Updating after renaming files

Feature Request
1

After renaming a file, it is very useful that the links in all affected files are updated

2

Hi @vdweyer,
Can you provide an example when is this useful / how often you rename files linked to different files and why?

1 Like
3

If many pages contains links to a specific page A, changing the name of that page A, for whatever reason, becomes a risky business. I have to admit that I do not always have a complete plan for the file structure and therefore have to make adjustments afterwards. :woozy_face:

Dreamweaver always took care of that but I can possibly do without it. If you do not ask, you will not get it.

2 Likes
4

Thanks for the use case you shared.
Usually when pointing to a file, your navbar or header or footer is in a SSI included on your pages, so you only need to change the link once - in the SSI.

5

Thanks for requesting this vedweyer. I want to request this feature too. I just spent an hour thinking I did something wrong because a file I changed didn’t update (I’m new to Wappler) so I ended up here.

When you’re using a code editor (which I have been doing - up till now), you don’t expect the editor to update links automatically. You expect to use find/replace but… when working with an app that markets itself as code free and automates so many tasks, you DO expect things like this to be taken care of.

Frontpage/Expression Web had this feature 15 years ago. Others have said DW had it too. Not only was it a time saver but it gave you piece of mind knowing the app was better at updating the links than I was even with find/replace (which occasionally changed the wrong thing ).

In the past, I’ve used this feature when reorganising accommodation pages after the owners renamed the property or upgraded them. On occasions, there’s been a need to reorganise files and folders. When I moved them, the links updated. Today, I went to change the ‘style.css’ file name to something else so I didn’t confuse it with the generic name… then I found out I had to manually update the pages that were linked to it. :cry:

6

Thanks for your support.
With the aim of reorganizing an asset folder for photos and images of all my projects, I have to perform many find and replace actions. An automatic update would save a lot of time. Moreover, you must pay attention because you cannot exclude lines with a find / replace, resulting in incorrect replacements.

1 Like
7

You’re welcome vdweyer. I know the app is relatively new and the guys have more pressing issues but I don’t think this feature should be ignored. An app which aims to automate so many manual functions needs to update links when files are changed.

I rest my case. :sunglasses:

8

I found that Dreamweaver often didn't take care of it - at least not completely. I can't remember the situations where changes were omitted, but it was certainly not a feature I could rely on; it was often necessary to fix some things manually. I can see it's not a simple matter - probably impossible to be 100% reliable and always to do what you intended.

George mentioned an exciting feature in relation to this. It would be interesting to know if this is on the horizon yet:

1 Like
9

Ohhh yeah!! That sounds interesting. Thanks TomD.