TechNote (Archived)

Problems with pages containing absolute links in Dreamweaver

Issue

Pages with absolute links (for example, a link such as http://www.mysite.com/image1.jpg) take a long time to render in Design view.

Dreamweaver may appear to not be responding. After several minutes, the page may render as expected, or Design view may be blank while Code view functions as expected. This applies to any absolute link in the page, whether they are images, external CSS files, or other files.

An alert may also display after a period of time reporting "No Error Occurred". (Ref. 199708)

Reason

This behavior results from new functionality in Dreamweaver 8 for handling absolute links. Dreamweaver checks the HTTP Address in the Local Info category and refers to that as the "home" site. Any absolute links other than the HTTP address are considered "external" and Dreamweaver will try to use those external images. Therefore an absolute link like http://www.mysite.com/image1.jpg will be considered a "home" site link, and Dreamweaver will look for the image locally;not remotely;when attempting to render it. See Dreamweaver Help for further information.

Solution

There are two workarounds. Macromedia recommends the first option (installing the Dreamweaver 8.0.1 Updater):

A new command was added in the Dreamweaver 8.0.1 Updater that allows you to turn off the rendering of absolute URLs. To turn off the rendering of absolute URLs, from the Commands menu, de-select "Display External Files". Images will display as broken images, but the delay will not occur. To apply the new display setting, close your file(s) and re-open them.
If the Dreamweaver 8.0.1 Updater is not an option for you, then you can define the external web site (http://www.mysite.com) in thesite's HTTP Address in the Local Info category. Images will display as broken links, but the delay will not occur (restart Dreamweaver or reopen the page after adding the HTTP address).