Ghost Comics!

[Lady Yate-xel]

I just recently got back to working on my comic now that my semester is over, and uploaded the first comic in a few months a few days ago. It never showed up on my site, either on the front page or in the archives, but since my site's layout is possessed usually anyway, this didn't bother me. I thought it would sort itself out with the next update.

Well, it didn't, and my update for today is invisible too. What I mean by invisible is that the site seems to recognize that something was uploaded, because the date changes, and there are pages/placeholders/whatever for the pages on both today and the 12th - just no image.

I'm using FireFTP to upload comics into the workspace/comics folder, and the comics disappear from that folder as per usual when they update the site with the date. I have a pretty damn recent, if not the newest, version of Firefox. All of the images prior to May 12th are visible.


I can't remember if I even had a link to it in my signature it's been so long, so here's the link in case: http://chaosknot.comicgenesis.com

Thanks in advance!

[Rhys]

Is your image perhaps saved in CMYK rather than RGB mode? I do that to myself a lot, it'll keep your images from showing up but it'll act like they're there. Just hiding!

[Dr Neo Lao]

Yeah, that might be it.

Your comics are displaying as 0x0 pixels in the code.

[Lady Yate-xel]

Is your image perhaps saved in CMYK rather than RGB mode? I do that to myself a lot, it'll keep your images from showing up but it'll act like they're there. Just hiding!

Not that I can tell. I opened both the files again and checked the modes. Both in RGB. I don't think I've ever even changed the mode since I don't have a printer connected to this computer for it to be beneficial to. I fiddled with them and tried to reupload them, but this doesn't seem to have made a difference either. Curses! I was hoping it was something easy like that.

Of note though, is that when I went to reupload into the workspace/comics folder, the 19th's page was still sitting there,despite that it updated the page to show it being there. The 12th's page was not there, however. I replaced the 19th's page in that folder when I ensured they were in RGB, and put a new 12th in. But maybe that it was still sitting there means something?

[Dr Neo Lao]

Well, let's start with the obvious ones:

Did you name the files in the proper CG way? That's YYYYMMDD.ext (Y being year, M being month, D being day and ext being extension - jpg, gif, png).

Did you add anything else? Such as comic.20080512.jpg or 20080512comic.jpg?

What software are you using? The only one I know of that causes problems is InkScape, though the vector-based OfficeDraw utility that comes with some Linux distro's has been a problem in the past.

What ftp software are you using?

Have you changed your templates? Make sure that:
- the templates have the right names (indextemplate.html and dailytemplate.html in the workspace folder)?
- the templates have the right extensions and no case changes (ie: not indextemplate.htm nor indextemplate.HTML)?
- that you actually have templates?
- there is no index.html file in the workspace side?

[Xwhy]

I don't know if this is useful, but when I had a problem with 0 pixel comics, I think the culprit turned out to be how I uploaded them. I was using ftp (it works, does what I need, yeah, maybe I'll upgrade at some point) and I forgot to type in the "BI" command to let ftp know that I was uploading binary files.

When I uploaded a second time, using the right command, they uploaded properly.

[Lady Yate-xel]

Well, let's start with the obvious ones:

Did you name the files in the proper CG way? That's YYYYMMDD.ext (Y being year, M being month, D being day and ext being extension - jpg, gif, png).

Did you add anything else? Such as comic.20080512.jpg or 20080512comic.jpg?

What software are you using? The only one I know of that causes problems is InkScape, though the vector-based OfficeDraw utility that comes with some Linux distro's has been a problem in the past.

What ftp software are you using?

Have you changed your templates? Make sure that:
- the templates have the right names (indextemplate.html and dailytemplate.html in the workspace folder)?
- the templates have the right extensions and no case changes (ie: not indextemplate.htm nor indextemplate.HTML)?
- that you actually have templates?
- there is no index.html file in the workspace side?

Sorry for the slow replying - appreciate any help still offered.

Files are named in the proper, way, yes.
I'm using Photoshop to edit the images I scan in.
I'm using the FireFox plug-in FireFTP to upload - which has worked perfectly both for my personal site and for CG until now. I don't know what would have changed.
indextemplate.html and dailytemplate.html are both named properly, extensions included, and chilling in the workspace folder.
There is no index.html file in the workspace folder, nope.

I frequently use Dreamweaver to mess with the template, as I know some pretty minimal HTML, but I don't think I've altered either template at all between the last update that worked and these ones that haven't. Since the comic shows up magically with the tag, I don't think I can go into Dreamweaver and give it actual dimensions beyond 0 X 0, unless I've missed something.

[Dr Neo Lao]

Someone else had a similar problem but it was procedural.

Do you use the ***todays_notes*** keentag? Or do you add any comments to your comic? Such as having 20080605a.jpg as the comic and then 20080605b.txt as some text?

If you have an update that is text-only (such as updating a rant) then the text will be displayed or that day but since there is no comic, none is displayed. I'm 95% sure that this is not the case with you as you specifically said "I added a comic" but I thought I'd ask anyway...

[Lady Yate-xel]

Someone else had a similar problem but it was procedural.

Do you use the ***todays_notes*** keentag? Or do you add any comments to your comic? Such as having 20080605a.jpg as the comic and then 20080605b.txt as some text?

If you have an update that is text-only (such as updating a rant) then the text will be displayed or that day but since there is no comic, none is displayed. I'm 95% sure that this is not the case with you as you specifically said "I added a comic" but I thought I'd ask anyway...

Nope, no notes.

Man, I sure hope I don't end up discovering it's the internet equivalent of 'it's not plugged in' - I will feel so bad.

[Dr Neo Lao]

Okay, try this:

Use CG's WebFTP Client (also found via the wiki tutorials) to delete and re-upload both your templates.

Delete the non-displaying images from your account (see Tutorials in Wiki {link in my sig} for how to do it if you don't know how). Make sure you get the html pages as well.

Log into SiteAdmin and upload your comics there rather than using either of the ftp options.

That should 'force' the server to realize that you've changed something. Don't trigger an update, let the server do it on it's own.

[Lady Yate-xel]

Okay, try this:

Use CG's WebFTP Client (also found via the wiki tutorials) to delete and re-upload both your templates.

Delete the non-displaying images from your account (see Tutorials in Wiki {link in my sig} for how to do it if you don't know how). Make sure you get the html pages as well.

Log into SiteAdmin and upload your comics there rather than using either of the ftp options.

That should 'force' the server to realize that you've changed something. Don't trigger an update, let the server do it on it's own.

Alrighty! Did everything as it was written there. It didn't fix immediately, but I left it to let the server figure it out. I've got the most recent page (19th) now, but the one right behind it (12th) is still missing. Should I just repeat the process with that one, or is it falling prey to yet some other e-predator?

[Dr Neo Lao]

Yeah, try it with that one too.

When you are uploading your comics from now on, upload them using the method outlined above (minus the deleting). Once you've got them updating to satisfaction, upload one using FireFTP - I have a feeling that might be the culprit...

[Lady Yate-xel]

It seems to have fixed itself, so I didn't even have to re-delete things. Thanks for the help, seriously.

Do know what about FireFTP would suddenly make it not do things correctly? I've been using it since the start of my comic,and it's worked just fine until now. Could it just be that I need to update it, or did things here change a little differently in the semester that I was away?

[Dr Neo Lao]

Too many variables.

FireFTP probably changed versions, Comic Genesis did change servers (plus some of its software) and odds are that things have been altered at your place of learning. Any of those might have altered how the 1's and 0's are sent to the server.

I recommend using Filezilla (latest version plus previous two versions I know work) or the built-in WebFTP client.