A question about the code

[behzad]

I am really excited about this program.

[nickydude]

behzad, just open the Workbook created in WD, right click and View Code. You'll see exactly what XWD produces.

[Soquili]

The HTML is only created when exported. The native file format for Web Designer is one of Xara's. Web Designer can use .xar or .web files. The native save format is .web.

[Spinny]

Got it.

Yeah, I'm interested in this release, too. I only just bought a bunch of Coffee Cup web design stuff (it was at their support forums that I first heard of Xara, actually), but I won't be able to resist grabbing this one, too--especially at the price.

[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]

One nut to crack--and I'm not even sure this is possible, given the scope of the problem space--would be the ability to reverse-engineer existing HTML code and from that build a WYSIWYG version compatible with an editor such as WD for editing. If the code were strictly compliant the problem space would almost be tractable, but still. I can dream, right?

[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.

[covoxer]

I can dream, right?

Yes, you can dream.

[w00dy]

Got it.

Yeah, I'm interested in this release, too. I only just bought a bunch of Coffee Cup web design stuff (it was at their support forums that I first heard of Xara, actually), but I won't be able to resist grabbing this one, too--especially at the price.

I think that you'll find your Coffeecup investment well worth while as it'll slot very nicely into Xara Web Designer to provide the interactive elements that aren't there (yet)! As soon as XWD is released, I'll knock up a site from a template incorporating a form and some video. I spent lunchtime loking at the XWD videos and for current Xtreme users, XWD is going to be a walk in the park!

w00dy aka Colin Woodcock
Coffeecup Ambassador

[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