Designer 6 just for small sites? Can you use Stored Procs

**Ceal** · 30 April 2010, 09:15 PM

It seems as if the new Web Designer 6 is only for small websites, like the previous versions. Also, it seems as if there is no real support for websites that incorporate databases*.

On the other hand, it would be nice to think I am wrong. If so, please let me know. Thanks.

*I use ColdFusion, Dreamweaver and Access. We are supposed to get Oracle too. I wonder how Xara would work with Stored Procedures. Someone here is using VB.Net with Stored Procs and they want a nice design for their website.

**steve.ledger** · 30 April 2010, 09:24 PM

Hi Ceal,

The target demographic for Xara Web Designer (a $49 WYSYWYG web page creator) has not changed.
The enhancements and new features since the previous version are very good indeed and make the creation of graphically designed, drag'n'drop edited sites very easy for those without any HTML knowledge.
WD is not positioned or intended to compete with any of the software you mentioned.

**Ceal** · 30 April 2010, 09:40 PM

Thanks for your reply. I was just hoping. Well, on to CSS. "Shoulder on", as they say in England (or at least in the movies). Maybe some day, Xara will work with databases and on the Mac. It's a great program! I don't like using anything else for graphics.

**mikecharnock** · 01 May 2010, 08:11 PM

Originally Posted by Ceal

"Shoulder on", as they say in England (or at least in the movies).

That would be "soldier on". We aren't that strange in England!

**Egg Bramhill** · 01 May 2010, 10:03 PM

Ah! Thanks for that Mike. I was wondering why we Brits were supposed to say "Shoulder On"

**Dr_Who** · 02 May 2010, 02:21 PM

I say shoulder on when drunk

**neodelito** · 03 May 2010, 02:06 PM

Mmm. i use Xara many years.. and i vçcan use Php and databases like Mysql and no have problem...
only you need insert your conde in .
web properties/ placeholder/ replace with html
and place <?php $yourcode="lalala"; //or MySql or Oracle Code ?> and save your project "index.PHP"..
YOu need a server installed in your pc like easyphp

**gwpriester** · 03 May 2010, 06:43 PM

Welcome back to TG Cecilia.

And welcome Mike Charnock, you made my day.

Web Designer could probably do a very decent large site, but I prefer it for smaller sites. One thing that would make it better suited for larger sites would be a site view structure such as NetObjects Fusion uses.

I know, I know, you can drag and drop pages in the Page & Layer Manager, but there is something really basic about the simple folder approach. The attached screen capture shows the entire Xara Xone website in site view.

I could probably redo this site in Web designer or Xtreme, but my experience says it would be unwieldy.

I think it is a matter of using the right program for the project. Web Designer and Xtreme for small to medium jobs and NetObjects Fusion or Dreamweaver for larger sites.

IMHO

**staggers** · 04 May 2010, 11:51 AM

Originally Posted by Ceal

Thanks for your reply. I was just hoping. Well, on to CSS. "Shoulder on", as they say in England (or at least in the movies). Maybe some day, Xara will work with databases and on the Mac. It's a great program! I don't like using anything else for graphics.

Must have been a bad line!!

. Actually, we say 'Soldier on'.

**Ceal** · 04 May 2010, 03:16 PM

Thank you all for your replies!

Sorry about the "shoulder on/soldier" on interpretation. Next time I will put on English subtitles when watching UK movies. We speak English here in California, of course, but we all sound like Governor Schwarzengger.

Re: using Web Designer 6 with databases, it does work. I don't use PHP or MYSQL, just ColdFusion but I looked at a website I did in 2006 and I put a <cfset CurrentPath = GetFileFromPath (GetTemplatePath ())> at the top of the form page and it picked up all the Xara CSS.

However, the problem I was having in 2006 was with the Xara utility that refreshed the CSS code if you made changes. I couldn't easily get it in a Dreamweaver template and I had to do each web page one at a time. Each folder had their own graphics and sometimes more than one folder. At the time, I also wanted to seperate the CSS code from the Xara utility but didn't know CSS that well. Also, I'm not sure it was possible.

Last, this was about five years ago (the website was completed in 2006) and there has been many changes in the software and operating systems since then. Maybe Web Designer 6 integrates better with Dreamweaver and ColdFusion than it did before. Also, hopefully I know more today than I did then.