So let me get this straight. If I do not have access to xara hosting/web space then my slider widget will stop working?
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So let me get this straight. If I do not have access to xara hosting/web space then my slider widget will stop working?
Attachment 123168
Not sure. There is one way to find out. :)
Well Mine still has not expired, but if that is the case, that would be very bad. Horrible and upsetting. For now I am okay. Someone from Xara @Rob can answer this?
Let me give Rob a heads up. Check back tomorrow.
Thanks
Kate Moir assured us a time back that access for existing sliders would persist.
What this means is you can Edit into an existing slideshow. I know you cannot activate a new slider from the Online Content Catalogue when the Update Service has expired..
What I don't know is once into the widget whether you can create a new one and save that off.
I will try a number of access mechanisms I can think of later today, possibly.
Xara has still not restored the v12 widget that was pulled. This puts the Xara Slideshow Widget under permanent Update Service tutelage.
I have always had concerns about the EULA statement and the Xara abstracting your photos into its Cloud space.
I much prefer building my own. I just build a client's site using a XaraTemplate design, XT109, that has a very powerful approach where all the images are in the design file and hosted in your space.
Acorn
I think it reverts to the free account (500mb) which should still give you access to the slider.
If your update service expires then I don't think you'll be able to insert one (but you could just copy the slider from another project file, open and then change it).
I have copied an old Slider to a new file in v12 and logged into the Xara server with my original registered email and password.
I was able to create a new Slider and save it.
I have even created an new one in XDPX v16 and opened and edited the XAR file, and Widget, in XWDP v12.
All of this begs the question, why is Xara not making the Xara Slideshow Widget fully accessible to all?
It is barking that we have to advise customers of a Xara product where the functionality will be lost if you don't use and save it that once into a file.
I have tracked down the XWR file in my v16 local Cache and dragged the file into an open XWDP v11 page and this works; a file that is 783 bytes small.
What I don't know is whether you need to create access before the Update Service expires.
Perhaps someone could check by visiting http://widgets.xara-online.com/slider/index.php?
Acorn
Because that content directly costs money to maintain, but Magix haven't gone as far as completely removing access to existing widgets if your update service or hosting expires. I wouldn't give them any ideas.Quote:
Originally Posted by Acorn
Like Acorn said, why not make it with no strings attached? Leave all the pictures accessible local without taking them into hostage on the cloud and stop all this login and password crap. This only creates problems for developers and for files that are passed on to the client later down the road. Seriously some of the planning that goes in the background of these tools are coming from where? Who makes these stupid decisions and based on what. Why just the Slider widget and not the other ones? I just don't get it.
The slider originally came from Task Pilot before the whole service was renamed to Xara Online. Basically from Magix. It's essentially re-using assets than investing development time to make a native slider.
I host content in Amazon's S9 for pennies. My service provider offers unlimited content storage (and websites) for yearly pounds. Storage is a commodity.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob-Xar
;)) Perhaps we're funding the electricity bill for Magix's Bitcoin mining? ;))
Acorn
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ maybe you could offer Magix to host their databases on your unlimited storage ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Acorn
More than happy to consider discussing how Magix could provide proper web hosting anytime. I do have prior business acumen.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob-Xar
Acorn
Go for it! You should be able to reach the Xara Online team at (removed by gwpriester)Quote:
Originally Posted by Acorn
Rob, I have just done so. Thank you for the email address. I also included Magix's UK Head Office and yourself.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob-Xar
Email content:
AcornQuote:
My TalkGraphics (your Xara Online Forum) handle is Acorn and I believe Robert's is Rob-Xar.
I have been having a long harangue on TalkGraphics with Matt Bolton, Kate Moir (and Robert) about my concerns in the decision to hide away the Xara Online Content Catalogue material behind a paywall.
Such a decision seems to fall upon Magix as a marketing approach but it is clear over a number of version releases that unsuspecting customers do not realise this material is time-limited and is a case of a poorly advised 'use it or lose it' policy before the Update Service expires. As a long-term use of Xara's excellent products, this is a major disservice where access to content that has application functionality built-in is blocked. If you have the time to examine http://downloadsv16.xara.com/web/catalog/index.html, those items listed as Buy are no longer accessible unless they have been previously downloaded to the Local Designs gallery.
If you then examine those remaining, under First Look > Free Example Components, and ignore all the Website, Social Media and Presentation templates, then, even if you are not a user of the Xara Desktop application, you will get an understanding of the almost total cull of the functionality of the application.
Robert suggested that Magix handling the "content directly costs money to maintain". In my reply, I posited that the cost was trivial and could be very cheap using Amazon Web Services (e.g., its Simple Storage Service (S3)); I had also suggested my web service provider offered me unlimited storage.
I would be more than happy for the Website, Social Media and Presentation templates to continue to be behind a paywall as I find we have better, richer, persistent and cheaper access elsewhere. Do note that these templates storage is only 3GB.
I propose that the trivial 95MB storage for Components should be fully accessible after the Update Service expires. This can be either through the current Online Content Catalogue or hosted elsewhere. My preference is that the Components are downloaded into the local Cache as a specific function of the Xara Desktop application as this ensures the content reaches those people who purchased its access in the first place.
Respectfully
Acorn - Since you now have this email address I am going to delete it from this thread.
It will be interesting to hear the response.
Yes t will.Quote:
Originally Posted by gwpriester
The email is "available" through Magix if you know where to look. Even with it, I took scouring many pages to find it to understand to whom or what I was pinging.
Acorn
Can you share your findings?Quote:
Originally Posted by Acorn
The email can be found if you can get to About Magix.Quote:
Originally Posted by Boy
The trick is form Home of https://www.magix.com/gb/ scroll to page bottom. Under ABOUT MAGIX (no link) click Company Info and finally Locations. Magix navigation is a genuine nightmare.
I tried both Germany and UK and got a nice reply about passed on internally from Germany.
Acorn
Thanks for the links but there is something missing in your reply: "nice reply about [?] passed on internally from Germany".Quote:
Originally Posted by Acorn
I should have quoted "passed on internally" and about could have been better replaced by 'around'.Quote:
Originally Posted by Boy
In translation, a holding reply, but nicely written.
Acorn
Anyhow, you managed to establish contact with yet other staff members at Xara/Magix. Perhaps your suggestions for fixes and improvements will be better listened to.
I left Serif's Webplus X* because they have withdrawn the product and parts of my web site no longer worked. I do hope Xara doesn't go in that direction.
Xara doesn't have any plans to drop the desktop versions or services currently.
Rob, you're saying 'Xara doesn't have any plans to drop the desktop versions or services currently' and not 'Currently Xara doesn't have any plans to drop the desktop versions or services'.
To me that confirms the general impression here at TG that Xara has decided to drop the desktop apps, albeit not in the immediate future.
I'm not sure how swapping my words around changes anything. If you would like an elaboration on what I said or to rephrase it clearer - Xara doesn't have any plans to drop the desktop versions or services currently, in the near or distant future. There are no plans, none at all.
I want to put a stop to any rumours or suggestions that Xara is stopping development of our desktop product. Our current focus is on the cloud but that uses the desktop engine to run it, meaning if we want to improve the cloud, we also need to develop and work on our desktop versions as we always have done, and there are no plans to move away from that either.
Rob, thank you for your explanation and it's good to hear that the desktop products are still important to Xara's business model.
Please understand that any doubts about that are not borne out of ill-will but, rather, are the result of the company's poor performance in the actual delivery of its expensive update service and the lack of clear, consistent communication about the company's direction. I and other TG members who raise this issue are not troublemakers but rather committed users who like their software and want it to be developed further. We also want to be taken seriously and know where we stand, as well as get our money's worth.
Wouldn't you, just as a customer, expect the same if you were a (dedicated, long-time) user of Xara products? Try to see it from the customer's perspective. It really makes sense.