Access Forbidden using Dreamweaver - PHP Question

**MyGreyGoose** · 17 Jul 2007, 02:46 AM

I just installed a trial version of Dreamweaver CS3 so that I can edit the php and html code in an IDE - hopefully to speed up my coding. I think I brought my zen cart into it with correct settings for the local, remote, testing server, mysql connection info. When I bring up index.php in Live Data view on my local testing server, it displays just as expected.

What I'm trying to figure out is how to bring up pages such as tpl_index_product_list.php or tpl_ezpages_bar_header.php in Dreamweaver's Live Data view. How do I do this? When I click on (e.g.) tpl_index_product_list.php, I get a message: "Access forbidden! You don't have permission to access the requested object. It is either read-protected or not readable by the server. If you think this is a server error, please contact the webmaster. Error 403. localhost. etc."

Can I actually bring up a "subtemplate" without running something else? Do I maybe have my settings wrong? Do I need to bring up a parent file (not sure how)?

One reason I think I might have the settings wrong is that in Map view for the file directory, it only shows index.php linking to application_top.php, which has 3 sublinks (configure.php, configure.php, autoload_function.php) and when I hover over them, their path is includes/includes/etc. , which I think is wrong b/c it should just be includes/etc.

**stage** · 17 Jul 2007, 03:50 AM

The reason that you get that message in live view is because those pages cannot be accessed directly, they need to be called from another page. They are coded this way as a security measure. Also even if they were not coded this way, it's unlikely they would display correctly anyway because the necessary parameters are not being passed in.

The only true way to view those pages in live mode is to go through the path in which they are naturally displayed.

stage

**MyGreyGoose** · 17 Jul 2007, 04:33 AM

Thanks! That's what I was afraid of. So, does this mean that DreamWeaver can't help me in the way I was hoping... somehow changing say html layout and rapidly viewing the result in a design view?

Is there some other way Dreamweaver can help with that... what I'm wondering is if there's a way I can bring up the page somewhere within Dreamweaver. I'm not sure how to do as you say, "go through the path in which they are naturally displayed" because I think the Live Data view is a preview only. I saw a "Live Data view settings" that seemed to maybe offer some hope.

**stage** · 17 Jul 2007, 05:28 AM

This isn't a short coming of Dreamweaver, which happens to be the best tool there is for web development in my opinion, its the way the files are designed within ZC and would be the same for other major PHP systems you might work with. So a different editor will not change that situation.

The best way to test is simply to upload the changes to your server, which in effect what is happening with the live view, you just can't access these and many other pages directly.

If you want to work locally, you can install either XAMPP or WAMP. These will set up a complete PHP/MySQL/Apache configuration on a windows workstation. But just remember you'll need to load the page that is calling these other pages for them to display and not go to them directly.

It may sound like a hassle, and it does require some effort, but it is a good way to learn the system and what does what to whom.

Another option is to use one of the pure PHP editors that include a debugger, which will allow you to step through the code, at this point true code junkies need only apply :)

stage

**stage** · 17 Jul 2007, 05:42 AM

Just re-read your post and missed the question about "path" the first time. What I mean by that is for example the tpl files, those are all going to be called by some other file, and in turn may in some situations call another tile. That's the "path" probably an official term for it that I haven't learned yet.

The other night I needed to make some changes to the customer downloads page. After a little investigation I figured out the tpl_account_history_info_default.php was involved, but the download piece is not in that file, that file calls another file called tpl_modules_downloads.php so that is basically a subset of the path tpl_account_history_info_default.php->tpl_modules_downloads.php.

In order to test my changes to the downloads section, I couldn't go to that page directly but rather had to go to My Account which in turn called the other required files of the path.

Hope that helps,

Stage

**MyGreyGoose** · 19 Jul 2007, 05:23 PM

That helps. Basically what I'm doing now is just making the changes in DreamWeaver, saving, then refreshing my local test site in my browser. Not as integrated as I wanted, but close enough.

I was actually able to bring up the page that contained the "subtemplates" (what I'm calling them for now) within DreamWeaver, but it was more of a hassle then viewing it in a browser. I clicked on View | Live Data view settings for index.php. I entered in the parameters of the product page I was working on it. Now, the page that came up was the category page. Then I noticed at the top of the window there is a address bar like section that prefixes http://localhost/my_cart_directory/index.php and then I can type in main_page=product_info&cPath=65&products_id=180 to get the page I want.