either confused, incomplete, or wrong.
RapidWeaver is - and always has been - a fully integrated way to build and edit websites.
Pages are part of a huge (agglomeration of) file(s) which are uploaded ((s)ftp’d) to a server without the specific ‘intervention’ of or need for another ftp client at all.
Indeed, it’s asking for trouble to start dropping files anywhere on the server (from) outside the context within which RapidWeaver works.
Your workflow will be - assuming you have the same version of RapidWeaver as your predecessor does (if not where may or may not be a variety of procedures to update and convert files) to open the file and attend to changes in/on individual pages within RapidWeaver (for which you may well need sone real understanding of how to do this). That can be an enjoyable and rewarding experience; it may seem intimidating at first. There are lots of good people here to help as you learn the software
Then, to use its built in ftp routine(s) to upload what has changed - again inside RapidWeaver itself - to the server using credentials which correspond correctly to those it expects.
To start working ‘behind RapidWeaver’s back’ so to speak will fail. May I suggest you take a look at some of the (introductory) videos and tutorials available on the RealMac Community site? Good luck!
However, in my opinion, you were on the right track when you attempted to follow the instructions created by your predecessor. The instructions were almost right.
Allow me to suggest a bit more detailed version of the same set of instructions.
Export your site from RapidWeaver to a local folder on your computer (it doesn’t matter what location or what name you give to that folder, as long as you can easily find it);
Open FTP client;
Back up all files that are inside the public_html folder (for example, copy them to a special backup folder on your computer)—you will need them if something goes wrong;
Replace all existing files and folders that reside within public_html folder with same-name files and folders from your local export folder.
Any other files/folders that you see inside public_html folder should remain there, since they might have been created by something different than RapidWeaver;
You are done.
The above set of instructions will work if you haven’t added any new pages to your RW project. If you have, just add this step:
4a. Upload any new files/folders from your local export folder to public_html folder to add them to existing ones.
Be aware that adding and/or deleting html pages (either index.html or index.php) alone is not always enough to get desired changes. You must also update the rw_common folder, especially if you change theme, theme styles or CSS.
