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**pinbrook** · 11-May-2007, 12:16 AM

Last post of the night...

I took the site back to a clean theme, and then re-registered a new html outerlayout and css file with new names.

Now the site uploads and gives a clean snapshot.

One final question though....

In site Options|Properties i define the Stylesheet as SWCSS.css. Does this mean I also have to add the line <link href="SWCSS.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" /> to the outlayout?

If you why twice or can I leave the siteoptions properties blank as the code in the outer layout overrides it.

**pinbrook** · 11-May-2007, 12:20 AM

I lied.....

Just did a final snapshot of the night... guess what

Errors
(File ExportFiles.cpp, Line 456) - The file D:\PB_PARTNERS\_Pinbrook\Actinic\Texas\texas.html was not found System error 3 - The system cannot find the path specified.
..
Warnings
This site includes files that are outside the Actinic installation directory.
On importing the site these files will be delivered to a temporary location within the Actinic installation directory.
Manual intervention will be required to restore the site after import.

D:\PB_PARTNERS\_Pinbrook\Actinic\Texas\texas.html

**leehack** · 11-May-2007, 02:29 AM

Now that is what they call Karma.

**RuralWeb** · 11-May-2007, 07:03 AM

Dont worry jo - as stated on the GC thread us developers dont have real shops anyway so its all a bad dream

**cdicken** · 11-May-2007, 08:55 AM

OK - Lee first and then Jo

Chris, can you also clarify something for me please.

I always used to apply the upgrade patches and was shown the light on this and picked up that it is best to download the full version. After downloading the new full version, i remove actinic completely from my PC and then installed the new version from scratch, licensed it, created the new sites and imported the snapshots accordingly.

I seem to recall recently reading on one your posts, that although you do download the full version (not the patch), you do not delete the current actinic installation, you just apply the new version over the top.

If this is the case, it would certainly save me sometime, can you explain what exactly you do in this process as the more sites you have, the longer my process currently takes.

Literally all I do is download the full version and run it. It replaces all my system files with the new ones and then when I go into each of my sites it asks me whether I want to use the new layouts that came with the version - I just select 'Do Not Upgrade My Site Design'.

Anything i need to watch out for?

Not really. It's always gone smoothly for me using this method.

**cdicken** · 11-May-2007, 09:01 AM

Jo

there was indeed a D:\ pathname in there.

I've now made it blank... and my custom layout seems to stick... is this safe?

When you make this field blank - Actinc stops looking at the external file - and just looks within it's own database for the layout code. If you find you are missing any files, you can then copy them into the site folder.

Well indeed the answer to this is it picks up the design from the layouts in the database, so i have to re-create the external design from the layout in order to reregister the desig nwith DW.

You don't have to recreate the external design. If you've basically finished the design, you can just make the 'Filename' field blank and then just keep everything within Actinic and within the site folder.

additionally I've lost my external css. In site options i have "custom1" but there is no custom1.css in site1, only actinic.css in siteHTML.

When you have a registered Dreamweaver design, when Actinic does an upload or a snapshot, Actinic checks the site folder AND the folder with the external design for all the source files. If custom1.css was in the external design folder but not in the site folder, Actinic will not longer be able to find it.

In site Options|Properties i define the Stylesheet as SWCSS.css. Does this mean I also have to add the line <link href="SWCSS.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" /> to the outlayout?

You don't need to make any change in 'Site Options'. Just add the <link> tag into the <head> section of your overall layouts.

(File ExportFiles.cpp, Line 456) - The file D:\PB_PARTNERS\_Pinbrook\Actinic\Texas\texas.html was not found System error 3 - The system cannot find the path specified.

Arrgh! So frustrating! This must be still referred to within the 'Filename' field of one of your overall layouts in the library. It could be a hangover from an early experiment.

If you have Access, open up your ActinicCatalog.mdb file, and search the 'DesignObjects' table for this file path. Once you find it, you can delete it safely.

**leehack** · 11-May-2007, 10:10 AM

Thanks Chris, appreciate it.

**pinbrook** · 11-May-2007, 11:17 AM

Its getting better.....

I now have 2 layouts

SW

and

SW (Checkout)

the difference between them is the checkout one does not have the left hand nav. But if I remove the div that displays the menu, it removes it from BOTH layouts. I kid you not, i've done it 3 times now as i couldn't beleive my eyes.

EDIT - I've noticed if I show SW (Checkout) in design view and click "Edit in Dreamweaver" the file shown in DW is SW.

Soooooo....

This is what I did.

I've got SW.html as my registered design

I went to Library, found SW in my OuterLayouts, right click, create a new layout based on SW, called it SW (Checkout).

If i make any change to either of these layouts BOTH reflect the change.

What am I doing wrong?

**pinbrook** · 11-May-2007, 11:42 AM

I am very unsure of the correct procedure here.

If I were to create a brand new site, I'd open AC, show overall layout in design view and click edit layout in DW. Make changes in DW, would this be an external layout?

At what point does a layout become "external"? and at what point does it need to be registered?

If I want several overall layouts ie a main one for shop pages and a different one for checkout, how should i create them and are they external and should they be registered

if i want my own CSS editable in topstyle, whats the best practise? assuming I want nothing to do with ActinicStyleSheet, but I do want to be able to change colours using the PaletteVariables etc.

**jont** · 11-May-2007, 12:17 PM

Originally posted by pinbrook

show overall layout in design view and click edit layout in DW. Make changes in DW, would this be an external layout?

No - you are just using DW to edit the code rather than the notepad like editing pane inside Actinic

Originally posted by pinbrook

At what point does a layout become "external"? and at what point does it need to be registered?

An external layout is one that is created in DW and then you hit the Actinic | Register option ... this the loads the page as an external layout in Actinic.

Originally posted by pinbrook

if i want my own CSS editable in topstyle, whats the best practise? assuming I want nothing to do with ActinicStyleSheet, but I do want to be able to change colours using the PaletteVariables etc.

Simply link in the outer layout to the mysheet.css ... remove the link to actinic.css and remove all the code in actinic.css /* removed to mysheet.css */

**pinbrook** · 11-May-2007, 12:23 PM

Am I correct in thinking now that 8.5.1 has "Edit Layout in DW" for every layout theres no real need to register external designs any longer?

So apart from installing the DW extension, you don't actually have to do anything else. Indeed do i need the DW extension?

I can open a default theme, edit layouts in DW and thats it?

remove all the code in actinic.css /* removed to mysheet.css */

so if I view ActinicStyleSheet it will contain this info only?

Looking good.... but how do I fix SW?

**jont** · 11-May-2007, 12:30 PM

The register facility is best used to create the overall outer layout from scratch and then register once it is sorted design wise. After that you can break the link inside Actinic and edit the code in the design tab mode .. or copy and paste back from DW into Actinic.

This is the route I am going to be taking due to issues with the outer layout not always getting updated .. especially in partial design snapshots.

You can just copy your HTML into Actinic outer layout but this will not have any of the layouts, cookies, base href's etc applied .. these would need to be added manually with the chance of getting it wrong.

**jont** · 11-May-2007, 12:33 PM

Originally posted by pinbrook

I can open a default theme, edit layouts in DW and thats it?

Yes - as all the Actinic gubbins are there and can be hacked accordingly.

I now find it easier to make changes inside Actinic with the code compressed .. in DW or notepad the <actinic variable> expands and makes reading a nightmare .. much like the old NETQUOTEVAR:LONG_VARIABLE_NAME_HERE_BREAKS_THE_LAYOUT

**pinbrook** · 11-May-2007, 12:36 PM

So our proposed methods are going to differ....

I want to forget external designs, and simply edit layouts in DW using the "edit layout in DW" I've got no issue with taking the default css theme for example and then pretty well change everything (inc adding css link).

Are you saying this will cause partial design snapshot issues - which, to be honest I've given up with.

I must admit I do alot of code changes within Actinic, which is why I was thinking of scrapping external designs, if you do everything within actinic or use the "edit layout in DW" this should work? and everything remains in sync

**jont** · 11-May-2007, 12:42 PM

You should be OK ... the only need to register an external design in DW is if you use say an external designer or have a clients existing site layout that is in plain HTML and you want to make it Actinic ... registering adds the funky Actinic stuff.

As the "executive" theme or whatever already has the Actinic stuff embedded you can take that and rip it apart .. either in design tab or edit in DW.

You can also keep the actinic.css if required.. I just find it easier to have the CSS open elsewhere and keep the page type on the product page as save having to swap between stylesheet and product page to view the changes. Just saves me time that's all.

If the layout still thinks it is called "works best with executive" you should - in theory - be OK with the partials - as the clients machine has the same layout name ... although this should work the same way with the outer layout being external but reality is a different matter

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