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2009-March-04

The problem started out with DreamWeaver 8 users upgrading to CS3 (or CS4). The document we have for setting up the client-side connection of DreamWeaver 8 to the server-side VShell daemon, was not working after upgrading to CS3. The result for CS3 users was that they could not delete files, create files, or use check-in/check-out. This was a major problem for our end-users.

Adobe was NO help. We had called them on serveral occassions, but we were always shut out -- never a follow up, never an escalation. (This attitude was quite different from when Macromedia owned DreamWeaver; we had a nice relationship going on there).

As a temporary solution we instructed our users to stick with DW8. Recently, we decided to re-investigate the issue. We are building a Linux server and using OpenSSH. We tested CS4 against OpenSSH and found that we had no problems. Looking at the VShell logs in debug mode I began to think it might be a problem with VShell.

The Vshell logs showed the first directory name being repeated: Let's assume the end-user would upload data to a folder "bulletin". Under DreamWeaver 8, the logs would say something to the effect of 
00:00:00,sftp,00001: user created directory /MM_CASETEST4291
00:00:00,sftp,00001: user deleted directory /MM_CASETEST4291
00:00:01,sftp,00001: user created directory /bulletin/xyiznwsk
00:00:01,sftp,00001: user deleted directory /bulletin/xyiznwsk
However, in CS3 and CS4 the log would say something to the effect of 
00:01:01,sftp,00001: Failed to create directory "/bulletin/bulletin/xyiznwsk": The system cannot find the path specified.
00:01:01,sftp,00001: Failed to delete directory "/bulletin/bulletin/xyiznwsk": The system cannot find the path specified.
Notice the double use of bulletin -- which does not exist.

So I posted to VanDyke's fourms.

The end result: In DreamWeaver, prepend the Host Directory with a slash (/).
For example our users would just put "bulletin" into their Host Directory. Change it to "/bulletin", and everything works. If a user had to revert back DreamWeaver 8 (for some reason), this would still work.

So I give a shout out to Todd (rtb) of VanDyke for helping us to troubleshoot this problem.