Dynamically-related files suddenly breaks

[shoshin.rs]

Dreamweaver 21.1 (Mac)

I've had to stop working with Dreamweaver.

Using multiple websites and jumping to and from other sites eventually breaks the related file relationship, cannot write to localhost testing server etc.

This requires, in my experience, resetting preferences, server details and starting again.

As this is the third time in 2 months I'm now using BBEdit and FileZilla for website building.  It's certainly not as good for previewing files but at least it's rock solid, now I have to learn to visualize code without localhost preview.

If anyone else has a fast formula to reset and restore settings before corruption (Correct term?) please let me know. Cheers.

[Ben M]

If server details are being lost on your Mac this is usually a deeper issue than just DW.  Can you try first repairing permissions on your system to see if that fixes things.  Also, you could try creating a new user account and migrating to that as this usually clears things up quickly as well. I'm a long-time Mac user myself, most recently since the launch of OSX (when OS 9 was still an option) and have had to do this a couple times over the course of many Mac upgrades.

Also why can't you visualize with localhost?  Just open up a browser and point to localhost and refresh as you work.  If you need a server, MAMP is very reliable.

[shoshin.rs]

You might be right about deeper issues, as I have set up my Mac as a local testing machine with Apache and PHP running I generally this as opposed to MAMP. What I need to do is do some reading up on setting up Apache as when it goes 'south' I can't even get a file to save to the nominated root folder. I'll check the config files first and see if anything has changed, certainly the web root permissions seem to change from time to time, and this may be from OS updates.

[Ben M]

In your Apache config, Apple used to include a .default file for backup if you need to restore.  But the build they use inside OS X (Mac OS) is highly customized to integrate with the platform.  Otherwise if it's in too much need of repair, you would have to re-install Mac OS to fix as there has never been a standalone installer.

Personally speaking, I had used it way back when but stopped because there were too many intricacies in that installation that made it a pain to maintain, but made the switch to MAMP to keep it contained inside their application so it don't have to mess with OS folders as much.  

[shoshin.rs]

Thank you, I think it's time I made the switch to MAMP!

[Nancy OShea]

I suspect your local site folder and testing server are not defined correctly.

I also work with many different sites on a local testing server.  Each site is defined separately in DW and stored in the local testing server's default web directory.  See screenshot.

On Mamp or Xampp servers, the default directory is htdocs.

[shoshin.rs]

Yes I don't use MAMP, I did many years ago but I now have setup the server manually. It looks like the trouble may be deeper than DW. I'll look at the Apache set up. As I just mentioned on another reply, that I have noticed permissions no longer working on the /Library/WebServer/Documents (localhost folder). It might be possible that each time there is an OS update that certain folder permissions are reset – surmising here, so i'll need to check it out next.