Dreamweaver - Enabling filename case sensitivity

Author

Enabling filename case sensitivity

relen

2005-09-15, 7:19 pm

We have just transferred a fair-sized site (2,500 pages) from a Windows server
to a Un*x box so that we can implement a content management system. In the
meantime we have adjusted the site to run as it is.

A good many of the pages were created by our predecessors in FrontPage. Our
stats package has picked up a number (quite a number) of broken links to images
and it turns out that while the image files concerned have lower-case names,
the links to them in the pages have some uppercase characters. Of course
Windows doesn't mind that but Unix does.

I further notice that Dreamweaver doesn't care either! This makes the problems
a bit difficult to spot. I'm running DWMX2004 on both Windows and Macintosh.
How can I set the application up so that it is sensitive to the case of linked
filenames? I do not seem to see a setting for it anywhere (my apologies if it's
obvious) including the help system.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks,
--Richard Elen, transdiffusion.org

darrel

2005-09-15, 7:19 pm

> I further notice that Dreamweaver doesn't care either! This makes the
problems
> a bit difficult to spot.

It's not the software that cares, it's the OS.

> I'm running DWMX2004 on both Windows and Macintosh.
> How can I set the application up so that it is sensitive to the case of
linked
> filenames? I do not seem to see a setting for it anywhere (my apologies if
it's
> obvious) including the help system.

AFAIK, none exists. Your best option would likely be to use a REGEX to
search all links and convert them to lowercase, then use a batch file
renamer to do the same on the filenames.

-Darrel

Lionstone

2005-09-15, 7:19 pm

>I further notice that Dreamweaver doesn't care either!

Do you mean that the link checker doesn't find the broken link? DW does
preserve case on your file names since it fully understands your site may
end up on a UNIX server when uploaded.
There's a "check link sitewide" and "change link sitewide" tool. I don't
know if they work for images, though. It might just be hyperlinks.

relen

2005-09-15, 7:19 pm

Basically, if a page open in DW has a link to ~/images/ITV50.jpg, DW is
entirely happy if the actual image filename is "itv50.jpg".

This is a pain, because although Windows was fine with that, Unix isn't - and
surely DW should be aware of something like that?

Obviously if I had created the page in DW I would have linked to the actual
file, and the filename would be correct. But it's a little surprising that DW
assumes I'm using a server OS that doesn't care, when the most common one does
- or am I missing something?

I can't help feeling that this is so obvious that they must have put it in
there and I just haven't found it yet...

--Richard E

darrel

2005-09-15, 7:19 pm

> Obviously if I had created the page in DW I would have linked to the
actual
> file, and the filename would be correct. But it's a little surprising that
DW
> assumes I'm using a server OS that doesn't care, when the most common one
does
> - or am I missing something?

Again, this is an OS level thing. DW (I assume) just interects with your
systems file system via the OS. DW just requests a file name, it's up to the
OS to care whether or not it's case sensitive.

I imagine DW could have built some sort of checker, but, as you state, if
you build with DW, it will use the right case to begin with. This is most
likely a front page issue or a sloppy developer issue (the original
developer) more than anything.

-Darrel

Randy Edmunds

2005-09-15, 7:19 pm

Richard,

There is a new Site-level setting in DW8 for "use case-sensitive link
checking". Give the 30-day trial a test run.

Hope this helps,
Randy

> Our
> stats package has picked up a number (quite a number) of broken links to images
> and it turns out that while the image files concerned have lower-case names,
> the links to them in the pages have some uppercase characters. Of course
> Windows doesn't mind that but Unix does.
>
> I further notice that Dreamweaver doesn't care either! This makes the problems
> a bit difficult to spot. I'm running DWMX2004 on both Windows and Macintosh.
> How can I set the application up so that it is sensitive to the case of linked
> filenames? I do not seem to see a setting for it anywhere (my apologies if it's
> obvious) including the help system.

Alan

2005-09-15, 7:21 pm

suggestion-
use a third-party link check utility.
windows, freeware:
http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html

a commercial one for mac-
http://vse-online.com/link-tester/index.html

there are many others, check at downloads.com or versiontracker.com - most
can be set to case sensitive, and can do remote testing on the live server.
None of them will check js links or swf or similar links.

there is also this tool that renames files and the links in one pass, with
options on the format to rename to:
http://www.xlanguage.com/products/rename.htm
it's commercial (but 30 day full trial)
It hasn't been updated in years (the mac version has to be run in classic),
but for some tasks it will save tons of time.
make a backup of site folder before turning it loose.

and lastly- a tip on renaming files in Dw's Site Manager window.
renaming FileName.HTM to filename.htm will have no effect on correcting
links.

need to do two steps.
rename FileName.HTM to foofilename.htm
then rename foofilename.htm to filename.htm