Site template updates not applying to linked pages

[RCDAWebMaster]

I an using Dreamweaver CS6 version 12 Build 5808

I built templates for my site and then built pages based upon those templates. everything has been working fine until earlier this week. When I make changes to the template files and save the template, Dreamweaver does not prompt me to update the child pages. I even went into the menu: modify --> Template --> Update Template... I then picked the template that I made changes to and told it to apply the changes. It told me 17 pages examined and 0 updated. I then tried to make the changes in the page directly but that part of the page is locked by a template. I had to modify the 17 pages in notepad to get the changes to the child pages.

I started updating the templates because there were some broken links identified by Dreamweaver. I had to make the changes using notepad because the changes to the template would not push. Once the changes were made and verified as complete, Dreamweaver continued to identify the same broken links that has been fixed.

To attempt to remedy this, I deleted the site cache, then the site altogether and recreated it. I even went so far as to reinstall the program. I do not know what else to do.

[Jon Fritz]

Are your .dwt Template files located within the automatically generated Templates folder in your site's root directory?

Changing the name or location of that auto-generated Templates folder will break them.

[RCDAWebMaster]

The template files are located in \templates folder located in the root of the site.

For some weird reason the files are now sporadically updating. Sometimes they update the files based upon them, sometimes not and when they don't I have to apply them to the child files individually, even if the page shows the correct template file in preview window.

This is so weird. I wish there was a good explanation for this erratic behavior.

By the way, none of the templates were auto generated. I created them manually years ago. how does one auto generate a template.

[Jon Fritz]

Sorry, I may have been a little unclear, I meant the Templates folder itself is auto-generated, not your .DWT Template files.

Templates in DW have always been somewhat unreliable. They, along with Fluid Grids, seem like a good ideas until they aren't.

I prefer to use PHP includes to handle the types of things Templates are used for. Rather than hoping that changes to a .dwt file propagate correctly, then finding all of those changed files and uploading to the site, I use a small handful of very simple include files. I make the change to the include for, say the navigation header, upload that small code snippet file and it's automatically written into pages that use it by the server when requested by the viewer.

If you have access to php on your server, it's a much better and more stable way to make site-wide changes over time.

[RCDAWebMaster]

While I like the idea of server side includes and have used them. I'm not going to further develop this site as a redesign is in the works for later this month or early next month. At this point, I'm stuck with the old architecture that relies on HTML, javascript and classic ASP. I am planning to use PHP as it is a modern language that would suit my needs quite well.

In the meantime... Am I simply stuck with template files that don't work all that well?

[Jon Fritz · Accepted solution]

It's possible that you're just stuck.

It's also possible that some kind of code error has been introduced to the template file(s) and has propagated to the child pages making them unstable.

Check your code under File > Validate > Current Document W3C or go to http://validator.w3.org/nu to see if you have any structural errors.

Something else to check is the formatting of the Template comments in your child pages.

The editable regions of templates, and the uneditable code outside of them, are controlled by specifically formatted html comments. Making sure those comments are identical between working and non-working pages could get you back up and running.

You can edit "locked" areas of a child page's code with pretty much any other text editor. They will see those comments as simple html comments and ignore them.

[RCDAWebMaster]

I ended up reapply templates to child pages and then they started updating. I didn't figure out what caused them to stop working in the first place.

Also I noticed that placing a space character in an editable region and saving the template no longer forced the child pages to update. I ended up changing code outside the editable region and that triggered an update. Not sure why this would matter.

Things are now working again. Thanks for the help.