Are the links really broken? (Dreamweaver) [Archive]

Click to See Complete Forum and Search --> : Are the links really broken? (Dreamweaver)

davidc

11-10-2006, 09:20 AM

I have just built my first Dreamweaver site and am testing it before
publication. All the pages on the site are built from one or other of two Templates I have made. Testing in multiple browsers all links seem to work fine. But when I do a site-wide links check the report is that all the pages based on Template A have broken links to that Template (of 16 pages). Over 100 other web pages are based on Template B and only a few of these are reported to have a broken link to its parent Template (B). All links were created relative to document and the two Templates reside in a sub folder of my root local folder - there are no other files in that folder.

When I double click one of the reported pages with broken links derived
from Template A and B, in Code view, a cursor flashes at the very top left
hand side of the page, immediately before here -

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> ,

I don't know if this is significant.

When viewed in Design view the problem is the editable area in the middle of the page (top and left hand sides are locked).

I have tried repointing the link to the correct parent Template (in the Results panel) but this does not save, and the broken link is unchanged.

The locked regions of Template A are a banner headline area and left side with navigation buttons, and the locked area of template B is along the top where there are navigation buttons.

Nearly all the broken links derived from Template A are shown as:

/Templates/index.dwt. But one of the problem pages derived from
Template B is: template/index.dwt - no initial forward slash and the
initial letter T in lower case rather than caps. I don't understand code and have done all the work in Design view.

I am stumped by this broken links problem. It almost looks like the offspring pages are failing to link to their parent Template because off the editable area. But Template B also has an editable area and not all its child pages are reporting a broken link. I must be missing something simple.

I have searched for an answer to this without any luck. Can I just
ignore the reported broken links and publish my site or do I need to
sort out this apparent broken link problem?

Grateful for advice, please?
David

ryanbutler

11-10-2006, 09:24 AM

Templates in DW are a notorious pain in the butt. If you're using site root relative paths:

/Templates/foo.dwt

Then those paths will not locally on your pc because there's no path for site root relative paths, this is only on the server. Test your site on the Internet and check for broken links. You can also d-load Firefox and use the Link checker plug-in to check for broken links.

Hope this helps as I'm not sure I fully understand the problem.

davidc

11-10-2006, 12:17 PM

Thank you. The problem is that the Link checker is reporting that all 16 of my html web pages have broken links to their parent Template and I don't know why, if it matters, and whether I need to do anything about it.

I am mystified as to why the missing links should be site root relative because all pages have been created using the document relative setting. As you say, the thing is to test it on the web, though I am really reluctant to do so when so many pages apparently have broken links.

This problem must have happened to other people too and I am surprised there have been no responses to various web inqyuiries I have made which recognise this as a problem

If you or anyone else have any other ideas I'd very much like to hear them.

David

ryanbutler

11-10-2006, 02:33 PM

For one, the problem is slightly unknown due to how its being explained. I've read the problem three times slowly and I'm still confused. You intermixed Template A to B, then back to A.

The best I explanation of the problem I came up still was confusing when I tried to type it out. If you can clarify somehow, such as breaking it down, then I'm sure someone can help out.