iWeb 09 ftp publishing error - Test works, publish fails
When I configure a known working ftp/sftp session, the test works, but the publish step fails. I get one of two errors. The first is that the first connection attempt works fine, but subsequent connections (there are many to publish a site) fail because iWeb neglects to include the password. The other issue occurs when I've aligned the stars (by deleting the keychain entry for the ftp service) and got the passwords entering correctly, but the app trys to to a dir/list operation in an intermediate path on the hosting server (which fails due to authentication issues) instead of the full path that I provide.
I can't see how this ever worked in the QA shop??? Something is amiss with the keychain and/or iWeb. This is the first time I've been let down by Apple s/w ... sigh ... 😟
FYI, this is publishing to www.pair.com (Pair Networks' sites) ...
In a few other semi-related posts, others found relief in switching their hosting server from Windows to Linux, which lends some credibility to the keychain issue since I would expect that the keychain entry would need to change for these cases?
Most hosting companies will help you switch from Windows to Linux. If yours doesn't, switch to one that does.
I don't know how you have the patience to deal with a 90 MB site. When mine get to about a quarter of that size I divide them into sections on separate domain files and link them with a custom main navigation menu.
This one is built on ten domain files and counting...
I'm getting the same issue here myself. My corp website publishes fine to MobileMe, and one of my clients who's using VodaHost works perfectly. However, my client that has Hostway is not working.
Test works fine.
When I publish to FTP without adding any directory, it publishes fine, but publishes it to the wrong place and won't show up online.
When I add the directory name (/home/www/familylegalpro/) (it's on Linux), I get the publish error.
I called Hostway and they're baffled.
Does anyone know what I can do to get this working? I'd like to get out from Publish to Folder.
Also, I've seen that some people are having issues with GoDaddy accounts. I'm just about to design another website for I client & I recommended Windows GoDaddy hosting to them. Would this work or should we sign them up for a different plan. They're unable to use MobileMe.
The advantage of this hosting company is that they let you create your own folder and name it the same as the one produced by iWeb.
This means that I can leave the box for Directory/Path empty and it publishes fine. If I enter the correct directory/path that I use in my FTP application, Yummy FTP, and in Web Site Maestro, it fails to publish.
Another tremendous achievement for the iWeb development geniuses. What fun I have working round their screw ups.
The iWeb FTP it is absolutely useless to me as I need to optimize my website files so that they will download on a PC running IE. I also need to be found in search engines and to upload assets for flash as I don't use QuickTime for music, and the iWeb Albums and Photos templates are a dead loss.
In conclusion, if you use a Linux platform with Host Excellence, upload to a folder with the same name as the one produced by iWeb and leave the Directory/Path blank, then the iWeb FTP will work.
GoDaddy is a buzz word in this forum but, personally, I wouldn't use any hosting company that can't solve my problems. I have advised a lot of people to switch to Host Excellence and I don't think any of them regret it.
I could write a long dissertation on the reasons not to publish to MobileMe for any type of website. To use it to publish a business website is masochistic.
I'm not degrading GoDaddy. I'm just observing that the average reader of this forum would get the impression that it's the only way to purchase a domain name and publish a site.
The built in FTP is WSM is useful for uploading changes once you have published your whole site and are able to use "smart handling" thereafter.
When I first publish a site, I optimize only and then upload with Yummy FTP which I also use to mange my folders on the server side and upload folders of MP3s, flash files and player assets.
I switched to flash for playing music and displaying photos a couple of years ago as not enough PC users have Quicktime and the iWeb Albums and Photos templates create huge files which tend to lock up IE.
Argh! How frustrating is this? I've tried just about every troubleshooting on here to no avail, and I'm sure my host is Linux.
So I have been playing around with all the settings and it seems I can get the first upload to work, and then after that, I might be able to get an upload to work, but usually not. Once it doesn't work anymore, it's kaput.
- First upload works
- Subsequent small tweak uploads work
- If it asks "directory already exists - replace?" you're as good as dead.
Can you just delete the directory on the server and reupload? It appears not! I just used Filezilla (which I love for FTP now, btw) to delete the directory on the server, then recreated the directory on the server. When I uploaded again, it got the usual error.
So I just created another directory, but a new-new one this time. Guess what - it didn't work either.
I'm thoroughly confused and frustrated.
Is it a password issue or a permissions issue? Either way, it seems like an easy enough fix. Be nice if Apple could tell us what - we might be able to work around it in the short term. Of course I've never seen them finish a thread with "hey this is how its fixed..."
When is APPLE going to stop ignoring this problem and come up with an update fixing whatever bug they have in the new iWEB FTP upload menu? Are they just playing the waiting game hoping we all get tired of it and leave them alone?
When we buy something, it should be working, and if not, they should make it work for all of us. This does not put Apple in a good light at all.
Disappointed customer. No. VERY disappointed customer.
Latest change doesn't fix anything for me ... time to put some real details in this post in hopes that Apple folks are actually reading this. First, here's the details of my web site:
- Supported on www.pair.com (pair networks hosting service)
- server is saghotta.pair.com
- user account name is "peshband"
- Website directory is: Plano
East_Senior_HighBand
- The directory for transferring content to is: /usr/www/users/peshband/Plano
East_Senior_HighBand
- My configuration for ftp is as follows:
- Site Name: Plano
East_Senior_HighBand
- Server Address: saghotta.pair.com
- User name: peshband
- The password is:
****** ... trust me on this one
- The directory Path is: /usr/www/users/peshband
The test of the connection works.
The destination directory of /usr/www/users/peshband/Plano
East_Senior_HighBand exists and is writable. I can use any other ftp utility to write to this directory. The home directory when ftp logs in is /usr/home/peshband ... ftp knows how to change directories.
The problem is that for some reason, the ftp client tries to take a listing of /usr/www/users. This is not an accessible directory for reading ... it is a server resource, so that makes sense. The client hangs up repeatedly trying to get a directory listing of this intermediate directory. From my settings above, I can't even imagine why the application parsed that part of the directory out of the "Directory Path".
How do I know this? I'm using "wireshark" to sniff the packets and here's the dump for the folks at Apple to check over .... come on, fix this, it isn't that hard. I'm a developer with 20+ years of experience on these types of applications and someone is going to be embarrassed with this one. Want to bet this part of the product was outsourced to the lowest bidder?
Couple of points ...
I have no idea why the client is logging in and out at the beginning like some sort of mad dog with a good bone ... that isn't smart either.
Scroll to the bottom and notice the "permission denied" responses to the "LIST" command. If you look to the beginning of these, you can see that there was CWD command to change into the intermediate directory for some reason ... that's where things went wrong. Had they done the CWD to /usr/www/users/peshband/Plano
East_Senior_HighBand like the test program does, then things would have had a change to work out fine.
Had the same problem publishing to a Go Daddy hosted domain. Followed the FAQ recommendations for settings for iWeb09 on the Go Daddy site and the test connection worked successfully but the upload got an error message.
Reading below, looked like the password was not being sent when publishing Vs testing. I left the password field blank in the FTP server settings section and hit the publish button in the toolbar below in the iWeb browser. This prompted an enter password box to appear on the screen. Filled in the password and the site was published without an issue.
Hope this helps everyone and that Apple fixes this bug!
I'm also looking for a solution for pair.com - I'm having the usual test works, upload fails. I can get it to upload, but it refuses to use the proper path. Anyone figure this out with pair, or is it going to take iWeb '10 to get a fix for this?
