How do I add a page from FTP to actual website?

Hi, I am clueless on building websites from scratch. using the webftp w/ DreamHost, or the net2ftp and I just want to add the home page I created on iWeb (Mac) onto my url.

I've uploaded the index.html file to the webftp. When I click to "Open" it from the webftp browse screen, a new window pops opens reading:

Not Found
The requested URL /urbancupcake.com/index.html was not found on this server.
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

Where have I gone wrong, what have I not done that I need to do. I'm sure I am just missing a step and don't know how to proceed. Understanding the webftp Help section has been a b*tch.

If I could just get my little basic welcome page loaded onto my URL I'll be a happy camper until I have someone else do this for me. I have no patience :o(

Thanks!

Do you know what directory you uploaded the file to? It's easy to accidentally upload to your home directory instead of the web root directory. You need to make sure you uploaded the file to the urbancupcake.com directory. I'm assuming you took the default setup when you configured the domain hosting, btw.

Actually, when I go to your site I see that it's redirected/forwarded to Welcome.html, which isn't there.

Hi Lens,

I'd first added a page called Welcome but took remove it because I was getting a different message that I can't remember, but it wasn't the webpage I'd created.

So I deleted the Welcome page from ftp to start over. I uploaded the index.html page because I read somewhere that your home page HAS to be called index.html... First, am I taking that direction too literally somehow?

If my site now redirects/forwards to Welcome.html (and I have no idea how I did that), how can I now redirect/forward the site to my index.html page that I uploaded, so that I see the image I created instead, as it does appear I uploaded it into the urbancupcake directory?

Thanks for your help,
Dee

Hey, I'm happy to help! Sorry if it seems like we're going back and forth a lot, but it'll just take a little Q&A and investigation to figure out exactly where you are and then we'll be able to get you back on track!

Do you have a file named .htaccess in your web root? Also, would you mind posting the content of your index.html file?

Informational note: By default, Apache in its default configuration will look for a file called "index.html" when the user (the web browser, that is) requests a directory rather than a particular file.

Anyway, my guess is that you uploaded an index.html page that auto-redirected to Welcome.html which isn't there any more (having been deleted).

We could leave well enough alone and just have you upload Welcome.html back up there and then hopefully we'll see that page displayed when people go to your site.

Hi Lensman, I totally appreciate your patience and don't mind the back and forth at all.

I took your advice and uploaded the welcome.html again, as well as all of my images, etc. and now I do see everything on my site :) but only if I type in www.urbancupcake.com/welcome.html :( If type in www.urbancupcake.com only, without the /welcome.html, I get errors. Who will go to my site and wanna type the /welcome.html after it. I have no idea how I I'm making it redirect, how can I fix that?

Also you asked if I have a file named .htaccess in your web root? Where is my "web root"? And is the .htaccess something I would have there automatically or that I need to put there?

Also, if I'd mind posting the content of my index.html file? Not at all if it'll help... how do I find it? Is it all that code looking stuff?

Sorry, please treat me like I'm stupid when it comes to explaining this stuff, Trust me! I won't get insulted, Lol

Thanks,
Dee

I don't think we need to worry about the .htaccess file anymore, I think it's the index.html file that we need to sort out.

Where did you get the index.html file that you uploaded to your site? All the code in it is causing your problems, but I'm hesitant to tell you to change it before I find out where it came from.

We're very close to solving your problem. In fact, I know a couple of things we could do to immediately solve your problem, but I want to make sure we pick the *best* solution for you that will be the easiest for you to understand and maintain.

If you're getting antsy, you can:
1. Delete index.html on your DreamHost server.
2. Rename Welcome.html to index.html on your DreamHost server and you'll be up and running immediately.

I kinda want to make sure you don't totally lose the old index.html file, so I'm hoping it's somewhere on your local (home) machine.

Informational note: Your web root is the base directory for your website. In your case it's probably the directory /urbancupcake.com/

Lensman:

You are doing such a fine job of helping the OP with this, I'm not gonna risk mucking it up. wink

That said, I was wondering if you actually saw the code in her index.html file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title></title>
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url= Urban Cupcake . Coming Soon! Autumn 2007/index.html" />
</head>
<body></body>
</html>

I'm thinking that somehow iWEB is doing that to her, thinking she is hosted in the mac.com environment (though I could be way off base here).

(Edited to provide additional info)

This might be useful: Tips for Using iWeb with non-.Mac Servers

--rlparker

Yep... that causes a redirect to:
http://urbancupcake.com/Urban Cupcake . Coming Soon! Autumn 2007/index.html

The syntax in the original page is invalid, actually, with its unescaped spaces in the URL, but my Mozilla browser replaces them with hexadecimal-encoded characters. There's no page at that URL, though.

-- Dan

Yeah .. that's what I was trying top point out, Dan. (I knew lensman would "get" it, and I didn't want to confuse the OP) wink

I'm sure iWEB did it shocked

--rlparker

Thanks guys, it really is helpful!

So the question is, is the "refresh" to the "coming soon" directory intentional on the part of the OP or is it automatic in iWeb?

Dee, if it is intentional, then you need to upload the "Urban Cupcake . Coming Soon! Autumn 2007" directory - specifically the index.html file, checking to make sure that it ends up in the right directory on the server.

OTOH, it could be that this directory (and file) are getting upload correctly and that the problem lies with the (mis)handling of the spaces and the exclamation point. It would be best if you could rename this and reupload the whole site.

BTW, a note to Robert and Dan: I have to head out to the Mets game for the day. Would you two mind taking care of Dee while I'm out? This goes for anyone else as well!

OT: We're going to Joe's Shanghai after the game for some soup dumplings. I was amazed the first time I had these little morsels. I've had dumplings in soup before but never soup in my dumplings!

Enjoy the game. I'll be gone part of the day myself, but I'll check in on Dee for ya! wink

--rlparker

No problem. Being "dumb", I'll admit that it took me a while to "get at" that page source code because of the "immediate refresh" (I "tricked" it by "wget"ing the page from the shell so I could see the code - nice trick actually! wink )

In reply to:
So the question is, is the "refresh" to the "coming soon" directory intentional on the part of the OP or is it automatic in iWeb?

That is the question. From my reading of the "tips" I linked earlier, I'm pretty sure iWEB does some "strange stuff" that may be involved in that. The spaces in the url issue is mentioned there, and I'm thinking the "publish to a local folder" process that was mentioned may preclude some of this strangeness. Not having access to iWEB, I admit that is only and "edumacated" guess. shocked .

In reply to:
It would be best if you could rename this and reupload the whole site.

I agree. Dee, if you are reading this, why don't you also work through those "tips" in my earlier post and try "publishing to a folder" on your computer.

Also, it might be time to visit an iWEB forum of two, to see what iWEB users can tell you about posting your site on DreamHost. I'll guarantee you that some of them *do*! wink

--rlparker

Thanks a million guys! I cant be more glad I signed up with DH given all the fast replies and attention you all provide :) It's a relief. I'm off to work (ugg) but am going to jump on this again tonight and try out all of your tips, I will keep you posted.

And it hadn't even occurred to me to check out whether there was an iWeb forum on here, I will be posting a question or two there!

BTW could anyone recommend an easy website application other than iWeb that might work just as easily - i.e. copy/ paste, drag/drop, easy image uploading, etc. - but with possibly less complications? The plan is to eventually sell stuff on my site.

With relief,
Dee

I've always been a big fan of the various content management sites. One thing you might do to "start simple" is to not think about creating your site from scratch using html but rather to do a one-click install of CMS software. The simplest is WordPress. I actually use it to manage content on relatively static websites I create.

You might either create a subdomain of your domain or a free dreamhosters.com subdomain, do a one-click install of WordPress, and play around for a few days. I find that although I'm not able to control layout as much as I'd like, I can get the content up there. Then again, I'm not particularly creative or artistic so anything I can do to avoid having to make things look nice is fine by me.

What were you planning to use for e-commerce? Were you going to do something like a Zen Cart install or set up an ebay or yahoo store?

P.S. I love cupcakes.

One of the nicest things about these forums is you will often find people here are willing to help! smile

In reply to:
BTW could anyone recommend an easy website application other than iWeb that might work just as easily - i.e. copy/ paste, drag/drop, easy image uploading, etc. - but with possibly less complications?

As WYSIWYG html editors go, I'm a big fan of NVU and KompoZer (which are "free" as in "freedom" and as in "free beer").

Some also swear by SeaMonkey. All of these have a similar lineage, having been derived (or evolved) from Mozilla and Mozilla Composer.

You can check them out and what you like, or don't like, about each of them at no cost. You really can't go too far wrong with any of those; WYSWYG editors may never generate code as nicely as a human with a text editor, but they can be completely serviceable.

Any of those listed above should help you avoid the .mac-ness of iWEB, and be a bit easier for you to use on DreamHost.

--rlparker

How do I add a page from FTP to actual website?