Contribute fix yet?

Poster: bellea-buk
Dated: Thursday October 16 2003 - 19:29:12 BST

Hi all,
I'm developing a new site and have a license for the milonic menu. Problem is, I'm setting up Macromedia Contribute for staff to update their pages. I did a search but didn't find a fix mentioned in the forums.

Basically when you click the edit button in contribute, nothing happens, but only on the pages that use the menu. I've been trouble shooting this for more than a week, and really need to sort it out.

http://alumni.ucsd.edu/alumni_beta/

So I contacted Macromedia and got this response:
------------------------------------------------
Milonic menus....

That menu script's way of writing iframe tags is confusing contribute and
causing the error.

there's a fix or workaround- a hand edit of the external .js file.

from a previous posting-


We are working on a Technote for this. In the meantime, if you can't
wait, you can solve the problem by doing the following:

in mmenu.js on line 412 replace code segment

"mt="<IFRAME frameborder=0 id=if"+mnu+" src=\""+ifBlnk+"\" scroll=none
style=\"FILTER:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(style=0,opacity=0);vi
sibility:hidden;height:20;position:absolute;width:"+(menu[3]+ns6w)+"px;left:
"+dmleft+"px;top:"+menu[1]+"px;z-index:5\"></iframe>"

with this one:
mt="<SPAN id=if"+mnu+" src=\""+ifBlnk+"\" scroll=none
style=\"FILTER:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(style=0,opacity=0);vi
sibility:hidden;height:20;position:absolute;width:"+(menu[3]+ns6w)+"px;left:
"+dmleft+"px;top:"+menu[1]+"px;z-index:5\"></SPAN>"

and that should work.

Hope this helps.
-------------------------------------------

Sounds good, but my milonic file names do not include one called mmenu.js

The file names are:
menu_data.js
milonic_src.js
mmenudom.js
mmenuns4.js

I did a search in those files to find the first line of code mentioned, but found nothing. Is there anything I can do to correct this problem? It seems the iframes need to become spans.

Please help! I don't want to have to abandon the milonic menu

Thanks,
Isabelle

Poster: John
Dated: Thursday October 16 2003 - 19:44:03 BST

Looks like Macromedia has been working with the old v3 menu series (mmenu.js was from there). They need to get updated.

Please forward me the entire message you got back from them, including the e-mail of the sender and case/ID number. Use the link below.

Thanks.

Poster: Maz
Dated: Thursday October 16 2003 - 19:48:10 BST

Hope Andy sees this,

I need a list of id's to avoid, I now have "if" "menu" & "milonic".

Regards
maz

Poster: John
Dated: Thursday October 16 2003 - 20:09:29 BST

Posted to the Macromedia Contribute Team. We'll see what happens.

Poster: Hergio
Dated: Thursday October 16 2003 - 21:43:18 BST

If you got contribute and use it, then let Andy know. He has been looking for people to use as guinee pigs so he can get the menu to place nice with Contribute. SO if you use contribute, please contact Andy, you will be helping to better the menu! Or better yet, if you could loan Andy a copy of it for test purposes, that'd be the way to go.

Hey, Andy, have you ever tried contacting Macromedia and asking for an extended evaluation copy or even for them to just send you a complimentary copy. Maybe if you explain you'll be using it to make Contribute compatible with your menu, they might obligue.

Poster: bellea-buk
Dated: Thursday October 16 2003 - 21:48:51 BST

I'm happy to help if I can, as I'm on a pretty tight deadline to get the site up and don't want to scrap the menu.

What about using a trial version?

Poster: John
Dated: Thursday October 16 2003 - 23:19:06 BST

Don't know about extended, but you can get a free trial for 30 days - http://macromedia.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=contribute.

Poster: Hergio
Dated: Friday October 17 2003 - 15:50:23 BST

Yeah Andy, do that, download the evaluation. That'll give you 30 days to work on it. Plus if it runs out, I am sure you have more than one computer at your shop, download it again and test it for another 30 on a different computer. And if you want any of us to download it and test things for you, just say the word.

Please help

Poster: bellea-buk
Dated: Thursday October 23 2003 - 17:40:02 BST

Any new ideas on how to fix the contribute / milonic incompatibility? Can anyone there at milonic suggest a way to update this code fix (below) for the new version of milonic?

----------------------------------------------------

in mmenu.js on line 412 replace code segment

"mt="<IFRAME frameborder=0 id=if"+mnu+" src=\""+ifBlnk+"\" scroll=none
style=\"FILTER:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(style=0,opacity=0);vi
sibility:hidden;height:20;position:absolute;width:"+(menu[3]+ns6w)+"px;left:
"+dmleft+"px;top:"+menu[1]+"px;z-index:5\"></iframe>"

with this one:
mt="<SPAN id=if"+mnu+" src=\""+ifBlnk+"\" scroll=none
style=\"FILTER:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(style=0,opacity=0);vi
sibility:hidden;height:20;position:absolute;width:"+(menu[3]+ns6w)+"px;left:
"+dmleft+"px;top:"+menu[1]+"px;z-index:5\"></SPAN>"

------------------------------------------------

I have to launch this site soon http://alumni.ucsd.edu/alumni_beta/ and need to get the menu working
You can see it in action here: http://alumni.ucsd.edu/alumni_beta/chapters/losangeles/index.asp

Thanks for your help!!
Belle.

Poster: John
Dated: Thursday October 23 2003 - 22:48:37 BST

Didn't forget about you, Belle, but I haven't seen a response from Macromedia yet.

I have passed this on to Andy to see if he has an idea.

Poster: Andy
Dated: Friday October 24 2003 - 0:19:13 BST

I've now grabbed a copy of Contribute 2 and got to grips with it.

First impressions were good, thought it was real easy to use until I tried to add JavaScript and. . . . . . . after about 30 minutes of searching, It can't be done. Contribute will not let you add JavaScript.

From this page: http://www.macromedia.com/support/contribute/ts/documents/hidden_layer.htm I found this:



Oh, great, that's useful. So I edited the page with UltraEdit and the menu appeared fine. Not sure what the problem is but I'm pretty sure it's not the menu or Contribute but something else.

Although Contribute has potential, unless you can add JavaScript, Java Aplets and tweak the source it's useless.



Can't believe somebody at Macromedia said that, IFRAME is standard HTML, what's the problem with it? So what they are saying is that if you want to use IFRAMES your going to have to find an alternative tag? To be honest, until they can fix these problems, I'd find an alternative HTML editor.

As I say, it does have potential but at the moment it's quite poor but of course this is just my personal opinion.

Cheers
Andy

Poster: John
Dated: Friday October 24 2003 - 1:48:09 BST

Thanks for the quick response, Andy.

alternative to Macromedia Contribute?

Poster: buckdono
Dated: Friday October 24 2003 - 6:46:45 BST

Anybody have an alternative to Macromedia Contribute for non-web-tech savvy staff who need to update web pages? I was excited about Contribute, but am not willing to drop the Milonic menus from my site.

P.S. I will post something similar on the Macromedia forum.

Kim, http://www.desertmuseum.org

Poster: Hergio
Dated: Monday October 27 2003 - 17:24:39 GMT

Hey thanks for sticking with the menu considering your adverse circumstances. I agree, you won't find a better menu system out there, but I am sure there are more website collaboration packages out there. I did a search on Google for website collaboration software and website collaboration packages and up came a couple different options. I don't know what you're looking for but hopefully one of them will fit your fancy will work with the Milonic DHTML Menu!

Poster: bellea-buk
Dated: Monday November 10 2003 - 19:13:23 GMT

Unfortunately my situation is the other way around - I need to find a menu system that will work with contribute, and would really like to keep my milonic menu... but if I can't figure this one out, I'll have to find an alternative menu.

On the macromedia thread a solution for upgrading milonic code was suggested (see below). Could the milonic team check it out and see if its possible?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The new version of the menu has two <iframe> tags in the mmenudom.js file.
When i get some time, I'll rewrite them so the word iframe is split up in
the javascript document.write something like
"<ifra" + "me>"
I'm guessing that will keep Contribute from tripping over the tag and
thinking there's real iframes on the page. And not alter the functioning of
the script. No idea why it's using iframes, but it does

after some testing i'll give the exact steps and pass it the info on to the
milonic people.

However- editing that mmenudom.js file is not fun- It's 28k of javascript
on one line with no linefeeds...

_d.write("<iframe FRAMEBORDER=0 id="+_mnuV+"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - -

Poster: Andy
Dated: Monday November 10 2003 - 19:16:44 GMT

RC21 - built a few minutes ago does what you require.

If you can let us know either way, that would be great.

Cheers
Andy

Poster: bellea-buk
Dated: Tuesday November 11 2003 - 2:07:21 GMT

I'm not sure what you mean - could you explain?

Poster: -fiscus-
Dated: Tuesday November 11 2003 - 3:53:00 GMT

I just tried ver 21 and still no luck with contribute!!

I am in the same boat here.....there is no other program that is as easy for clients to use as Contribute, but it would be great if it would/could work with the menu.


Hope there is a fix soon.

Poster: Andy
Dated: Tuesday November 11 2003 - 3:59:28 GMT

I'm totally confused now.

I've had the menu working fine in Contribute so I've run out of ideas.

Can you give us run-down of what you are doing and exactly what is happening.

-- Andy

Poster: -fiscus-
Dated: Tuesday November 11 2003 - 4:19:35 GMT

I just installed 5 (and used a converted milonic menu_array file for the mneu) the menu itself works fine. But whenever you try to save or edit a page with the menu on it Contribute just does nothing.

Well if you try to do it through File - New Page and save the current page it doesn't allow it cause it says it has frames. And if you just browse to the page and then click on Edit Page at the top nothing happens. No errors or anything just nothing happens.


On the same site a test page without the menu works fine with either of the methods above.

I will try it with the default files (not my converted menu_array file) and see if that makes a difference.

Otherwise I will try and play around with things to see if I can find anything else out.

BTW are these forums running real slow or is it just me?

Hopefully we can get this ironed out.

Stay tuned.

**UPDATE - nope just tried with vanilla ver 5 build 21 files and still same problem. I assume you are using Contribute 2.0 (the trial that was linked to above).

The menu displays fine with vanilla files but contribute says it still has frame if i go to copy the page or if i click on edit nothing happens. On a page on the same site without the menu (or the same page with the menu JS included removed) contribute works fine.

What did you do? How did you get your contribute to work?

Poster: Andy
Dated: Tuesday November 11 2003 - 5:09:47 GMT

Try it now - I think i've cracked it.

It's definately a bug in Contribute but the workaround seems to be OK.



Could be - New server arrived today albeit with the wrong hard drives. Dual Zeon with SCSI raid, should be much faster in a week or so.

Cheers
Andy

Poster: -fiscus-
Dated: Tuesday November 11 2003 - 5:24:13 GMT

I assume there is a new build??

I will try and grab it now to test - it will take about 10mins for the page to load though! This reply took about 5 mins to open the page. Server needs some serious tweking

Anyway lets hope this fix works!!

I'll report back.

Poster: -fiscus-
Dated: Tuesday November 11 2003 - 5:30:20 GMT

Unortunatley that didn't work for me. Same problem.

Poster: Andy
Dated: Tuesday November 11 2003 - 5:30:21 GMT

Yes, it's a new build RC22.



I think the server is actually OK. I'm seeing things come up as normal so I can only guess that a router between you and London is playing up.

I'll keep my eye on it though.

Cheers
Andy

Poster: Andy
Dated: Tuesday November 11 2003 - 5:42:36 GMT

So you are saying that RC22 still doesn't work?

-- Andy

Poster: -fiscus-
Dated: Tuesday November 11 2003 - 5:48:15 GMT

Yeah RC22 still doesn't work for me.

I have to run out now - i'll pick this thread up tommorow and see if any more progress has been made.

But yeah a vanilla RC22 still has the exact same problems.

Poster: -fiscus-
Dated: Tuesday November 11 2003 - 23:25:51 GMT

Anyone else having luck with the latest build?

Don't want to waste Andy's time if it is a problem that just I am having.

Poster: Andy
Dated: Wednesday November 12 2003 - 11:16:47 GMT

Hi,

The current release does now have a fix.

What you have to do is add the variable CFix=1; to your menu definitions.



Can you let me know how you get on.

Cheers
Andy

Poster: -fiscus-
Dated: Wednesday November 12 2003 - 12:15:32 GMT

I have been refreshing this thread all day

Let me try this.


UPDATE: The above fix on the new RC23 works fine in Contribute 2.0.

So we can all file this one away!!! Issue fixed!!

Thanks Andy! Well Done!

Milonics official responce

Poster: mcai7gh2
Dated: Friday June 11 2004 - 11:44:14 BST

Hi Everyone,

I have multiple instances of both Macromedia Contribute version 1 and 2 and am using it in a corporate environment. We currently use it to edit all of our websites. If anyone would like me to test things, I am willing.

I have done a fair amount of analysis on this problem. Basically version 3 works fine, with both Contribute 1 and 2, however if you move over to version 5 and you have a menu with sub menus (note: it does work if you don't) then neither version will work.

What you need to do is:
- change all references of iframe in mmenudom.js to span

Have a look at: http://www.macromedia.com/support/contribute/ts/documents/iframe.htm

Macromedia say that it should not make any difference to the operation of the menu. However, I would like to know Milonics official responce on this?

Hope this helps!

Poster: Andy
Dated: Friday June 11 2004 - 11:48:47 BST

Macromedia do not understand the internals of the menu so their comment on changing IFRAME to SPAN is completely wrong.

Doing so WILL break the menu.

We have released a fix for this. All you need to do is add to the top of your menu data file.

-- Andy

fix

Poster: mcai7gh2
Dated: Friday June 11 2004 - 11:56:44 BST

Hi,

I have tried adding that, and it just displays _CFix=1; at the top of the page and still does not let me edit it.

Poster: kevin3442
Dated: Friday June 11 2004 - 17:21:14 BST

I'm guessing that you're putting _CFix=1; in your .html file, outside of the <script></script> block, so that it's treated as plain text. Don't put it there. You'll notice in the first example Andy gave, he has the setting inside the <script> block that loads mmenudom.js or mmenuns4.js. Like so:


If you prefer, you can put it at the top of your menu_data.js file (where you set up your menus). I.e., the top of your menu_data.js file would then look something like this:


As far as I know, either approach should work.

Hope that helps.

Kevin

Re: Milonics official responce

Poster: John
Dated: Friday June 11 2004 - 21:30:27 BST


Not only will that break the menu, as Andy has mentioned, but it will also break support from this Team. Modified code of any kind leaves you on your own.

Poster: mcai7gh2
Dated: Monday June 14 2004 - 11:30:21 BST

Hi,

Thanks John. That is why I asked about your point of view on this. Perhaps you should tell Macromedia that, as their info does not indicate any such problems.

Kevin: I have put _CFix=1 in as requested, but I still cannot edit the site with Contribute

Thanks

Poster: davebarnes
Dated: Tuesday June 22 2004 - 19:09:18 BST

Support,

My client has been using and continues to use Contribute 2.0 (not 2.01) to edit two websites. I use Dreamweaver 4.

Last week, he asked me to create a new website (http://www.centricstorusa.com). I did so using the Milonic Menu 5.22.
Today, he informs me that he can't edit any page using Contribute.
So, I created a plain test page with a single line of text and asked him to try and edit it. He could.
I then asked him to edit a regular page from which I removed the links to the Milonic Menu. He could.
I then added back the Milonic Menu code and he could not.

After stumbling around at the Macromedia website and reading this entire thread, I added this: _CFix=1 to my menu at MainMenu_data.js

He can now edit pages using Contribute.
This is good.

I will say that if this fix had not worked, I would be dropping the Milonic Menu and using another product. The Milonic Menu MUST work with Contribute as more and more people are using it.

,dave

Poster: Andy
Dated: Tuesday June 22 2004 - 20:10:35 BST



Can I just say that your comment is a little unfair when clearly the problem is with Contribute.

To be honest, any web design product that stumbles over the fact that IFRAME is included in its code is absolutely ridiculous. It's standard HTML that is part of the W3C standards. So not being able to support this code isn't very good at all.

I'd love Macromedia to fix this but they just will not accept it as a bug and unfortunately we are made to look like the ones who are doing nothing about it. It's out of our hands and there really is nothing we can do about it.

Sorry if I seem a little offensive, it's just that we spend so much time and effort to make this product the best there is and then something is released by a company with more clout and we just get pushed aside, it's very frustrating.

Cheers
Andy

Poster: John
Dated: Tuesday June 22 2004 - 20:41:48 BST

I'm with Andy on this, Dave (remember, I do NOT work for Milonic - I just volunteer here). In fact, I think you were a little out of line. Andy went out of his way to make his properly functioning product work with a product that has a problem. If that's not service and support beyond the call I don't know what is.

MM refuses to admit they have the problem. Just because they posted bad info on their site doesn't mean you have to believe it (especially since you said you read the "entire thread" here concerning it). Their error was discussed earlier in the thread.

Poster: kevin3442
Dated: Monday June 28 2004 - 20:28:22 BST


I'm wondering if I missed the point...


But it did, right?


It does, right? Or did I miss something? I'm genuinely a little confused here.

Kevin

Poster: davebarnes
Dated: Tuesday June 29 2004 - 18:42:58 BST

kevin3442,

An earlier post from mcai7gh2 on 14JUN2004 said that he had applied the fix and still could not get it work.

I felt lucky that the fix worked for me.

My point was and is:
1. The client is all powerful.
2. The client loves Contribute.
3. Therefore, whatever software I choose to build his website must work with Contribute.
4. It makes no difference whether or not Macromedia has designed a crappy product in Contribute. The client loves Contribute so it is the gating item.
5. I am appreciative that Milonic made its menu work with Contribute because I do really like the Milonic menu. I have bought 5 copies and plan to buy more.

,dave

Poster: kevin3442
Dated: Tuesday June 29 2004 - 20:35:36 BST

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the clarifications.


I had seen that, but since he hasn't been back for a while, I assumed he had met a resolution (e.g., perhaps realized that he didn't apply the fix correctly and then rectified it). This same fix has been successfully applied by others, so I figure it's good. mcai7gh2... if you're reading, is the problem still there?

For the other points you enumerated, Dave, I see all of them and agree with most. I guess I just didn't get those particular points from that comment you made which, to be honest, bothered me a little. To my way of thinking (which is by no means the best), the most recent approach you took to making those points was the more effective approach, and less open to misinterpretation.

I'm glad you like Milonic. I do too, and also plan to continue using it.

Respectfully,

Kevin

davebarnes

Poster: mcai7gh2
Dated: Wednesday June 30 2004 - 11:31:32 BST

Hi Dave,

This problem has now been resolved.

People were talking about using the fix in version 5, which I had, but not which specific version. I was still using version 5.25b (or something, cannot quite remember) and I needed to use version 5.3 to use the fix.

I am now using 5.3, with the fix and running Contribute.

I agree with the Milonic team members that Macromedia should sort their software out. It is their problem, not Milonics.

Best Wishes

Poster: John
Dated: Wednesday June 30 2004 - 15:18:37 BST

Glad you got it fixed.

Thanks for your patience and support!

Poster: kevin3442
Dated: Wednesday June 30 2004 - 17:30:52 BST

Thanks for the reply mcai7gh2. Glad it works.

Kevin