I just wanted to say that in the next major upgrade to Freeway, I really hope that Freeway generates code where the size, position, float etc of items is all within the CSS file, leaving the HTML file cleaner, with just DIVs, IDs and classes etc.
At present the html file is too heavy and the css is not being utilised enough.
I have no idea how much of a headache it will be for the Softpress developers of Freeway, but I think it’s really important to keep Freeway generating efficient code using modern standards of web building.
Big thanks to Softpress, Freeway and the community.
That would be nice but it seems as if implementing certain modern coding practices in FW is always far more complicated than it appears at first blush. I’m not holding my breath.
Todd
On Jul 25, 2011, at 2:22 PM, Sly wrote:
I just wanted to say that in the next major upgrade to Freeway, I really hope that Freeway generates code where the size, position, float etc of items is all within the CSS file, leaving the HTML file cleaner, with just DIVs, IDs and classes etc.
At present the html file is too heavy and the css is not being utilised enough.
I have no idea how much of a headache it will be for the Softpress developers of Freeway, but I think it’s really important to keep Freeway generating efficient code using modern standards of web building.
Big thanks to Softpress, Freeway and the community.
I think if it was possible they would have done it already. I have a feeling it’s harder to program it since there is an action that does one sheet for only one page at a time. It would take a massive overhaul of the software to accomplish such a modern feat.
I agree though with the suggestion, but I can see why it isn’t in there due to the complexities of it all.
Hi everyone… I amguessing that you dont know you can do this already…Its not built into the freeway appllicartion its self but it is perfectly possible to do it.
What you will need to do is first use an action like my one
Although there are others
What this does is move the style from being inline and moves them up into the head, its at this point that you can also change the item from being id specific to a class. You could then use that style on other items by adding clases to those other items. Finally if you then use Tims externalise action then those page specific style will be moved to an external css stylesheet.
The final result should be clean HTML with none id specific styles which are in an external style sheet. I am using this method for virtually all my sites now.
Thanks Sly
although I cant take any of the credit as most of the action is cannibalised from Weavers action, Walters action with probably a whole chunk of Tims too.
all the best max
Certainly it’s clever work by you all and I really like the open sharing of the script. Well done and thanks to you all.
It goes some way to solving the issue for me, though until those head styles can go into one external CSS file (rather than one for each page) it’s not quite resolved.
As a professional web designer it’s getting harder for me to justify the cluttered code to clients and prospective clients who scrutinise the code.
That was a major reason I stopped using FW a couple years ago, potential employers were starting to ask too many questions and I didn’t have a suitable answer. Without much greater control over the code my only option was to hand-code. That was the best decision I ever made, though not a viable option for everyone.
Todd
On Jul 30, 2011, at 4:00 AM, Sly wrote:
As a professional web designer it’s getting harder for me to justify the cluttered code to clients and prospective clients who scrutinise the code.
As the Externalize action creates a separate .css file for every page only, do you combine the .css files into one somehow, or just leave them as separate css for every page?
Thanks,
Sly.
What this does is move the style from being inline and moves them up into the head, its at this point that you can also change the item from being id specific to a class. You could then use that style on other items by adding clases to those other items. Finally if you then use Tims externalise action then those page specific style will be moved to an external css stylesheet.
The final result should be clean HTML with none id specific styles which are in an external style sheet. I am using this method for virtually all my sites now.
I think you’re going to have to keep them separate, because Freeway
doesn’t enforce the uniform use of element IDs from page to page. If
you have a box called ‘nav’ on one page, and a box called ‘nav’ on
another page, and they either refer to two different logical elements,
or the two similar elements are a different size, you’re going to end
up with two styles named #nav, and the last one to appear in the
merged stylesheet will “win”.
This is a very hard problem to solve neatly from the perspective of a
WYSIWYG designer’s tool, by the way, so it’s not surprising to me that
Softpress have taken this long and still not cracked it. A propeller-
beanie CSS geek would set up a few master styles, then apply them to
the boxes as she codes, and know what they should look like from a
code perspective. But that’s a different brain, and the results very
often tell!
Walter
On Aug 10, 2011, at 4:21 AM, Sly wrote:
As the Externalize action creates a separate .css file for every
page only, do you combine the .css files into one somehow, or just
leave them as separate css for every page?
It would be slightly neater if the css files were all put into the css folder. But even that is quite a task as I understand it, because all the image path names are relative to the page.