[Pro] Extra Resources, Relative Links, Local Preview

Freeway
1

I use CSS Menus on a Master Page to provide navigation throughout my site. I want a particular PDF file to appear when the user selects a certain menu command. But the PDF file I want to appear is not easy to link to because it is not shown on any page in the site. The only way to pull up the PDF is via the CSS Menu command – the same menu appearing every page in my site.

So what I have done is used the Extra Resources action to add the PDF in the Resources folder of a particular directory on my site. But how do I link to it such that I can preview everything in the browser locally?

I know about using ./ or …/ for Relative Linking, but that doesn’t work at all because the menu command linking to the PDF appears on every page in my site but different pages of my site are located in different directories. I could use absolute linking on my CSS Menu on the Master Page and then upload the PDF manually to my server, but that doesn’t keep everything “local” (on my local hard drive). And I want to keep everything inside Freeway without having to use an external FTP client. Using the Extra Resources is nice for me because I can update the PDF and the next time I edit my site and upload, Freeway will grab the newest version PDF – to me, that’s better than manually uploading the PDF, because I will forget to do that.

So for example…

The path to the PDF I have added within Freeway via Extra Resources is like this:

/site folder/jp/systems/Resources/file.pdf

How can I continue to have Freeway manage this PDF for me (i.e., by using something like “Extra Resources”) while at the same time link to it locally via CSS Menus on my master page (i.e., so I don’t have to use absolute linking and manually upload the file to my server)?

Thank you,

James Wages

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options

2

Hi James,
I would tackle the problem a slightly different way. Create a
placeholder page in your site and link to that from your CSS menus. On
this page put a block of text that says something like;
“Your PDF will load/ download momentarily. If it does not you may
[download it manually]”
The text in the square brackets is linked to the PDF which is uploaded
using the Extra Resources action.
Now select Meta Tags from the Page menu and select the System (http-
equiv) tab.
Press the New… button and enter;
Name: refresh
Value: 0;url=file.pdf
(Where file.pdf is the name of your PDF).
When published your HTML should look something like this;

If you upload the PDF to the same location as the HTML file using the
Extra Resources action then you won’t need to worry about paths at all
as the link from the HTML page and meta refresh entry will just be the
PDF’s file name.

What happens here is the CSS menu loads the HTML page which, in turn,
uses the meta refresh tag to automatically load the PDF after zero
seconds. As all browsers support meta refresh you shouldn’t have any
problems with compatibility. However, just to make sure, the text on
the HTML page offers the user the chance to manually load the PDF
should they find themselves there without the PDF. This will work when
viewed both locally and on your server.

If you get stuck let me know and I’ll send you a simple sample Freeway
file.
Regards,
Tim.

On 11 Jun 2009, at 21:54, JDW wrote:

I use CSS Menus on a Master Page to provide navigation throughout my
site. I want a particular PDF file to appear when the user selects a
certain menu command. But the PDF file I want to appear is not easy
to link to because it is not shown on any page in the site. The
only way to pull up the PDF is via the CSS Menu command – the same
menu appearing every page in my site.

So what I have done is used the Extra Resources action to add the
PDF in the Resources folder of a particular directory on my site.
But how do I link to it such that I can preview everything in the
browser locally?

I know about using ./ or …/ for Relative Linking, but that doesn’t
work at all because the menu command linking to the PDF appears on
every page in my site but different pages of my site are located in
different directories. I could use absolute linking on my CSS Menu
on the Master Page and then upload the PDF manually to my server,
but that doesn’t keep everything “local” (on my local hard drive).
And I want to keep everything inside Freeway without having to use
an external FTP client. Using the Extra Resources is nice for me
because I can update the PDF and the next time I edit my site and
upload, Freeway will grab the newest version PDF – to me, that’s
better than manually uploading the PDF, because I will forget to do
that.

So for example…

The path to the PDF I have added within Freeway via Extra Resources
is like this:

/site folder/jp/systems/Resources/file.pdf

How can I continue to have Freeway manage this PDF for me (i.e., by
using something like “Extra Resources”) while at the same time link
to it locally via CSS Menus on my master page (i.e., so I don’t have
to use absolute linking and manually upload the file to my server)?

FreewayActions.com - Freeware and shareware actions for Freeway
Express & Pro.

Protect your mailto links from being harvested by spambots with Anti
Spam.
Only available at FreewayActions.com

http://www.freewayactions.com

freewaytalk mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options