Website not working after publishing? Seven common mistakes and how to fix them
On your computer the site looks perfect. Online, the images are missing, or the upload is refused with an error. Almost always the cause is one of the seven below.
A general tip first: when a publication fails, say to the agent "read the error and fix it". aiput.site's errors name the file and the problem, and the agent can usually sort it out by itself.
1. There is no index.html at the top of the folder
The home page must be called index.html and sit at the top of the site folder. A page called home.html, or a site buried one folder deeper, is refused.
Fix: "Rename the main page to index.html and put it at the top of the site folder."
2. A file the service does not accept
aiput.site publishes website files: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JSON, images (PNG, JPG, WebP, GIF, SVG), icons, fonts in WOFF or WOFF2, TXT, XML and web app manifests. Anything else in the folder — a video, a PDF, a TTF font, a Word document, notes, design files — gets the whole publication refused, and the error names the file.
What to do:
- remove what is not part of the site, or keep the site in its own folder;
- video: upload it to YouTube or Vimeo and embed it;
- fonts: convert them to WOFF2, or use Google Fonts;
- PDF: store it on Google Drive or Dropbox and link to it.
3. Paths that point to your computer
The images show on your computer but not online. The page probably refers to them by a path on your disk, such as C:\Users\anna\Desktop\photo.jpg, or to a file outside the site folder that never got uploaded.
Fix: "Check that every image, style and script path is relative to the site folder, like images/photo.jpg, and that all those files are inside the folder."
4. Capital letters in file names
Photo.JPG and photo.jpg are the same file for Windows and macOS, but two different files for a web server. A link to photo.jpg breaks when the file is called Photo.JPG.
Fix: "Make all file names lowercase and update the links."
5. Files that are too large
One publication can have up to 1000 files, 10 MB per file and 50 MB in total. The usual culprits are uncompressed photos straight from a camera or a phone.
Fix: resize and convert the images, as described in the portfolio guide.
6. The old version still shows
You updated the site, but see the old page. Browsers and messengers sometimes keep a copy. Reload with Ctrl+F5, or Cmd+Shift+R on a Mac, or open the site in a private window. To be sure the update went through, ask the agent: "Show the status of the site."
7. The form does not send
A static site cannot receive form submissions itself. How to add a contact form lists the ways to fix that.
And one more: the agent does not see aiput.site
If the agent says it has no tools for publishing, it was probably connected in the middle of a session. Restart it once. More in connecting your agent.