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matthewn43692242
Inspiring
September 17, 2019
Answered

Incorrect Related Files Showing.

  • September 17, 2019
  • 14 replies
  • 4413 views

Hello, thank you for looking.

 

I'm having a long-term, recurring & ever- worsening issue with Dreamweaver CC 2019 across multiple sites. It's becoming a bit of an emergency as it's gotten nearly impossible to use Dreamweaver without ruining tons of past work as well as whatever project is open at the time.

 

Dreamweaver shows the WRONG RELATED files in the related files panel at the top, just under the file name tab. It's done this sometimes since I first installed but it's gotten so bad that it wil not display the correct files ever anymore. I run many sites so if more than one of them uses a file called "nav.css" (for example) then this can and has cause major disasters over & over again especially beacuse many of these files are fairly similar & hard to tell apart at a glance.

 

Yes, I can hover over the file name in the related panel and see the actual location but I'm not (ans shouldn't need to be) in the habit of constantly assuming I'm being presented with the wrong linked css or js file. After all, the path to the correct file is right there in the doc!

 

Though I've had no luck fixing it, I have some clue why it's happening...

 

It tends to link files that come from a particular directory (outsite of the site directory indexed bu Dreamweaver) where I keep templates & code snippets and sample pages etc.. None of my sites use Dreamweavers template feature at all or ever have but I have copied files from this separate directory into my sites in the past. It seems that there may be some sort of ghost association with this directory even though files were only ever copied in the Mac finder & never via Dreamweavers file viewer.

 

I can't imagine how exactly this happened or why it's getting worse & I have no idea how to fix it. I've re-made the site from scratch, re-indexed the site, deleted all the _notes directories, re-installed dreamweaver, updated Dreamweaver all again & again. I've tinkered with the site settings & Dreamweaver prefs... no luck.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Nancy OShea

    Not sure I understand your file structure.  All site files should reside in their respective local site folder on the primary hard drive, not networked or cloud  drives.   If that's your workflow and you still have problems with related files, I suggest you close DW and Restore Preferences.  

    https://helpx.adobe.com/dreamweaver/kb/restore-preferences-dreamweaver.html

     

    Also it might be prudent to run computer diagnostics to ensure your hard drive isn't slipping or failing.

     

    14 replies

    Show previous replies
    Nancy OShea
    Nancy OShea
    Community Expert
    September 17, 2019

    Alright.  I think we're getting closer to the problem.

     

    #1 Live View and Live CODE are 2 separate things.  Don't confuse them.  You cannot edit anything in Live CODE mode. But you can certainly edit in Live view by double clicking the element.   See screenshot.

     

    #2  Without a local testing server, you cannot "discover dynamically related files" or examine server-side code in a local  browser.   A remote server is OK but it's not a replacement for your local production environment.  See link below  

    https://www.adobe.com/devnet/archive/dreamweaver/articles/setup_php.html

     

     

     

    Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
    M
    matthewn43692242Author
    Inspiring
    September 18, 2019

    We're definitely actually getting further & further from having a meeting of the minds. I have a good understanding of how all of the various modes & views work in Dreamweaver. All of my server-side php runs perfectly fine in live view & in real-time browser previews from the REMOTE testing server. It actually previews just fine in Design Mode & Live Code mode also. The only problem is the wrong array of related files showing in the panel.

     

    The problem is simple to state: Dreamweaver is showing the WRONG FILES in the RELATED DOCUMENTS panel.

     

    I open an HTML or PHP page which is part of a dreamweaver defined SITE. I see all the correct files for both the local site & the testing server in the Dreamweaver file browser (usually shown on the top-right). The RELATED FILES panel however shows files from an entirely different site (shown in the previous screenshots). 

     

    For example I open index.php. Horizontally, under the tab for index.htm I see files like nav.css, page.css etc. These should be the files linked in the document head, referenced in php or js somewhere in the file... which are all part of the same site as defined by Dreamweaver. Instead I see an array of css, js, php etc. files from an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT SITE that is stored in an entirely different place on my machine.

     

    As I said before Dreamweaver will show the correct files briefly when I first open the doc but if I edit the file or change views at all it immediately reverts to this same wrong list of related files or the whole panel just disapears. If I click on any of these wrong files & edit them I'm actually editing a file that is part of a different site. Thankfully, it does not seem to be pushing these files to the testing servers for those other respective sites.

     

    I have deleted & re-indexed every one of these sites under "Manage Sites" many many times. I have reset the Prefs many times. I have deleted older Dreamweaver installations & settings. I have re-installed Dreamweaver. I have quit, restart, deleted all the _notes directories, disabled design notes & quite a few other things over the course of months to try and fix this but no luck so far. It was an intermittent problem at first but has gotten worse over time.

     

    I've been using Dreamweaver for somewhere around 20 years across many different versions on many different computers & never encountered this issue until CC 2019. 

     

    I'm trying to figure out how/why the RELATED FILES panel would show files from a DIFFERENT SITE when everything else about the site index seems to be in order. Does anyone know whre exactly Dreamweaver piulls this info from? I would have thought it was pulling it directly from the code of the open file but maybe not. Maybe its cached somewhere? Maybe because some of these files have the same name Dreamweaver is pulling up a cache copy thats actually not the right file?

     

    I'm baffled. 

     

    BenPleysier
    BenPleysier
    Community Expert
    September 18, 2019
    Could you give a remote server address to a file that misbehaves? By copying the code, we may be able to replicate the problem in order to find a solution.
    Wappler is the DMXzone-made Dreamweaver replacement and includes the best of their powerful extensions, as well as much more!
    Nancy OShea
    Nancy OShea
    Community Expert
    September 17, 2019

    Is your local testing server set-up correctly?

    Are you saving (Ctrl / Cmd +S) and refreshing (F5) often in Live View?

     

    Live Code is a temporary version of the document and should never be used for editing.  Live Code is useful only when testing scripts and validating documents that contain server-side code like PHP. 

    Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
    M
    matthewn43692242Author
    Inspiring
    September 17, 2019

    Thanks for trying. Yes, my testing server is set up correctly & I do understand what Live view is for. I'm using a remote testing server, not a local one & as I've shared, this issue relates to local files within the site, not testing servers.

     

    I edit code directly, rarely, if ever edit in design mode & of course it's not possible to "edit" the live view. I've re-indexed the site many many times & refresh the live view when necessary. None of this does anything for the listing of incorrect files in the related files panel. As a matter of fact, if I refresh the live view the "related files" panel usually just disappears entirely.

     

    At the moment my best lead is trying to figure out if Dreamweaver is sucking ancient Dreamweaver settings from a previous version out of iCloud. I've deleted the installation of CC 2018 & it's settings along with it but when I reset Dreamweaver prefs the problems persist. At the moment it's basically unusable.

     

    I understand that user error is the most common problem but it would be helpful if we could get some clues as to what could cause the related files panel to show an entirely wrong set of files or no files at all. There is obviously something wrong with the site tracking that is causing dw to switch back & fourth from the correct files to the wrong files to no files at all. It is behaving as if it is confused between one site and another.

     

    If I open an html or php doc & it lists a wrong set of related files I could (and have) edited those wrong files breaking & ruining other sites in the process. For anyone who works with a fair amount of standardization or anyone who is using frameworks it can be difficult to tell at a glance if you're looking at the code for the right file. We need to be able to trust that Dreamweaver is showing the "related files' that are actually associated with the site we're working on & not another random site elsewhere on the machine.

     

    It is very strange that the doc would preview correctly in design & live view & load correctly to the testing server but all of the files shown in the "related files" panel are wrong. I make edits & wonder why nothing changes, meanwhile I've been screwing up a css or js file from some other site & I have to go back & try to reverse out my changes, open the correct doc manually and add the changes in code-only view, load to the testing server in a separate ftp app etc. etc.. It's a nightmare.

     

    So the specific questions I was hoping to get answered were:

    1.) Can settings from one installed version of Dreamweaver interfere with the setting of another (assuming that site indexing counts as a "setting")?

    2.) How can I be sure that I've purged settings from old versions & stop Dreamweaver from trying to pull them out of iCloud after I reset the prefs?

     

    Thank you so much for investigating this with me.

    M
    matthewn43692242Author
    Inspiring
    September 17, 2019

    I can add some info to this issue.

     

    First off, I do usually see the correct related files when viewing a doc in design or code or design/code split mode. It will switch to the wrong files or lose the releated files panel all together if I switch to live mode or tell it to "discover" dynamically related files even if I stay in design mode. In fact if I do almost anyhting to the file at all the related files panel will switch to showing me the wrong files or no files at all. I only see the correct files briefly if I open the file in design, code, or design/code split mode. 

     

    If I view the same file in live or live/code split mode or switch to live mode (or do almost anything) with the doc already open it will either show me the wrong releated files or no related files panel at all.

    You'll notice that some of these related files have the same names. They are however coming from an entirely different location on my drive & have very different content.

     

    They are all coming from a particular directory that is outside of the dreamweaver tracked directory for this site. These external files have never been linked to from inside the site but some of them (nav.css & page.css) were copied (in the mac finder) from this location long ago when I first started to assemble this new site. All coded references in this site are relative locations. There has never been a single link on any page in this or any effected site that pointed to these files in the old location (directly on my hard drive such as: file://machd....)

     

    The files that were copied over were copied many months ago and Dreamweaver has been able to show me the correct related files most of thime since. Lately though it has gotten so bad that it never shows me the correct files & its near impossible to work.

     

    My only other idea is that Apple iCloud seems to have some sort of Dreamweaver settings synced to it from a previous dreamweaver version. Would sites defined in Dreamweaver 2019 be interfered with by sites defined in on older version? How can I purge my copy of CC 2018 & all if its settings?

     

     

    Nancy OShea
    Nancy OSheaCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    September 17, 2019

    Not sure I understand your file structure.  All site files should reside in their respective local site folder on the primary hard drive, not networked or cloud  drives.   If that's your workflow and you still have problems with related files, I suggest you close DW and Restore Preferences.  

    https://helpx.adobe.com/dreamweaver/kb/restore-preferences-dreamweaver.html

     

    Also it might be prudent to run computer diagnostics to ensure your hard drive isn't slipping or failing.

     

    Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
    M
    matthewn43692242Author
    Inspiring
    September 17, 2019

    Hello, thanks for replying.

     

    There's nothing odd about my file structure. All of the files for each of my sites are in their respective site folders on my hard drive. There is no networking or icloud involved in this issue. Maybe it was confusing when I mentioned having copied some files into the site folder from another folder.

     

    Since this problem has been worsening for several months & I've already tried working with the preferrences it's unlikely that simply restarting Dreamweaver or restoring the pref again will work. I'l try it again anyway though.

     

    Any ideas on what's causing this would be greatly appreciated.

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