You created or edited a page or menu, but it did not behave as expected. The save failed, the published page did not appear, a navigation link looked missing, or a menu item opened a page that no longer exists. Work through the sections below in order to find the likely cause and fix it.
Scope
This article applies to pages and menus you manage under Portals & Microsites › Pages and Portals & Microsites › Menus. It does not cover visitors who cannot see a page because of sign-in or access restrictions. For that situation, see the article on access denied pages.
1. Visual Problems Come from Styling, Not a Missing Page or Link
This is the most common reason a menu item, registration link, or even an entire page body looks missing. The item was created correctly, but its text color matches the page background, so it blends in and looks blank.
Check. Open the page in the visual page designer and look closely where the content should appear. You can also select the area with your mouse to see whether hidden text highlights.
Fix. Change the text color of the menu, widget, or page content so it contrasts with the page background. Then save and republish the page or menu.
A different visual artifact is an unexpected red dashed or dotted line on a page. This usually comes from a leftover editor element, span[data-cke-magic-line], rather than anything you added. Hide it by adding this CSS to the portal's custom-styles asset:
span[data-cke-magic-line] { display: none !important; }2. Rhythm Refuses to Save the Page or Menu
A page or menu must have a name, a site, and a valid identifier. If one of these items is missing or invalid, Rhythm refuses the save:
You created or edited a page or menu, and something did not go as expected. The save was refused, a published page did not appear on the site, a navigation link looked missing, or a menu item led to a page that no longer exists. This article works through the likely causes in order, with what to check and how to fix each one.
Scope
This article applies to pages and menus you manage under Portals & Microsites › Pages and Portals & Microsites › Menus. It does not cover whether a visitor is blocked from seeing a page because of sign-in or access restrictions. For that situation, see the article on access denied pages.
1. The Link Is Not Missing — It Is Invisible
This is the most common cause when you add a menu item or registration link and it looks like it is not there. The item was added correctly, but its text color matches the page background, so it blends in completely.
Check. Open the page in the visual page designer and look closely where the link should appear. You can also select the text with your mouse to see whether it highlights even though nothing is visible.
Fix. Change the text color of the menu or the widget that contains the link so it contrasts with the page background. Then save and republish the page or menu.
2. Rhythm Refuses to Save the Page or Menu
A page or menu needs a name, a site, and a well-formed identifier. If any of these is missing or invalid, Rhythm refuses the save:
| What's wrong | What you'll see |
|---|---|
| No name, or no site selected | The save is refused. The Console’s required-field check usually catches this before you submit. |
| The identifier contains a space | The save is refused. |
The page's route does not start with a slash (/) | The save is refused. Rhythm checks only the first character, so //events and / events are accepted even though they are not valid addresses. |
| The route is already used by another page on this site | The save is refused with a message such as "The route specified is already being used by another page in this site." |
Warning
The duplicate-route check compares routes as exact text. /Events, /events/, and /events count as three different routes, even though visitors’ browsers treat /events/ and /events as the same address. Pages with routes that differ only by a trailing slash or capitalization can both save, but only one will be reachable the way you expect.
Fix. Check the Route: field in the page settings, opened from Edit in the Page Designer or from Create Page. Make sure the route starts with a single slash and is not already used by another page on the same site, including the same capitalization and trailing slash. For a menu, make sure every item has a name and, if it points to a page, a valid target.
If only the destination needs to change, such as which fundraising page a donation button sends donors to, do not change the page's route. Update the hyperlink on the page that sends donors onward, including any required query-string parameter.
A webinar or event microsite's registration action can also depend on page and menu setup instead of the event's own settings. If a registration link or menu item is missing, check that the event page has a registration menu item and usable direct routes. Do not assume registration will appear automatically once the event itself is configured.
If a page will not save only when you paste content from one source, such as a specific document, first confirm that other edits to the same page save normally. If they do, the issue is more likely the pasted content's formatting than a permission problem or a broader save failure.
3. A Published Page Does Not Appear on the Site
If you published a page and it still does not appear, or the Console said the publish failed, the page may still have published. When that happens, the site's page map was not updated to match.
Check. Open the page directly at its address on your site. If the page loads, it did publish, but the site's navigation and internal page lookup, called the site map, are out of date.
Fix. Rebuild the site's map from the Maintenance screen. This repair requires a permission that day-to-day content roles do not have by default. If you do not see the option, ask a Portals administrator to rebuild it or grant you access.
Warning
Rebuilding the site map removes every page with unpublished changes from the map until those pages are published. If you can, publish anything you are actively working on before you rebuild.
| No name, or no site selected | The save is refused; the Console's own required-field check normally catches this before you can submit | | The identifier contains a space | The save is refused | | The page's route does not start with a slash (/) | The save is refused. Rhythm checks only the first character, so //events and / events are both accepted even though they are not valid addresses | | The route is already used by another page on this site | The save is refused with a message such as "The route specified is already being used by another page in this site" |
Warning
The duplicate-route check compares routes as exact text. /Events, /events/, and /events all count as three different routes, even though visitors' browsers treat /events/ and /events as the same address. Two pages with routes that differ only by a trailing slash or capitalization can both save successfully, but only one will be reachable the way you expect.
The reverse can also happen: a page keeps working for visitors, but you cannot find or select it in the Pages list. Reinstalling the page does not always bring it back into that list. If a page works for visitors but does not appear in page management, treat it as a known limitation of the Pages list rather than a problem on the live site, and contact Support so it can be investigated.
4. A Menu Item Leads to a Page That No Longer Exists
Fix. Check the Route: field in the page settings, opened from Edit in the Page Designer or from Create Page. Make sure it starts with a single slash and is not already used by another page on the same site, including the same capitalization and trailing slash. For a menu, make sure every item has a name and, if it points to a page, a valid target.
3. A Published Page Does Not Appear on the Site
If you published a page and it still is not showing up, or the Console told you the publish failed, the page may actually have published. In that case, the site's own map of pages was not updated to match.
Check. Try opening the page directly at its address on your site. If it loads, the page did publish, and only the site's navigation and internal page lookup, its site map, are out of date.
Fix. Rebuild the site's map from the Maintenance screen. This repair requires a permission that a day-to-day content role does not have by default. If you do not see the option, ask a Portals administrator to rebuild it or grant you access.
Warning
Rebuilding the site map drops every page that currently has unpublished changes from the map until those pages are published. Publish anything you are actively working on before you rebuild, if you can.
If rebuilding the site map does not fix a problem tied to a specific event feature, such as Schedule of Events routing, go one step further. Delete the microsite pages that feature created in the microsite designer, then let the feature rebuild them. This has resolved routing problems that a site map rebuild alone did not, though it is not guaranteed to work every time.
Presenter Center's Edit My Speaker Info button depends on a speaker-profile edit page and route that the feature creates when it is installed. If that button does nothing, reinstalling Presenter Center should regenerate the missing page and route. If reinstalling alone does not fix it, some customers have had to delete the feature's older pages first and then reinstall it.
A page can also fail to show your changes because a different page is still answering the live route. If you created a second page for the same purpose and edited that one, but visitors still reach the original page's address, check which page the route points to before assuming your edits were lost.
The same idea applies to a page that creates a dynamic address, such as a page for viewing a specific registration. If that address stops resolving while the portal's standard registration page still works normally, the problem is usually with that one microsite page rather than with registration itself. Resaving and republishing the page can restore the redirect.
In rare cases, a page disappears from the Manage Pages list while still working at its published address and still opening through a direct Console edit link. If this happens, keep working from the direct edit link and contact Support. Some pages have reappeared in the list on their own after investigation. If a page continues not to display in Manage Pages, copy its content into a newly created page and point a new menu item to that page.
4. A Menu Item Leads to the Wrong Page, or No Page at All
Deleting a page does not remove menu items, buttons, or links on other pages that point to it. If you deleted a page, any menu item or on-page button that opened it, such as a "View Speaker List" button, remains in place and leads nowhere until you update or remove it.
Check. Review your site's menus and any buttons on your pages for targets that point to pages you deleted recently.
Fix. Open the menu in Portals & Microsites › Menus, find the item, and point it to a different page or remove it. A menu item can also point to an external address instead of a page, which is useful for something like a single sign-on link to another site. Remove any item the same way, by selecting it in the menu editor and deleting it. Then save and publish the menu.
A menu item can also point to the wrong existing page rather than a deleted one, especially when two pages have similar names. For example, a submenu item labeled for certifications can be linked to a certification-applications page instead of the certifications page itself, which makes it look like the certifications page was removed. Review exactly which page the item is linked to before assuming the page itself is the problem.
Some navigation depends on pointing to one specific page rather than any related page:
- A menu item for member directory access needs to point to the portal's built-in Membership Directory page, not an external address. An external address can cause some otherwise active members to be refused with a permissions error because it bypasses the directory's own security checks.
- Reviewer-facing navigation needs to point to the Reviews Overview page specifically for the review center to load.
- Abstract review access on an event microsite depends on the Review Center component being present in that microsite's design. If the review button or area does not work, check whether the component was included when the site was built.
Occasionally, a menu item's Page field appears blank or will not let you search for the current target in the Console, even though the item still works. Treat this as a display issue rather than proof the link is broken, and contact Support if it does not clear up on its own.
5. A Site's Navigation Menu Doesn't Match What You Expect
Sometimes the issue is not one broken link, but the whole navigation menu.
If the menu is missing entirely:
- Check whether the site is missing its linked stylesheet. Open Portals & Microsites › Site Settings for the site, go to the CSS & Javascript tab, and confirm
portal.cssis linked under Linked Files › Style Sheets. A missing link here can hide an event microsite's entire navigation. - Check that the page's design includes the menu component's required class, and that the menu component itself has a menu assigned. Both are required. A menu component with no menu assigned, or a page missing the class the navigation looks for, can keep the menu from appearing.
- If the menu is still missing after those checks, try reinstalling the site's welcome page and its other required or built-in pages. This has restored a menu that disappeared entirely.
- A menu that disappears only after sign-in on one site is more often a page or menu configuration issue on that site than a broader product issue. Check the page and menu setup before assuming something is broken more widely.
If unexpected links appear, remember that a portal-integrated event's home page can show standard navigation, such as registration-related links, by default. That can happen even when you are not using or have not enabled the related capability. Seeing the links does not mean the capability is active, so check the capability's own settings instead of relying on navigation alone.
6. A Countdown Timer Shows No Numbers
An event microsite's countdown timer component can publish with no numbers showing, even when it has a configured end date and time. This has been seen across every event page that uses the countdown timer, not just on one misconfigured page, so do not assume your setup is unique.
One known cause is that the timer's configured start date does not save from the page editor. If you reopen the page and the start date is missing or different from what you set, that is the likely reason the published timer looks empty.
If you change only the countdown date and nothing else on the page, the editor may not recognize that the page changed and may not show a way to save or publish your edit. Make another small change to the page so the save and publish options appear, then reopen the page and confirm the countdown date stayed in place.
7. Speaker, Session, and Schedule Links Do Nothing When Clicked
The Schedule of Events feature can load its schedule and speaker data correctly while the individual speaker or session links on that schedule do nothing when clicked.
Check. Confirm that the microsite routes for the destination speaker and session pages are configured correctly. This is the most common cause when the schedule appears but its links do not open anything. Hover over a speaker's name as well. If the address shows only a speaker ID with no path to the speaker detail page, the speaker directory component on that page is missing its own route configuration, and clicking the name sends visitors to the microsite home page instead.
Tip
Do not assume a missing or unlisted direct route always means a link will fail. In at least one tested case, the Schedule of Events feature still routed to the correct page even though no direct route value was shown for that scenario.
Fix. Correct the routes on the affected pages and components, using a working microsite's routes for comparison if you have one. If the Event Schedule component itself will not load on the agenda page, publish a PDF or a link with the schedule information as a temporary stand-in until it loads normally again. Remember that session handouts that normally link from the agenda may need a temporary posting location too.
8. Embedded Third-Party Content Doesn't Update After You Save
If you embed third-party HTML, such as a design created in another tool, in an event description, the editor can report a successful save while the portal keeps showing the old embedded content. This usually means the embed code is incomplete or placed incorrectly, not that the save failed.
Check. Reopen the HTML source and confirm the embed includes every element required by the provider's embed code. Also confirm that the embed code and its related link sit above the closing </body> tag.
Fix. Correct the embed markup and placement, then save again. Reload the published page to confirm the new embed appears.
9. A Directory Shows Missing or Incorrect Information
A few directory search result and listing issues come from the template rather than the records themselves.
- If a directory's results stop showing a date for records that should have one, check whether the results template still references an older year's date field or condition. A template left pointing at last year's fields will show no date for current records even when the correct date is populated, so update the template to the current year's fields.
- A merge field copied from one directory's template into another directory's template can render as blank, even when you paste it manually, if that field is not supported in the new context. Use the field picker for the template you are editing instead of copying tags across directories.
- If you remove a placeholder from a directory card, check the surrounding text and punctuation. A label such as a leading dash that was written around the placeholder can remain and needs to be removed from the layout separately.
10. Cloning a Microsite Can Leave Navigation Disconnected
Warning
Cloning a microsite can copy the navigation menu's structure and labels without carrying over the page each menu item links to. The menu looks complete, but items can point nowhere until you add the page link yourself. Adding the missing link has been enough to make the navigation bar populate correctly again.
After cloning, check every menu item's target, including items that look unchanged, before publishing the cloned site to visitors.
11. Republishing a Page Can Restore a Link That Stops Responding
Sometimes a page is published and correctly linked, but a specific link or action on it still does nothing even though the setup looks correct. In several cases, resaving the affected page, even with a small unrelated edit, and republishing it restored the expected behavior. This suggests the page's publish state, rather than its setup, was the underlying cause, though this will not resolve every case.
This has worked for:
- a microsite's Welcome & Landing Page, when the whole site stopped loading properly;
- a Speaker List page or View Speaker page, when clicking a speaker did nothing;
- a View Session page, when agenda items on an event schedule stopped opening their detail pages;
- a registration page, a group registration page, or the My Registration page, when the related action or link stopped responding;
- a session-detail page, when its link redirected to the microsite homepage instead of the session;
- any microsite page whose links stop working after you clone an event — open the affected pages through the full menu path and resave and republish them.
If republishing the specific page does not help, try republishing other pages with the same symptom before you contact Support.
12. Rule Out Your Browser Before Escalating
A few page display problems are local to a visitor's browser rather than the page itself.
- After you publish changes, a browser that cached the old page can keep showing an error that is already fixed. Clear the browser cache, or try a private browsing window, before assuming the problem is still live.
- If one person reports that an image, such as an event thumbnail, is missing while other visitors can still see it, the image may still be on the page. Ask the person to check from a different browser or computer before treating it as a missing-asset problem.
- If a page stops saving right after you paste content such as an HTML table, clearing the browser's cache and restarting the browser has resolved the save error for some users, even when nothing else about the page changed.
Tip
Before contacting Support, check whether you can make the change yourself. For example, you can add a call-to-action button, such as "Register Now," to a microsite's header by editing the home page from Manage Pages. You do not need Support or a code change for simple additions like this.
5. A Menu Is Missing on the First Page but Appears After You Navigate Once
If a menu does not show up when a visitor first lands on the site but appears correctly after they move to another page, the issue usually comes from one of two causes.
Check. First, check whether a security policy attached to the menu or its items was deleted. Second, open the page's menu component and confirm it has a menu assigned. A menu component with no menu ID set can fail to resolve the menu on the first load, even though navigating elsewhere lets it pick up the site's default menu instead.
Fix. Recreate or reattach the missing security policy, or assign the correct menu to the page's menu component. Then save and publish.
6. A Site's Navigation Doesn't Open the Expected Pages, and Some of Them Use a Console Only Policy
If several menu items across a site do not open the pages they should, and some affected pages use a Console Only security policy, the policy itself may not be the problem. Resaving those pages is still worth trying.
Check. Identify which affected pages use a Console Only security policy.
Fix. Open each of those pages and resave them, even if you do not change anything else. This has corrected cases where menu items were not navigating to the expected pages.
5. The Page Will Not Save Because It Is Too Large
A portal page has a hard maximum size, and saving can fail with a file-size or 413 error once that limit is reached. The limit applies to the page's total saved content, including its design, text, and embedded data together, not only the image or block you just added. Adding a small image to a page that is already close to the limit can still push it over, so a file-size error does not always mean the new item itself is too large.
Check. If a save fails with a file-size or 413 error right after you add an image or other content, consider the page's overall size, not just the size of the item you added.
Fix. Remove or compress existing images and content on the page to bring its total size back under the limit, then try saving again. If the page will not save at any reasonable size, contact Support.
6. A Specific Page Misbehaves After It Was Cloned or Resaved
Occasionally, one page stops behaving correctly even though the rest of the site still works. For example, a save may fail only on one page, or title or view links on one page may stop working and show only a silent error in the browser's developer tools instead of a visible message. This has sometimes affected pages that were downloaded, resaved, or associated with an event cloned from another event.
Check. Confirm that the problem is limited to one page rather than the whole site. Also note whether that page was recently cloned, resaved, or downloaded and re-uploaded.
Fix. Deleting the affected page and reinstalling or recreating it has resolved this for some pages. Republish the page afterward and confirm the save or broken links now work as expected. If the problem continues, contact Support.
When to Contact Support
Contact Support if the page's route and identifier both look correct and unique, the site map has been rebuilt, and the page still does not appear on your site. Include the site name, the page identifier and route, and whether opening the page address directly succeeds or fails.
Related
See Create a Page and Edit Its Settings, Create and Edit a Menu, Publish, Revert, and Check the Status of a Page, and Rebuild a Site Map, listed under this application's other articles.
Deleting a page does not remove menu items that point to it. If a menu item used to open a page you deleted, the item stays in the menu and now leads nowhere useful.
Check. Review your site's menus for items that point to pages you deleted recently.
Fix. Open the menu in Portals & Microsites › Menus, find the item, and either point it to a different page or remove it. Then save and publish the menu.
When to Contact Support
Contact Support if a page's route and identifier both look correct and unique, the site map has been rebuilt, and the page still does not appear on your site. Include the site's name, the page's identifier and route, and whether opening the page's address directly succeeds or fails.
Related
See Create a Page and Edit Its Settings, Create and Edit a Menu, Publish, Revert, and Check the Status of a Page, and Rebuild a Site Map, listed under this application's other articles.