Some servers, particularly Microsoft servers, will allow you to upload the labels.rdf file but will not “serve it back to you” even if you put its correct URL in your browser. You might get a not found message (the famous “Error 404”) or a message saying “You are not authorized to access this site” which from your own website is very annoying!
There are two ways around this:
- The best but more involved method
- The not so good but easy way
The best but more involved method
You need to configure your server to recognise files with the .rdf extension and to process them accordingly. More technically, you need to add the RDF MIME type.
If you are using a Windows server and you have access to its Control Panel, Microsoft makes it very easy for you. What’s more, you can set the server to include the Link tag automatically at the same time so that you won’t have to put it in your web pages.
If the technical terms are new to you, don’t worry, we provide walkthrough instructions with screenshots. These will show how to set the link tag in what’s called an HTTP Header, and how to add the MIME type, in a short section of the system specification (link below).
The not so good but easy way
The basic problem is that your server has never heard of a file that ends .rdf and doesn’t quite know what to do with it. The simplest thing to do is to change the filename to one it does understand. The only drawback is that you need to remember to change the link tag to match.
Step 1: Rename the labels.rdf file to labels.xml
Step 2: Within the link tag that you’re adding to your web pages you’ll see this:
href=”/labels.rdf”
That needs to change to reflect the new filename thus:
href=”/labels.xml”
Apart from that, all instructions for labelling your site remain unchanged.