Having to wait forever

[behzad]

I would like to export only the changes I make and not have to wait for the whole website to be processed.
So lets say I have some 50 pages and only have worked on one page, and that one page is the one I want uploaded to the server.

Why do I have to wait for the whole site to be processed and output?

Why Xara did not include just like view one page feature, export one page too?

This has been a pain in my X for long time.

[gwpriester]

If you check Fast Publish (Only Changed Files) it will speed up the process.

Though Xara does take some time at the end to delete redundant files.

[behzad]

Yes thank you, I have been doing that for many years. My point still remains that xara goes through all pages and this takes too much time for some simple job of exporting just that one page.

[gwpriester]

Yeah I know what you're saying. It checks each page for changes. NetObjects Fusion used to have an option to publish just a single page or a selection of pages. Xara could use that feature.

Probably time for a faster computer.

[Acorn]

behzad, I believe we have had this conversation before.

Even if you make one small change on one page, the linkages across the design may require every html page to be regenerated.
This is quick even for 50 pages.

The problem comes with images.
Images appears in all sorts of places, the main culprit is a Xara NavBar. Almost as bad are graphical buttons and images as bulleted list.
None of these images have filenames so Xara gives them a number.
A small change to the NavBar therefore impacts all NavBar images on all pages. It gets worse, the cascade may then hit other images' filenames.

What I do is:

• Avoid Xara NavBars.
• Explicitly use Image Filenames for all big (and important) images. Xara now has an automatic naming mechanism (Use photo filename).
• Separate out images externally. This avoids them having filename changes; can be scaled across variants (only one master image); removes them from the publish cycle.
• Split large sites into sub-sites by them or purpose.
• Xara now uses WebP so file sizes are lessened, speeding up republishing cycles.
• Avoid Xara image processing; each applied filter to tweak results in a new image.
• Use simple shapes where possible with flat Transparencies, Circular or Linear Gradients. Xara now returns these as SPANs with CSS filters. Xara now returns objects as SVG. Both approaches avoid image proliferation and slow publish and rendering speeds.
• I use CSS filters and transforms on images.
• I use :before CSS for bullets.
• I use CSS NavBars.

None of this is hard, it is part of the design process and demonstrates you are in control.
I use Lighthouse to flag up the problem areas and develop remedies appropriate to each issue.

Acorn

[behzad]

Dear Acorn, not everyone is as good as you and I mean it. Even I having had my share of designing websites with xara still have to find workarounds for tasks that xara could have in reality done a better job before releasing a feature. Compared with other platforms one has to have a check list of all things to do before any xara site is optimized or near optimized, even then features like, search bar, shopping cart, I can go on and on and as you know I have complained in the past.

@Gary to get a faster computer it is like putting a Band-Aid on this particular problem. My current laptop can do a great job with other platforms like wordpress etc.. I do not see a reason to buy a new computer when xara itself is at fault in its execution of things.

[bwood]

I’m in agreement to the load times as well. @acorn has some good tips. I don’t have 50 pages, but I’m hoping I can change my navigation to the simplest one could have.

[Acorn]

@behzad, when you use Xara's upload of a website, you are relying on the speed of the FTP Xara has implemented.

Export Website locally and then use a separate FTP program like FileZilla and select to only upload changed files.
Far the faster.

With a local Export you can examine the contents of the index_htm_files folder and see the duplicates and mess than out-of-the-box design offers.
Run it from the Export and use the browser developer tool (F12) > Network to see what is dragging your design down.

Get these right and you have fewer and smaller uploads.

Xara is removing a large amount of mundane hassle from your shoulders is its products that I doubt is actually replicated in most others.

You quote WordPress but the maintenance overhead of a WP site and its widgets is daunting and you have to know a lot of code to get things right.

You mention Search bars.

• Try setting up a Table of Contents with H1/H2/H3 and bespoke Headings 4-9. Link to the ToC in a separate page and you have an effective Search / Sitemap / Site Structure / ToC for little effort. The effort of structuring your site benefits SEO and Accessibility. It could even be a side bar on every page, offering a vertical NavBar for free.
• I have offered TGers the means of construct a in-site website search - https://www.talkgraphics.com/showthr...rch-Capability - no TGer engaged!
• Previously, I offered up Search Bar access through DuckDuckGo (or Google). This relied on the site being published and trawled.

You mentioned Shopping Carts.

• I have sorted out ECWID across Variants - https://www.talkgraphics.com/showthr...890#post644890.

Xara is different to WP as it has no server-side code or database available.
Xara delivers static sites. Xara follows Pareto's Law fairly closely in that 80% of what you need can be handled by Xara natively. The remaining 20% requires some intervention; Xara offers Third-Party Widgets.
This in turn is an 80:20 split so you are 96% of the way there. The remaining 4% requires some invention; I offer that in my solutions.
This gets you to 99.2% of an ideal solution, by which point the customer has changed their mind and you start over again.

Acorn

P.S. Always available for remedial Xara work.

[behzad]

Well said. I will take your suggestion and implement them.

[ss-kalm]

Acorn, I mean no disrespect ... In fact, probably the opposite I mean more respect.

You talk like this is simple, and you've worked it out for us. It probably is simple for you, but to me (and I assume quite a few others) you may as well have explained it in Aramaic for all the good it does me. I have to admit, that I don't do websites, so have never had to try an implement any of your suggestions, but to me, just reading through them, they seem quite complex.

I suspect more than a few people are just as confused trying to follow your fixes as they were trying to fix things themselves.

Lets face it, you are just too damn smart ...