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  1. #1
    Join Date
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    Info XWDP Outside of Update Service Cover

    I decided to let my Update Service lapse for XWDP.
    My main reason is to accurately identify what is lost.

    I have kept XWDP mainly for testing and assisting TGers who have it as their sole application so that when a solution for a Xara product is offered then I can check that it works for XWDP as well.
    My main day use tool is XDPX.

    Clearly Xara has declared that the on-line services will end but not what that means exactly.
    This Thread will attempt to describe the loss and possible alternatives.

    I think it is going to be a long list.
    Feel free to contribute about any lost function and I will look into it.
    Do not pick on the messenger or Xara. Instead raise a targeted Dear Xara Thread to advise why the loss is iniquitous to you and what you have lost.

    Acorn
    Acorn - installed Xara software: Cloud+/Pro+ and most others back through time (to CC's Artworks). Contact for technical remediation/consultancy for your web designs.
    When we provide assistance, your responses are valuable as they benefit the community. TG Nuggets you might like. Report faults: Xara Cloud+/Pro+/Magix Legacy; Xara KB & Chat

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2000
    Location
    Harwich, Essex, England
    Posts
    21,895

    Default Re: XWDP Outside of Update Service Cover

    Great idea Acorn. I have no idea what happens if the software isn't updated but do believe Xara/Magix are conning their users. I detest this new update 'feature'.
    Egg

    Intel i7 - 4790K Quad Core + 16 GB Ram + NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1660 Graphics Card + MSI Optix Mag321 Curv monitor
    + Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB SSD + 232 GB SSD + 250 GB SSD portable drive + ISP = BT + Web Hosting = TSO Host

  3. #3
    Join Date
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    Default Re: XWDP Outside of Update Service Cover

    Nagging

    XWDPv12 - you get the Update Service period expired. Upgrade button takes you to http://www.xara.com/uk/expired/web-d....6&prefix=xwdp.
    It can be avoided by ticking the Don't show me again button.
    You then get to do the same all over again (Info Pop-ups On) for the next sales pitch: http://content.magix.net/newsfeeds/x....6&prefix=xwdp. This also has a parameter (b), which I assume is the Magix tracking number should you choose to follow the sucker-me-in link.
    The latest "Anniversary" offer is now out to 03 May 2018. "Anniversary" of what is unclear. At least it doesn't land on Star Wars Day.
    If you follow the Magix link, you get to find out that v15 now has new Smart Shapes & Templates:

    Over 240 website templatesOver 1,000 design elements
    100% design freedom
    No prior programming knowledge required
    Xara Online Designer
    Over 130 photo filters
    Animations & effects
    Advanced image editing
    2 GB web storage & domain*
    Search engine optimization
    Xara Online Designer is no more; it is Xara Cloud but v12 doesn't understand this (Share > Xara Online Designer).
    I want to see what the SEO could possibly be.
    No idea about the asterisk.

    Oh, the offer ends on 22 April 2018, or does it?

    So I quickly rushed to XDPX to check for Updates - nothing.
    I tried http://downloadsv15.xara.com/web/catalog/index.html and "table" and got the tired old Table Widget. ditto for http://downloadsv12.xara.com/web/catalog/index.html.
    I the assumed that to access the new Smart Table, i would need my application upgraded so I went to Xara to find the Cloud and nothing but the Cloud save one small link Desktop at the page bottom.
    I navigated to http://www.xara.com/uk/web-designer/download/ to find it was still a version dated 22 November 2017; only 125 days since an update.

    Moving on.
    Help > Introductions isn't. It goes to yet another tracking renew screen.
    In the Update service period this opens the Online Content Catalogue at First Look > Introduction so you have lost that, which is really self-limiting.

    File > New from Content Catalogue -- Nag.
    insert > From Content Catalogue -- Nag.
    Insert > Image > Stock photo -- Nag.
    Same for the Insert button; any access to what was part of the Online content catalogue, with a few exceptions -- Nag.
    Oh, it is a tracking Nag.

    You do get Symbols: http://downloadsv12.xara.com/web/cha...character.html.
    You do get a new Help > More Xara Web Designer Premium > Support Pages link: https://support.xara.com/
    You still get to TalkGraphics as the Support Forum.

    With all these embedded Nags, you are left feeling you have purchased and downloaded some Shareware or Crippleware.
    Just grey out the options, remove the Insert button, and be done.

    My one Nag - never Uninstall your v12 version. If you want to re-install, you will lose all your bug fixes and "updates" since the date of purchase.

    Acorn
    Acorn - installed Xara software: Cloud+/Pro+ and most others back through time (to CC's Artworks). Contact for technical remediation/consultancy for your web designs.
    When we provide assistance, your responses are valuable as they benefit the community. TG Nuggets you might like. Report faults: Xara Cloud+/Pro+/Magix Legacy; Xara KB & Chat

  4. #4

    Default Re: XWDP Outside of Update Service Cover

    Thanks for this Acorn,

    I haven't fired xdp in a few days but now my service has expired I am in no rush to fire it up if it acts as nagware.

    Thanks to your previous suggestions, I have v12 and v15 installed.

  5. #5
    Join Date
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    SW England
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    Default Re: XWDP Outside of Update Service Cover

    Finding Content

    During the period of your Update service, each fresh use of an item in the Online Content Catalogue resulted in a download to your local cache.
    This download is store locally and is usable after expiry (Typically, C:\Users\(user)\AppData\Local\Xara\WebDesignerPrem ium\12\Cache\designs\eng\).
    You can use %appdata%\..\Local\Xara\WebDesignerPremium\12\Cach e\designs\eng\ directly in Windows Explorer (not IE) to get to your downloads.

    XWDPv15 pathing will be similar (%appdata%\..\Local\Xara\WebDesignerPremium\15\Cac he\designs\eng\).

    If you have been following TalkGraphics, we have been advising that, while in cover, to right-click on the folder names in the Local Designs Gallery to download all the Online Content Catalogue content to your local filestore.
    P.S. If you try to Download All, you get another Nag message.

    If you didn't download what you now need, all is not lost. Contact Magix sales to purchase a backup CD:

    If you have already purchased the product without a backup CD then please contact our Sales team by signing into our Support site and select 'Sales'.
    https://help.xara.com/article/50-the-designs-gallery

    If you use this CD then it is probable you will revert your program back to the purchase version.

    Let's say you downloaded or installed everything on the CD, you now have up to 2.3GB of files to hunt and peck through as the only search mechanism is gone as it is within the Online Content Catalogue page.

    There is nothing in the Sales spiel that categorically states you will lose access to the 200+ website templates and the 1,000+ design elements.
    You have to read the EULA, if you know where to hunt (https://www.magix.com/gb/eula/consumer/) and what to read.
    Note, this not the EULA you agreed to when you purchased your software so it is probably not enforceable as you were not notified of the EULA change. You have to search XWDPv12 Help > Search: EULA and read:

    UPDATE SERVICEThe license for updates and features delivered within the scope of the Update Service is limited to the installation(s) in place at the first anniversary of the initial registration of the Software, or at the date of last renewal if that is more recent. It will therefore terminate if you re-install the software after the Update Service has lapsed, and you will fall back to the version of the software at the date of your initial purchase and registration, or at the date of last renewal if that is more recent. These limitations do not apply if you extend the Update Service beyond the initial 12-month period.
    Any online services included in the Software (M hosting, Xara Online Designer and the Online Content Catalog) will end as soon as the Update Service expires, unless the Update Service is extended beyond the initial 12-month period.
    It is all Magixed away for XWDPv15, which Xara asserts is only an upgrade.

    Back to finding content.

    In your browser, enter http://downloadsv15.xara.com/web/cat...ex.html?v=15.1 for XWDPv15 and http://downloadsv12.xara.com/web/cat...ex.html?v=12.n, where n is your XWDPv12 sub-version, up to 6.
    You now get a tree list of what you might have in your Local Design Gallery, with pictures.

    Not perfect. Lots of Nags to Buy and not directly usable back into your application but at least it has a search capability to allow you to zero in on that illusive content you know you downloaded.

    Nag at Xara: ensure one path exists to this view (Insert > From Content Catalogue).
    I believe that in removing the Online Content Catalogue from access, you may mistakenly change our contract by removing what you told us we had purchased, both content and search functionality.
    An online EULA without a date and scope and notification of change is probably not correct either.

    Acorn
    Acorn - installed Xara software: Cloud+/Pro+ and most others back through time (to CC's Artworks). Contact for technical remediation/consultancy for your web designs.
    When we provide assistance, your responses are valuable as they benefit the community. TG Nuggets you might like. Report faults: Xara Cloud+/Pro+/Magix Legacy; Xara KB & Chat

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    SW England
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    Default Re: XWDP Outside of Update Service Cover

    Stock Photos & Illustration

    So now you've lost:

    New in the Online Content Catalog: In partnership with Pixabay we've added fully integrated access to a free library of over 750,000 quality royalty-free stock photos and over 150,000 vector illustrations. All available under the CC0 license.
    http://www.xara.com/uk/web-designer/whats-new/


    It, however, is still broken in XWDPv15 for illustrations: https://www.talkgraphics.com/showthr...245#post584245.

    Instead, go to the source and register.
    https://www.talkgraphics.com/showthr...871#post590871.

    Nag @ Xara: if you still allowed access to these freely accessible online images, people wouldn't have to discover alternatives:

    Pixabay Picker.web - allows you to download most resolutions without signing in.
    Yes, it is a two-step process to get it into Xara but slightly better that the gaping hole that now exists.
    Now 1.3M images and all without a "partnership" that is probably just the Pixabay API and its EULA.

    Acorn
    Acorn - installed Xara software: Cloud+/Pro+ and most others back through time (to CC's Artworks). Contact for technical remediation/consultancy for your web designs.
    When we provide assistance, your responses are valuable as they benefit the community. TG Nuggets you might like. Report faults: Xara Cloud+/Pro+/Magix Legacy; Xara KB & Chat

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    SW England
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    Info Re: XWDP Outside of Update Service Cover

    Photo Filter Presets

    Basically what Xara has removed it the grouping of a Transparency attributes rectangle over an image and the means to apply this and others from an Import from the Online Content Catalogue.
    The concept can equally be a Enhance photo as an overlay.

    Anyhow the principle is quite clever but you are forced to adopt what Xara deems to be appropriate, not you the designer.

    You can throw it all away and use Xara's Transparency, Enhancement and Masks ans other features like bleaching another image on top of the base one.
    Most can be replicated with Ctrl+C and then Ctrl+Shift+A to paste Attributes.

    If you want variety my filter solution offers 14,400,000,000,000,000,000 variations: CSS3 Image Filter Generator.xar

    I use this basic concept to build CSS3 animations that cycle through saturations and any or many of the other offerings.

    Acorn
    Acorn - installed Xara software: Cloud+/Pro+ and most others back through time (to CC's Artworks). Contact for technical remediation/consultancy for your web designs.
    When we provide assistance, your responses are valuable as they benefit the community. TG Nuggets you might like. Report faults: Xara Cloud+/Pro+/Magix Legacy; Xara KB & Chat

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    SW England
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    Default Re: XWDP Outside of Update Service Cover

    Photo Filter Presets - Examples

    Using the generator in https://www.talkgraphics.com/showthr...158#post593158, I have a simple demonstration file showing the results of three CSS3 filters applied to two group objects and one image.
    Again, Microsoft has not implemented this so the Xara Preview, IE (and Edge) do not apply the filters. The numbers of IE viewings is down to the few percent, mainly to the rise of Smartphones for web surfing.

    Each shape has a Name (equilateral, cube, fruit).
    Each Name has a corresponding filter in Web Properties > Page > HTML code (head) of form #Name.

    Advanced aspects
    If you want to apply the same filter to several objects on a page, you give them all the same Name, but this time it is a class name of form htmlclass=<name>
    In in the CSS, use .<name> rather than #<name>
    A hash means an HTML ID and a dot before the Name means an HTML Class - only the first ID will have a filter applied; this is a browser standard; a filter will alter all objects with the same class.

    CSS3 Filter Examples.xar

    Acorn
    Acorn - installed Xara software: Cloud+/Pro+ and most others back through time (to CC's Artworks). Contact for technical remediation/consultancy for your web designs.
    When we provide assistance, your responses are valuable as they benefit the community. TG Nuggets you might like. Report faults: Xara Cloud+/Pro+/Magix Legacy; Xara KB & Chat

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Aug 2000
    Location
    Harwich, Essex, England
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    21,895

    Default Re: XWDP Outside of Update Service Cover

    Thanks for the clarification Acorn. Managed to get it working a treat.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

Name:	filter.jpg 
Views:	158 
Size:	115.0 KB 
ID:	121107  
    Egg

    Intel i7 - 4790K Quad Core + 16 GB Ram + NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1660 Graphics Card + MSI Optix Mag321 Curv monitor
    + Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB SSD + 232 GB SSD + 250 GB SSD portable drive + ISP = BT + Web Hosting = TSO Host

  10. #10
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    Default Re: XWDP Outside of Update Service Cover

    Quote Originally Posted by Egg Bramhill View Post
    Thanks for the clarification Acorn. Managed to get it working a treat.
    Egg, glad to hear. You'll be wanting an example of animations as well I suspect.

    What I found pleasing was you can apply the filters to most shapes, not just images.

    Acorn
    Acorn - installed Xara software: Cloud+/Pro+ and most others back through time (to CC's Artworks). Contact for technical remediation/consultancy for your web designs.
    When we provide assistance, your responses are valuable as they benefit the community. TG Nuggets you might like. Report faults: Xara Cloud+/Pro+/Magix Legacy; Xara KB & Chat

 

 

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