This document's purpose is to help answer some technical support questions in advance. If you have a problem, the quickest answer may be in this document. If you don't find what you're looking for here, please feel free to e-mail me at ThomasReed@kagi.com.
The information in this document is organized by general category. For example, questions involving site synchronization will be found in the Site Synchronization section.
Note: this document is still in progress.
Q: Why doesn't Site Ranger connect to the server successfully, even though I can connect with Anarchie/Fetch manually?
A: Chances are, you're specifying incorrect Site Access options under Site Settings. Double-check everything you typed. Also, note that Site Ranger does not assume certain things that Anarchie/Fetch do. For example, AOL uses a mechanism by which you login anonymously, with the appropriate AOL e-mail address, while connected with the AOL client. You may be able to leave the username and password fields blank in Anarchie/Fetch, and these values will be filled in automatically. Site Ranger, at it's current version, does not do this. You must manually type "anonymous" and "yourscreenname@aol.com" for the username and password in Site Ranger.
Q: Site Ranger seems to get stuck sometimes when it's doing the site synchronization. The progress bar moves, but nothing happens. What's up?
A: When Site Ranger sends a request to an FTP client to perform a task, it is sometimes possible that the client will be in a state that it cannot receive such requests. If that happens, Site Ranger becomes "stuck". Your only option is to click "Cancel" in the Site Ranger progress window, check with the client to fix what's wrong, and then start the build in Site Ranger again. Site Ranger should pick up where it left off.
If you want the details, the reason Site Ranger gets stuck is that it has no way of knowing how long it will take to upload a file. So, an upload request, as sent to an FTP client by Site Ranger, will never "time out". This means that the system will never return to Site Ranger with an error saying the client didn't handle the request.
Q: I marked a file as being uploaded already, but Site Ranger uploaded it again later anyway! Why?
A: The Mark Selection Uploaded feature is meant only to prevent upload of files that already exist, in identical form, on the server. If you take an action that changes a file previously marked as uploaded, that file will be uploaded at the next build. If, for some reason, you wish to prevent a file from being uploaded even after making changes to it, you must re-mark that file after the changes have been made, but before the next build.
Q: Some of Site Ranger's features don't work as advertised with some/all of my site files. What's going on?
A: When Site Ranger does anything that requires parsing an HTML file (such as checking links, auto-correcting links, or performing macro expansions), there are two things that could cause it to act strangely:
If you aren't sure where the problem is, you can always report the problem to me at ThomasReed@kagi.com, though I will need a copy of a problemmatic file at the least to help find the problem.
If you're interested in lightening the load on me, you can use an HTML validation program or service to see if the problem might be in your page(s). A good service I have used is Doctor HTML, available at http://www2.imagiware.com/RxHTML/. The only requirement is that the page must be uploaded to a server before Doctor HTML can check it. However, if correcting any problems reported by a validtor doesn't solve your problems, please let me know.
Q: I'm getting strange behavior when I click the mouse during the site synchronization phase of a build. What's up?
A: You're probably using Guy Fullerton's HoverBar, or some similar program that needs to use a GetNextEvent filter (such as most apps using floating windows). I have only verified such an effect with HoverBar, though it will probably exist elsewhere. With HoverBar, the solution is simply not to click on a HoverBar button during site synchronization. (If you do, no harm done, you'll just get weird behavior with clicks until the end of the site synch.) If this conflict exists with other programs, it will probably be similar.
There's not much I can do to fix this problem without MAJOR restructuring of some portions of Site Ranger's code. Fortunately, it is a very minor bug.
Q: I keep trying to rename a file, but get an error saying that the file name is bad. What's wrong with it?
A: Certain characters are not allowed as part of a file name on the web. For example, if you use a filename like "10/5/99birthday.html", then what will happen is that a web browser will request that file and the server will look for a file called "99birthday.html", inside a directory named "5", inside another directory named "10". So clearly, you can't use a '/' character in your file names!
The characters that Site Ranger disallows are listed in the table below:
|
ASCII representation |
character |
|---|---|
|
0-31 |
control chars |
|
32 |
space |
|
34 |
" |
|
35 |
# |
|
36 |
$ |
|
37 |
% |
|
38 |
& |
|
43 |
+ |
|
44 |
, |
|
47 |
/ |
|
58 |
: |
|
59 |
; |
|
60 |
< |
|
61 |
= |
|
62 |
> |
|
63 |
? |
|
64 |
@ |
|
127 |
control char |
I chose to disallow these characters because they are specified as being reserved or excluded characters by section 2 of RFC2396, and thus should not be found in a file name.