Cannot seem to update a website

[bkjohns]

bkjohns, long delay in responding 'cause your instructions scared me! :-) They're above my mental pay-grade. My comfort level stops after designing the site; the tech stuff is smoke & mirrors to me. Soooo, some really basic questions.... Is what I call a new folder the same as a new "directory?" And can I do this on/in what might be called a sub-let on someone else's host? (A community member offered to let us use his host account for our site for free.) Also, after a new directory is created, you say I can "get to it via www.(yourwebsite).com/(new directory name)/index.htm" does that mean I have to change the link to the site in places it's been published? I'm sorry to be so dim, but even though this whole effort is as a volunteer, I still need to figure it out and get something up. I sooo appreciate your help!

Hi PeeWee,
Yes, a new folder is a directory. And you should be able to create the directory under whatever directory you currently upload to - so if you are uploading to the directory public_html (pretty normal to be that), then in Filezilla create the directory under public_html by right clicking on that directory and choosing the 'Create Directory' menu option. Give a name, then when you go to upload your site files just upload them to the directory you just created. If all goes well that directory should contain all of your site files, including an index_html_files subdirectory. If you get that far, then from your browser open up your site. In the address bar of the browser your site url should be visible (such as www.peewee.com/index). So to get to the test site, replace index with your new directory name (if you called it 'test', then the url would be www.peewee.com/test. Then add '/index.html' (no quotes) after test, and hit enter. It should take you to the test site you just uploaded.
Remember, this is not live on the web to everybody unless they know the directory name you created. This is just to see if it is the updated site you are trying to upload for real. If it works fine, then I would think you have uploaded your actual site to an incorrect directory or not uploaded some required files.
Good luck.

[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,)

[behzad]

Thank you guys.

[PeeWee]

Thanks, Miko. Yes, I've looked at previews as well as opening pages from its folder in Windows. And, yes, never fail to upload the index_html_files.

[PeeWee]

Yes, sculptex, that's where I go on the server and within the public_html folder is one that's dedicated to my site. In my dedicated folder is the index_html _files. I'm about to upload as a general comment a couple of screen shots and the url in question. Thanks for you help.

[PeeWee]

Thanks everyone for your good suggestions and willingness to help, but just tried again and I'm still getting no update. Here is the information you've asked for attached.

The url is www.salisburyfallfestival.org

[bkjohns]

Why is the 2018 fall festival in a directory under the public_html directory instead of directly into public_html? Is there another site there that you don't want to overwrite?
Also, from the screen shot from Filezilla, the dates on the index_html_files on your system are from 7/2/2018, and the index_html_files folder on the host (right pane) shows updated 7/7/2018. I don't know how you have the files sorted on your computer in FZ, but it isn't in alphabetical order so I'm guessing by date, so if that is the case then the files from 7/2/2018 were uploaded on 7/7/2018, so if you made changes between 7/2 and 7/7 they didn't make it to the host.

Edit: Where are the 2017 festival files? Are they on your host server or somewhere else? If you are running as a subdomain under someone else's account you will need to set it up to point to your site location.

[bkjohns]

One other thing that looks unusual - your directory tree on the left pane of FZ (your computer) shows 2 sub-directories under a directory called 2018 Fall Festival. The index_htm_files should get published from Xara as a sub-directory of the directory with your site files, which would indicate your site files to be uploaded are in the parent. Are there files in the parent directory of 2018 Fall Festival? Can you give us a screenshot of that directory?