SSI problem - fine in dreamweaver, horrible in "real life", HELP!

[A_to_the_L]

I've spent the past month revamping my website and finally got round to transferring all the files to the home server. Throughout the process I've been using Dreamweaver to build the site, and when I've previewed the site in Dreamweaver using either IE or Netscape everything looks perfect. However when I finally uploaded everything last night, the whole thing now looks like a mess and I can't work out why!

I've used SSI in building my pages this time (its the first time I've used it)... basically I have a menu panel on the left, a panel full of linking banners on the right, a header, and a footer, ALL called in using SSI. Somehow though the whole thing seems to have got messed up in the uploading or something. The page winds up all over the place, and when I did a "view source" in IE, it looked like the header (called topbar) isn't being called in correctly, which then throws everything else off. The frustating thing is though that if I do a "preview page" in Dreamweaver the whole thing still looks perfect!

Here's an example:

<sorry, no personal URLs>

you'll see how badly the page is messed up. However if I was to email you that index file, and you opened it in Dreamweaver it would look fine.

Certain portions of the SSI files, seem to be repeated after being called once, but in a broken up format... hope that makes sense! Here's an example... this is part of the topbar.html file called in via ssi taken from doing a "view source" of the page on IE...

<td colspan=3> <img src="altrap-image_05.gif" width=760 height=10></td>
</tr>
<tr>

<td colspan=3> <img src="altrap-image_06.gif" width=760 height=20></td>
</tr>
=20></td>
</tr>
idth=760 height=10></td>
</tr>
<tr>

after the </tr> following the width 760, height 20 part in the middle, THAT should be it... however starting at the =20 part, this all seems to be parts of the previous lines just all jumbled in. Its NOT like this in my original index file, and I don't understand why this addition of extra garbage is happening...

Please can you help me understand what's going on and how to fix it - my site has been down for over a month while I've been rebuilding, and I'd like to get it back online ASAP.

Sorry for this being so long...

Thanks...

A to the L

[edited by: tedster at 7:49 pm (utc) on Jan. 12, 2003]

[idiotgirl]

A_to_the_L-

It looks fine, I think... I don't see anything repeated on the URL you've given. However, on WebmasterWorld we are not supposed to "drop URL's". You can change your profile, I believe, to list the URL you've given in accordance to WebmasterWorld's TOS (listed on the bottom of this page).

As far as DreamWeaver goes, I couldn't begin to tell you why it might be repeating snippets. I use SSI all the time, but I hard-code it in using Macromedia's Home Site for complete control. True, I can't preview my work in a WYSIWYG environment, but I know if I put it there - it's there - and I don't have to rely on a program to assemble the parts for me.

I don't trust programs to do my dirty work...

There are many DW users on WebmasterWorld that may have encountered the same problems you mention and may have figured out a workaround. But from here, I can't see the problem you've mentioned manifesting itself. Maybe it's too early in the morning for me...

<added>I am slow this morning. Welcome to WebmasterWorld!</added>

[pissant]

I arrived too late to check your link, but a couple of questions...
have you checked all your links to the included files, paths etc (obvious mistake but relative versus absolute URIs)

have you just re-uploaded to try and get rid of random weirdness (believe it or not this sometimes works...)

when you were checking locally do you mean you were doing this on your own computer or via a local webserver? and are you sure your server supports the code you are using?

else, would have to see code, from pages before they run the SSIs

good luck