Dreamweaver not updating Child Page from Templates

[JimH1778]

I see on this forum that this seems to have been a problem for a while. Here is my story today and what I did with Tech Support who had no idea of this problem.

I'm a little afraid to continue to build a site I'm working on, since it will have a base template and 5 or 6 nested templates. Seems like a very risky course of action to continue building. Maybe someone out there has an answer. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Jim

Here is the email I sent my tech support guy, after he asked me to install 18.2 CC in my computer as well and test:

Adobe Tech Support,

FYI - After we hung up, I remembered I have Dreamweaver 19.2 installed on my MacBook Pro as well. I only use DW on this computer during vacation time. The computer we were using and you were screen sharing with was my Mac Pro 12 core - 64 GB RAM - 1 TB SSD drive.

So I created a new template test site on my laptop - MacBook Pro, thinking maybe something was wrong with my Mac Pro.

But….

The exact same thing occurred on my laptop, in both DW 19.2 and DW 18.2

I created a page from the Basic-single page DW template, and saved it to the folder.

I then opened it and added an Editable Region to the page, and DW said it was going to make it into a Template. I saved it (it either went in to the templates folder or I put it in there) into the templates folder in DW. DW automatically makes a template folder and stores the templates in there.

I then went to File > New > Site Templates and created a new page from the template, and then saved to the test folder (not the templates folder) - it automatically stores it at the highest level.

I then went back to the DW template I had just made and made a change in the template.

When I went to save - it DID NOT give me the box to list what documents were going to be save - it just saved the template.

When I opened the html file I had made from the template, it was NOT updated.

**** NOTE: After I downloaded DW 18.2 and tried the exact same thing - it did NOT update the file, nor did it give me a window when saving the template after a change to let me know what documents were going to be updated.

AND YES - Each time I went to File > New > and selected the template, the box was check to "Update Page when template changes” (the tech guy kept asking me this on the phone)

**** NOTE 2: in DW 18.2 I made 4 pages from the DW Template (.dwt) - the peculiar thing is:

It did not update page 1

Then after I made page 2, it only updated page 1

Then after I update page 3, it only updated only page 1

Then after I made page 4, it updated page 1 and 4 only

It is not consistently recognizing the pages created from the template or recognizing them at all in both DW 19.2 and DW 18.2 on two (2) different computers. Both computers were running Mac OS 10.14.5 at the time.

**** NOTE 3: I have since had an update to Mac OS 10.14.6 on my Mac Pro.

I ran another template test after the OS update 10.14.6 and here is what I got:

After making a template, and then making a page from the template (and yes - each time the box was checked √ to "Update file when template changes”) - I made 4 pages.

In between each one, I made a change to the template adding the numbers 2 - 3 - 4 to each successive change to the template. Each page created from the template had the most recent change but NONE of the pages were updated.

Page 1 - did not update

Page 2 - did not update

Page 3 - did not update

Page 4 - did not update

Also, every time I saved the template - it just saved the template - NO window came up to indicate which document the change was going to be saved in - ever.

There has to be a BAD BUG in Dreamweaver.

This is happening the exact same way on 2 different machines, and 2 different versions of DW - 19.2 and 18.2 on both machines.

[Nancy OShea]

Nested Templates are an exercise in futile masochism.   I honestly cannot think of a single use case where nested templates would be desirable much less beneficial.  And a template nested 6 ways would be nothing short of a horror show.

The whole point in using a Template (.dwt file) is to ensure site wide consistency.  That means the same headers, footers and navigation elements will appear on all pages spawned from that Template.  If needed, you can add Optional Editable Regions for content that may appear on some but not all pages.  Likewise you may have custom CSS styles to show or hide elements on select pages.  But trust me when I tell you there is no need for nested templates.  It's a recipe for disaster.  

[anissa_thompson]

To set the record straight for Nancy OShea​ and @Jon Fritz II -

There definitely are [rare] cases where the nested template comes in handy. Case in point: I have a client who insists on managing his site content himself, and refuses to use database-driven solution. His site is a portal of sorts, housing blog entries, classified ads, specialty content, etc. Each section has the same master header/footer navigation, but has specific layouts for the internal portions of content. With my CSS build, his site is over 1,200 pages and continuing to grow, and he's managed to keep a relatively trouble free operation going for over a decade.

[JimH1778]

Yeah - thanks - My situation is pretty much the same.

Navigation & Footer are the same for the entire website but I have 4 different product areas with 4 different header banners for each product area.

My client wants a different rotating banner for each product area.

I have used templates and nested templates for many many years - nothing like this has every happened before.

But Like I said - this isn't a Nested Template problem - it's a Template updating problem.

My 2 different computers using DW 19.2 and DW 18.2 (on both computers) will not update a basic template properly.

I made a test website with just a template and only 2 child files - it will not update the 2nd child, just the 1st one created.

Not sure what to do.

Adobe doesn't seem to know what to do either. I keep sending them information on my case number, but I get nothing back.

Thanks, Jim

[Jon Fritz]

Personally, I would never use Nested Templates in DW, it can cause all sorts of heartache.

Did I boil down your above info correctly?

1. You created a page from the Basic templates availble in DW (small t) and saved it to the folder.
     -- What folder? Do you mean your Site Definition's root folder?

2. You then opened that file, added Editable Regions and saved as a Template (big T) which DW created a Templates folder for.

     --This is the correct behavior in DW, that new Templates folder CANNOT be moved, and the .DWT within MUST stay within it

3. You then created a child page from the .DWT via DW's New menu, and saved it to your site's root folder.

4. You went back and made a change to the template that did not populate the child page.
     This can be for a couple reasons.

     --Were the changes being made to the .html file from step 1, or the .DWT from step 2?    

     --Was the change to the Template inside or outside of an editable region?

[JimH1778]

Jon,

yes to all - you have it correct.

This can be for a couple reasons.

     --Were the changes being made to the .html file from step 1, or the .DWT from step 2? 

Step 2 - to the .dtw file  

     --Was the change to the Template inside or outside of an editable region?

Outside the editable region

[Nancy OShea]

• I suggest using DW 2019 as it has new updates that didn't appear in the 2018 version.
• Switch to Design view when working with Template (.dwt) files.
• Did you define a local site folder before you began this project?  Site > New Site...
  
• Did you save the newly created child page as index.html? 
  
• Most importantly, is the code in Template and child page free of validation errors?
  

[JimH1778]

Thanks Nancy for your replies.

Whether I use nested templates or not, is not the issue, and has no bearing on the problem.

And yes - everything is set up correctly - and there are no validation errors.

My template test used an Adobe Basic Starter template (suggested by Adobe tech support), which was made into a template with 1 editable region, and then 1 child page from that. The template does not update the child, nor does it give me the Update window to show what files will be updated.

And on 2 machines, I have DW 19.2 and 18.2 and the problem exists on both computers and in both versions.

The DW 18.2 on both machines is a clean install today, and there are no other 3rd party extensions or anything in it - just Dreamweaver and their Starter template.

Thanks for the suggestion though....

[Nancy OShea]

I cannot reproduce the problem. For what it's worth, my local site folder resides on my primary hard drive, not externals or networked drives. 

Try Restore Preferences.

Unusual behavior in Dreamweaver? Try restoring preferences.

[JimH1778]

Nancy,

I have been searching a lot and it seems this problem has been around for years - but I have yet to find anyone with a fix or solution.

I have been using DW19.2 - never had a problem until today with templates all these years.

Adobe Tech support and I were on the phone and screen share for hours, with no solution. He tried pretty hard - is going to research and get back to me, but I don't have a good feeling about this.

I cannot reproduce the problem. For what it's worth, my local site folder resides on my primary hard drive, not externals or networked drives. 

My folder resides on my internal SSD drive.

Try Restore Preferences.

And while I had Adobe tech support on the phone, we Un-installed DW and all the preferences of DW19.2 on my production computer.

[Jon Fritz]

Here's something to try...

1. Open your .DWT file

2. Go to Tools > Templates > Update Pages

3. Make sure "Look in:" is changed to "Files that use..."
4. Verify the second dropdown has the correct .dwt file selected
5. Check the box for Templates

6. Check the box for Show Log
7. Click Start

This should update any child pages across your site, and display any errors that might cause an update to fail.

[JimH1778]

Thanks for the suggestion.

Did all of that many times, and even with the Adobe tech guy.

Where it's Files associated with this template or Update entire website.

Nothing works correctly

[Nancy OShea]

I prefer server-side includes (SSIs) over proprietary DW Templates any day.   SSIs are more efficient, and perfectly stable because pages are updated by the server, not DW. 

Alt-Web Design & Publishing: Server-Side Includes with PHP

Once you switch to SSIs, you'll wonder why you ever messed around with temperamental Templates.

[JimH1778]

Nancy,

Thanks for the suggestion and the link.

That was going to be my next direction if I can't ever figure out how to get even the simplest template to update more than 1 page.

I'll have no choice but to build ever major element as a SSI.

This is a simple HTML website - not worth all that work.

But it looks like I'm headed in that direction....

Thanks, Jim

[Nancy OShea]

Jim,

Templates or not.  I can't remember the last site I built without SSIs, it's too far back.  Even small sites benefit because it significantly reduces the amount of code you're looking at.   A typical parent document would resemble this:

<!doctype html>

<html lang="en">

<head>

<title>Unique Page Title</title>

<?php require_once('Includes/head.html'); ?>

</head>

<body>

<?php require_once('Includes/header.html'); ?>

<?php require_once('Includes/navigation.html'); ?>

<main> Unique page content here... </main>

<?php require_once('Includes/footer.html'); ?>

<?php require_once('Includes/footer_scripts.html'); ?>

</body>

</html>

[JimH1778]

Yeah - Thanks for snippet...

I'm looking into it, and I think I have not choice anyway.

Time to change. HaHa

Jim

[JimH1778]

Thanks Nancy.

I spent the whole weekend teaching myself how to do SSIs and testing.

Worked out pretty good. Pretty easy once you get the hang of it.

Looks like I'll be doing SSIs from now on.

Thanks for the suggestion and the little piece of code there - very helpful in understanding.

Thanks again - Jim

[Nancy OShea]

You're welcome.