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About Us 2007 is when I began creating niche stores. Many kind and giving people shared their knowledge with me, making it easier to improve my sites. I have gathered much of what I've learned and put it here, on this site, as a way of giving back. It is my hope that this site will help you improve your niche stores and sites, too. ~ Rochelle
How to edit files such as .htaccess and FrontControl.php
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Rochelle in Many of my ‘How To…’ instructions tell you to edit files such as .htaccess or FrontControl.php. This is easy enough to do when you know what I’m talking about but if this makes you stare hopelessly at your computer screen don’t dispare. I’ll tell you exactly how to do this.
Some files can be edited through your BANS Admin. The files that you can edit through your site’s Admin (by going to the template you’ve chosen for that site) are:
- Footer
- Header
- Logo
- Styles.css
Then there are files you may want to edit that you cannot access from your Admin. These files include:
- .htaccess
- /cont/cont.php
- /cont/FrontControl.php
- index.php
- robots.txt
- sitemap.php
You can modify these files through your hosting account’s File Manager but not all of them can be seen (yes, some hosting accounts hide certain files like .htaccess). Plus this is a tedious way to edit files. The better way is to use a FTP.
The FTP I recommend is CoffeeCup Direct FTP. (You can read my review of CoffeeCup Direct FTP at http://www.nichestorestrategies.com/the-best-ftp-ive-used/.)
When you want to edit a file that you can’t access from you Admin you can easily follow these instructions. I have written instructions using CoffeeCup Direct FTP. If you choose to use a different method then the steps will vary from what follows.
My instructions to Edit any File (via CoffeeCup Direct FTP): | |
Step One | |
| Open CoffeeCup Direct FTP and navigate to the file you want to modify. For instructional purposes I will show you how to edit .htaccess, which is inside your site’s root folder (where your site’s index.php is located) but you can use these instructions to edit any file on your site: | |
 | |
| Step Two | |
| Right-click on .htaccess and choose, “Edit.” This will open the file in the ‘File Editor’ at the bottom: | |
 | |
| Go down to the bottom where you file is now open for editing. Click anywhere in the document you opened so you can see your mouse blinking in the document. Select the entire document (Windows CTRL+A, Mac CMD+A): | |
 | |
Step Three | |
| Open Notepad (or equivalent but don’t use a word processing program as it might muck up your code) and paste the code there. If you make a mistake in the following steps you now have your original code to return to. | |
| Step Four | |
| Make your changes and then click on the ‘Save’ button on the ‘File Editor’ bar to save your changes: | |
 | |
| Step Five | |
| View your site to make sure there are no error messages. If there are you can easily fix them by pasting the original code from your Notepad back to the .htaccess file by following the above steps and then try again. | |
. | |
That’s it! It is quite easy to edit any file once you know how to do it.
A word of advice -- Any time you edit a document, whether in Admin or via FTP, it is ALWAYS a good idea to make a copy of the code you want to edit before you make any changes. That way you can easily undo any errors you may accidentally create. Mistakes and errors happen to the best of us no matter how careful we are.
Rochelle
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I’ve been using the free, open source FileZilla for a few years and it has always performed flawlessly.
It is fast, easy to use, and you can store all of your domains and server information right in the program.
You can drag and drop files right from your desktop.
Just Google the term filezilla and you can easily find a download site.
Pauls last blog post..Sears PurchaseProtect! A New Way For Sears To Get Your Money
Paul,
I’ve also recently found CoreFTP, which is another great FTP program.
Rochelle
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