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Problem with updating content
Hi,
I'm using Xara 5's web site creation features to create an assignment template for my students. The idea is that the students will eventually have a site without the main content but with the navigation in place and then they will put relevant content into their site. I have put in 'place holder' content to give them an idea of the types of content they might use (just using sample text, images, graphics, videos and tables. Generally things have gone well but having created a page to act an image gallery and then trying to add a simple text link to access the page I find that the text fails to appear when previewed or when the site is exported. Deleting the text field and entering a new text field still shows the old text field (the one that has been deleted) with the new one overlayed i.e. it seems to remember the old text even though it's been deleted.
An example of the text showing in XARA but not in the preview appears right at the bottom of the Analysis page within the Technical section of the site (this is accessed via the Technical icon on the home page when previewing the site. I've attached the .xar file. Any help/advice would be appreciated.
Peter Walder
Re: Problem with updating content
Sorry Peter - I'm finding it very hard to follow you.
Are you referring to page 4 in your .xar file?
Perhaps you might take a screen shot of the Xtreme page view and the preview to show us what you are seeing?
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Re: Problem with updating content
Many thanks for the speedy reply. Apologies for the rather muddles original post.
You are right that the problem is displayed on page 4 at the bottom. The screenshot xaraweb1 shows the view in Xara5 at the bottom of the page with the text link in place and the xaraweb1explorer screenshot shows the preview in Explorer where the text link is missing.
Page 5 at the bottom (see xaraweb2) shows the reverse happening. In this screen shot there is no text at the bottom of the page in Xara 5 because it has been deleted but in xaraweb2explorer the preview shows text (which was deleted).
I hope this shows the problem.
Thanks for looking at this,
Peter W
Re: Problem with updating content
Peter, there's something very strange going on within your file. For example if you delete all the text/images and placeholders from page 4 Analysis and preview or export the site it's still all there.
I'm pretty sure it's something to do with the way you've placed html in the placeholder on page4. It looks like a full html page source which a placeholder can't contain, your creating a page within a page. I believe the only way to do this is via an iframe. Someone more knowledgeable than me will be along shortly and tell me I'm wrong. :rolleyes:
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Re: Problem with updating content
I've done some more looking into this and I can get it to work fine via iframes.
I've cut and copied your complete placeholder "replace with html" text into notepad and saved it as excel.htm which I then posted HERE
I then copied most of the content of your page 4 into a new document but omitted your placeholder and placed in a new one with the following "Replace with html" code.
Code:
<iframe name=excelTable src=http://www.xlwebdesign.co.uk/fun/excel/excel.htm width=100% height=100% scrolling=auto frameborder=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0</iframe>
The page now works as expected with all the text visible. Of course it's only a 1 page site so I didn't include your buttons.
I attach the web file. If you preview it it should work.
It may be possible to do it the way you tried but I believe you'd need a <head> placeholder for the head section of the code you were using and another for the body part of the html.
Re: Problem with updating content
Yeh this site is a real mess unfortunately.
Peter you have the same content repeated many many times on every layer on every page.
Each page has hidden layers (Photo 1 to Photo 5) on which all content for the entire site is repeated.
Also, using a placeholder for the entire HTML output of MS EXCEL is not a great idea, MS html is a bloated horrible mess which will break any decent website.
You need to isolate that html to a html doc of it's own and your <iframe placeholder to reference that file. This keeps it separate from your exported source and stops the MS bloat goat from messing with your own output source.
First though, you need to remove all those unnecessary layers from all pages.
Then start the Gallery page again (which is where I assume you need the hidden photo 1 to photo 5 layers only)
Re: Problem with updating content
Quote:
You need to isolate that html to a html doc of it's own and your <iframe placeholder to reference that file.
Isn't that what I already said? :D
Quote:
I then copied most of the content of your page 4 into a new document but omitted your placeholder and placed in a new one with the following "Replace with html" code.
Re: Problem with updating content
Yes it was. But less than two minutes between our posts Egg. I was typing while you were posting and checking all those repeated content layers.
Great minds.... ;)
Re: Problem with updating content
Many thanks to both Sledger and Egg for taking the time to sort this. I've redone most of the site today and everything is working fine but I haven't addressed the iframe issue yet which I'll have a go at tonight...I haven't used iframes before and your comments have helped me understand when they are likely to be appropriate...thanks. I'm really not sure what I did to create all the duplication in the gallery but anyway I have re-worked it and that does seem to work well now. I've really appreciated your help (and we have ordered 80 licences of Xara 5 for the students to use so the xara community will grow a bit) and support like this is a tremendous help.
Kind regards
Peter Walder
Re: Problem with updating content
Quote:
Originally Posted by peter walder
we have ordered 80 licences of Xara 5 for the students to
Be sure and invite them to register here at TalkGraphics! :)
Re: Problem with updating content
Hi,
I have now had a go with the <iframe> technique but as yet no joy. Egg's example works perfectly and is exactly how I expected the table to appear. The only difference that I would like to implement is rather than sourcing from an external server which holds the excel.htm file is to have the file within the site's resources. I've tried putting the excel.htm file inside the index_htm_files folder and then used src=index_htm_files/excel.htm but this does not work. I've also tried putting the excel.htm file in the root folder and using src=excel.htm but this doesn't work either. Does the excel.htm file have to be on an external web server?
Any advice welcome....again!
Thanks,
Peter Walder
Re: Problem with updating content
Works fine Peter. Just not 'locally' (on your PC HDD) in Internet Explorer (security Zone) - but will work locally in another browser (FireFox for example)
It will work once you upload to your host.
Here's you excel.htm in an iframe online ► VIEW ONLINE
(I shortened the placeholder and allowed scroll bars so that you can see it truly is in an iframe ;))
Re: Problem with updating content
Many thanks for this. I have it now running in Firefox exactly as you described. Your help is much appreciated.
On a separate issue I have started experiencing some severe screen 'crashes' when using Xara. The symptoms arise (but not predictably)when scrolling the scroll bar. The crash manifests itself with a loss of the window and scroll bars, missing text in dialogue boxes, missing menus etc. When 'bits' of the window frame that are still visible are dragged I get a mouse trails effect i.e. lots of stacked windows. Sometimes refreshing the window by dragging it to the side of the screen and back to the centre semi-restores the screen but it's never usable after the crash event and after saving using Ctrl-S I have to quit Xara. Re-launching Xara solves the problem and the file which was being used seems OK (but it did occur to me that this might have been a contributing factor to the repeated content that was referred to earlier in this thread). I am a novice at anything to do with hardware but because it seems to be related to screen refreshing is it likely that there is a problem with the graphics card or maybe duff memory?......I have just had to have a new motherboard as the old one died and just wonder if this could be related.
I am using Xara 5.1.1 CD and the machine is 2.67 GHz dual core Mesh with 3.5Mb ram and running Windows XP SP3. It now has an ASUS motherboard (P5QL I think). Any advice with this one?
Peter Walder
Re: Problem with updating content
Happy to have helped with the iframe Peter.
As for the other issue, please start a new thread for this if you would - thanks.
