What is recover.text

[MalB]

OK. I have just downloaded this program, trying to come back to it after 3 years to see whether it is worth buying. I try to load a copy of a .nod file which I created then with an earlier version.
It fails with the following error message:
"An attempt was made to access an unnamed file past its end."
I press [OK}
It then tells me:
"This file contains an instability. If this file was created in an older version of NetObjects Fusion, it is likely that the instabilibity was introduced by that version. Please use recover.text located in your /NetObjects Fusion folder, to lean an alternative method of opening this file."

All well and good EXCEPT there isn't a file called recover.text anywhere on my computer. No such file was downloaded with the installation routine. So, firstly, a pretty crumby error message and a bad initial user experience.

I have tried looking through the Net Object website for somewhere I can download this text file. I have also tried the downloaded manual for the alternative method of opening a file. But no joy.

Where do I look? What do I do? Any help in getting past this initial hurdle would be much appreciated.

[gotFusion]

Wow it has been a while for you..... Recover.txt has not been part of the program since version 4. You should find this file in your version 1, 2, 3, or 4 install folder.

Open your site project in your old version, follow the steps outlined in the recover.txt file, then export it as a template. See if you can import the template into essentials (version 7.5).

Moving site projects forward from extremely old versions can be tricky as the product has changed so much in the past 10 years.

You may find that it is quicker to just start a new project then copy/paste content into the new site project. Set your paste default to unformatted text if you go this route. See this gotFusion tutorial for more details on setting defaults: http://www.gotfusion.com/tutorials/tut.cfm?itemID=4067

Moving the content of a small site (under 25 pages) should not take you longer than an hour or so.

[MalB]

Wow it has been a while for you..... Recover.txt has not been part of the program since version 4. .

Holdon. hold on. I got the error message running the current version of Net Objects. If Recover.text (which is what it said) or Recover.txt has not been available since version 4, why does the current version of the program, downloaded today, still include an error message with a reference to it.

You should find this file in your version 1, 2, 3, or 4 install folder.

I don't have the older version. If I did I would probably have used that and not bothered to download the new version.

Open your site project in your old version, follow the steps outlined in the recover.txt file, then export it as a template. See if you can import the template into essentials (version 7.5).

See above. I no longer have the old version.

Moving site projects forward from extremely old versions can be tricky as the product has changed so much in the past 10 years.

7 years actually. The version I had was last downloaded in 2004. I would have expected an upgrade path or an upgrade tool even if backwards compatablility as been broken. I can still read files from Microftoft programmes created in 2004. I certainly don't expect the import of them to fail with net.framework coding error when a "file is read past the end". With respect, this sounds more like a bug in the import routine to me.

You may find that it is quicker to just start a new project then copy/paste content into the new site project. Set your paste default to unformatted text if you go this route. See this gotFusion tutorial for more details on setting defaults: http://www.gotfusion.com/tutorials/tut.cfm?itemID=4067 Moving the content of a small site (under 25 pages) should not take you longer than an hour or so.

Well it is a small site but with some 600 photographs in it. I have no idea how to go about copy and pasting stuff from somewhere to a "new site project". Where should I be copying it from given that I cannot open the project file? Which files contain all the source HTML (which is presumably what I should be copying given that I need all the links and formatting instructions, tables and the like) and where do I copy it to?

[gotFusion]

The message (recover.txt) came from the old file (the project file that was created in the older version).

If you cannot open the file you have and you do not have the older version that created the file you are stuck with rebuilding.

Is the site online? What is the URL?

[MalB]

OK.
I guess I'll rebuild in something else that gives me the option to save the HTML as a separate file. Using proprietary .nod files and then not continuing to provide support to them is not the way for Fusion to go.

[gotFusion]

Fusion is a database program that writes HTML

If you need an editor program you need to use an editor program not a database program.

[MalB]

OK. The NetObjects website does not make it clear that it is a database program - it promotes it as a website building program that creates HTML. It looks as if it is positioned to compete with the Dreamweaver and Microsoft offerings but, I gather, from what you say it isn't. The website doesn't make that at all clear.

I would have thought that a database program should generate a database that is readable even after six years. Microsoft provide backwards support and upgrade paths from the earlier versions of Access and SQL server, dating back more than six years, even if that is a little tortuous at times. Indeed, their datafile specifications are now open (thanks in part to European Community pressure) and allow other suppliers programs to read their data. I am not convinced that, if NetObjects Fusion is a database program, as claimed, it should not now be moving to a less-proprietary form of database and maintaining an upgrade path for reading back datafiles. Still I've made my point and you have told me clearly, in answer to my original question, that help is not available to me, so we can end this thread here. Thanks for replying so promptly.