Singproinc
Level 1 (30 points)

Q: RSS Feed Path Doesn't Work

I'm using iWeb vs. 3.02 to attempt to publish a podcast. I publish my site to a folder. This has been a brain-ripping experience, since the RSS feed button inserts a file path that includes the local folder name from my hard drive.

As instructed in the iWeb manual, I DO have my full URL in the "website URL" field. My RSS feed path looks like this:

itpc.www.[mydomain].com/[my computers' local folder name]/Podcasts/rss.xml

That won't work. Where are instructions to make this work? I need to remove my computer's local folder name from the path, but I can't find a way to do that. I must be doing something wrong, but I can't find it, for the life of me.

Here's the URL for the podcasts & subscription link:

http://www.thingamageo.com/Podcasts/Podcasts.html

I want to make the RSS feed path right; but it isn't directly editable unless I open up files in Dreamweaver, which I really don't want to do. How do I make a working RSS feed in iWeb without mobile me, and publishing to a folder?

Dual Quad Core 3 GHz Intel, 9GB RAM, Mac OS X (10.6.4), 2.4 GHz MacBook Unibody, 2 GB RAM

Posted on Jan 31, 2011 3:24 PM

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Q: RSS Feed Path Doesn't Work

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Koeklin,

    Koeklin Koeklin Jan 31, 2011 3:47 PM in response to Singproinc
    Level 4 (1,125 points)
    Jan 31, 2011 3:47 PM in response to Singproinc
    Bonjour

    When you publish into a folder you have 3 things : an index.html file, an sitename folder, and a plist file.
    Put these 3 files into the root folder of your server and you will have an RSS feed that works.
    No sitename folder = no RSS feed!

  • by Cyclosaurus,

    Cyclosaurus Cyclosaurus Jan 31, 2011 4:15 PM in response to Singproinc
    Level 6 (12,915 points)
    Jan 31, 2011 4:15 PM in response to Singproinc
    you site setting is incorrect, you set it to:

    http://www.thingamageo.com/thingamageowebsite

    it should be:

    http://www.thingamageo.com

  • by Singproinc,

    Singproinc Singproinc Jan 31, 2011 4:41 PM in response to Koeklin
    Level 1 (30 points)
    Jan 31, 2011 4:41 PM in response to Koeklin
    Bonjour-

    I see one of the files you refer to, but not the other two. These are the files that are created by iWeb, and their relationship to each other:


    website root folder (not created by iWeb)

    "websitename" folder/ (created by iWeb, and in my case, named "thingamageowebsite"), containing the following files & folders-
    feed.xml, index.html, Media (folder), Podcasts (folder), Scripts (folder), Welcome_files (folder),Welcome.html

    So there is an index.html, a sitename folder which contains the index but is NOT the URL of the website, and no plist file.

    Which files do you think should be moved to the root; and will that mess up any of the filepaths within the site? Also, does that require relocating the files every time there is an update to the site?

    Thanks for looking.

  • by Singproinc,

    Singproinc Singproinc Jan 31, 2011 4:53 PM in response to Cyclosaurus
    Level 1 (30 points)
    Jan 31, 2011 4:53 PM in response to Cyclosaurus
    Cyclosaurus-

    You have pointed out the problem that I'm alluding to.

    iWeb introduces the foldername that it creates for the site into the RSS feed URL, in this case "thingamageowebsite;" and it cannot be changed without opening Dreamweaver and doing serious surgery.

    The foldername is only entered once in iWeb under "site publishing settings;" and iWeb places all of the files for the site in that folder on the local drive. iWeb requires a name for that folder.

    If I don't upload the "site name" folder, and put the entire site at the root level (which I must do for users to access the index.html), the path that iWeb has entered for the RSS feed is what you see, with the non-existant and useless folder name. It's the wrong path.

    If I upload the site inside the "site name" folder, then the RSS path is right, but nobody will ever know because the index.html page is not in the root folder.

    Am I describing this so you understand?

    What am I doing wrong that makes this "Really Simple Syndication" neither simple, nor syndicated?

  • by Ethmoid,Helpful

    Ethmoid Ethmoid Feb 1, 2011 1:17 AM in response to Singproinc
    Level 6 (11,282 points)
    Feb 1, 2011 1:17 AM in response to Singproinc
    iWeb produces a site structure when you publish and if you break this site structure then certain things on your published site will not work - as you have found, RSS feed is one of them.

    When you publish your site from iWeb to a local folder what you will get is the site folder with the same name as you gave your site in iWeb. You will also get a separate index.html file and another file named assets - if you are using iWeb 09, then you will get the assets.plist file and if you are using iWeb 08 then you don't, but you have also posted in the wrong forum.

    Most hosts/servers will have a folder that you need to upload your site to for it to work - this can either be a public_html folder, a www folder or an htdocs folder and this is what is meant by the root folder - you need to upload your site to this folder on the server for your site to be seen.

    From looking at your site and by the fact that the first page of your site has the url http://www.domain.com/Welcome.html, it is obvious that you have uploaded your site without the site folder - the contents of the site folder only and this is why your RSS feed won't work - you have broken iWeb site structure.

    You named your site in iWeb and you can re-name it anything you want so it is incorrect that the only way you can do this is by using Dreamweaver and altering html code. No, you don't need to do this and there is no point anyway, as without the site folder itself you are still not going to get the RSS feed to work anyway.

    What you need to do is publish your site to a local folder from iWeb and you then need to upload your site folder with all its contents to your root folder on your server. You then need to upload the separate index.html file, but place this outside the root folder so that it is pointing in towards the first page of your site - the site folder itself also contains an index file.

    As you have uploaded the site folder, then your RSS feed should now work without a problem.

  • by Singproinc,

    Singproinc Singproinc Feb 1, 2011 8:15 AM in response to Ethmoid
    Level 1 (30 points)
    Feb 1, 2011 8:15 AM in response to Ethmoid
    Ethmoid-

    You said-

    " if you are using iWeb 09, then you will get the assets.plist file and if you are using iWeb 08 then you don't, but you have also posted in the wrong forum."

    My bad. I always try to keep my Apple apps up-to-date; and it appears I haven't. The "about iWeb" info only gives vs. numbers, and this version is apparently what is known as iWeb 08. My apologies for taking up the wrong real estate on the forum. I should have been suspicious when the plist discussion came up, and I didn't have one.

    I'll upgrade, then press on.

  • by Singproinc,

    Singproinc Singproinc Feb 1, 2011 11:37 AM in response to Ethmoid
    Level 1 (30 points)
    Feb 1, 2011 11:37 AM in response to Ethmoid
    Ethmoid-

    Even though I'm in the wrong forum, your answer gave me what I needed. I've placed the entire sitefolder on the site, and put the index page outside the folder pointing to the "welcome" page.

    That's corrected all the paths, and hopefully, the RSS feed will work now.

    Many thanks.