iWeb sites with photo slideshows after migration from MobileMe

There shouldn't be any problems with the slideshow feature of iWeb on other hosting services and you will be able to continue using iWeb after MobileMe is discontinued (unless some kind of incompatibility shows up with Mac OS Lion).

Otherwise there are several iWeb-like programs. I would strongly advise Freeway (www.softpress.com). But there are others like Rapidweaver, sandvox, Shutterbug, Webacappella. They have trial versions, so just try them.

As far as hosting is concerned, I like machighway.

There will be no problem with iWeb websites with slideshows. I moved mine to Host Excellence and they play just fine: iPhoto Book as an iWeb Slideshow.

HE has a couple of deals not that are very good. $3.95/month for 1 free domain name, unlimited storage space and bandwidth, email address with alias and excellent ear-to-ear customer support or $7.95/monthly for 3 free domain names and the same other features.

There are a lot of hosting services out there so you shouldn't have a problem with finding one to replace MMe. I use Transmit for uploading. It allowed me to open my iDisk and HE servers in Finder-like windows so I could just drag and drop from the iDisk to HE. So simple.

OT

this is what iweb code tells me:

iweb popup slideshow will break if/when apple completely shut down mobiteme , because the pop up slideshow has assets are linked from apple servers.

also commenting in photos page will be dead.

unless they read this post and try to fix it.

You can keep your domains at GoDaddy but its more convenient to move them to HE in the long run.

I've just helped one iWeb user move to HE and the domain name switch was almost instant.

Transferring the domain name to another registrar doesn't effect where its pointing to during the switch. Once the transfer takes place its just a question of changing the nameservers and this takes place almost immediately.

Do the following for a smooth transition:

Open your new HE account and start the domain name transfer.

Upload your website files to the new server. Note that with HE you can create a root folder with the same name as the site in iWeb.

Test the site by using the IP number - http://xx.o.xx.ooo

When you are informed that the domain name has been transferred, click the manage button next to it in your HE account and change the nameservers with another button click.

Have a cup of coffee and then browse to your new site.

Go to the Web/Sites folder on your iDisk and delete your website(s).

Say goodbye to MobileMe and look forward to the benefit of real website hosting.

See this page for iWeb publishing options.

"I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link."

So the fact that slideshows on other servers now are working is because they are linking back to MMe servers for the necessary assets, right? 😟

Guess we'll have to use some other display option like Lightbox, Jalbum or similar.

Would we get the same results if we were to run an iWeb slideshow that was published to a folder on the hard drive while not connected to the internet? Just tried that and the only change was the icons for the slideshow buttons, forward, back and pause/play were missing. The rest of the slideshow performed normally. Or is it something on our Macs that is letting the slideshow run?

Thanks for the heads up.

Message was edited by: Old Toad

that is correct, there are image assets on mme servers. they'll become blue question marks when mme servers are down.

missing image/icon means it's broken, even if it's just cosmetic.

beside mme gallery/hit counter... well, isight photo, isight movie and rss feed widgets will done for too.

Are the display options mentioned by OT above easy for those of us who were perfectly comfortable with iWeb?

no, because afaik... no one here nor where else can integrate other slideshows in iweb photos page but me.

to be able to do that requires knowing/understanding iweb photos page widgets.

Hi, I too have many iWeb sites hosted on MobileMe, and I am trying to figure out what to do, and when. What I think would be helpful from Apple, or some third party, is a complete list of things that will break when an iWeb is moved to a conventional server elsewhere, based on the discontinuation. Does that request make sense? thx!

What I think would be helpful from Apple, or some third party, is a complete list of things that will break

it's apple's mess , they should clean it up.

why should any third party get involve?

Ha! Agreed, but I mean a third party like u, or someone else who is smart enought to know all the ins and outs of iweb widgets/scripts/etc. that are dependent on the servers soon to be gone.

But to tell you the truth, I am just going to bite the bullet this year and drupal all the sites that I made in iWeb. I only did them in the first place cause it was cheap and fast. But as they say, there is no free lunch, nor websites.

Past experience has taught me not to rely on media player assets on third party servers. Yahoo pulling the plug on the EasyListener player is a case in point.

As OT has pointed out, the slideshow works on other servers but, according to Cyclosaurus, some necessary assets are on the Apple server.

Wouldn't it be reasonable to expect that Apple will make these assets available after the demise of MobileMe if enough people requested this?

The iWeb method of getting media onto websites leaves a lot to be desired and there are a lot of other ways to display music, movies and photos. The photo page is one of iWebs few triumphs but there are many alternative slideshows and banners.

Most of these methods require that assets are uploaded to, ideally, your own server but its not so difficult once you grasp the concept and the basics of FTP.

iWeb does provide two other methods of publishing apart from MobileMe. The built in FTP is just as quick, easy and convenient as publishing to MobileMe once you set it up.

Publishing to a local folder and uploading via an FTP app. allows you to add SEO tags and optimize the files for faster download.

A good FTP application makes the task of uploading media player assets very easy - drag and drop.

"I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link."

even if it's just cosmetic

For legacy photo slideshow sites where the assets for the slideshows are no longer available (and it's a personal/family type of site) living with the question marks for those forward/pause/back buttons is a small price to pay. However, for commercial, formal sites they would not suffice.

Is there a way to relink those image links to substitute images on your server? Which files in a photo page site would need to be edited?