Xara Dot Com

[Chris M]

I went for a nosy around the Xara site and became curious as to how they made certain parts of the website. The text seems to flow like a responsive site, and (the big one for me) the menu button on the mobile version works...I'd like to know how this was done.

When I make a menu button that opens a layer, then use (what appears to be) the same button to close the layer, it won't unless I move the mouse to lose focus and then regain focus. Not an issue on a mobile, but to use the same action on a mouse driven driven machine...

Shrinking the screen on the Xara site until the mobile menu appears, I clicked the button repeatedly without moving position and the layer opened and closed perfectly; something I cannot achieve. Anyone know how Xara did this?

[gwpriester]

Not sure, but maybe they did not use Web Designer or Designer Pro X?

[Acorn]

Xara doesn't use its products for its website.

The menu probably uses CSS, which understands clicks far more than Xara's offerings.

Acorn

[Chris M]

Xara doesn't use its products for its website.

Hmmm.

[Rob-Xar]

Yes, we don't use DP or WD to create our own website, because it's not suitable for our requirements and integrations. Different tools for different jobs.

[Acorn]

Hmmm.

Chris, https://xara.com uses:

1. Lots of <link rel="preload" ...>s to pre-fetch assets - not an XDA feature.
2. A <meta name="revisit-after" content="5 days"> to ensure content is refreshed - not an XDA feature.
3. Scaled favicons - not an XDA feature.
4. Lots of social media hooks - not an XDA feature.
5. A master page CMS - not an XDA feature.
6. Limited ARIA content and tabindex=-1 and Skip Links to prevent screen readers falling over these sections - not an XDA feature.
7. A ream of Local Storage Keys - not an XDA feature.
8. A database of cacheName Keys and timestamps - not an XDA feature.
9. Cache Storage - not an XDA feature.
10. An embarrassment of Tracking Cookies - not an XDA feature.
11. Lazing Loading - not an XDA feature.
12. Adaptive layout - not an XDA feature.
13. CSS NavBar - not an XDA feature.
14. Looping SVG Animation - not an XDA feature.
15. SVG Images - not an XDA feature.

What's not to like?

Acorn

[Rob-Xar]

WD wouldn't be aimed at users with no knowledge of code if we had a number of those things. Especially anything to do with SQL databases, tables, permissions etc, let alone reading / writing to them. That stuff is a nightmare.

Doesn't mean we can't improve, and a few of those items are actually on our wishlist but it's unfair to compare someone learning to drive to a F1 driver.