Using XWD as a prototyper only

[himagain]

Hi people,
As a newby I keep finding good things to do in XWD and am impressed by its abilities as a prototyper, but unimpressed with what I've *understood* about its Site structure handling. I'm not alone, I see, it is a problem for serious users (us needing to make a buck) to have to upload a whole Site for every minor change. (Even worse if downunder where ADSL is tragic.)

So, not wanting to lose the good things of XWD, my solution is to maybe prototype in XWD (lotsa fun!) and insert the graphic pages into another program more suitable for nuts'n'bolts: Dreamweaver(ugh! Hard 2 use) or a new one just found: WYSIWYG (seems very capable, similar to XWD).

What would happen to the internal coding of XWD if multiple pages were inserted into the other program?
As I understand it, XWD tracks locations of everything specifically page-2-page.

My plan would be to have sections of a Site with opening pages (landing etc) in graphical Xara and following constantly changing pages in another easily editable/uploadable program like WYSIWYG.

As usual, I could be missing something simple here..... rush = panic = missing things.

Cheers,
HimAGAIN.

[slavelle]

One way you could help this issue oif having to upload the whole site is to save your site to a local box that has the ability to be accessed from the "outside" for the time during which you are still gathering requirements and whatnot so that your upload times become pretty much irrelevent.

Then, after you have "completed" the site, you upload the site to the live area where it will be hosted. If the client wants changes made, make your changes and get approvals again based on the non-hosted version and then post at an appropriate time to the official location.

Also, most changes that a client wants (after initial posting) tend to be either small in nature or text oriented. As I understand the changes that Xara makes to the site code, if you only edit areas that are being rendered as text, then the htm page is changed, but the graphics aren't.

For the temporary hosting, you can use a package like xampp (http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html) which is free and prety pain free way to install an apache and mysql server on your local machine. Just change the port to something like 8080 and poke a hole in your firewall (or router) to allow your client to see what the site/changes look like.

This also keeps the code in "your hands" rather than on their hosting location until you are finished so you don't wind up with partial sites being uploaded or worse yet, not getting paid for the work you've done because they "have the files" already.

I think if you are going to try to incorporate Xara pages into another application for publishing, you are just going to oopen up a can of worms as far as the difficulty and keeping track of what's where.

Does this help at all?

[zaphodeist]

Can't you just create the 'constantly changing' sections of the site in separate .web files and link to these from the landing page? That way, if you change stuff in section C you only upload from that .web and nothing from A, B, D, E, ..., etc.

[himagain]

As I understand the changes that Xara makes to the site code, if you only edit areas that are being rendered as text, then the htm page is changed, but the graphics aren't.

For the temporary hosting, you can use a package like xampp (http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html) which is free and prety pain free way to install an apache and mysql server on your local machine.

I think if you are going to try to incorporate Xara pages into another application for publishing, you are just going to oopen up a can of worms as far as the difficulty and keeping track of what's where.

Does this help at all?

Hi Slavelle,
It sure does help. The xampp alone is valuable.
An awful lot of design material is "borowed" at these early stages.

Re "losing" the image locations: That does seem logical if only HTML is altered, but I'm thinking of inserting additional pages - as in an expanding ongoing document.

Yes, keeping physical track is another whole can of worms.

Thanks,
Himagain

[himagain]

Can't you just create the 'constantly changing' sections of the site in separate .web files and link to these from the landing page? That way, if you change stuff in section C you only upload from that .web and nothing from A, B, D, E, ..., etc.

Hi Neodist,
AHHHH, this sounds like my original vague idea/hope! Not sure if I understand the implementation though - but we are then talking about separate "projects", are we not?
Then, e.g., where does the HOME button refer to from the different sections?

I guess my keypoint now is to standardise page displays (images basically) with changing content, e.g. an online Course, but with forms processes for Quiz functions and easily added new material as well.

Does begin to look like needing another program.......

Cheers!
Himagain

[zaphodeist]

Hi Himagain Not separate projects as such, just different XWD files. This is my suggestion - a view of what will be in your hosts public_html folder (or whatever they call it @ your ISP )

[remi]

Hi John,

I see one problem with your idea: With your definition of using the "Landing page" as "index file with the main menu and company info" this page is more a "homepage" or "front page" or "main web page", instead of a "landing page".

A "landing page" is more for specialised content for catching potential customers within a marketing campaign or for SEO purposes. One or more "landing pages" can be used to link to a "homepage" with company info and a main menu.

see Wikipedia article about "Landing page" vs. "Homepage"

Regards,
Remi

[zaphodeist]

Hi Remi

Point taken, thanks Home page is what I meant, I'll alter the post.

EDIT: Can't alter previous post so adding altered image here

[himagain]

Hi Remi

Point taken, thanks Home page is what I meant, I'll alter the post.

EDIT: Can't alter previous post so adding altered image here

Hi neodist,
THANK YOU for your post of a non-trivial effort answer!
Aside from the FTP problem solution, it is a great organising idea.

This forum is exceptionally helpful for newbies and very useful for me especially as following a mild stroke I now often experience sequential memory problems and can tend to "miss" the sometimes obvious.

HOWEVER

I've also just posted this "find" of mine here:
http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthre...d=1#post313382

Himagain

[zaphodeist]

...a non-trivial effort answer! ...

You're welcome ... I've a lot of time on my hands Glad your stroke was only mild, must be a challenge to focus. I have a few health problems that can play havoc with my concentration levels one way and another - Xara's Xtreme Pro 4 and WD helps to keep me sane[ish].

The program you linked to (thanks) might be good, though whether it can match XWD for speed and quality is another matter - yes, I'm biased I know! The built-in forms and log-in/password protection are a plus, but the program is in version 6, I suspect in the future XWD might well include something similar.