A question about the code

[behzad]

I am new to web design, my concern would be, and maybe you experts in web design can help me out.

My concern is that the code Xara Web designer outputs is it understandable and done cleanly for any web designer to go in and add or edit using dreamweaver or other authoring software?

Is the code efficient, expandable, editable in dreamweaver and other authoring software?

[Soquili]

Hi Behzad,

If you have Xtreme 4.0 or Xtreme Pro 4.0 open one of the Web Templates from the Clipart Gallery and export it as a website (html).

If you can open that export in Dreamweaver and edit it you can do the same with an exported website from Xara Web Designer.

The first attached image shows an exported Xtreme web template that is open in Microsoft Expression Web. It can be edited in Expression Web, but it is much easier to edit in Xtreme.

The second attachment shows the same exported website html open in Visual Studio 2008 for editing.

I do not have Dreamweaver so I cannot test the Xtreme created website in that application.

However the two different applications I have for editing existing html code can work with the Xtreme export and I'm sure they can work with Web Designer export as well.

[behzad]

That is great. Yes I am very excited about this program.

[billa]

Being more a web page creator than a designer, the only thing I will like to see changed is the layout for the various DIV's should be in the CSS file rather than directly on the HTML page.

[nickydude]

I agree there billa, a seperate style sheet with all CSS instead of on each page like WebStyle used to do would be a lot better. I usually ended up making my own CSS and copy & pasting.

[covoxer]

You can analize html generated by WD looking at these two sites, completely done in this software:
http://www.xaraxone.com/webxealot/workbook75/index.htm
http://webdesigner.xara.com/

[Seagull]

I just thought I would stick my nose in this thread and give my opinion, for what it's worth.

For myself, I use a 10 year old html editor to do my modifications (siteaid), but I found the hardest part of doing a web page is the conception, what colour scheme, background, where and what images, etc, etc, etc., which I would do roughly on a piece of paper first, which is still not a bad idea in my opion.

Once the conception or plan has been made, the rest if relatively simple using whatever program you use. If you give your site to somebody else to maintain it just may be easier for that person to redo your whole site in his program rather than fooling around with your code, as long as he has access to all the folders with your images, etc. Using a wysiwyg program it would probably be only a matter of a couple of hours to redo the site.

The biggest mistake I have run accross is where two or more persons have access to the site to make modifications. Person one modifies a page and uploads it and person 2 will modify the same page and upload it, over writting the modifications made by the first person. The only way to get around this is with good communication or else downloading every page from the web before you modify it yourself, and then upload the modified version.

The best of the best in my opinion is if only one person is responsible for maintaining and modify the site. If you wish somebody else to maintain it, it may be better to let them build it. Make your design in xara, save it as a jpeg and show it to them; I want this like this, put this image here, linking to there: You did the hard part, the creation is relatively simple............frank

[Spinny]

The biggest mistake I have run accross is where two or more persons have access to the site to make modifications. Person one modifies a page and uploads it and person 2 will modify the same page and upload it, over writting the modifications made by the first person. The only way to get around this is with good communication or else downloading every page from the web before you modify it yourself, and then upload the modified version.

Classic configuration management problem, and one that has to be dealt with by any development team regardless of the project and/or language they work in. Many traditional coding tools these days integrate with a configuration management system that forces you to "check out" the portion of the code base you're going to work on, and won't let anyone else check it out until you've committed your changes and checked it back in.

Alas, those types of configuration management tools are either too expensive or too arcane for the web development world, which seems to be long on graphics designers and artists and short on traditional software engineering practices.

Sorry, my software geek side coming out.

[remi]

Many traditional coding tools these days integrate with a configuration management system that forces you to "check out" the portion of the code base you're going to work on...

The right description is Concurrent Versioning System or Source Code Management and it's most used by developers. See also the Wikipedia article about CVS and Revision control.

But in order to work with multiple editors on a website, a Content Management System is the right tool (and most of the companies know that). See also the Wikipedia article about CMS.

Remi

[Spinny]

Now the primary question is where shall I find the time to play with all these marvelous new toys?