January 26, 2009
Okay folks, we appear to be on the eve of the iLife launch so I want you to be fully aware of how the upgrade could totally and completely destroy the beautiful iWeb site you made with my theme :) How’s that for drama?
First, please consider subscribing to my blog to make sure you always have the latest announcements regarding theme upgrades. I’ll be rebuilding every theme to ensure they have the new code. When your theme is ready, you’ll want to know. Subscribing is the easiest way.
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Now, because we have all been through this routine before, this time should be a breeze right? Good. So I’m going to recap the basics here and you’re going to pat yourself on the back for being clever.
Step 1: Burn Current Version of iWeb to DVD
There’s no way you can overwrite your current version of iWeb or your domain file when they’re safely stored on a DVD or CD. If you do not know where your domain file is, use Spotlight to search for it: domain or domain.sites. In the search results window, the “kind” of file will be listed as “iWeb Domain”.
Step 2: Purchase iLife 09
This is programmed in your DNA. No instructions necessary.
Step 3: Pre-Installation Procedure
As a secondary precaution, just before installation of iLife 09, move your existing version of iWeb OUT of the Applications folder. Move it anywhere you want, but do NOT leave it in the Applications folder. iLife is going to overwrite it if you do. You need to keep the old version if you intend to maintain your site while I rebuild the themes.
Next, duplicate your domain file and move the copy somewhere safe too. If the new version of iWeb behaves like the last upgrade did, when you first launch it, it will ask you if you’d like to upgrade your site and it will probably perform some kind of surgery that, after completion, will render the domain file unusuable in the older version of iWeb. Therefore, make sure you have your back-up and do not upgrade your only copy. Hopefully you burned a copy to DVD like I told you :-/
My suggestion to you, if you’re using one of my themes, is that you do NOT NOT NOT, upgrade your domain file. There’s no use in doing that because the entire site will be broken (more or less). Just start a new domain file if you want to play with the new version of iWeb.
Step 4: Run the iLife Installer
Pray you did not screw up steps 1-3 ;-)
Step 5: The Clever Step
Okay, you now have the new version of iWeb AND you should still have the old version of iWeb. Both *should* work. I would not move the old version back into your Apps folder however, because as I have the themes ready, the installer cannot have both versions in the same place. Run the old version of iWeb from its safe place outside the Apps folder. Continue to maintain your site from there. Play with the new version of iWeb all you want, but again, please be careful that you do not get excited and upgrade your domain without a back-up. You will lose the ability to maintain your site if you do, not to mention, you will have to rebuild every page ack.
Closing
Please ask questions if you are still unsure how to proceed. There’s a slim chance I will not have to rebuild the themes, but I’m fairly certain that chance is a fat chance. With that said however, I also have reason to believe that the rebuilds will go significantly faster this round and I may even be able to pop some of the fancy layouts BACK into the original themes like Aerolite and Zones! :) Cross your fingers.
Contact me or post a question below. Questions – GOOD. Losing your entire site – BAD.
About This Article
This entry was posted by Suzanne on Monday, January 26th, 2009 at 10:17 pm and was filed in the Announcements category using the tags: iweb, upgrade. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
In Case You Seek A Good Web Host
Aerolite for RapidWeaver Released
For those with iWeb 2, the domain file should be Domain.sites2… so be wary! :)
After upgrading, ALL your pages are red… Guess iWeb 3 is going to republish everything for you right off the bat! How sweet!
Also, that little demo movie that’s supposed to play the first time the program runs? Doesn’t happen. Seems to be a bug across all of iLife.
Oh, another addition… it wouldn’t be a bad idea to archive your site on MobileMe before you begin. That way, if you’ve found that something in the Publishing hoses your site, you can always just copy in your old files, go get some sleep, and attack it the next day :)
Looks like this version CRUSHES your reds…. again. And not JUST on album pages either. Check out this page.
http://www.makentosh.com/tipsfromtheiceberg/Blog/Entries/2008/7/20_Clip_a_little_Web_for_you.html
The Red of the ring USED to match the red of the background shape. OH!
Another good thing is that you can publish just one of your sites… don’t have to publish them.
Hi Suzanne just opgrading too iWeb 09 and install one of your theme: Aerolite Aqua, and it seems that everything is working until now. When I upgrade your themes was gone, install Aerolite Aqua again and its working here on my machine: OSX 10.5.6 danish version.
Yours
John Randeris
Hey guys thanks for all the info here – that helps! I’m on my way to get a copy now. I’ll check back with you after I take a look at things.
John, just make sure you keep your back-up copies of iWeb and your domain file in case you discover issues later.
Hey Ken. Does the new version require that if you have multiple sites that they’re all in one ‘Sites’ file? Or, can you still open individual site files like before? I have 42 individual sites files that I’ve been juggling, so, I really think it would be bad to have them all in one file.. One crash and they could all be toast..
I don’t even believe this… I put a DVD in my super drive to burn backups and the drive won’t show up in finder NOR will it eject with the eject key on the keyboard :-O I rebooted (cuz it has been a while) but still nothing!
Any of you really nerdy types know how to fix this?
Reboot and hold down the mouse key while it’s starting up.. this will force eject anything in the drive..
Thank you! Will try that now.
Ah, I didn’t check that one. It appears to still save sites all in one folder, but I’ll check later (or someone else will chime in!)
Wow, it’s looking like things are still going to work :-O I’m *just* tinkering with publishing some existing sites here. The navigation menus still appear to work, the layouts are good to go, etc. But I’m going to look into the actual XML for the templates here and see what’s different, if anything. If there’s enough change, I may rebuild the themes anyway.
Keep your back-ups. I’m crossing my fingers we’re going to be okay here, but something could show up once we all get into the deeper functionality, particularly the new widgets.
Ken I see what you mean about the red colors… what the heck is up with that? They must have a new compression algorithm in this version that squeezes every last bit of juice out of images. Hum…
It just dawned on me…. we were not asked to upgrade our sites to the new format… meaning, there was no new format to upgrade to :-O
That right there is evidence that the themes do NOT need to be rebuilt at all. Boy that’s going to make a lot of people happy, me and Peter included.
Hum… there’s a new file in the Themes folder within iWeb…
ThemeTags.plist
It appears to be a list of boolean toggles for various elements on the template pages. They’re all set to false at the moment. But hey hey, look what’s in there: SidebarMain and SidebarExtra
Wouldn’t it be nice to see an iWeb 3.1 update with THOSE in the mix!
Personally I want nested pages and dropdown main menu functionality first, but every little bit is one step further to excellent.