Site owners who have elected to update their web presence via Contribute, the content management tool from Adobe/Macromedia, may be in for an unpleasant surprise shortly.
For when Internet Explorer 7, the latest MS browser version, installs it can have a nasty side effect on Contribute - your computer won’t be able to find it!
The error message you see is “Contribute.exe – Entry Point not Found” and is inflicted on Contribute 3.x and the latest version, Contribute 4. To fix this problem, go to this Adobe – Tech note page for instructions. In a nutshell, the fix involves renaming the existing DDL in Contribute and copying and pasting a DDL from elsewhere. Not a biggie, but remember to quit out of Contribute first. See the Adobe – Tech note for full details.
The IE7 glitch also appears to affect older versions of Contribute too and manifests itself as ftp login errors when trying to make a new connection to a site; existing connections are usually okay. With Contribute 2, the workaround seems to be a combination of the DDL fix and downloading the Contribute 2 updater.
When this is done, it is normally also necessary with earlier versions of Contribute to use an FTP client to get into the new connection site’s web space and delete the contribute.xml file in the _mm folder before re-attempting to create a new connection. A dud xml that needs deleting will display the file size as zero.
When creating a new connection you will find that the Contribute 2 Updater has installed a new expanded dialog box and unchecking the Contribute Optimisation option may be necessary too for some users. This check box lurks behind the Advanced button when you’re asked to specify how you connect to the web space, i.e. by FTP, secure FTP or local network.
All of the above requires admin rights to your computer or admin rights to computer and web space if it is an earlier version of Contribute you are running. If your connection was established via an encrypted connection key, ask the site’s Contribute administrator to email you a fresh key after the glitches have been attended to.
NB: As ever, making changes to your computer system and settings are entirely at your own risk. Always make a restore point or back up before you begin so that it is possible to undo any tinkering.
