Aha! Workaround for site corruption in iWeb '06 '08 updates

Question

I think I have found a workaround for a problem that's been plaguing me and no doubt other people who've bought iWeb '08 and used it to update an older site from iWeb '06 (skip to bottom for solution). This is relevant even after the 2.0.1 update that Apple shipped today.
My iWeb project contains multiple sites, which I use to group photo albums. I found repeatedly that after I updated the site, made a change, and saved the project, a lot of the bitmap image files needed for pages with photo albums or other graphical embellishments were just gone from the project. Looking into the Domain.sites package (Finder: Show Package Contents) confirmed this - all the .jpg, .png files etc. just got trashed the first time I did a save (although the pages all looked ok after the upgrade but before the save!)
At first I thought that the last site added to my multi-site project was spared at the expense of other 'sites' visible in the sidebar. Then I realized that only pages that had been viewed in iWeb after the update were spared! Generally I would view the pages in the bottom/last site as these were the ones I was currently working on - and these were spared.
So I did an experiment - I opened (yet another) copy of my iWeb '06 backup in iWeb '08, and after the update but before saving I clicked on every page (thereby viewing it) in the whole site - and I have around 50 pages in about ten sites. Then I made a change to a single page, and saved the project. The fact that I had viewed all the pages seemed to make the problem go away! There were no missing photos or embedded bitmaps!
*So the short version of the problem is:* any pages that have not been viewed within iWeb after updating a Domain.sites file (what I call the project) from '06 to '08 will have all associated bitmap image files deleted.
*The solution:* immediately after updating the site, and before making any edits or saving, you must click on the sidebar entry for every page in the whole project (to view it in the editing window). In my case this meant also clicking on every entry of a blog, to display it.
Conclusion: there must be some book-keeping of the database that supports iWeb that is not synchronized with the persistent store on disk unless a page is actually viewed.
Hope this works for others, and that Apple gets a proper fix out ASAP. The 2.0.1 update issued today did not fix the problem for me - only the above workaround did.
Rick

Answer 1

Hi Rick,
Sounds like my story, too. I have had some time to experiment on two different Macs (one G4 and one MacBook Pro). After losing the formatting and photos on one Mac after upgrading, I decided that I was going to test some theories on the other Mac prior to upgrading to iWeb '08. This is what I found - and what worked:
Test 1:
MacBookPro on iLife '06. I upgraded to iLife '08. I opened iWeb and noted that it did not recognize my original domain: iWeb '08 asked me to locate it or create a new one. I selected "choose" and selected the domain that I had created in iWeb '06 (user/library/application support/iweb). The site opened, performed the required update and opened up. I noticed immediately that some of the photos did not appear on some of the pages. Each time iWeb '08 was closed and reopened, more photos, sometimes different photos, would disappear. All that would remain was a grey placecard with a question mark in the middle (and the warning that the links were now missing). I even went as far as putting the photos back into position, saving and closing iWeb '08. But when I opened iWeb '08 again, the photos were missing...again.
I rebuilt the entire site.
Test 2:
Powerbook G4 on iLife '06. BEFORE updating to iLife '08, I used the original iWeb '06 to publish the entire site to a local folder on my HD (as a security measure). Next, I created a copy of my domain (another security measure) and moved the original domain from 'user/library/application support/iweb' to my desk top. I then proceeded to upgrade to iLife '08. After upgrading, I opened iWeb '08 and received the notification that iWeb '08 needed to either create a domain or I needed to choose a domain. Since I moved my domain out of 'library/application support/iweb', I elected to create a new domain and saved it to the same location (library/application support/iweb).
The new domain was created, iWeb '08 opened, I selected a template, then saved it and closed the program.
Using Finder, I examined the new domain just created by iWeb '08. Using the 'get info' command, I noticed that the new domain has the extension ".sites2." The original domain created in iWeb '06 has the extension ".sites."
I took my original iWeb '06 domain and used the finder "get info" command to manually change the extension from ".sites" to ".sites2." I got the warning asking me if I was sure I wanted to use ".sites2," and I selected yes, use ".sites2."
Using the (original) domain just modified in the last step, now with the extension ".sites2", I inserted it into the 'user/library/application support/iweb' folder, replacing the domain file created during the start up of iWeb '08.
I then opened iWeb '08.
After a brief moment, iWeb '08 opened my domain revealing all four of my original web sites, complete and intact. After iWeb '08 updated the domain, I saved it, closed iWeb '08 and reopened it a few times before I was satisfied that EVERYTHING was working fine.
In conclusion, I found that by changing the domain (created in iWeb '06) file extension to ".sites2", I was able to use iWeb '08 to successfully open it, complete and intact.
I hope you may still have the opportunity to try this on your Mac. I also hope that you have good results.
Cheers, Bryan