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1. chrisboggs
   Member
   Posted 2 months ago #

   I'm a noob at WP and know I am missing something fundamental in my understanding of WP themes/templates and I just need someone to point me in the right direction please!

   I have made and index page template and can successfully display the index page on my site. My problem is that no html from my template shows up in my Dashboard environment for editing. I edit my template in Dreamweaver and upload it via ftp to the correct folder on my WordPress site. However, when I go to the dashboard to edit areas of the page in html I am shown no html.

   I also tried removing the html from my template, leaving just the php includes and pasted the html into my Dashboard editing window. I edited the html text for one area but my changes to the html in the Dashboard were not reflected on the site, even after complete refresh/reloads. If I completely remove the html from my template and leave it only in the Dashboard nothing displays except the parts of the page that php includes call.

   What am I not understanding here? Great thanks to anyone who can help me.

2. samboll
   moderator
   Posted 2 months ago #

   1st, you can't edit files in dreamweaver - use a basic editor like notepad or clones
   that should solve the problem

   when doing it in the editor - on some servers the file being edited has to be chmod 666 to save changes - always put back to chmod 644 of course

3. chrisboggs
   Member
   Posted 2 months ago #

   Samboll,

   Thanks for your timely response.

   I think that I must be needing a little more information than you provided. I took your advice and used Notepad++ and Smart FTP(change chmod to 666) to do all steps again with no apparent effect.

   My question is more like this: SHOULD I be able to write a template file in, let's say Notepad++, upload it using a non-Dreamweaver ftp utility(with correct chmod values set) and see the template html in the Dashboard after doing so? That Dashboard edit-ability is what I am unable to do and what my project requires.

   It's my understanding of the process that I think is faulty but thanks for a quick response. Thanks again

4. esmi
   Member
   Posted 2 months ago #

   SHOULD I be able to write a template file in, let's say Notepad++, upload it using a non-Dreamweaver ftp utility(with correct chmod values set) and see the template html in the Dashboard after doing so?

   Yes.

   However, if your hosting provider is running a web cache, there might be a noticeable delay between you uploading an amended file and the amendments becoming visible in the Editor. One way around this might be to stop over-writing amended files but rather delete the old copy and then upload the new file. This may kick the cache into doing a proper refresh.

   FWIW, I have at least 1 client site with this kind of problem and it's a right PITA to push amendments through.

5. chrisboggs
   Member
   Posted 2 months ago #

   esmi,

   After reading your post I thought it might have something to do with google gears install I am running so I deleted that and no change. I deleted the index.php and index_template.php from the remote server, and used Smart FTP to upload new version that I had inspected in Notepad++ for any suspicious code (none found) and went to Dashboard. Dashboard page editor shows the code now but I still cannot make any changes to the text in the page, and removing the code for the Flash has no effect in neither the visual nor html tabs.

   If I edit the index_template.php and upload it using any ftp utility including DW I can immediately see my edits but no such luck with Dashboard. I'm so new at this that I am not sure which way to go next. I did go and read this post: http://codex.wordpress.org/I_Make_Changes_and_Nothing_Happens and followed all steps meticulously to see if it was one of the problems listed there but it wasn't. I personally would rather not have to ask for help because I feel that usually research will provide an answer and not waste another's time but I'm stumped.

   I'm using 2.8.4, with Cutline 2.2 theme, Kimili Flash Embed and Flexi Pages Widget. I am using bluehost.com and using Firefox

6. chrisboggs
   Member
   Posted 2 months ago #

   Update: Problem not completely solved but have made progress.

   I went to ftp utility and deleted remote version of index_template.php and viewed page. Page still has a great deal of the formatting that was in index_template.php but now all divs that had in the template are severely disorganized and out of place. Also, all of the default index.php includes are in the page as well pushing things out of place. I can now edit the text, etc using the Dashboard but cannot when I assign a template to my static home page. ???

   Maybe I am incorrectly understanding what content I should be putting in a "template" file? I have divs and text and object/embed code... a normal html page pretty much with a few php includes. It formats my home page beautifully and is cross-browser compliant bt I don't seem to be able to use it. I'm befuddlized!

   Should I just edit the index.php to mirror the template file I have been using and skip using a template? That sounds like a hack to me.

7. StrangeAttractor
   Member
   Posted 2 months ago #

   @ Samboll

   Don't mean to threadjack but...

   1st, you can't edit files in dreamweaver - use a basic editor like notepad or clones

   News to me... Dreamweaver 8 is my main code editor, and I use it to edit templates and other php files all the time, as well as CSS and HTML... (in code view, obviously).

   A lot of people think DW is just for WYSIWYG editing (which sucks in any editor, so don't do it), but it's actually quite a nice code editor, if you can get past the bloat...

   Anyway, just a remark on that comment - as I say, don't want to threadjack, just wanted to point out DW can be used to edit templates.

   PS I also use DW for some FTP stuff, but it can be problematic. My preference is to use Filezilla for FTP stuff, but DW for editing.

8. esmi
   Member
   Posted 2 months ago #

   Just hang fire a moment. First - is this home page intended to be a static page? In WP-speak, that means a Page - not a list of posts.

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