Cannot seem to update a website

[PeeWee]

Help, please, dear Xara Gurus..... Every year I've done a website for an annual local festival. This year I opened 2017's .web file and did a "save as" to a new 2018 version, renaming it and using a new folder., then "export website" to the new folder. Only some of the site needs changing every year, so I save as much as possible.. Before doing an FTP upload of the revised 2018 version, I deleted all the existing files that populated last year's site, then uploaded the new one. (This was AFTER uploading a couple of times using the command to replace existing files with new ones.) But nothing I've tried results in the website actually being updated with 2018 information. It's still the 2017 site. Any ideas what I'm not doing or doing wrong?

[Egg Bramhill]

First & foremost ensure you're not loading the site from your local computer cache. In your browser hit Ctrl + F5. Get back if this doesn't solve the issue

[PeeWee]

Nope, sadly, that didn't do a thing. Thinking that might be the problem, I'd emptied my cache a few times, to no avail.

[Egg Bramhill]

That's fine, we've eliminated that as a cause. Next thing to ensure is that you're publishing to the correct directory on your hosting server. How are you doing this, via Xara's ftp or exporting & uploading via an ftp program like Filezilla?

[PeeWee]

I use FileZilla and uploaded (or published) to the same directory on the hosting server I've used for years. After failing to see the changes after publishing the first time, I deleted all the files in that directory and started from scratch, publishing the new version. But the old one persisted. Reckon you're right that it's a destination problem, but I can't suss out where it's going if not to the directory I've selected. The host's list of the directory contents all looks right - correct upload date and time, matching what I've got in my computer files, etc. - but the published results remain 2017. The mystery of the ghoul in the machine. (I"m gong to shut down now and take this up again the morning. Thank you for willing to be helpful!)

[Egg Bramhill]

I'm with you, it's quarter to 4 in the morning & I'm off to bed too.

[craftech]

Hi PeeWee,

I am new to Web Designer and haven't uploaded a website with the program yet, but I have been using FileZilla for years using files created from WebEasy Professional. I upload them to the public_html directory of a previous website I created with that program. FileZilla shows two lists side by side. On the right are the files on the server and on the left are the files I want to upload from my computer. If you delete the files on the server first and then upload the new ones and compare the file sizes it shouldn't show the old files you deleted. Unless you are accidentally uploading the old ones again from the wrong directory.

If there are TWO public_html directories on the server for some reason, go into the portal of the web host and take a look.

John

EDIT: Just noticed this thread. Maybe this is a problem I may encounter myself using XARA.

https://www.talkgraphics.com/showthr...o-uk-as-a-host

[behzad]

I have tried this and so many times it does not refresh until I delete all my cache. Not sure why xara does this or is it a browser thing?

[Acorn]

I have tried this and so many times it does not refresh until I delete all my cache. Not sure why Xara does this or is it a browser thing?

It is a browser thing. It is com pounded by the fact a designer modifies and previews in the same browser repeatedly. The Xara Preview uses IE and if Xara was smart such issues would never be apparent in the built-in browser it uses if Xara were to present each preview as a different random virtual site. The other thing Xara does on publish is to increment the filename for images so this ought to avoid caching issues.

If really worried then you need to force caching off somehow.
Usually, this is added to a page Head:

<metahttp-equiv="Cache-Control"content="no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate"/>
<metahttp-equiv="Pragma"content="no-cache"/>
<metahttp-equiv="Expires"content="0"/>Only do this on frequently changing pages and remove when the site is more stable.

Acorn

[sculptex]

By default, on pretty much all hosting out there, HTML files are not cached designated by server settings although this can be overridden in code as acorn demonstrated.

I think the issue here must be the destination folder.

Typically, hosting has a root ftp for an account which points to a base folder. Within that folder, there is usually a folder called public_html which is the one you will need to upload the files to. There are variations to this (especially when several domains are hosted within a single shared hosting) but please confirm that is the folder you are uploading to.
(Sorry to repeat so much of what has been said already,)