New version of Web Designer soon?

[arthart]

Sooner or later, Xara, Serif, WYSIWYG Builder, et al, are going to need to build responsive sites

Meanwhile, it would be helpful if they would at least render sensibly on a mobile phone. I've found an emulator that shows exactly how a typical site such as http://www.hannbuilt.com renders on various mobile devices such as my iPhone 4. You can find this emulator at http://www.mobilephoneemulator.com/ but unfortunately, it isn't even able to render any Xara websites such as my test site http://www.websitesbyideal.com/demo/....com/index.htm.

[pauland]

Well, on my real iPhone4 your website (http://www.websitesbyideal.com/demo/....com/index.htm) renders fine. If your complaint is based on the result of using some emulator, I'd take it up with the emulator's developers.

It is utterly ridiculous to criticise Xara because an emulator doesn't work.

[ I can confirm that your URL works on Apple's iPhone/iPad emulator ]

[jamesd]

Well, on my real iPhone4 your website (http://www.websitesbyideal.com/demo/....com/index.htm) renders fine. If your complaint is based on the result of using some emulator, I'd take it up with the emulator's developers.

It is utterly ridiculous to criticise Xara because an emulator doesn't work.

[ I can confirm that your URL works on Apple's iPhone/iPad emulator ]

It also renders fine on Samsung Galaxy S2 :-)

[arthart]

[ I can confirm that your URL works on Apple's iPhone/iPad emulator ]

It "works" by only showing the top left portion of the page and effectively ignoring the viewport meta tag that Xara generates, namely,
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"/>

Even on my real iPhone, this is the way all my Xara generated websites are rendered. However, my clients expect to have the entire page shown so they don't always have to pinch the display to see the entire page.

For a non-Xara generated website,such as www.hannbuilt.com, my real iPhone does render it the way my clients expect with the entire page showing. By the way, even the iPhone/iPad emulator doesn't replicate this behavior.

What I most need to find out is how to fix things so that iPhones and other mobile devices pay attention to the viewport meta tag that Xara has put into the header.

Any help or insights into this situation will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Art

[SignPig]

@Pauland. You do have some good points, and they will be relevant to some websites, but not everyone wants two versions of a website, especially where one is without details that are on the other. I agree, the mobile phone version would work best if it can be browsed by a single thumb, but that doesn't mean that a responsive site wouldn't, in fact the opposite. It is all down to planning, and good sites tend to benefit from good planning. Personally, I find it quicker to plan and implement a responsive site that scales and flows to suit a mobile than to design and layout two different versions, especially when it comes to site updates.

[pauland]

From a forum:

"initial-scale" is for overriding the default behaviour of some devices to zoom in or out on your website so that the website width (which you specified above) matches the screen width. setting this to 1 basically says "don't zoom for this, use scroll bars if my website is too wide for the screen, and leave blank space at the sides if it's too narrow". if you do want your website to fill the screen width exactly, don't use initial-scale.

However, my clients expect to have the entire page shown

Fair enough.The hannbuilt site and your site (when scaled down) make very poor mobile sites. They are close to unusable when scaled on an iPhone.

Your client may wish to see his site looking the best on the phone, but that's not the same as full-screen on a small phone.

If you are going to say the site is mobile friendly in any way, you need a redesign specifically for the small form factor.

That's the insight you need.

[pauland]

Signpin.

Personally, I find it quicker to plan and implement a responsive site that scales and flows to suit a mobile than to design and layout two different versions, especially when it comes to site updates.

That may be convenient for you, but it's not the recommended approach for mobile development. Responsive design doesn't mean we should present the same site content regardless of form factor.

Compare the experience of www.bbc.co.uk on a desktop versus a mobile.

[Cloud]

I am not really a believer in creating two separate sites. If your site is well designed and the content is not waffle then your site will work just as well on a desktop as it will on a mobile device. There is no reason that sites really have to be responsive if you follow good design principles. But I have to say that of all the mobile sites I have seen the bbc one is the best, but it is not a responsive site, they are using two different sites, just go to the bbc site on a desktop, resize it and you'll see that it is not a responsive site in the sense that it changes according to the browser window size.

[pauland]

My point was that the BBC site adapts to the smaller mobile format and doesn't attempt to have one-size-fits-all. The BBC site adapts the presentation and content to suit the mobile format.

I've banged this drum enough, I think.

[KoolPHPSuite]

I would like to see a few more features if a new version is put out. Don't get me wrong xara is a solid software especially if you want to get a good looking website put togther quickly. I am looking foward to see what is added.