Alchemy Help:
Q & A

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This document is a compilation of questions asked by Alchemy users and our responses to them. These are for the most part "iceberg"-type issues, where a short question prompted a lengthy reply in order to fully explain things. We intend to continuously update this page in order to make the Alchemy documentation more helpful. If you're viewing this online, feel free to do a "Save as..." in your web browser and replace the local copy of "help\tasks.htm". If you're viewing this on your local PC, you can get the latest copy from the Alchemy web site by clicking here.
Q: When setting up a new project, I typed in the name of the project and the project file, but the "Save" button is disabled. What's wrong?

A: There are several required fields in the New Project, Project Preferences and Import Directory As New Project dialogs. All of the required fields must be filled in before the Save button we become enabled. The required fields are marked with an asterisk, as in "*Host name:".

Q: During a (project upload/FTP session/Telnet session), I got the message "Timed out waiting for response; try increasing the timeout value and try again". I did that, but Alchemy is still using the old value. What's up?

A: You are probably confusing the Project preferences settings with the Alchemy preferences settings. The FTP, Telnet and Project Upload settings in the Alchemy Preferences dialog have no effect on the currently opened project, they are used to supply defaults for newly created projects. If you need to make changes in these areas for the project on which you are currently working, make sure you are changing the Project preferences and not the Alchemy preferences.

Q: When I upload my project, I don't get an opportunity to select any files, it just starts copying them to the server. Where do I select the files?

A: Alchemy maintains date/time sync between the project on the host and the project on your PC. When you punch the "Upload" button, Alchemy sends to the server all of the files in your project that you have modified since the last successful upload. Therefore, you do not need to individually select files, Alchemy will figure out what goes and what stays. If you insist on uploading individual files, you can do so using the FTP Session window. You can also select the Project/Upload entire project to server menu item in the Project window to force Alchemy to clear the current dependencies and upload all files in the project regardless of their date/time stamp.

Q: I started to upload my project, and I got a message box asking if I wanted to create a new directory. How does Alchemy know where to put the files?

A: When you set up a project, you can specify two server directories in the Project dialog. One is the home directory, the other is the CGI-BIN directory. Any files in your project that is not a CGI-BIN file goes into the home directory, anything that _is_ a CGI-BIN file goes into the CGI-BIN directory. The message box you received asking you if you wanted to create a directory was telling you that either the home directory or the CGI-BIN directory you specified when you set up the project does not exist on your server, and do you want Alchemy to create it for you? If not, Alchemy will abort the upload since it has nowhere to which to copy the files.

Q: I tried to upload my project to the server, and it started to go but then it I got an error message and it stopped. Now what?

A: Ah, a deeeep subject! The short answer is: look at the Message Window to find out what caused the error, fix it and try again. The long answer is:

Alchemy gets your project to the server in pretty much the same way you would, using FTP and Telnet, only in an automated fashion. Typically, you will have to try several times to upload the project, tweaking the upload settings between tries, before you get it right. The good news is, once you get over this hump you may never have to deal with FTP or Telnet again!

Most upload problems fall into one of three categories: communication errors, FTP errors and Telnet errors. When your upload does not successfully complete, there will be information in the Messages Window which will indicate the cause of the failure. In most cases, the problem will be glaringly obvious. Here are some examples taken from actual upload sessions:

Here we are using FTP to set access permissions, but the FTP server does not support the SITE command. You will have to use Telnet to set access permissions.

Here we are using FTP to set access permissions, but the FTP server does not have access to the file. In this case, using Telenet to set the permissions will probably work.

This is what it looks like when you are using Telnet to set access permissions, but have not configured the Prompt character correctly. Alchemy does not know it should be looking for the ':' character, and times out because it is waiting for something else instead.

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