iWeb issue after HD crackdown

[suhard]

A while ago my MacBook's hard drive cracked down and I lost all information there. While I have back-ups, they were not really up-to-date. I was wondering whether there is any way I could import the website data from the hosting server I had parked sites on, and put it back into the iWeb I re-installed on the new hard drive, so as to be able to edit and add information. Actually the issue is not getting that info, but putting it back in iWeb...
Thanks.
Alex

[Paddy]

Welcome to Techsurvivors, Alex! I think you're our first Romanian member. (Yes, I did the checks when you joined - we check out every new member because like most forums these days, we get a lot of spammers trying to sign up. And nice web site, BTW!)

Alex, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but Apple (for some unknown reason) has not seen fit to provide that ability.

From: http://iwebfaq.org/site/iWeb_Backup_retrieve.html

QUOTE

2.3 I have the html files of my website same as I see them when visiting my page on the internet with a browser. Is there any way I can get my webpage back to iWeb?

iWeb can't "import" html files.

If you don’t have the above mentioned domain file anymore and did not make a Backup of it but the website is still online (on MobileMe or any other server) then that’s what you should do:

1. You have to rebuild the website from scratch in iWeb re-creating each page

2. Use the published version on the server to copy&paste the content from it so you don’t have to re-type it in all over again. This makes the process of rebuilding the site from scratch really fast.

3. You shouldn’t do that by selecting all and then paste it into iWeb, it’s gonna be a mess. The best way to do it is text field by text field.

4. Images go by Drag&Drop. However the images on the published version aren’t full-resolution images. So if you still have the original image (full resolution) you better use this one. Especially if someday you want to increase the size of the image you will see that the one you took by Drag&Drop from the published site is poor quality.

5. Take advantage of the situation to re-organize your website and re-elaborate/modify it.

I'm sorry there is no better answer... But at least you don't have to type the text of your webpage all over again... And it's quite quick to do copy&paste (Believe me! I once did it for 300 pages!).

Apparently it's a much-asked question on the iWeb forums. I think your best bet would be to use your not-quite-up-to-date backups and copy and paste whatever updated text etc. that you need from the existing sites online.

While I certainly like iWeb's output, I've never used it to create a real web site because of various issues; its site structure, lack of ability to hand-edit code and things like this which are just basic, IMHO. I use Dreamweaver and other tools and yes, they have a much bigger learning curve and a lot more power. I've been building web sites for clients for about 7 years now and I'm still learning new stuff. However, I also understand that some people aren't interested in learning the nuts and bolts of web creation and just want to get a web site out there. For that, iWeb is great, as long as you are keenly aware of where it falls short. In the "closing the barn door after the horse has escaped" advice department, I'd recommend making a backup of your site every time you change it.

[suhard]

Thanks a lot, Paddy. Well, if this was only about suhard.com, it would be easy, but one of the other two sites (bucharestian.com) has considerably more pages
As for iWeb, it has a 'nice but childish' outlook, as a friend put it. But it is easy to use and handy (especially for a dummy like myself), provided one does not need too much out of it. And one day I shall have someone do some proper (and professional) design for my websites.

[chriskleeman]

Hi Alex!

Welcome to Techsurvivors!

I see Paddy has already replied in detail, I certainly would be no help on this particular issue!

Great to have you with us!

All the best,

Chris K

[Xairbusdriver]

Welcome Aboard, Alex! Great to have some more non-US input!

Only thing I'd add to Paddy's remarks is that the 'backup' she speaks of would be the original, working files you use in iWeb and make sure the are backed up on something other than the main drive you usually use. Even a CD will be better than on only one drive.

BTW, Paddy, if you haven't noticed is one of the best sources of help at TS and one of the "Founding Matrons!" Other experts here are Kriss (a fine lady), Chris, a fine gentleman, tacit, anything concerning computing/hardware details, Mayo, Pendragon, gunug, Kimmer, sandbox,...Wait, I'd better stop with the names! I'll leave out someone for sure because there are so many friendly, helpful people here. You may be the farthest east of our members, although, if you go far enough, you'll eventually come to New Zealand and a few members there! Probably a dozen active EU members, also. We still have a <TS Google Map> that will show you where a few of us live, if you're at all interested. Consider this an invitation to visit the "Community" side and introduce yourself, also.

[Mrious_be]

Woaaaaah.....
I can't believe Alex actually took my... myyyyy advice to ask TS
Sorry to hear it's not really possible Alex.
I guess it's one lesson everybody learns the hard way... making backups regularly

But hey, welcome at TS, I already feel a little more Romanian here

  Hoe

[Mayo]

Welcome to TS Alex.

Me thinks that it is time for you to invest in SuperDuper! and set it up to perform regular automatic backups...

When you are ready to consider alternatives to iWeb I suggest RapidWeaver. It's cheap, easy, there are tons of templates and plugins and a rabid user base that one can plumb for help. I'd say that it is as easy to use as iWeb without the complications... Here is the MacWorld review of RapidWeaver 4.

Here is a short article about the main differences between iWeb and RapidWeaver.

Another alternative is Freeway. This MacWorld review of FreewayPro 5 is worth reading; be sure to read all the comments. It took one person only two hours to convert their Web site to Freeway. Similar results can be had using RapidWeaver. The main downside to Freeway: it is more expensive than RapidWeaver.)

Both RapidWeaver and Freeway allow you to design a Web site without resorting to a template if you wish. And you can hand-code if you are feeling Wild and Crazy after an evening drinking tuica... And you can download free demos of both programs. I think that it is important to look into both programs thoroughly so you will know what you are getting into...

Yes, DreamWeaver is powerful and apparently has the high-end Web design market cornered at this point in time... DreamWeaver is also expensive and hideously difficult to master (that's why it is described as having a "steep learning curve.") If you have the money, time and inclination Go For It. Otherwise there are WYSIWYG and semi-WYSIWYG alternatives that can be used to produce very nice Web sites without requiring that you become a Jedi Web Master in order to get the job done.

[Paddy]

Actually, Jim, I'm not one of the founders - I joined in October 2000, a few months after TS got going. Am one of the admins now though.

I"m not sure I'd describe Dreamweaver as hideously difficult, Mayo - but there is a lot under the hood and it takes a while to learn. I'm still learning, but I'm entirely self-taught so probably haven't always learned things in the most logical order. There is a TON of info out there on the web on just about any aspect, plus scripts galore etc. That's what I like about it - I can make it do just about anything. Once I figure out how, that is. However, I wouldn't recommend it to someone who wasn't quite interested in the mechanics of building a web site. I love doing that sort of thing - but not everyone does.

[Mayo]

OK, maybe hideous is a little over the top... (I just looked up "hideous" in the dictionary.)

How about very difficult to learn?

Would you agree that DreamWeaver is hideously expensive compared to RapidWeaver? ($385 for DreamWeaver CS 4 at Amazon vs. $79 for RapidWeaver. That makes DW almost five times as expensive as RW...)

[Xairbusdriver]

Adobe? Actually, there are several sites that compare the two...

Apparently neither would be good form importing the plain text (html) files, however. Both will be using a lot of internal parsing and proprietary code to make the html. But that usually doesn't work in reverse. I'm sure there will be some lists of things that DW does that RW doesn't, like PHP integration, XML parsing, etc.

[Mayo]

RapidWeaver can export its code in a form that can be utilized by any HTML editor including DreamWeaver. However, DW code cannot be exported into RW...

I believe that RW plays nicely with PHP as you can use a pro-grade CMS such as ExpressionEngine in a RW Web site, and EE is PHP-dependent.

Here is how I see iWeb, RapidWeaver and DreamWeaver:

iWeb is for folks who want to create a simple, static Web site with minimal fuss and without the need to learn anything related to Web design. iWeb is primarily intended to be used with Apple's MobileMe hosting function...

RapidWeaver is a "prosumer" Web design application that can be tweaked to your heart's content; RWThemeMiner makes it possible to edit every aspect of a theme. You can choose to Keep It Simple or customize a RW Web site using plugins or hand-coding. One option is to find a theme that is close to what you envision and then make the changes you want; I have become accustomed to tweaking templates in other Mac software such as Pages. It sure beats staring at a blank page and having to come up with every aspect of a design from scratch! Sometimes i wind up with something that is very different from the original theme but the theme got me going in the right direction...

One cool thing about RapidWeaver is that it is very easy to completely change the design of a Web site with minimal fuss because RW is based on CSS.

DreamWeaver is for pro Web designers, particularly those who are collaborating with others in designing Web sites.

RapidWeaver has evolved from being a rather buggy Web design application into software that is easy to use and yet eminently tweakable. A little time spent trolling the RW forum and the RW Web site can be a real eye-opener if you haven't checked out RW since version 3 or earlier...

[Mrious_be]

Hey Alex, I did some searching around and found:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=345594

QUOTE

1. At the bottom of the screen there's a drop down menu for "Web Widgets." Click it and select "HTML Snippet."
2. Cut and paste your code.

I'm not sure if this is really what you need but it's worth a try

[Paddy]

No, DW on its own isn't cheap. I generally get the CS suite (because I need InDesign and the full version of Acrobat, and Photoshop) and since we qualify for educational pricing, it's not too horrible. But even if I didn't qualify for ed pricing, I'd probably still get it. I do have Rapidweaver - it came as part of one of those wonderful software bundle deals, but I still haven't had time to actually play with it.

Unfortunately, you can't download an entire site that way, Marcel. iWeb has no "import" function. Since Alex has older versions of the sites, his best bet will be to update what he's got. It will be less time consuming than rebuilding from the ground up. Of course he could also copy and paste everything into Rapidweaver too...especially if he wants to change the look of things. (I like your sites, Alex - while I'm pretty good at identifying iWeb sites without looking at the code, I don't consider them "childish" )

[Xairbusdriver]

Obviously, the html can be copied and pasted into any text editor from displaying the 'source' of any page. But the problem will be any javascript (which iWeb uses heavily, I think). CSS is, I think, almost always inserted in every page, hopefully those definitions and names won't change from page to page, but I have no idea how one would insert those back into iWeb, I don't think it will accept those as 'html snippets.' I assume iWeb still uses a lot of tables for positioning. If so, that can be tedious, at best and maddening at worst to re-create reliably with all the extra stuff thrown in.

All, in all, it would seem easiest to simply start over, assuming you can still access the sites. That way, you can copy and paste the text right where you want it and put the original images back in, also. All the rest will be done by iWeb, right?

Mayo, are you sure you don't work for a certain Brighton software company? Actually, you've created enough interest that I intend to take another look at RapidWeaver!

[Paddy]

Actually, Jim, iWeb doesn't use tables. It's pure CSS - and a heck of a lot of absolute positioning from what I've seen. So yes, you can certainly copy and paste the HTML into any text editor and start from there, and copy and link the CSS, which as you noted, is a separate file for EVERY page (one of the truly goofy things about iWeb IMHO - along with code bloat in the CSS dept.) and then go and get the 5 different javascripts (which are quite something, BTW) and link all those and maybe, just maybe you might be able to put it all back together, but YIKES. You certainly can't put all that back into iWeb itself - you cannot put anything more than snippets of HTML etc. You'd need to use something else where you can see the code, and preferably also easily see what you're doing via checking in a browser etc. But you also need to know WHAT you're doing - have a good understanding of site structure, CSS, etc. And good luck making head or tail of the javascript - here's just ONE of the javascript files from Alex's site:

http://suhard.com/Scripts/iWebSite.js