Thread: Link Buttons Change Names After Publishing

Okay... I have worked through most of the problems, but now I really need some help...

After I have published all of the pages for the site, I have opened up the site to make certain that all the buttons work. However, once I click on a button on the index page then return to the index page, the names on the buttons have changed to names used on a different page (let me explain...):

My index page has 6 link buttons vertically arranged and named "About Us", "Dental Lasers", "Dental Cameras", "Software", "News", and "Contact Us". If you click on the button labeled "Dental Lasers" it takes me to the Dental Lasers page. On that page, I have 6 buttons vertically arranged and named the same (with the exception of "Dental Lasers" that has been changed along with its link to "Home"). I also have 4 buttons horizontally arranged and named "Specifications", "Brochures", "Case Studies" and "Comparisons"; these buttons are linked to appropriately named pages. After going to the Dental Lasers page then clicking on "Home" or just pushing the browser BACK button, it returns me to the Index page but now the 6 buttons read "News", "Contact Us", "Back", "Brochures", "Case Studies" and "Comparisons". However, if I click on those buttons, it takes me to the appropriate page if the buttons were actually labeled correctly.

Finally, (maybe this is a piece of the puzzle), I have not been able to get the 4 link buttons (arranged horizontally) on the "Dental Laser" page to link to the appropriate pages. I have checked the link URL's on the buttons and the pages, but everything seems okay.

Let's start with your first issue, the vertical menubar.
Your problem is probably due to the use of a page as "parent" page for the rest of the pages. Let me explain:

You have created a page, and a menubar in it. Suppose that is your index page. You have saved and published it. BV automatically creates as many images, as your menubar butons, and, when you publish the page, it uploads the images too. When the page is viewed on the net, the menubar buttons are retreived from those uploaded images. These images have an automatic name that BV assigns them (the actuall name depends on the number of images that BV saves inside the "Images" folder in your BV folder) . So the images have the names i.e. bv01010.gif, bv01011.gif, ....bv.01015.gif for the 6 buttons of the menubar.

Now, you use the same page, and you save it as "about_us". You delete whatever is useless here, and you add new content. At this point, you edit your menubar, since you are in the "about_us" page: you change the "About Us" button to "Home" because you want to link back to your first page. BUT, and here is the problem, that button was already assigned an image name. So, this button, will have the name bv.01010.gif, the same that in your index page was assigned to the "About us" page. When you save and upload this page on your site, BV will replace the previous bv01010.gif image, with the new one, which now has the text set to "Home".

If you view the index page at this point, the code of this page will retreive the same button image, that now has a different text in it (Home). So your index page menubar will be altered, even though the link will be correct.

Solution: you can go on and use the Save As technique to create your second, third etc. pages. But, as soon as you save as, select the menubar and copy it. Now, delete it. Paste it again back in the page, using the Paste icon (not the right click Paste). Using the Paste Icon instead of the right click Paste, will place the menubar back in your page, in the excact same position it was before you deleted it. BUT, for BV, it will be a BRAND NEW element in your page, and as such it will, when the page is saved, assign NEW button image names. This way you will avoid conflicts and your menubars will be ok.

Another solution would be to have a menubar with the same number of buttons in all your pages, so avoiding conflicts.

Also have a look at Single Menu Page with Bv and PHP . With this trick you can avoid creating a menu bar in each page. If your site has, say 100 pages, it becomes hard to edit ALL the menubars, in ALL your pages. This way, you can have a single menubar file that is called in each page, and if you need to edit it, you only edit the menubar page, and all your pages are automatically updated.


To find out why your horizontal links don't work, i would need the page URL. so i can have a look.

Originally Posted by navaldesign

You have created a page, and a menubar in it. Suppose that is your index page. You have saved and published it. BV automatically creates as many images, as your menubar butons, and, when you publish the page, it uploads the images too. When the page is viewed on the net, the menubar buttons are retreived from those uploaded images. These images have an automatic name that BV assigns them (the actuall name depends on the number of images that BV saves inside the "Images" folder in your BV folder) . So the images have the names i.e. bv01010.gif, bv01011.gif, ....bv.01015.gif for the 6 buttons of the menubar.

Now, you use the same page, and you save it as "about_us". You delete whatever is useless here, and you add new content. At this point, you edit your menubar, since you are in the "about_us" page: you change the "About Us" button to "Home" because you want to link back to your first page. BUT, and here is the problem, that button was already assigned an image name. So, this button, will have the name bv.01010.gif, the same that in your index page was assigned to the "About us" page. When you save and upload this page on your site, BV will replace the previous bv01010.gif image, with the new one, which now has the text set to "Home".

If you view the index page at this point, the code of this page will retreive the same button image, that now has a different text in it (Home). So your index page menubar will be altered, even though the link will be correct.

Solution: you can go on and use the Save As technique to create your second, third etc. pages. Bur, as soon as you save as, select the menubar and copy it. Now, delete it. Paste it again back in the page, using the Paste icon (not the right click Paste). Using the Paste Icon instead of the right click Paste, will place the menubar back in your page, in the excact same position it was before you deleted it. BUT, for BV, it will be a BRAND NEW element in your page, and as such it will, when the page is saved, assign NEW button image names. This way you will avoid conflicts and your menubars will be ok.

I understand... thank you. I do have a question though... you make this sound like it will this work if the page has already been created and completed? For instance, if I now go back to the "About Us" page, copy the existing menubar, delete the menubar, then paste (using the paste icon), then the new menubar will have new image names. Will the URL links need to be changed (I would think not)?

This has truly been a learning experience. I will address the vertical menubar first; if I am still having problems with horizontal menu bar, I will be back!!

Thanks, NavalDesign... the problem with the link buttons changing names has been fixed. However, I am still having problems with the other menubar not linking. Here is the page in which I am having trouble: www.gptdental.com/dental_lasers.html

When I click on the first button (Specifications), a window with this message appears:
Not Found

The requested URL /dental_lasers/specifications.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.

Originally Posted by daigoro

Thanks, NavalDesign... the problem with the link buttons changing names has been fixed. However, I am still having problems with the other menubar not linking. Here is the page in which I am having trouble: www.gptdental.com/dental_lasers.html

When I click on the first button (Specifications), a window with this message appears:
Not Found

The requested URL /dental_lasers/specifications.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.

Simply because the file is not there, it is in the public_html folder: click on http://www.gptdental.com/specifications.html to see it.
I suppose that you have similar issues with the other pages: http://www.gptdental.com/brochures.html

Correct... all buttons on that menubar do not link. Any suggestions how to get the link to work?

The links don't work because you have published the files in the wrong folder. You have published in public_html but you have linked them as if they were in public_html/dental_lasers

You either publish the specification, brochure etc pages in public_html/dental_lasers or you change the links to point to the public_html folder, that is http://www.gptdental.com/specifications.html etc.

Ohhhhhhh.... so I don't link them back to the dental_laser page... the url address I was using was http://www.gptdental.com/dental_lase...fications.html but it should be gptdental.com/specifications.html, right?

yes, with also http://www. infront.

ALRIGHT!!!! You ROCK, NavalDesign!!!! Thank you sooooooooo much!!!!!

You are welcome