Need a little bit of guidance with the web designer software before buying

[Acorn]

I see, this is really problematic and makes the product only useful to beginners unfortunately.
When you create an html design and include php code to make it more functional, it is ultra important to have a readable code. Also in a Google point of view, a validated code is extremely important.
Inline CSS is a real pain to read and only good in certain situations like emails. Oh well, the product looked great but now it is a 100% no no as my customers won't like inline css in their design.

Thanks again and good luck to all the others who are using Xara, but it is just not for us.

Egg summarised it nicely and I have to counter that Xara is not just for "beginners" and be "ultra important to have a readable code"; you are not maintaining code here. Is CSS in-line any worst than AngularJS? It is possibly to embed PHP but Xara does not provide any sort of development environment so again coding is not Xara's USP. Xara's code is validated but it has a trade in keeping design at the forefront over hiding away how it is generated.

Acorn

[jonstrong]

Thank you for the reply.

But this still does not solve the problem of the impossibility to resell your work to third parties simply because they won't be able to inject nicely their backend code into the template.

Remember using place holders and other software tricks won't help a PHP coder who take your header, navbar and footer, have to cut then into pieces and fit them in multiple <?php include ?> files.

...

Thanks again and good luck with it! It is a very good piece of software but only for a kind of users who do not dive deep into the code.

I do understand your issues...and it does sound like this isn't the right tool for you. If your work is primarily based on hand-coding with standard, editable HTML and CSS templates, you should certainly be looking elsewhere - that's not what the Xara products were created to support.

Just before I sign off on the topic though, I feel that need to add a tiny bit more (and I promised to stop after this!):

I've been working in software and the IT industry in general for many years, including quite a bit of work in software and enterprise architecture. There are numerous use cases in which hybrid solutions (such as Xara plus external code / add-ons) meet the needs better than a "pure" solution (hand coded PHP, HTML, CSS). In many cases, it comes down to knowing what tools are available, how they might interface, and what the pros and cons are of a hybrid architecture. It's certainly natural to be skeptical of something unfamiliar if you don't know the available options -- while you may actually discover the hybrid approach to be very workable once you truly become familiar with the ways in which it might be used.

I'm not attempting to push you toward something that doesn't fit your needs. Just suggesting that you might not be fully aware of the ways in which the tools can work with other tools to get to the kind of end result you seek. For example: you mention a photo gallery... If you the components available in Xara Web Designer or Designer Pro aren't sufficient, tools like jAlbum are extremely powerful and configurable, and you can easily embed a jAlbum photo gallery in a Xara managed website seamlessly, complete with animation, zooming, timed carousels, etc. While the approach is different than hand-coding, you can potentially wind up with something more powerful than would be feasible to hand-code in any reasonable amount of time.

I do appreciate hand-coding, having put in thousands of hours at it early in my career, in a variety of languages and platforms. But I am also a very big fan of choosing the right tool for each purpose, and sometimes that leads me to hybrid solutions, libraries, plugins, etc. That approach requires its own homework and polishing of skills and knowledge. Again - I'm not pushing one approach over another; each will have to make their own determination. I'm just urging being fully informed in order to make the best decision.

If it's not right for you, then you should certainly find an alternative that is. At this point, I'm just adding to the conversation in case others come here with similar questions, and may find a hybrid solution to actually be the right approach for them. (ok -- off my soapbox)

Jon

[sculptex]

Great points jonstrong,
As a coder first and designer second, it takes a little getting used to though!
I think of xara as producing 'codeable templates' rather than 'templateable code'.

[jonstrong]

Great points jonstrong,
As a coder first and designer second, it takes a little getting used to though!
I think of xara as producing 'codeable templates' rather than 'templateable code'.

Nice! I think that's a perfect description.