Forums/AppMakr Knowledge Base/Error Messages: What to do
Error Message: .zip does not contain the required 'index.html' file
Leiser
posted this on October 21, 2010 01:34 pm
If you've attempted to upload your HTML .zip folder and received an error stating:
".zip does not contain the required 'index.html' file. All HTML/PhoneGap zip files require that an 'index.html' file is included at the root level." (see below image)
....this means that your 'index.html' file is not located at the root level. Please follow the steps listed below and try again:
Step 1: Open your HTML Folder
Step 2: Select all the items in your HTML Folder. Be sure to include the "index.html" file. Note: do not include the HTML Folder itself -- just the items within. "Right click" and compress (zip) the items.
Step 3: Locate the new ".zip" folder you just created and upload this into AppMakr.
Comments latest first
@Deb, what is the build # and app ID of the app you are having trouble with?
Also, if you could walk me through the steps you're taking to reach this error message, that would be a big help!
Thanks :)
I have read everything and complied with all possible suggested error fixes.... all assistants and my self are still getting this message
.....If you've attempted to upload your HTML .zip folder and received an error stating:
".zip does not contain the required 'index.html' file. All HTML/PhoneGap zip files require that an 'index.html' file is included at the root level." (see below image)
any suggestions would be appreciated ty
Hey Frank,
Apple devices do not run flash that is most likely the problem.
-Matt
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I am trying my app on my iPhone 4S and iPad 2. I created a tab using the HTML/Phonegap zip. It is just one index.html inside index.zip. The website is VERY simple however using javascript. My site shows on the simulator but on both devices I receive just a WHITE screen. Any advice??
The website calls for Flash Player btw... could this be the problem?
David, it is used to display HTML content on the iPhone
What is this feature used for?
Please note that index.html and index.zip files should be all lower case. I had Index.html and it did not work
hmm, I must be missing something. I tried and the only thing that happens on the test app is the text....
Jared, that sounds like something that could work. You might even be able to do with just vanilla HTML, using a redirect like this:
Dumb question probably. New to everything, and noticed that on the android build, everyone seems to be having the same issue with the google calendar rss feed. So, I was wondering how I could embed the calendar and write it into an html tab? Am I at least on the right track?
@Nahed
yes in the iphone simulator on the web it doesn't show anything but when you build the APP it works fine (of course if your HTML is good ;) )
Hi,
The HTML zip file images does not appear as well as the icons?
Please help
Hi Guys,
I opened a Bug report some days ago and today DAN answered back that the system now works. I personally tryed and infact the system now accept the file (the spinning stay just a second on a 7kb zip files).
The problem is that (in the simulator) I try the new TAB it answer back that it's not a Valid Feed evenif it's an HTML file with just an image and a <form> inside nothing more ...
I haven't still tested on the iPhone as now I'm out of my office...if you can test and let me know if you have the same problem...
Luca
Hi Guys,
I'm trying to send a .zip file as already made in another project but this time it switch to "uploading" and nothing happen....seems that I can't upload anything...I tryed chaning .zip name but nothing..always the "uploading" message and nothing more, and If I try to press "Save" a red message says:
You must upload a file for your Informazioni tab.
...anyone can help?
Thank you
Luca
Hi, the spinner issue is still not solved entirely. I attach the tab I am using, just create a new Android app, add an HTML tab and upload this attached zip. I am using Google Chrome in MacOSX. This HTML is pure HTML, nothing fancy.
You can see in the progress bar that the file is uploaded, then it changes to "Wating for www.appmakr.com", then for some reason it starts to upload the file again and you can see it on the progress bar, then again it changes to "Wating for www.appmakr.com". Then nothing happens anymore but the upload spinner is still spinning and there's the "sending..." text on the top of the page.
Hi everybody,
I found out that if i use Firefox instead of Internet Explorer the file is uploaded and there is no spinning, so that should solve the problem.
Are there any HTML examples that us newbies can use? I find it a bit difficult.
@Jerry yes, I believe the index.html file is in the right folder
What about the problem with the upload spinning - is it solved?
@Jackie,
Did you follow the instructions of the article and made sure the index.html file is in the right folder?
My zip file contains an index.html file but I keep getting this message: "App.zip does not contain the required 'index.html' file. All HTML/PhoneGap zip files require that an 'index.html' file is included at the root level.
I tried it twice. The first time it tried to load it but it kept spinning (the file size is only 144 KB and has no other zip file inside). The second time, I kept getting the index.html error!
Hi Jerry,
No, its still the same - it keeps spinning.
I use Internet Explorer - dont know if that could help you?
Hi, just uploaded a 3 meg zip file; it didn't work.
Martin: Does the upload issue still persist? We double-checked uploading zip files and haven't found any issues.
Ok guys this is what you have to do as a workaround, just couldn't wait to have Appmakr fix the problem, I tried it and submitted my app to the App Store without any problem. If you can't upload your ZIP file, then upload a very small one, perhaps just some index.html, zip it and then upload it to appmakr. Then build the app for the app store and download it to your computer. Iphone and Android apps are just zipped files so you can uncompress them. In MacOSX right click an app and it says "show package contents". There you will find a phonegap_www folder with your tab inside it. Just replace the HTMLs in there with the ones you want. Same deal with an Android app except that you will manually have to zip and unzip it.
If your app is an Android app, just zip it and you can upload it to google market place, it will complain that it is not zipaligned or whatever but it will let you upload your app to the Android Marketplace.
For iPhone apps things are trickier as you need to resign your app since you modified it.
Create a file called yourapp.xcent and put the following in it:
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica}
---
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>application-identifier</key>
<string>CVA65LNW7U.com.pointabout.23943</string>
<key>get-task-allow</key>
<true/>
</dict>
</plist>
---
You have to replace the string key with your app key, you can see that in your Apple provisioning portal in the App IDs section.
Then you have to sign the app, open up the terminal and type something like:
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica}
codesign -f -s "iPhone Distribution: My distribution certificate name" --entitlements yourapp.xcent yourapp.app
Of course for all this to work you have to have your Apple developer signature and all that working in your Mac.
You can then zip yourapp.app and upload it to the app store without any problems.
I have tried to delete it and then upload at new, but the same happens - it just keep spinning.
I have experienced this problem also, I find this works for me however whenever it happens I delete the HTML page (from the app tab list) then add another and re-upload.
Works for me, good luck with it.
I have also tried some of the test HTML you provides, but its the same problem. Can you please fix it?
I have the same problem - the upload just keep spinning, allthoug the zip file is only 5 KB.
Could need som help!
Upload of a ZIP file is not working. I am in OSX using Chrome, after Chrome confirms the upload nothing happens. The uploading spinner keeps on spinning in the webpage. This happened a few weeks back and was solved, so I'm guessing the same problem aroused again.
Please help, thanks :)
UPLOAD DOESN'T WORKS.
Never finishes.
Same trouble as Evan described. I have built 5 apps with the same .zip file. Something must be wrong on server side. Please help.
file uploads not working .. i see the upload completes , but keeps on spinning . for over 5mins !
only 500kb file please help !
got a client waiting ..
How can you get admob to work in HTML / Phonegap tabs. Adding the admob code in the index.html file does display the ads but when you click on an ad it opens it inside your app and there is no way to go back. The correct behavior would be for the ad to open itunes so you can download whatever is being advertised. Anyone having this issue? Any ideas / help
How can you get admob to work in HTML / Phonegap tabs. Adding the admob code in the index.html file does display the ads but when you click on an ad it opens it inside your app and there is no way to go back. The correct behavior would be for the ad to open itunes so you can download whatever is being advertised. Anyone having this issue? Any ideas / help
Dale, this feature doesn't support linking to a site. To use an HTML tab you must zip up an index.html file and upload it to Appmakr.
As to why they did it this way, I can't figure out. Linking to an RSS feed is as simple as adding a tab and pasting in a URL to the feed. Many have asked numerous times, WHY NOT FOR A LINK TO A WEB PAGE??????
Unfortunately nobody at AppMakr has ever answered this mystery. I don't get that. They just ignore this topic. BAD PR.
There are hacks... Use meta refresh to bump over, then it can link to your home page even if php, asp, cfm, whatever.
I hope one day there will be an html tab that allows you just just paste in a url instead of uploading a zip.
Hey AppMakr people.... Why not answer this???? If it's hard, say so, I'd like to know why.
What about sites that do not have index.html and are WP blogs with index.php?
i can't upload either..this happened this morning then started working again.
same here . file uploads not working .. i see the upload completes , but keeps on spinning . for over 5mins !
only 100kb file please help !
got a client waiting ..
Trying to upload html zip file right now, just keeps spinning and says "Uploading" but never finishes. The file is only 400 kb and I'm pretty sure I zipped it properly. It's only an index file and one image.
Hey guys,
I'm able to upload and run PhoneGap code on my device, are you guys still having build problems? I'm using the Safari browser on OS X, but I also tried an upload in Chrome to be sure. Let me know if you have any more problems.
--Dan
Hello! I've been trying to upload a zip file since last night with different browsers and no luck. It just spins and says Uploading but it never completes. At first, I was uploading several files, but just now, I'm just zipping up the index.html file and just trying to upload that one and it doesn't do it. Appears as if something is wrong w/ the uploads or maybe is something embedded in my code of the index file causing it to hang like that? Please help....
Hello dear friends of Appmakr I'm in big trouble trying to import an HTML file it will redirectto a page q will play music online ... but not this or uploading .... will you guys could helpme and if you have an easier way would be much appreciated
Hello dear friends of Appmakr I'm in big trouble trying to import an HTML file it will redirectto a page q will play music online ... but not this or uploading .... will you guys could helpme and if you have an easier way would be much appreciated
hi,
after uploading my html zip it says "succesfully upload" but it wont show up on the right side. it says that it shows later on the device.
it even doesnt show up in the list of tabs. then when building for distribution it says "Oh no! There's been a build error. We've been notified, and usually fix build errors within 48 hours, so please check back with us."
help please! tabs are not working in my account =/
cheers
Forget my question it was silly. Have the simulator working, example code and transfers working, build is fine. Nice work!
do you just upload the index.html? So you can do all your development on a mac, using webos, then just upload the index.html and whatever local .htmls it calls?
Hey guys,
It's not just that certain archive applications (including the one built into windows) change the file extension from .html to .htm but they also add a bunch of .meta data to the file (which is to say junk) and some even create the archive into a folder. These all cause problems for us that aren't trivial. We're trying our best but in the meantime it's probably your best bet to use OS X's built in "compress" menu item.
It would sure be nice if appmakr would update the system so it could work with zip files created with good old Windows zip folders. A lot of us who use windows would love the be able to simply right click on our index.html file and choose send to > compressed (zip) folder and have it work.
Someone mentioned it changes the extension from .html to .htm? Why not simply have appmakr also accept index.htm?
Is there a reason it is impossible to just accept a url instead of uploading and html file? I would love to just build out my mobile pages, host them, and be able to have a home screen icon link directly to a url.
Thanks for your work. Appmakr has very cool potential.
I also have been fighting the HTML problem. Your upload is looking for the file "index.html". When I zip the index file, it automatically names is "index.htm". It appears to me this is why it can't find the "index.html" file. I have not been able to get the ZIP to word with the names in sync.
Please give me some ideas. I am hung up from further development because of this. PLEASE HELP!!!!
Clarence
Brian,
Ouch! I just sent you an E-mail. We'll get this figured out. :-)
--Dan
Dan,
Same error/issues with new account.
Hey Brian,
Worst case I can handle your requests in the meantime for you, but since this is such a unique problem I'm hoping I can have one of our backend developers look into it and figure out what's going on. Any chance you could create a new account and try to create an HTML tab with it?
Thanks!
--Dan
Dan -
I've officially given up. I've tried OS's from ubuntu, WinXP, Win7 and a Mac Mini. Plus every web browser on the planet. I've attempted to create the html using Dreamweaver to iWeb to even Front Page 2003! I appreaciate the offer to publish the html for me, however if ajustments are required to fine tune it how would that work? Email the request right to you? My email is briand@dfwre.com. THX.
Hey Brian,
I'm at a loss as to why this is erroring on you but if you like, I can build the tab for you and save it under your account. In which case you can publish the app, let me know if this works for you.
Best,
--Dan
Attempted to use 7-Zip. Same error. Also tried winzip and windows compress utility
Hello Brian,
Our developer was able to build successfully, and isn't sure about that error in the video. Would you try zipping the index.html file using 7-Zip <http://www.7-zip.org/>?
Thanks Brian!
Thank You Brian!
Here is my index file. I will also send it via email.
Hi Brian,
Thank you so much for the video, it really helps out. Our developer that is helping with this has actually not seen that error before. Could you post your index.html file or email it to support@appmakr.zendesk.com if you feel more comfortable, so he can take a look at that?
Thank You!
Jason - here is a video of me attempting to upload the file. Thanks!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPVRferSjaQ
Hi Brian,
Or dev team tried with the zip file you provided, and they were able to get it to work. Could you provide screen shots or a video of how you created it, maybe they can catch something you are doing wrong. Thank You!
Hello Brian,
I've forwarded your question over to our developers for some assistance. I'll post back when I get an answer for you. Thank You!
Hello Brian,
Did you follow Leiser's tutorial above and zip all the files within the html folder, and not just the index file?
Anybody else getting the error: "There was an error saving the 'html' tab. Please check this tab and resave if necessary." As a test my zip file only contains the index.html file and is a whooping 1k in size with only plain text. Yet I still get this message. Does anyone have any idea? I'm on the verge of tears!!
My pleasure Diana, glad I could help :)
I just learned a new way to ZIP after two days of fighting with the HTML/PhoneGap tab. Zip the files individually and NOT at the directory level. Thanks for helping me out with this!