Help with Importing a website

I am working to create HTML files with the Tinderbox application, then I am storing these (briefly) on my website, then importing them into DevonThink 3 using the Download Manager. (I am not just locally importing them because all my links are relative links and DT can’t support those.

This worked great the first time I tried it.

However, I deleted those files, then tried it again with some updated versions of the files I’m working with (I’m in the design phase of this workflow, so I’m not really just adding a few new files, I’m changing everything around). This time all sorts of strange things happened. DT continues to download the old CSS file, even though the old one has been overwritten on the server. It also downloads old files that have been deleted from the server. I have the settings in the Download manager set to overwrite existing files. I also ran the “Empty Caches” command from the DT menu.

I appear to be missing some crucial understanding about the website import process and how it updates files. What am I doing wrong?

Does the behavior continue if you quit and relaunch DEVONthink?

Yes.

Also additional unexpected behavior. Sometimes the files aren’t reflecting the CSS correctly until I hit the “refresh” button twice. Then, when I click on another file, then back to the first file, it’s again not displaying the CSS styling until I hit refresh twice.

That is likely due to WebKit caching the stylesheet. Development is aware of this, though there’s no remedy I’m aware of at this point.

Additionally, I’m having problems with the locally downloaded copy recognizing the locally downloaded stylesheet.

Is this a common set of problems with website import? Am I doing something that is edge case or should everything work locally if a website is imported?

Does the Refresh trick load the stylesheet?

I don’t think it’s a common set of problems, but yes what you’re doing is the first time I’ve heard of someone downloading from their own website, making changes, then trying to download them again.

I’m curious (and not entirely understanding what you’re intent it)- if you’re publishing to your own website, why aren’t you just accessing it via a simple Bookmark in DEVONthink?

My primary intent is this (please tell me if there’s an easier way or a better procedure to be doing to achieve this in DT):

I want to replicate material in Tinderbox to DevonThink for use on iOS (much of which is offline). This material in TB will change (grow) over time, so I will need to periodically update these files in DT as well.

Dragging notes from TB to DT doesn’t result in a great experience, because I lose a lot of the links and functional. Fortunately, I am able to add this back in via TB’s HTML export function. I can basically get most of what I need on iOS from TB via HTML.

Ok, so why put them in DT at all? First, I don’t want to leave this material on the web. I suppose I could password protect it, but I’d rather not go to the bother. I mainly want it as local material.

Second, I do really appreciate DT’s “see also” feature and I want to use that regularly as well. So I want the material in DT.

Thus, I want the material stored locally instead of as bookmarks for offline iOS usage and I want it in DT on the Mac for “see also” functionality. Happy to do things a different way if I can achieve those ends.

I am not a Tinderbox user, so I have no relevant suggestions in this regard. However, we do have Tinderbox users on the forums, so perhaps they’ll weigh in on this.

Ok, then forget Tinderbox. I have a pile of HTML files that I want to view in DevonThink Mac and iOS. I am having a devil of a time figuring out how best to make that work. It seems that when I use relative links of any sort, problems ensue. Yet, I don’t understand how the “import website” feature can work without somehow interpreting relative links. Please help me understand how to get a working offline HTML site working in DevonThink.

Perhaps this bit of information will be useful:

In DevonThink 2, I imported the site into a new database… Everything appears to work great. Hurray! Closed DevonThink 2.

Then I opened the database in DevonThink 3. CSS file is not applied, text is not styled unless the internet is connected and the refresh button is clicked twice. If the internet is not connected, the refresh button produces an error.

Then I opened the database in DevonThink To Go. The CSS file was not applied, no HTML was styled. Some links worked but others didn’t. I often got a pop up saying links aren’t supported in this file.