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Post by tjmarshall on Mar 16, 2008 13:45:04 GMT -5
Tom,
I see my site now. Thank you. When I checked it last night, it was incorrect and when I checked it this morning it was fine. I don't know? No matter, it is up and running and now comes the extensive advertising! I just hope I know how to upload my changes correctly in the future. Thanks again and if it weren't for all of you here at the forum, I defintely would not have made it this far.
Tammy M.
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Post by troyzone on Mar 16, 2008 15:28:50 GMT -5
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Post by tjmarshall on Mar 16, 2008 18:40:15 GMT -5
Troy,
Thanks, I did that. As soon as I figure out how to publish my site in Smart FTP, I will be set. I am going to read the directions, duh. I should have done that already. I added a button for Rate Point with Ipower and it is not showing up, so I still don't know how to publish my site in SmartFTP. Tom must think I am a complete idiot. Thank you.
Tammy M.
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Post by troyzone on Mar 16, 2008 19:13:24 GMT -5
Hi Tammy, As you just mentioned, reading the directions, FAQs, or help files should always be the first thing you do with anything that you are not already familiar with I just looked quick at your site but didn't see a Rate Point button...as always, make sure that your most up-to-date page is uploaded *inside* the public_html folder, which is the root folder for your web site's files, and make sure that it is named index.html in all lowercase letters. As Tom mentioned, you would have to move, rename, delete, or otherwise replace the original index.html page with your latest version in order for it to appear on your web site as your home page, and of course your browser may need to be refreshed for it to show up properly as was mentioned above. If you have published/uploaded your file(s) correctly, the changes should be immediately visible in your browser after it is refreshed. If they are not, then your file(s) were either not placed in the correct location or else were not named exactly as they should be. I was going to post again anyway, as I just wanted to mention to you that it is also a good idea to check your site in *multiple* web browsers after updating your page. Doing so ensures that your site displays properly in browsers other than the one that you use yourself, as not everyone who visits your site will use the same browser as you do. In other words, don't just check your site in your regular browser, try loading it up in other browsers as well to test how it will display in those browsers too. As an example, sometimes your site will look perfectly fine in Internet Explorer but look completely messed up in Firefox or vice versa, and you don't want your site to appear messed up to some of your visitors. At a minimum, you should have both Internet Explorer and Firefox installed on your computer and you should check your site in *both* of those browsers as they are the two most commonly used ones at present, but there is certainly no harm in checking your site in other browsers as well if you have them available for testing purposes. Troy
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Post by tjmarshall on Mar 16, 2008 19:53:04 GMT -5
Troy,
Thanks. I have all of this covered. I just have one question. When I am in SmartFTP ( and my local computer is on the left and my FTP is on the right) do I highlight any file on the local server side (left) before the ftp side (right) and if so, which one? I have all of my D: files showing and it is very confusing. I read all I could read on SmartFTP and it was of no help. Thank you.
Tammy M.
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Post by troyzone on Mar 16, 2008 21:20:17 GMT -5
Tammy,
As I may have mentioned previously, I use WS-FTP out of habit and am not familiar with SmartFTP myself as of yet so I can't provide any detailed help regarding that program. However, generally speaking, you would highlight whatever file that you want to transfer in order to select it.
So for instance, if you made changes to the index.html page on your own computer and you want to upload it to your web host, you would open your FTP client and connect to your web host, browse to the destination folder on it (often public_html), then browse in your FTP client to the folder that your index.html page is stored in. You then would highlight the file that you wish to transfer and click the appropriate button to complete the transfer.
Basically, whatever you highlight is the source file(s) or folder(s) that you wish to transfer. This is generally the way that any FTP client I have ever used has worked.
Troy
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Post by Tom "CloudHand" on Mar 16, 2008 22:41:53 GMT -5
Tammy, You are transferring the updated file to your domain properly. The reason why it is not displaying as your home page because it is not named properly. After uploading it, test it by entering the full path in your web browser. In your case this would be www.nowlivelife.com/index1.html. If you like the changes, then you must rename the file. To do this, first rename your index.html file to move it out of the way. I like to use the date of the file as a way to archive files, so you could name your index.html file 20080315.index.html. Then rename your updated file, index1.html to index.html. Once you do this, then your updated file will display as your homepage. Look at your site in SmartFTP and you will see I have done this for you as an example of how to manage your updates. To answer your other question about SmartFTP, Troy's answer was correct. Any file or directory you highlight in your local pane will be transferred to your remote directory when clicking on the transfer arrow, and any file you highlight in the remote pane will be transferred to the local directory when clicking the arrow. There are 2 transfer arrows, one for local to remote, and one for remote to local. The arrows point in the direction of transfer, so it should be obvious as to which one to click depending on which files you intend to transfer. Tom
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Post by troyzone on Mar 17, 2008 1:33:46 GMT -5
Hi Tammy, In one of my earlier posts, I should have also mentioned how web servers work in general when it comes to displaying files, as having an understanding of this will help you in knowing what page will be displayed whenever you view your home page (i.e. whenever you enter just your domain name in your browser's address bar). Please note there is a reason that your web page needs to be called index.html specifically, (or index.htm or index.php...) and why it needs to be saved it in the public_html folder of your iPower web hosting account. It is because web servers are usually configured to look for and display a default web page called index when no page name is included at the end of the URL, such as when you view your home page by entering just your domain name in your browser's address bar. In such a case, the web server will automatically look for this default file and display it, allowing people to view your home page. Some web pages are named with an .htm extension, some with .html (both variants are HTML files), some with .php if they are written in PHP code, and there are other filename extensions as well, depending on the type of content in the web page. The first part in this case has to be index though, and you should only have one type of index page in a given folder, as the web server will generally look for a few variants and display the first one that it finds listed in its search order. If there is no default page (such as index.html) present, then a directory listing of the files in that directory (public_html in this case) is displayed, or an error message could be displayed instead, depending on how the server is configured. If you name your web page something else other than index, then the page won't show when visiting the URL for your domain. For example, when you named your page index1 then the web server would not display it as it wasn't configured to look for this name as a default page, and so you would have to include the page name at the end of your URL in order for it to be displayed, such as www.nowlivelife.com/index1.htmlIt is only the default page for a given folder that will be displayed when a URL is given with no page name at the end. When just a domain name such as nowlivelife.com is placed in a browser, it is the default page for the domain's root folder (public_html in the case of iPower web hosting accounts) that is displayed. On a related note, it is actually possible to specify a default page for subfolders on your domain too if you wish. Each folder in your web site's folder structure can have a default page set for it. For example, if you made a folder called tops inside of your public_html folder and placed a copy of your basic TOPS page there and called it index.html, then you could give the URL www.nowlivelife.com/tops and your basic TOPS site would be displayed. An alternate way to display this would be www.nowlivelife.com/tops/index.html since including the page name for a default page is optional. Here is an example of a URL that does not use a default page name... You could place a copy of your basic TOPS page inside your root (or public_html) folder and call the page tops.html instead. Since this is not a default page name, it would have to be specified at the end of your URL in order for it to be viewed, like this: www.nowlivelife.com/tops.html As you probably know, a slash / is used to separate each folder and file name in your URL. Also note that a directory and a folder are the same thing. They are just two different names for a "container" that holds files. Some people find the different terminology used confusing, but the words "folder" and "directory" really mean the same thing and are often used interchangeably. Hope this helps. Troy
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Post by tjmarshall on Mar 17, 2008 17:45:16 GMT -5
Tom,
I did as you suggested and renamed my file back to index.html and it is showing up on the ftp side but my Rate Point banner is still not showing up. They said it won't show until I publish my site. I thought I did that. The banner is on the very bottom right of my sight. It shows up in NVU, there just isn't an image there. The guy I called at Rate Point said the image will show after I publish my NVU site. Any suggestions? Thanks.
Tammy M.
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Post by troyzone on Mar 17, 2008 20:04:54 GMT -5
Tammy, I took a quick look at your source code and as far as I can determine, it doesn't contain the Rate Point code, at least not in its entirety. I noticed that you do have this towards the end of your page:
<!-- start RatePoint Site Seal - Please, do not change --> <!-- end RatePoint Site Seal - Please, do not change --> However, this section of code does not seem to really serve any useful purpose. To translate this HTML code to plain English, the <!-- and --> are starting and ending comment tags, so anything contained between them is just source code comments. All comments do is make your source code more readable and let you place notes in the code. They do not serve any function otherwise and thus have no effect whatsoever on how your site is displayed.
The only thing functional in the above code is the %nbsp or "non-breaking space", and all that does is display a space on your site, which is something you can't normally see by itself unless there are letters or other objects on either side of the space (like with the spaces in this sentence).
To the casual observer who doesn't look at your source code, there is nothing displayed at all for Rate Point on your site since the entire code above just consists of a single space with source code comments on either side.
My guess is that you are missing part of your Rate Point code in your page, so I suggest going to the site that provides your Rate Point code, copy it, and then paste it into your page again, replacing the above-mentioned code. There is probably a script or something else that should be included as part of the Rate Point code to make it functional.
Troy
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Post by tjmarshall on Mar 18, 2008 18:46:22 GMT -5
Troy,
Please let me know if you can see it now. Thank you.
Tammy M.
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Post by troyzone on Mar 19, 2008 8:38:40 GMT -5
Tammy,
The RatePoint code is still the same as what I mentioned above inside your index.html home page in your public_html folder on iPower, so there is nothing yet showing on your page for this.
Troy
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Post by Tom "CloudHand" on Mar 19, 2008 20:09:12 GMT -5
Tammy,
You need to pay more attention to what you are doing when you transfer files to your domain.
I just looked at your site and you have been copying your updated files into the wrong directory again.
When you first FTP into your domain using SmartFTP you will see in the remote pane under "Folders" nowlivelife.com at the very top. This is your account root "/" and is the first directory you go into when you FTP into your domain.
Your account root can only be accessible to you and no one else can see it under normal circumstances.
You will see 3 directories in your account root: public_html, public_ftp, and index.
Your "web root" is the first level directory that is accessible to the public and is named public_html.
If you set up FTP access for others (such as anonymous FTP ) on your domain, then the public_ftp folder will be the place where files and folders are stored for others to access. Otherwise, this directory is not used, which would be true in your case.
The last directory, index, is a junk folder and is one you must have created and was mistakenly transferring files into in the past. Inside the index directory you will find several layers of public_html directories (for example "/index/public_html/public_html").
Your current problem is that you have now created several layers of public_html directories inside the web root "/public_html" ... so you have "/public_html/public_html/public_html").
The reason why your changes are not being seen when you FTP your updated file onto your domain is because you are transferring it into the 2nd or 3rd level public_html directory instead of the web root, which is "/public_html").
The index.html file locate in your web root was dated 3/16, so you were not transferring your updated file into the proper directory. I found the last edition of your index.html file located in the 2nd level public_html, so I copied it to your web root and Rate Point is now displaying.
In the future, just ensure that you are transferring your index.html file into your web root instead of other public_html directories and you will be fine.
I have not deleted any of these extra public_html directories, but they serve you no real purpose so you should just delete them and get them out of the way.
Tom
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Post by tjmarshall on Mar 28, 2008 20:28:30 GMT -5
Tom,
I did as you said and I saved my new file as: 03282008index. My changes did not take effect? Maybe if you deleted the files I don't need that would help. I am afraid to delete anything. Anyway, if you take a look at my ftp file again, you can let me know if I did it correct this time. Your expanations to me are kind of confusing as I just figured out what a web root is I think. Thank you Tom and sorry I did not get back sooner. There was a serious accident in my family. Thank you for fixing my rate point also. It shows up fine. Actually, I have 2 buttons on there. Until I can do this myself, I am waiting to purchase Smart FTP.
Tammy M.
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Post by tjmarshall on Mar 28, 2008 21:03:53 GMT -5
Tom, I think I've got it. I renamed my page in NVU to nowlivelife.html and when I put www.nowlivelife.com in my browser like a custome would, it comes up with the latest and correct version of my web page. Did I do this correctly? Thank you. Tammy M.
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Post by Tom "CloudHand" on Mar 30, 2008 10:01:19 GMT -5
Hi Tammy, I'm sorry to hear of the serious accident in your family... hope everyone is OK. First off, there is no real reason to purchase SmartFTP... what you are doing with it can be done with FTP Commander, FileZilla, or any other FTP program. I just had you use SmartFTP to try and rule out any issues with the software program you were currently using. Since the problem turned out to not be the software, you may want to go back and try FTP Commander again since it now seems that you are getting the hang of it. I prefer SmartFTP because it offers many features and functions that other FTP clients don't, and the software performs great for me. You may not need these extra features so please feel free to use any FTP software you like. I went ahead and removed the extra public_html directories from your site so you should not have these confusing directories in your way anymore. Also, it seems you have correctly put your new index.html in the proper place, but from your description it sounds like you are still a bit unsure of what you did. When saving your new index file in NVU, there is no reason to name it anything other than index.html or index1.html. Looking at your site, you have transferred 4 new files into your public_html directory: index1.html, which has some small differences than the other 3, and then index.html, www.nowlivelife.html, and 03282008index.html, which are all 3 identical. The only file that matters is index.html, and this is the file you see when you go to your site www.nowlivelife.com. There is no difference between www.nowlivelife.com and www.nowlivelife.com/index.html. When you go to your site without specifying a file, the index.html file is the file that is loaded in your browser. www.nowlivelife.com/index.html, www.nowlivelife.com/www.nowlivelife.html, and www.nowlivelife.com/03282008index.html all 3 display a similar page because the 3 files are identical, they just have different names. There is no practical reason to have these files with those names on your domain and you can delete the 3 extra files; index1.html, 03282008index.html, and www.nowlivelife.html. I guess I need to explain the whole process with a little bit better clarity. 1. Save your new file in NVU When you save your file in NVU, just save it as index1.html, there is no need to name it something fancy at this point. 2. FTP your new file onto your domain FTP the new file (index1.html) into your public_html directory on your domain. 3. Test the new file Test the new file by viewing it with a web browser at www.nowlivelife.com/index1.html4. Make more changes in NVU If the file does not look correct or you want to make some more changes to it right away... continue making changes in NVU and repeat steps 1 - 3 until you are happy with the changes. 5. Move the old index.html file out of the way When you are ready to make your new page "live" (or publish it as it is commonly called) all you need to do is rename the file index1.html which is already on your domain to index.html. But before you can rename the file, you must move the current index.html file out of the way because you cannot have 2 files with the same name in the same directory. There are several ways to do this. One way is to just delete the index.html file and then rename index1.html to index.html... but by doing this you will lose your old file. I don't like to discard my old files, instead, I like archiving them just in case I ever need them for anything. Plus it is always nice to have older versions of your files around just in case you need to revert back to one of them if you discover problems with the new file after publishing it. An easy way to archive your files is to just add the date you installed the new file onto the front of your file name... so index.html is renamed to 20080328.index.html. Notice I have the date format YYYYMMDD instead of MMDDYYYY. You can name these files anything you want, but I have found it easier to keep hundreds of files sorted by using the YYYYMMDD format for the date. 6. Rename your new file to index.html Once you have your old index.html file moved out of the way rename index1.html to index.html and your site is now ready to go! Let us know if you have any more problems with this. It looks like you are getting the hang of it and hopefully the above explanation helps further your understanding. Tom
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Post by tjmarshall on Mar 30, 2008 22:31:27 GMT -5
Tom, These instructions are very basic and if I mess this up, then I need to go back to school. ) Anyway, thank you so much for your time and help. All of you here in the forum are very patient and understanding and that just helps me to be able to maybe help someone else in the future here at the forum. I will let you know how I do. Tammy M.
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Post by maakd on Sept 3, 2008 0:55:56 GMT -5
I have not used FTP commander, I am using other FREE FTP that works for me corretly.
Thanks
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