SEO...Changes Appearing On-Line, But Not in Freeway Pro

Freeway
1

Good day everyone!

I’m working with an SEO firm that makes (among other things) minor changes to our site’s text.

I believe they are using Dreamweaver.

When I look at, for example, my Index page by right clicking the file into a browser…the changes are there. In a preview in Finder…they are there. They are also showing on the live site.

However, when I open the same page in Freeway…they aren’t visible.

Am I missing a setting or something in Freeway? Glad for your thoughts!

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2

Hi Matt
Unfortunately Freeway does not update its own document file (your artwork) from an external edit of the HTML output
basically… its a one way street.

You create in Freeway → hit publish → html is created

So if you want those Dreamweaver changes to be reflected within the Freeway document you will need to add them within the application.

Max

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Thank you…perhaps I wasn’t clear. I do/did understand how it works.

I have downloaded all the updated files…but Freeway still does not show the changes to the files. The only appear in Finder as a “preview”.

I assume the SEO people need to provide me with the changes/additions and I must add them within Freeway?

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The Site Folder you designate in your preferences for the document exists as a one-way output for Freeway. The contents are never read by the Freeway application. There is a separate SiteName.freeway binary file which is the actual repository of all the changes you make in the Freeway design interface. When you publish, Freeway compares what is in the site folder with the output it will make and replaces anything in the site folder that does not match. The .freeway document is considered authoritative, and any changes you make within the site folder are considered damaged and are overwritten.

When you preview, Freeway spins up a lightweight copy of Safari and shows you the file you choose in the Site Folder. It’s like a very specialized browser at that point. Changes made to the files in the Site Folder WILL appear in Preview mode. But, if you were to publish and then preview, you would see the “old” site, exactly the way that it appears in the Design view.

The best way to think of the contents of the site folder is as a cache of how your site will look when it is published. But like any cache, it is completely destroyable and replaceable.

Walter

On Jul 10, 2018, at 12:37 PM, Matt Morris email@hidden wrote:

Thank you…perhaps I wasn’t clear. I do/did understand how it works.

I have downloaded all the updated files…but Freeway still does not show the changes to the files. The only appear in Finder as a “preview”.

I assume the SEO people need to provide me with the changes/additions and I must add them within Freeway?

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I am thankful for the comments…perhaps I’m still not clear.

Regardless of how I view my pages…in Freeway, with Freeway previewing in Safari, etc…the changes are not visible.

However, if I use Finder, and click the Index page file name…the “preview” icon-thumbnail in Finder…shows the changes. If I double-click, it opens the page in Safari with no graphics, etc…but the text reflects the changes.

If I could only post screenshots it may make sense.

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I do understand. What you need to realize is that Freeway does not read or understand HTML. At all. It generates HTML, but it cannot understand a single angle-bracket of it.

Freeway writes a binary .freeway document each time you press save. It stores the entire site in that one file.

When you publish (or preview a page), Freeway will check to see if the file exists in the designated Site Folder, or exists but has a different modification date, and will generate that page again (in HTML) out of the binary Freeway document. But that is a one-way trip. Changes you or others make in the HTML are considered by Freeway to be damage to those output files. They are not new information that Freeway will understand or use at all.

I completely understand what you would like to be true. But what I have been at pains to explain to you is that this is not something Freeway can or will do, no matter how much you may want it to.

You have two choices, as others here have pointed out already.

  1. Duplicate the changes within Freeway. If the changes are only to visible text, this will be annoying but not difficult. If the changes are to internal HTML structures, then it will still be possible using the Extended interface, but not as easy to do. You will need to open the updated page in a programmer’s text editor, locate the new content, and figure out how to use the Extended tools to insert it into the generated code flow.

  2. Never use Freeway to change this site again, only use a text editor or HTML-aware editing tool like Dreamweaver to make any further changes.

Walter

On Jul 10, 2018, at 2:53 PM, Matt Morris email@hidden wrote:

I am thankful for the comments…perhaps I’m still not clear.

Regardless of how I view my pages…in Freeway, with Freeway previewing in Safari, etc…the changes are not visible.

However, if I use Finder, and click the Index page file name…the “preview” icon-thumbnail in Finder…shows the changes. If I double-click, it opens the page in Safari with no graphics, etc…but the text reflects the changes.

If I could only post screenshots it may make sense.

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Information for existing FreewayTalk / Groups.io users - Site Feedback - Softpress Talk

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7

Thank you…it now makes sense. I misunderstood what you were trying to explain.

I would expect that most changes are copy related, so I can make those myself. i will check with the SEO folks to see if it has anything to do with HTML, but I think not.

I was hoping that I was missing something simple…but Freeway is very different that other programs I have used.

Thanks again for all the help…

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