PHP or HTML?

lostozzie said 1 year ago:

Please can someone tell me why some page files are php and some html
For some reason if I try to change the file type it reverts or creates a completely new file name and results in broken links – hence 404 page not found errors

I have now lost home.html and cannot get it back

timb said 1 year ago:

@lostozzie

The file type of your pages is dictated based on the type of content you have added into your project. Certain widgets, photo galleries and scripts will cause the file or particular links to be published as PHP. You will want to ensure your links are referencing the correct file name if you are using the URL, however when inserting your links you have the option to select another page within your site which should automatically find the correct syntax.

I’m not sure what you mean when you state you lost your home.html file. If you have deleted a page, you can restore your site from a previous backup using these steps:

Backing up or Restoring Your Website

Tim B

lostozzie said 1 year ago:

Hi Tim
Thanks for the explanation on the format, it makes sense.

I want to be able to save a page file as home.html so that a previously used url http://www.colourcentric.com/Home.html points to the web home page. I must have used this previously and overwritten it without realizing and too far down the track to restore using a backup.

Everytime I try to save the a new page as Home.html website tonight reassigns a new file name ie HomeW4K3.html therefore the url is different once published and existing page reference is lost. Hopefully I am making sense?

If it cannot be done how can I redirect the old url to the new file name please?

timb said 1 year ago:

@lostozzie

You will not be able to rename the file from PHP to HTML, as you have already discovered, WebSite Tonight will re-write it. WebSite Tonight also does not offer a redirect function. You will need to ensure all of your links reference either the correct file name or are set up to link to another page as I mentioned in my last response. If you have any broken links that are configured properly, please reply with them for further review.

Tim B

lostozzie said 1 year ago:

Hi Tim
Thanks again for your help and prompt reply.

This is a real issue for me because search engines especially google have indexed and rated http://www.colourcentric.com/Home.html and my email campaigns / directories /listings etc all point to it so I will lose a lot of potential business. I accept its a learning curve for me however saving a file name should not really be a problem so is it a shortcoming of the WST programming system? I am happy to create a html page as a landing page as long as that file name can be available and not automatically add numbers and letters. Is this something you can do manually?

Best regards

Allan

timb said 1 year ago:

@lostozzie

You can add another page within your Organize site section of WebSite Tonight which should allow you to name it ‘Home’ as well as an option to ‘Make this page the Home Page’. I think this is where you are already trying to make your changes, but I’ll provide the help link in case you need to reference it:

Organizing Your Website Using the Organize Site Page

As for the issue you described with the page name automatically adding characters, this is happening due to the fact that the ‘Home’ file name is already in use. You would want to rename your current home page first in order to use Home.html for the new home page.

If you run into any issues with this, please feel free to post them here or contact our Live Support Team as they can take a look at your project with you.

Tim B

lostozzie said 1 year ago:

Thanks again Tim
So if I need the Home.html and Home.php I will have a problem even though they are different file formats?

BR
Allan

timb said 1 year ago:

@lostozzie

Yes, that is correct. I’ve passed this thread along to our developers for future consideration in allowing this functionality.

Tim B

lostozzie said 1 year ago:

Thank you for all of your assistance, I can at least now understand why, I have changed the Home.php back to Home.html as the url that is more prolific in the indexed pages so only the Home.php url is returning a 404 page not found message not the Home.html.

If at some stage a solution can be found to have both formats that would be great as it was only by accident I realised that the file formats were different in the first place as it wasn’t obvious.

The overall functionality of WST is very good and have enjoyed the journey of creating websites for the first time.

WST has its frustrations at times however overall a very good product.

BR
Allan

timb said 1 year ago:

@lostozzie

You’re welcome, thanks for the feedback and posting in our support forum!

Tim B