Web Blocks - Wrapper Hell

[Acorn]

WBs do not seem to rescale on page width changes.
A mention of using right-click Open Web Block must help. Your:

To select the Web Block itself, click on the Web Block bar. A green outline around the whole Block shows that it is selected, and the Web Block bar is brighter.

says nothing.

WBs do not seem to Repeat on all pages at all.
This must be because they are LiveShare.
Again, explain a little.

I feel we require a blank Web block Wrapper and a blank Layout wrapper.
And the detail to combine and adjust.
I can see great potential for WBs but you've gone default in locking us out.

You seem to be creating a special Hell of wrappers, hiding everything Xara is good at.
Create you own Placeholder. Add detail in both Head and Body.
Then try right-click Edit widget.
All you get is access to the Body code. The Advanced button just dies.
I know how to get to the Head code. Will others? Do include a Body/Head toggle.
You also have to run off to another dialog window to stop the Placeholder image regenerating.

The Embed a Website widget is dead. As is Google Maps, Nabble & Bing.
I'm off to power down and back up again...
Before I go, the QR Code widget has still not been updated.

Also amazed your Blank website delivers MOver/MOff buttons that you have eschewed from the the Online Content Catalogue.
You still need to replace the NavBar approach.

Acorn

[gwpriester]

Hmm?

[Boy]

Hmm?

Acorn is telling the Xara devs that he's displeased with how they implemented the new Web Blocks feature.

[Acorn]

OK Gary (and Xara).

Kate's assertion was somewhat hubristic.
https://www.talkgraphics.com/showthr...-13-March-2023

We are proud to introduce Web Blocks to Designer Pro+ and Web Designer+, a completely new way of creating websites.

This ignores WordPress and countless other web generators.

Xara has reworked the available Templates.
We have File > New > Modular website 1280px (Responsive) and (a plus) User-defined templates in a bottom section.
Xara also added a 'free-flow' 1280px, as before, the largest web template was 960px.
For some reason, the A4 double page spread has lost its Text Areas.

So this is where it get tricky.
Xara has decided for you that the Variant is 480px wide, Main being 1280px.
The good thing is you can open this and change either of these widths and the Web Blocks (WB) scale to the new sizes.
You must do this before you start adding WBs.
Fail to do so and you then change the width or your Client wants a wider presentation, you have to jump through hoops to rework all the WBs.
Potentially, not a disaster.

For the moment, initially set your design to 1440+720px.
Add the WB, Grid > 3. Grid (4c), an image and three text blocks.
Every element scales to the new width and, unfortunately, all overlap.
Right you say. I'll just change my page back to 1280px. The WB does not rescale.
Back to 1440px then.
I'll just reset each element by hand.
When you select one element, there are no controls.
What you have to do is click on the Green Bar and pick QuickShape Tool and then you can rescale.

Say your text areas still overlap or you want the left one to be double width or the picture swapped with one of the text blocks.
Next attempt, right-click Open WebBlock.
You now find the elements are in a Layout Group.
Try resizing or moving any one of them.
Any normal Xara operation becomes a nightmare.

Add more text to a block and the Layout and WebBlock grows.
So does the image. How do you resize it?
Why go to the Fill tool and mess with that.
Delete a text block? No chance.

Gosh:

JavaScript error: "TypeError: Cannot set properties of undefined (setting '0')"SmartLayout.js (1): define(["./Path","./Shared","./SimpleSmartShape","./Matrix","./Rect","./Point","./Camelot","./ComplexSmartShape","./PhotoLib"],function(t,e,r,i,n,o,a,s,l){var h=s.ComplexSmartShape,p=o.Point,u=n.Rect,c=r.Simpl eRectangle,d=e.HandleID,g=e.FillType,f=(e.printfDe v,e.getResString),y=e.isNearly1;function v(t,e){return void 0===t?"undefined""0000000"+t.toString(16)).substr(e?-e:-8)}function m(t){if(Array.from)return Array.from(t);for(var e=new Array(t.length),r=0;r<t.length;r++)e[r]=t[r];return e}function x(){

All over one WebBlock.

Oh, and the usual lack of Snap to Objects when resizing a Layout.

Acorn

[Andre7]

Modular Websites and working with blocks!!!! Is this a joke? Completely unusable. What a mess!!!!!
Been working all morning just to build one block to look the way i wanted. I give up. This can't be good.

[handrawn]

I don't build websites, but I do have a wordpress site; I don't call it 'built' because it is modular, that is what wordpress is at the entry point for most users, unless they delve into CSS and the like

if xara can be as successful as wordpress in providing a webcreation facility that does not involve [technical] thought I think they will be happy

[bb2]

HI. Thank you for your feedback.

The issue with widgets which open in an internal browser window such as embed a website is known and likely to be patched in the coming days. Templates are also being modified to target the scaling issue when resizing pages. It is unclear whether an image will stretch or remain the same size when adding text to blocks so this will also be fed back to the team. Please could you forward the xar file containing the block where you are encountering the JavaScript error ? Apologies if im mistaken, I dont think we altered the A4 double page spread template in this release. I checked earlier versions and no text area is present.

[bb2]

Hi Andre7, sounds like you are trying to create your own block / ungroup an existing block and modify it / add new items to the block? Please can I request you submit a support request with your file and we can try and help you?

Many thanks

[Acorn]

HI. Thank you for your feedback.

The issue with widgets which open in an internal browser window such as embed a website is known and likely to be patched in the coming days. Templates are also being modified to target the scaling issue when resizing pages. It is unclear whether an image will stretch or remain the same size when adding text to blocks so this will also be fed back to the team. Please could you forward the xar file containing the block where you are encountering the JavaScript error ? Apologies if im mistaken, I dont think we altered the A4 double page spread template in this release. I checked earlier versions and no text area is present.

Bhavesh, thank you for ythe update.
Clearly, you have been busy bunnies.

I must have altered the A4 double spread quite a time back. I failed to realise that any update from you would overwrite any local changes. I will resave under a different filename.

To get the JavaScript error I selected inside the Layout of one of the Text Areas and in the Page & Layer gallery, I picked Move to current layer.
If you then delete it or amend any other text, the error occurs: Xara- Webblock - error on text area deletion.xar

Acorn

[Andre7]

Hi Andre7, sounds like you are trying to create your own block / ungroup an existing block and modify it / add new items to the block? Please can I request you submit a support request with your file and we can try and help you?

Many thanks

I don't try to create my own block. Just try to modify an existing one. But that seems impossible. Can't resize images or anything else. Resize handles are not there. If I resize the page nothing fits . I have to stick with 1280 and 480 mobile. Of course I can do all these manually by ungrouping etc.. but what is the point of that? The implementation of the feature I feel it hasn't be thought thoroughly. Good idea but needs more work . For now I just stick with the good old xara.