HTTP access forbidden

Freeway
1

I get this 403 error message when I check a web link in edit hyperlink… something I have done thousands of times (no exaggeration).

However, the link works fine when creating a browser file or when uploading to the Internet

I thought I might trash and then redo the preferences, but I can’t find them in freeway pro 7.1.3

Grateful for any help

2

Hi Tony,

I don’t think it would help to trash the preferences.

Freeway’s link-checking code is pretty old now (it was last updated in 2010), so it’s possible it no longer works with some servers.

So long as it works fine in browsers, you can ignore this error.

3

Hi Jeremy

Thanks very much for your prompt reply.

A very much miss that useful link checking feature, but a usable workaround involves copying the URL and pasting into an open browser window. This works fine.

But I do wonder where is the prefs for version 7.1.3 are located.

4

They’re in ~/Library/Preferences, and they’re called “Freeway 7 Pro Preferences”.

To get to ~/Library, you can hold down the Option key and select Library from the Finder’s Go menu.

If you want to delete them, you should probably do it while Freeway isn’t running, and you might need to restart your computer afterwards, since macOS caches preferences.

But I’d be very surprised if this makes any difference.

What is the link that Freeway fails to check? I have Freeway on an old machine, so I could try it from here.

5

Hi Jeremy

Thanks again for the prompt reply.

The problem I’m having occurs when I highlight some text that has a link attached and then do a command K which opens an edit hyperlink window containing a Check… option. when I click this box, I get the message “ cannot validate URL because HTTP access forbidden”

By the way, I would like to upgrade to Xway but I worry that I won’t be able to import my large and complex website. (seeworthy birds).

Also, you are right. Trashing the preferences did not fix the problem.

Tony Castro

6

The problem I’m having occurs when I highlight some text that has a link attached and then do a command K which opens an edit hyperlink window containing a Check… option. when I click this box, I get the message “ cannot validate URL because HTTP access forbidden”

Ah, I thought it was a specific link that wasn’t working.

The error message actually suggests that the problem is occurring because you are trying to access an HTTP (insecure) link from an HTTPS (secure) page. This is not allowed, for security reasons: a secure page is not allowed to access insecure links.

What happens if you update your links, replacing http:// with https://? You should be able to do this via Edit URLs in the Edit menu, if I’ve remembered correctly.

By the way, I would like to upgrade to Xway but I worry that I won’t be able to import my large and complex website. (seeworthy birds).

You can use Xway as a free 30-day trial version before purchasing or upgrading. Xway should be able to import all the content that is in your Freeway document, including master pages, links, etc. But there would be additional work, because Xway is designed to create flexible layouts that will display on any device (phones, tablets, computers), so it discards table layouts, which are inflexible. There is an appendix in the Xway User Guide which contains instructions and advice for importing Freeway documents.

7

Hi Jeremy

Thanks again for your comments and concern.

I have tried HTTPS before and again yesterday but of no help. Anyway, I have found a work around, which is OK.

When I can find a block of time, I will download try Xway especially since I don’t have any tables in SeeworthyBirds.

8

It’s not just actual tables. Freeway uses invisible tables for layout, and this creates inflexible layouts that display OK on large screens but aren’t really suited to smaller screens (mobiles and tablets).

On the other hand, it’s not difficult to create flexible layouts in Xway (it does this by default) and there are free templates that can be used as a starting point, along with step-by-step tutorials, so one approach is to create a flexible layout and copy imported Freeway content into this, starting with the master page(s).

What I’ve done in the past is:

  1. Import a Freeway document
  2. Duplicate the individual pages, and detach them from their master pages (select None in the Master Page popup). This ensures that the duplicate pages preserve their original content regardless of what happens on the master page.
  3. Create a flexible layout on the master page(s), possibly by copying master pages from a template. The master page should ideally contain three or four sections: a header and footer with content that should appear on all instance pages, and a main section that will contain different content on each page. (Plus a menu within or separate from the header section.)
  4. When you have a flexible master page, copy content from duplicated site pages into the main sections of the actual site pages.

I realise this is easier with small sites than with very large sites, but the end result is that a website can be viewed on a much wider range of devices - more people browse from phones than from computers these days.

9

Thanks again for your extensive and prompt comments.

But…considering that my seeworthy birds web site has 70 pages, the steps you describe would seem to make Xway a very disappointing deal-breaker for me.

However, although I read somewhere that Xway can read Freeway files, I’m not sure what this means. Considering that my site works fine with my iPad mini and is usable with an iPhone (with some scrolling), I’m wondering if Xway would work the same way without creating new Master Pages with the flexible layouts you mention. Or perhaps, Xway would not work at all without the flexible layout routines for each of the 70 pages in my site.

Just wondering.

10

Personally, I don’t find seeworthybirds.com to be usable on an iPhone: it’s hard to see content without scrolling horizontally and vertically, and the text is so small that it’s difficult to read without zooming in. It’s also difficult to follow links without zooming in on them. I find it easier on an iPad Mini, but I have to wear reading glasses and tapping on links is still fiddly.

70 pages doesn’t sound too bad to me. I thought you might have hundreds of pages.

Xway imports content (text, images, links) and styles from Freeway documents, and it can also import CSS layouts - but it discards non-CSS layouts (invisible table layouts), which were deprecated a long time ago.

Converting an inflexible layout to a flexible layout typically involves copying and pasting content into a flexible layout. You could copy the content from an imported document into a separate flexible document, but if you copy the content from duplicated pages within the same document, this has the advantage of preserving internal links. The point of duplicating the pages (and detaching them from their original master page) is to preserve the original content until you have copied it into flexible pages. Once you’ve done that, you can delete the duplicated pages.

Freeway was designed to create web pages that resemble print pages (DTP for the web), so there’s a bit of a learning curve in switching from this to a more flexible design. But we’ve tried to make it easier by providing step-by-step tutorials along with flexible templates (some of these were converted from paid-for Freeway-7 templates - the Xway versions are free).