PRB: Link Repair Does Not Work Within HTML Layout (*.alx) Files

When link repair is turned on, relative references to other files from within an HTML Layout are not updated when files are moved or renamed.

Link repair is handled by the FrontPage Extensions installed on the Web server being used. HTML Layout files are not treated like "real" HTML files by FrontPage Extensions; therefore, link repair operations are not performed on them.

URLs and other references to files from within an HTML Layout file must be updated by hand, as necessary, when the files are moved or renamed.

This behavior is by design.

When FrontPage Extensions does link repair on a file, it also reformats the file in an effort to make it more readable. Because of differences in the structure of HTML files and HTML Layout files, it is not safe to do automatic link repair on HTML Layout files.

HTML extensions are currently proposed that would allow the content of HTML Layout (*.alx) files to be embedded in-line within the body of an HTML page. If these extensions are accepted and implemented, *.alx files will no longer be necessary and this issue would become moot.

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

1. Open or create a Web project.
2. In the Project Workspace window, select the name of the project and use the Properties page to set Link Repair to "On."
3. Create (and open) an HTML Layout in the project.
4. Use the Toolbox to add an Image control to the layout.
5. Use the Properties page of the Image control to set its PicturePath property to the relative location of a valid image file (for example, "images/MyValidPic.bmp").
6. Save and close the layout.
7. In the Project Workspace window, drag and drop the HTML Layout file to a different directory (move it to a new location).
8. Open the HTML Layout.
9. Examine the PicturePath property of the Image control.

Notice that the PicturePath property has not changed to account for the new, relative location of the image file.

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