What Xara Design Pro 11 is lacking - suggestions for next version

I really like Xara Web Designer and Xara Designer Pro 11, both of which I purchased.

While Xara's design tools are about as good as it gets and the responsive ability of Xara puts it way ahead of the pack, there are a few areas where it just falls flat. The included form tools are a joke - I will NEVER use a form service for my clients or myself. I believe in creating my own forms and having total control over the data and where it goes. ALL of my current web design tools have this EXCEPT for Xara, yet all the others are missing the key features that make Xara my go-to tool for website design.

I think the largest lacking area in Xara for web design is forms. The options they offer are unusable for my clients. Having proper form creation tools would be the next biggest area for an upgrade as far as i'm concerned. I know I could do it programmatically, but that would be a pain! Right now, I am using another web design software that excels at form design to create the form and upload it, then grab that in Xara. Xara Designer Pro 11 is great for just about everything else (well, it could use Database tools like MySQL inclusion, but that's a whole other thing).

Would pre-made form templates that work in Xara without having to import a already made web page be possible? It would be far better to be able to have form controls for all kinds of custom forms, tbh, but any kind of form would be welcome.

Obviously, without proper form tools like buttons, text boxes, radio and check boxes, text area and other form controls, Xara cannot be used for this. Xara is also missing any jquery control integration, like a data grid, slider bars, etc.

This is what Xara needs next to be considered a serious web design tool. It does everything else well.

Mike

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Originally Posted by karmacomposer

I really like Xara Web Designer and Xara Designer Pro 11, both of which I purchased.

While Xara's design tools are about as good as it gets and the responsive ability of Xara puts it way ahead of the pack, there are a few areas where it just falls flat. The included form tools are a joke - I will NEVER use a form service for my clients or myself. I believe in creating my own forms and having total control over the data and where it goes. ALL of my current web design tools have this EXCEPT for Xara, yet all the others are missing the key features that make Xara my go-to tool for website design.

I think the largest lacking area in Xara for web design is forms. The options they offer are unusable for my clients. Having proper form creation tools would be the next biggest area for an upgrade as far as i'm concerned. I know I could do it programmatically, but that would be a pain! Right now, I am using another web design software that excels at form design to create the form and upload it, then grab that in Xara. Xara Designer Pro 11 is great for just about everything else (well, it could use Database tools like MySQL inclusion, but that's a whole other thing).

Would pre-made form templates that work in Xara without having to import a already made web page be possible? It would be far better to be able to have form controls for all kinds of custom forms, tbh, but any kind of form would be welcome.

Obviously, without proper form tools like buttons, text boxes, radio and check boxes, text area and other form controls, Xara cannot be used for this. Xara is also missing any jquery control integration, like a data grid, slider bars, etc.

This is what Xara needs next to be considered a serious web design tool. It does everything else well.

Mike

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Yeah I agree it needs some form functionality, even if it can't process the forms it needs to be able to create basic elements.

Hi,

Forms is something we can look into however integrating something like that into Xara isn't as easy as it sounds. It would also require a back end mail server.

Database facilities is something I would like to see without Xara slowing turning into MS access of course.

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Originally Posted by Rob-Xar

Hi,

Forms is something we can look into however integrating something like that into Xara isn't as easy as it sounds. It would also require a back end mail server.

Database facilities is something I would like to see without Xara slowing turning into MS access of course.

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So not true. It is SUPER EASY to write a simple php script to serve the form. There is no real reason to have a back-end mail server unless it is for those who use your upload service. I don't. All of my clients are on their own servers and they all have webmail, so I can easily put their mail servers in the php script. Plus, in most cases we may not want to email the form, but send the data to a database on a server. All of this can be done programmatically.

Where form design becomes important is for the look and feel of the page itself - where Xara excels - is the DESIGN of it all. I want my form to be gorgeous AND functional. I can code the functional, but if I coded the entire thing and added it as a HTML code snippet, it would look ugly. Functional, but ugly.

I use Xara precisely because I can DESIGN the site like I would design a printed piece, but then upload the site when done.

Let's include forms in those design features to round-out Xara.

Mike

Please feel free to send us your code if it's that super easy.

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Originally Posted by Rob-Xar

Please feel free to send us your code if it's that super easy.

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come on getting your customers to send in the code, especially when it's super easy, slacker ;-)

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Originally Posted by Rob-Xar

Please feel free to send us your code if it's that super easy.

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I have a web creation program produced by a one man band - it includes basic web form support. It generates a mail handling PHP file and works fine.

I could send you an example of the PHP it creates, but that would be unfair to the developer. Looking at the generated code, it is super-easy.

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Originally Posted by pauland

I have a web creation program produced by a one man band - it includes basic web form support. It generates a mail handling PHP file and works fine.

I could send you an example of the PHP it creates, but that would be unfair to the developer. Looking at the generated code, it is super-easy.

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Pauland gets it :)

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Originally Posted by Rob-Xar

Pauland gets it :)

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He does?

Yes, the fact seeing the generated code is easy but the code that makes the code is the hard part...