Working with Interchange config files between Homesite and Dreamweaver.

Posted September 21, 2004

It has been a long couple of days. The first interchange site I built, I modified the config file and the graphic, a little bit of the base design, and that was all. It was challenging for the first time, but I could go back and do it without batting an eye now.

However, I have now been thrown right into the flurry, trying to build a complex interchange ecommerce site, that I designed, as the first project I did at Esystems. I am finding out all sorts of little nuances.

Here is a little tip. I am working with Homesite, Dreamweaver, and the Interchange mess of an interface to develop the site. Your config file is essentially your style sheet for the site on steroids. It has some variable declarations and other things.

If you start are going to try to edit files in Dreamweaver, the only ones you will be able to are the .html files. You will not be able to edit any of the components, template files, or config files without using Notepad, or by using my preferred program, a scaled down Dreamweaver known as Homesite.

But even if you write some code, and then past it into Homesite, for those mentioned files above, they will mess up interchange and won’t work, in the most basic sense. This is mainly because the “breaks” in characters are read differently from a Linux(the server for your Interchange site most likely) and Windows. But you can fix this.

In order to change the type of character breaks, go into Dreamweaver and choose the Edit menu.

From the Edit menu > Preferences.

Code Format > Line Break Type

Change this from CR LF(Windows) to LF(Unix). Save this and close out your preferences.

This will solve some of the problems you may have when you apply a change in Interchange, and it reads from it’s cached tmp file instead, because you have corrupted the file with incorrect line breaks.