H
hmc
I would like to point out that an unexpected catastrophe
occurred while using the 'publish' feature on FrontPage
2003.
Unfortunately, FP gave no warning before deleting about
300 empty folders on the remote web site.
Here's what happened: I had one file on my local website
that I planned to publish. There were about 300 folders
and sub-folders on the remote website. I selected 'local
to remote' and clicked 'publish.' Without warning, FP
deleted all the folders on the remote website and then
proceeded to copy the one file from my local web site. It
did not show the typical question 'there are files on the
remote server that do not exist on the local web, do you
want to delete the files from the remote server?' Then it
was over. It had successfully copied the one file, while
deleting 300 folders in its wake. There is absolutely no
way to reverse or undo a publish. Luckily my host was
able to restore a backup of the lost folders.
I realized later that I should have just selected the one
file I wanted to publish and then click on the right
arrow to copy it to the remote web site. I realize that
by clicking 'publish' instead, FrontPage thought it
should "mirror" the local files on the remote, so it
deleted everything but the one local file. That is FP's
only defense, and it holds water until the following
happened..
A second strange phenomenon: Of the approximately 300
empty folders on the remote server at the time, four of
the folders contained one .doc file each. FrontPage
distinguished this and only deleted about 296 empty
folders, sparing four folders containing files. Why did
it only delete empty folders? In conclusion, it preserved
four files on the remote web site that were not on the
local web site, which does not support the "mirror"
effect that previously defended FrontPage.
I'm left wondering, "Why?"
Should FrontPage not have asked first, given a warning,
or at least notified me of what was about to happen? And
why is there little method to it's madness?
After reading this alert, I hope others can be saved from
such a mishap.
occurred while using the 'publish' feature on FrontPage
2003.
Unfortunately, FP gave no warning before deleting about
300 empty folders on the remote web site.
Here's what happened: I had one file on my local website
that I planned to publish. There were about 300 folders
and sub-folders on the remote website. I selected 'local
to remote' and clicked 'publish.' Without warning, FP
deleted all the folders on the remote website and then
proceeded to copy the one file from my local web site. It
did not show the typical question 'there are files on the
remote server that do not exist on the local web, do you
want to delete the files from the remote server?' Then it
was over. It had successfully copied the one file, while
deleting 300 folders in its wake. There is absolutely no
way to reverse or undo a publish. Luckily my host was
able to restore a backup of the lost folders.
I realized later that I should have just selected the one
file I wanted to publish and then click on the right
arrow to copy it to the remote web site. I realize that
by clicking 'publish' instead, FrontPage thought it
should "mirror" the local files on the remote, so it
deleted everything but the one local file. That is FP's
only defense, and it holds water until the following
happened..
A second strange phenomenon: Of the approximately 300
empty folders on the remote server at the time, four of
the folders contained one .doc file each. FrontPage
distinguished this and only deleted about 296 empty
folders, sparing four folders containing files. Why did
it only delete empty folders? In conclusion, it preserved
four files on the remote web site that were not on the
local web site, which does not support the "mirror"
effect that previously defended FrontPage.
I'm left wondering, "Why?"
Should FrontPage not have asked first, given a warning,
or at least notified me of what was about to happen? And
why is there little method to it's madness?
After reading this alert, I hope others can be saved from
such a mishap.