Documentation

Compatibility Guidelines

TypeRoom is designed to edit cleanly programmed, file-based (ie, not database driven) websites.  Some server-side code is  supported. Continue reading below for more information on compatibility.

For the non-technical user: 

The easy way
Sign up for an account and try editing something. If your site is not compatible, TypeRoom will detect this and will abort the publishing process so your site will not be affected. If it did not work, continue reading below for more details.

Is your site file-based?
The easiest way to answer this question it to look at your URL as you browse your site from page to page. If it looks something like: http://www.site.com/about.html (with the .html at the end) then odds are that it is file-based.

Of note is that TypeRoom can edit sites with other extensions if the site is file-based. An .html extension is just the most common extension for file-based websites.

If your files do end in .html   and it still does not work, it is possible that the code TypeRoom is trying to edit is either too complex or is too poorly programmed to edit. Contact a professional to see how to make your pages compatible. 

Do you already use a "site builder" or other back-end system to update your site? 
If you created yours site through Yahoo Site Builder, Blogger, WordPress or other such software, TypeRoom is unfortunately not compatible. The exception to this is the Adobe suite of products (such as Contribute or Dreamweaver).

Make your site compatible 
If you really want to use TypeRoom, there are ways to make it work. Contact your web designer or other website programming professional. They can advise you how your site can be changed to be compatible with TypeRoom.

 For the technical user:

TypeRoom was designed to work with file-based websites with minimal server-side code. 


TypeRoom's limitations at this time include:
  • Content stored in databases or files other than the one that is being edited (for example, you are editing about.php but the content for this file is contained in another file). For a detailed explanation of this, see Includes and Server-Side Code.
  • HTML that is either very complex, has improperly nested code or has fundamental missing tags (such as the body, head or html tag). 

The system works by detecting the file name in the URL, then finding that same file through FTP during the publish process. It then takes merges the updated content into the file in the proper location. For this reason, the content that it is updating must be present in the filename (ie, not stored in a database, a separate include file, etc).

As a general rule of thumb, if you site validates and the content that is being updated is present in the file name that is in the url, the site should be compatible. 

If a site uses include files, we recommend making use of editable regions to restrict user editing to not interfere with include files.

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