published files lose their original date

  • Thread starter Thread starter Huck
  • Start date Start date
H

Huck

I "Published" my site to the web. On the web site, the date for the files
is the date I published, not the date of the files on my hard disk. That
way I can't tell if the file on the web is actually more recent than the one
that I am publishing from my hard disk. What can I do?



Thanks for any help,



Huck
 
Is there nothing that can be done about it? It is very problematic. For
example, if I upload a file that was created 6/10/06 and on the web it is
dated 10/10/06, it would appear that the file on the web is more recent than
the one that it is a copy of. If by chance I had modified the 6/10/06 file
on another computer on 7/10/06, I would have no way of knowing if the file
on the web was the 7/10/06 file or if it was more recent than the 7/10/06
file. Without trying to find all the reasons, it seems extremely poor
practice to put a different date on the identical file in 2 different
places.
 
How are you publishing? What are you using to compare the dates?

In my experience using FrontPage 2003 to HTTP publish to an extended
server, and comparing the file dates in Remote Site View, the dates are
the same.
But, using an FTP client to compare the dates, the dates on the remote
site are the dates the site was last published.
 
You could manually add the file date to it's contents when the file is
updated. That way your users can see the date too. If these are HTML files
you can add a FP bot to do the date for you automatically.

Some file dates you might see in FrontPage are part of the metadata for the
web (in the _vti_ folders).

Some file dates you see on the server (or with FTP) are the file system date
stamp laid down by the server at the time of the hard drive write.

If you mean "poor practice" as in "I don't understand what FP extensions do"
then sure.

For most applications, there is no good reason to be digging around on the
hard disk looking at FrontPage webs. There are a lot of things you can
break in there, and there is a nice interface to help you do the stuff you
need to do. Why not just stick with that?
 
Re: "I don't understand what FP extensions do"

Is there a link to documentation that explains the various functions of FP
extensions? I am certain many users like me would like to know a bit more
about what options are available and how to use them properly.

Larry
 
I publish different ways. I most recently published from FrontPage.
However, at several times I have viewed the site with FTPExplorer or
WiseFTP. Maybe that has something to do with it. I'll check it out later.

I used to publish only with FTPExplorer. When I did that I never had this
problem.
 
I have several web sites. Looking at the ones that were published with
FTPExplorer, I see that the dates on files on the server are the same as the
files on my hard disk. Looking at a copy of one of those sites (used for
testing) that was published with FrontPage, I see that the file dates on the
server are different than on my hard disk. Since someone told me that is
the expected action from FrontPage, I guess that is why.

Huck
 
If I remember correctly, FTPexplorer has an option to change the real
filedate to be the same as the source file - this is manipulating the
server filing system. FrontPage does not do this, so you can see
exactly when a file was changed on the server by looking with a FTP
client, and see when the page was last edited by looking with FrontPage.
The dates shown in FrontPage are taken from meta data that is updated
when http publishing.
--
Ron Symonds - Microsoft MVP (FrontPage)
Reply only to group - emails will be deleted unread.
FrontPage Support: http://www.frontpagemvps.com/
http://www.rxs-enterprises.org/fp
 
Back
Top