Review of Online Content Catalogue - Other Components
Dear Xara...
I have made numerous observations about the state of your offerings around the Online Content Catalogue (OCC).
Could we therefore have your specific response to the following items in OCC > Components > Print & Web Components > Other Components:
- adsense1.xwr,Google AdSense Widget 1: no observation as I have no AdSense account; it appears to work.
You should not be tracking our access to such Widgets. It relies on an IE instance. - adsense3.xwr,Google AdSense Widget 2: no observation as I have no AdSense account; it appears to work.
You should not be tracking our access to such Widgets. It relies on an IE instance. - adsense5.xwr,Google AdSense Widget 3: no observation as I have no AdSense account; it appears to work.
You should not be tracking our access to such Widgets. It relies on an IE instance. - widget_table2.xar,Table Widget: I have previously advised this would be better served as a Xara (Internal) Widget (*.XWR) to an online cabability that returns W3C-compliant HTML <TABLE> structures.
- iframe.xwr,Embed a website Widget: I have previously advised the Widget needs to handle relative URLs to better integrate within your own designed websites.
- widget_qrcode.xar,QR Code Widget: I have previously advised the widget has sizing Bugs and a bitmap solution is wasteful.
- googlemaps.xwr,Google Map Widget: works but many users are confused as to what to do. It relies on an IE instance.
- bingmaps.xwr,Bing Map Widget: works but many users are confused as to what to do. It relies on an IE instance.
- googlecustomsearch.xwr,Google Search Widget: I avoid Google where possible and I have offered several DIY searches for Xara-designed websites previously. It relies on an IE instance.
- nabble_blog.xwr,Forum Widget: I have found to use Nabble you need to get into details that the Widget fails to offer up.
None of these components have been updated since Folder Revision:58048; actually, Folder Revision:51921, where you still had Counter Widget (NEW), Skype Web Button and the like in v12.
The Piwik in your statsredirect slows things down even more than before.
As indicated there used to be far more than just these 10.
The lack of development or even correction of your XWR widgets is appalling. This is despite requests for the schema details. Other TGers could turn new Widgets around in days where you have squandered years.
What is the point of paying for access to the OCC when you let it wither?
Acorn
Re: Review of Online Content Catalogue - Other Components
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Acorn
I avoid Google where possible and I have offered several DIY searches for Xara-designed websites previously. It relies on an IE instance.
Acorn, this is me being stupid again. I chose this one but the quote applies to others also, you say it relies on an IE instance. Does this mean to say the widget won't work without IE? The reason I ask is I don't even have IE on my computer, uninstalled it a long time ago rather stupidly. Have tried to reinstall to no avail as when I try to reinstall it installs Edge. I can see myself possibly using some of these widgets and would be of a total loss if can't use without IE.
Re: Review of Online Content Catalogue - Other Components
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gypsyjoe
Acorn, this is me being stupid again. I chose this one but the quote applies to others also, you say it relies on an IE instance. Does this mean to say the widget won't work without IE? The reason I ask is I don't even have IE on my computer, uninstalled it a long time ago rather stupidly. Have tried to reinstall to no avail as when I try to reinstall it installs Edge. I can see myself possibly using some of these widgets and would be of a total loss if can't use without IE.
GJ, the point I am making with Xara aboout IE is that Xara has built an IE instance into it code, or if not an instance, it is heavily reliant on IE components. Ultimately, it is a security concern as MS not longer support IE so any zero-day exploits will persist and expose you to potential hack scenarios. Also the further IE is left behind, the less representative the Preview becomes in rendering your web pages s you end up frustrated chasing something that's no there.
You can therefore use the Widgets, it is just xara needs to face up to a re-engineering of its code.
The same applies to the dreadful decision not to keep its third part modules updated, of which there are quite a few. The web server used for Previewing itself is no longer supported.
Xara has incurred so much technical debt, its products will just die and will end up as a quaint has-been running on an emulated system.
Acorn
Re: Review of Online Content Catalogue - Other Components
Thank you Acorn for clarifying for me, I know I am sometimes slow to understand the point being made. I guess I knew about what you are saying but thought that what you were saying was that they wouldn't even work without IE. I'm not even sure how my preview even works as I don't have IE installed. Anyhow thanks again for clarifying!
