Hi, I’m a user of RapidWeaver8 and I make simple webpages, no plugins, no frills, etc. The key for me has always been a simple very stable environment for my simple webpages (text and images).
Recently I put together some pages with photographs kept in resource folders, and I carefully used different descriptive names for each .jpg. Now some of the entire folders have disappeared, and in some of the other folders some of the images have disappeared. I have a backup, but I’m not sure how resources are stored and how they might be found in a backup. My first question is why does this happen? And my second is how to reconstruct the resources that were originally there? I had hoped that resources was stable enough to be primary source, or do I now have to keep a separate backup folder with all the images on each page in order, etc. just in case, and then how do I reconstruct the rescource folder?
I also have a two of housekeeping questions
I still have RapidWeaver7 in my app list, but am using RapidWeaver8, can I just delete the old app. I’m not using it any longer.
And where is the best place to put my .rw8 files?
Any help would be much appreciated. In particular how to recreate my missing resource folders.
Unless you deleted them your Resource folders are likely still in the old RW7 addons folder so DO NOT delee anything yet. Someone else will have to help though as I don’t use the Resources feature. I host my own resources and just link to them or use stacks that allow this (what some call “warehousing”. Someone who uses Resources will no doubt help you here shortly… but don’t delete anything.
Thanks for the reply. Sorry for the confusion, but RW7 has just been sitting there, and I used RW8 to build the resources and recent pages. So I don’t think the issues are related. My question is really why do things disappear from resources? Both folders and images in folders. Also once a page is built and published does it have any link to the original resources? So does it matter. If there is no link then I can re-populate the resources from my backup. In the past I had some problems with resources, and I learned to be careful, always use unique names and always .jpg’s. And for a while it looked fine, but I recently added two new sets of resources and 2 new webpages, and bang, I lost two folders of resources and a pack of images in a third folder. It amazing, I’m trying to keep things as simple as possible and I’m still suffering from problems. I hate to think what it might be like if I had a complex “mission-critical” website.
I would truly appreciate any insights or help to understand things so I don’t make the same mistakes twice.
Just a thought, is there any limits to the number of folder, files, etc. that resources can handle, or a limit of the MB per image or total MB in resources or in folders?
Do you use Stacks? There are a number of good image stacks that allow “warehousing.” Warehousing simply means you upload your image to your site and then link to it. I have a very large webstie and I don’t have a single “resource” in RW. I do the same with eBooks, pdfs, etc. Like you I tried Resources a long time ago and had some issues. It’s likely it was my fault. I’m sure most people use Resources with no problem. But I just prefer to keep RW as light as possible. (Site is 1500 pages in mulitple project files.) Warehousing works great for me.
You need someone who “knows” and uses Resouces extensively to help here. Sorry I’m not able to help.
Re-reading your post - I can ask this. I don’t understand your comment “I used RW8 to build the resources and recent pages.” When you moved to RW8 the entire Project file was “upgraded” to 8 wasn’t it? And you re-published the entire site?
Was the project originally created in an earlier version (pre RW8]?
in the RW8 project that under advanced settings there’s an option for “Site Resources”, make sure it’s set to ”copy into document”.
That’s the default option for new RW8 projects, projects created started with earlier versions will “convert” to the new RW8 format with the option set to “leave in place”.
Firstly thanks for you suggestion about “warehousing”. I like the idea of keeping RW as light as possible. And I do wonder what the true purpose of Resources is. I’m not sure how difficult it would be to make the transition as you suggest.
Yes I did as you said, but the new pages and resources I’m actually talking about were made after I had moved to RW8.
Thanks for the comment, the resources I’m seeing problems with were made after I had moved to RW8. But you are right I did have a few problems I had to “clean up” when I moved to RW8, because I did not know the meaning of the advanced settings and I may not have been using Resources in the best way. I’m still not 100% on why Resources is useful for me, but if its stable I’m fine with it. Good to know about the advance setting for when RW9 hits us.
Hello… @teefers will good advice. I think that for most people, RW’s Resouces works fine. Give it a chance… see if you can get it working and try it out. teefers and others can likely help.
As info only - as to “warehousing” - it’s really easy if you get a procedure set. For example, I use Yummy FTP to upload and with it you can create “droplet” apps. Yummy is not free but it’s worth it to me. I have a droplet app sitting on my desktop and all I need do is drop my sized and optimized images onto the icon. The app logs in to my server and uploads it to my defined “images” folder. Then in my stack I just select “warehoused image” and enter the url of the image.
I do sometimes use regular RW “images” (stack) also. I don’t use site wide images each one of my images is pretty much unique and won’t be used again. For those that are used over and over I just call the image from my images folder. In fact, I have Keyboard Maesto and I set text expanders for often used image and page urls (links), thus, I don’t even have to type, find, or remember the full url. Some of them get quite long.
I advise you get Resources figured out and once you understand it, try it. Resources will likely work just fine for you. My site is unique due to it’s size and fact that it’s made up of six different project files.
Your thoughts were more or less what I was thinking. I need Resources to work properly, but need to think about an alternative as well. You have given me the alternative for the future and I will try it out. My pages all use images more or less once, and so I think what you suggest will work perfectly. But I still need to figure out Resources, and correct the problem. Regards and keep safe
When upgrading from RW7 to RW8 you should keep the project file in its original location (save a backup copy first) and open it in RW8. Your resources files should be there. If any are missing it is because the original file on your mac has been moved, deleted, or had a name change; or you have moved the project file to a different location.
Missing files can be re-linked if the file names are still there or you can just drop them in again.
If you have lost the original files then you should be able to download them from the resources folder on your website via cpanel.
Resources is a great tool, and basically it does the same thing as warehousing an image without the hassle of creating a folder on the server and uploading a file via cpanel or ftp. Warehouse image stacks also allow you to access a file in the resources folder.
Regarding limit of files in resources, you can certainly put a large number of files in resources and you can organise them in sub-folders. And it does not overload your website with unnecessary code any more than any other warehouse folder. With either method the key is to keep the size of images small.
In response to your question as you originally asked it:
If you put photos in the RW8 resources folder then, on your web server, they should appear in a folder named ‘resources’ amid all the other RW8 folders. Have you mounted the server files on your desktop to check (using Cyberduck, Transmit, Forklift or some similar app)?
Is your backup also on the web server? If so it should be a zipped file called YourTitle_rw8.zip in a folder with a long name with a lot of letters and numbers followed by _rwbackup. If you drag this folder on to your desktop (using one of the same apps) you can unzip the backup file and open it in RW8.
My own website has a lot of downloadable files and I do keep a local copy of them all. In your position I would do the same.
Hi, thanks for taking the time to help me. The Resouces I lost were all created in RW8, but I did move the the package around. Is there a preferred place to keep .rw8 packages? I am recreating the folders, and checking everything and dropping the files back into the resource folders. The problem with the resource file in RW on the server is that it is updated when I republish, so it has been over-written, but I have a backup. I Will continue to use Resouces, but I would like to understand them better. Regards
Thanks for the reply, I have looked at the resources on the server, but they are updated when republished. I should take a local copy of the Resouces on the service more frequently. But I do have a separate backup on an external HD. It’s not automatic so there is probably some minor differences.
I’m rebuilding the missing resources and will be making lots of backup updates, and checking constantly what is happening. I need to find out more about how Resouces works.
Best regards
I must say I don’t use the resources folder for my links. I’ve got a couple of photos in there and that’s it. Mine is a predominantly text based website and I write everything (including the links) in Scrivener and paste it into RW8. That way I have a copy of everything in a separate app.