Printable View
Well, currently working on a large website, please see stats below. I have 8G of Ram. I was wondering
how big (Memory used: 381 MBytes) can my site get before I have to start worrying about running out of memory?
Xara with the file open, without chrome hogging memory leaves me 5G or so.Attachment 125788
RAM isn't about how much data is in the project, it's about how that data is used. In your example very little RAM is needed because all you're asking it to do is display a picture (the stats). Buuut, if you select ALL your objects and as Xara to move them 5 pixels to the left, your RAM would scream OMG and possibly struggle.
Here's an analogy that I often use to describe what RAM actually does. Bear in mind the guy works for a memory manufacturer when he states increasing RAM is the best upgrade you can give your computer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye6W6mMSPl0
I find that video pretty naff Chris ;) but I do agree with him. Memory is the best upgrade.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Egg Bramhill
It is naff, and the explanation is very basic, but it does a decent job of explaining where RAM sits in the order of things.
If you think RAM is still the best option for upgrading you need to have a look at muti-core/multi-threading CPUs and NVMe SSDs. Nothing is a 'single' best upgrade.
Absolutely.Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris M
Generally I would fit an SSD to an older computer before upgrading RAM or looking for a better CPU.
How big can a Xara site can be? when you have an 8GB machine is a bit like asking How fast can a car go? when you have a Trabant. 8GB is a reasonable amount of RAM for most people.
The real question is "How big a site can I expect to manage with my machine spec?", "What could I do to my machine to improve on that?", etc.
Flip the question around: I want to make a Xara website, I expect it to have X pages and Y images, what kind of machine will I need to achieve this?
More RAM and split into sub-sites.
Acorn
I'm new to Xara and this forum, but I seen you talk about sub-sites and would like to ask you about them, please.Quote:
Originally Posted by Acorn
I have a large website constructed using WebPlus (http://www.prestonherts.co.uk/). The program is outmoded and Windows has moved on so I decided to change the program using Xara. I have copied and pasted 200+ pages from the website into Xara (took weeks!) and only now am I adding them to one website (I created them as stand alone pages - my mistake!) and creating links. Pretty soon I realized that everything takes an ages to do (previewing the page etc) and the reason had to do with the size of the website (and I had only loaded 30 pages then). I then looked on here for the first time and discovered that creating large sites is an issue for Xara. There was no warning about this when I was researching what program to buy and as I had no problems with WebPlus, I assumed Xara could also cope.
I would be grateful if you could explain how to create sub-sites and link them, please and any other suggestions you would make. I believe you've referred a user to Gary's (?) comments, but these seem to be lost and the internet archive machine while accessing them is unwieldy to use.
Sub sites are like http://www.prestonherts.co.uk/test/ where you create a sub folder on your host then lets say your page is http://www.prestonherts.co.uk/test/index.htm that is what you would link to if you go to my website https://www.flea-usa.com/ and click on any of the states you will see it in action.
GJ
Many thanks for that GJ.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gypsyjoe
So I'm seeing five sub-sites which in turn have sub.sub-sites (like Alabama has 9 pages). I notice that the most pages in a sub site is eleven. In your view is that the optimum size - or could there be more?
And how do you create links (which I know is a dumb question)
I have to say I went to bed frustrated but reading this has recharged my batteries!
200 page could be manageable. It depends on the content. If you use lots of images then they need to be Optimised for the web (Utilities > Optimise all images).Quote:
Originally Posted by ewraysure
The next thing to look at is the site's flow. Does the content have natural clumps? If so you can crate separate design pages for each clump; these will become a separate site, be quicker to edit and upload and form sub-sites.
If you have not been naming the pages, each filename will start as index and progress index-a, index-b, etc. This leads to lots of issues so with sub-sites, I only keep one overall page named as index.
These sub-sites need to be held together with some form of hyperlink that covers the pages. To that end a NavBar is effective but you need to understand relative addressing to be effective.
A sub-site design can be published to its own sub-folder (where each could have its own index page) or into the one area (where each page must have a unique filename).
You need to pencil out your approach. Your relative URL links will be either <filename>.htm or <sub-folder>/<filename>.htm.
Hope that gets you started.
Acorn
Thank you as always Acorn.
OK. Here's the tutorial I did some time ago. It is pretty much what Acorn suggested but it is laid out as a tutorial with visuals http://archive.xaraxone.com/webxealo...kbook%201.html
^^^^^^^^^^Quote:
Originally Posted by behzad
This!!!
Brilliant!Quote:
Originally Posted by gwpriester
Thanks
Approximately how many pages would you assign to a sub-site?
In GJs great example earlier it seems to be between 9 and 11.
More pages than that I should think. Whatever is appropriate for each section. But this does break the site down and makes it more manageable.
In my example there are 10 flea markets to a page. So it depended on the state, Hawaii only has 1 page whereas Texas has 21 pages hence approximately 210 flea markets. Each state has its own subsite if that makes any sense.Quote:
Originally Posted by ewraysure
I've got a lot to learn here.
My experience was that having a site with 30 pages slowed everything down - but I'm thinking what I constructed was unrefined.
There's obviously far more to Xara than I got from the official 'Help' section of the program - and looking at the forum has opened my eyes to my ignorance.
Yesterday I went to bed frustrated and fed up. Now, thanks to you guys generosity and help, I feel back on an even keel and able to forge ahead.
The whole WebPlus experience when Serif pulled the plug was a bummer. I won't be around fairly soon and I just want to leave a local history website and my family history story on the internet as a sort of memorial that my kids could keep ticking over. I hope Xara is the way to go and that it will continue to be supported and compatible with whatever drives the web in the future.
ewraysure, I'm sure you'll be around for a long time. Long enough to see your efforts in a Xara approach will be worth it.Quote:
Originally Posted by ewraysure
Keep plugging and come back with questions.
You need to consider if your material is more a book that is read from beginning to end or one that has specific chapters, which can be looked at in isolation.
The former could be a Supersite, effectively one long page, a bit like a scrolling PDF. Its advantage would be in searching the whole thing at once. It still allows you to jump to headings and you can create Table of Contents.
It is what I would aim for if I was researching a history.
Acorn
Thanks for your kind thoughts!Quote:
Originally Posted by Acorn
My understanding of what a Supersite is, is wrong from what you say.
My website is a series of articles on specific subjects. And what you said about a Search facility is one of the questions I have about sub-sites. A Table of Contents is like a Site Map?
A Table of Contents (TOC) is a automatic list creator using Headings 1-9.
I think, sadly, in your case, it is only part of Xara Designer Pro X.
Alas, Xara doesn't automatically do Sitemaps either in the sense you are thinking (Like Gary's diagram).
You can use something like a web search tool (I use DuckDuckGo Search Box (https://duckduckgo.com/search_box)), which will find everything across all web pages, Conventional or Supersite.
A Supersite, in Xara's words is:
There is nothing to stop you setting up a clutch of buttons for each article/subject in a graphical layout and have that as a Home page with a simple Home link on every other page.Quote:
the whole site in a single HTML file) which lets you present your website with animated transitions between pages, or as a vertical or horizontal arrangement of pages, which users can swipe through on mobiles and tablets.
Each Subject could have a simple NavBar to related Aticles.
Acorn
More thanks, Acorn!Quote:
Originally Posted by Acorn
Thinking about it, my thought processes have been blinkered by thirteen years of using WebPlus and I've found it difficult to get to grips with the workings of other programs like WordPress and Xara. And again, it's probably me, but I've got several Magix programs and find it hard to understand their instruction manuals. Are they translated from German - 'cos they feel like they are written in an alien language to me (although I understand Xara was not originally a Magix product). One example is that I'd like to know more about Xara's web hosting, but I can discover nothing about it on the Magix/Xara websites (should have looked on this forum) - probably me being thick.
I don't want all the "we've got templates of web sites that you can adapt to your needs" stuff. I get that this makes designing a website easy and quick for the amateur, but I want to create my own site from scratch (and it probably shows). I think of WebPlus and Xara as DTP programs for websites - it's the way each connects the pages which I've found difficult to reconcile.
But I'll get there in the end.
What I find frustrating is that the Xara blurb says "Web Designer is unlike any website creation tool you've seen before.....There is no easier solution". "Unlike" - it's certainly that! "Easier solution"? Don't think so.
And now I read that several reviews say it's liable to crash/freeze at any moment. Well, that's just great! A program with bugs.
And you guys seem to have a gift/knack for working round problems by experimentation, and come up with solutions which ain't covered in the instructional manual - something that's way beyond this mortal.
I salute you!
Is there any mileage re: large websites in creating a Home Page and Site Map in WebPlus and then linking to individual pages created using Xara as separate websites. I've done this for a few articles already and it works well, using the Xara free one-year web-hosting facility.
Until I can see your content, it is hard to offer specific advice. I would stick with one program.
The power of a Xara design is its portability across platforms and media. One day it is on the web. The next I offer a USB version or run a presentation form my laptop.
Magix does not own Xara, it markets it for Xara Group Ltd. Xara has a German director and each bills the other.
Xara is still UK-based with 17 staff at its lowest and then Xara Cloud came along and allegedly 40 staff into Xara GmbH.
You need Venn Diagram skills to understand who is doing what.
All programs are buggy. The "fight" over how Xara handles these with its "fall back" approach rolls on.
If you are new to the program, and are using v16.3, then it is relatively clear and well up for the work you are aiming for.
If you bought in less that a year ago, you are entitled to a free upgrade to at least v17.0. Did you know?
acorm
Thanks for clarification about Xara - I had picked up that it wasn't developed by Magix, just added to their portfolio.Quote:
Originally Posted by Acorn
Sadly, I bought the program X16 more than a year ago (only now getting to grips with it) - but thanks for the alert.
Probably a stupid question: if I export a Xara page to a Web folder and then link to it (don't even know if you can do this), will the page still display differently when viewed on phones/tablets etc.
I think you can use Web Designer and Designer Pro X interchangeably. You can open both .web and .xar files in each program.
A website created in one product, should work fine in the other product. The exception is some features are not present in both applications. So while a feature might not be supported in Web Designer by a site created in Designer Pro X, the feature should still publish OK.
If I am totally off the deep end here, Acorn will set me straight.
Gary, all you say is correct. The OP was asking about mixing WebPlus and XWDP.Quote:
Originally Posted by gwpriester
Acorn
I have actually done this with around six links to XWDP.
Perhaps check out http://www.prestonherts.co.uk/page90aa.html#whatsnew1 and click on the 10 August 2019 update.
There are no stupid questions...Quote:
Originally Posted by ewraysure
I shall assume a Web Folder is simply one that is accessed through an Internet Protocol: http:// or https://.
Regardless of where and how you access your Xara web pages, say, index.htm, that page will render exactly as designed. It is a WYSIWYG approach and will have the same presentation (subject to the browser's capabilities).
To make a phone view more readable, Xara has Variants where you can reowrk a page's contents to be simpler and larger and fit betten onto the screen.
I think I would appraoch your needs as a set of Supersite subject/articles with a single scaling Variant.
I would have a top landing page that itself is Variant-based to jump into each subject area.
Acorn
More great advice. Many thanks.Quote:
Originally Posted by Acorn
Another question, please.
What reasons are there for not creating a sitemap (either in Xara or WebPlus, say) and linking each page (all 200+) individually to the Site Map? I understand that you couldn't apply one feature (say, buttons) across every page with one click - but if you had say 15 sub-sites, presumably you would have to upload a common feature 15 times anyway.
You see this is where I'm at. I have created 200+ pages using Xara. They began as a common template which I designed and then I loaded photos and texts. I now want to pull it all together. The sub-sites plan is good. And the Variant idea is something I must look at.I'm also wondering whether I can link each created page to a Site Map - or even download each page to my computer and create links to my computer as you would do to upload pdf files. Why shouldn't I do this, I wonder?
I'd be really grateful for your thoughts on this, please, as I'm about 95% of the way to uploading this monster of a website.
Mainly one of tedium as it would all be manual.Quote:
Originally Posted by ewraysure
You could create a 15-button NavBar and have all 200 pages hang off the top menu buttons. This could be added to each and every page. Each page still needs to have a relative URL so under Places > Exeter, you might have a page "The West Country Years" (filename: thewestcountryyears; sub-folder: exeter), your page link would have to be entered as exeter/thewestcountryyears.htm. Change this once means you have to update all 15 sub-sites to keep the NavBars in synch.
My suggestion would be to have your 15 Subjects in a top level index page. Each of the Subject sub-sites would have their own NavBar (without the need for relative addressing). Each page would have a 16-button (Home+15 Subjects) row of buttons that only need creating the once.
Easier to manage.
Acorn
#Acorn
I'm really grateful for your time and great advice.
Many thanks!
E
Don't know if this helps you?
LINK
Hi,
New user here assessing Web Designer as a tool to update (reproduce) a large website. I came to the conclusion a few nights ago that I should go down the sub-site route as a means of easing site maintenance so I found this thread very interesting.
At this stage, my problem is that when applying hypertext links I am unable to get relative addressing to work and have to resort to using absolute paths when linking to a sub-directory. Although at the design stage this just an inconvenience it will become a major headache when publishing between my test/development sites to the live site.
Am I missing a configuration setting to enable relative addressing?
Thanks in advance.... mike
Mike, a good question.Quote:
Originally Posted by Weeble
I use .XAR files to split my sites but I publish them all in the same level. You name the first with its logical name, just not index. Your XDA will complain but it is legit. Just name all pages differently and you will be fine.
The relative addressing is then the filename, e.g., contacts.htm.
If you choose to have different sub folders too, the avoid index is not an issue.
The relative link then becomes contacts/index.htm.
Acorn
Hi Mike and welcome to TG. I'm glad you found my tutorial helpful. If I understand you correctly you're saying that the need to use absolute paths as opposed to relative paths.
Acorn's suggestion is very valid. The only reason I've used absolute paths initially is I find it easier to check as you test the site.
One solution would be to create a menu only page/site which is present on all subsites via a placeholder. Splitting a site over several subdirectories can be bothersome to the main site navigation, requiring menus requiring to be amended on all the sub sites.
However if each subsite loads a single menu.htm file via a placholder from a root menu.htm page, this erradicates the need to amend the menu on every sub-directory.
Hi, and thanks for the quick replies.
Let me emphasis I'm still in my first few days of assessing Web Designer, so many of my questions will appear basic. I come from a Dreamweaver environment, which is very different, but haven't done any web development for a few years.
Don't ask me how it came about but, looking at it, it appears that the site I'm updating effectively has 2 'sub-site' levels with each one able to effectively operate as a standalone site for testing. This was obviously manageable in DW but probably not good practice and needs flattening.
e.g.
[Top Level Site]
|
[PHOTOS]
|
[PHOTOS A] - [PHOTOS B]
Currently relative links used between PHOTOS - PHOTOS A - PHOTOS B so the photos element of the site can be tested as a fully functional site (PHOTOS/index.htm).
As Web Designer appears to not like relative paths to sub-sites it looks like I'll either have to flatten the site or update all the links to absolute paths
Acorn: I haven't looked far into .XAR files yet as I'm still getting to grip with the basics. So I'll go away and research it and get back to you for clarity later. But if you're saying what I think you're saying then it sounds like a good solution.
Egg Bramhill: Three sub-sites have 80 to 150+ pages which currently benefit from a sub-site navigation menu with the Home button linking back to the root/index page, and at a push I think I can still get away with this. But using a main menu page as you suggest might be a more elegant solution and something to consider.
More newbie questions to follow.
Thanks again.... mike
Hi Acorn,
I came across the topic "COMBINING OR SPLITTING YOUR WEBSITE PROJECT FILES" in the Xara Desktop Help Centre (looks like it was written by you :thanks) which describes exactly the method you suggest above.
First tests with this on a couple simple files work without problems so I'll probably go down this route after I've flattened the current directory structure a bit and investigated further.
Thanks again for your help.
Cheers.... mike
As new members can't supply links, here's the link to the TG thread Mike is talking about (I think).
LINK