I’ve just purchased 5.5 and am starting a new site which I’d like to be done in “box model” style. I’ve learned how to do this manually in Freeway, and was wondering what others like me think of the Relative Page Layout action.
For experienced box modellers who have had the chance to try out the RPL action, how does it compare to manually building the site? I’m sure it’s extremely easy to use, and can save me literally hours of time, but are there any downsides you’ve discovered? Do any of you still prefer to build inline sites manually? Thanks!
I might not be the best person to reply as I prefer to hand code, but
that said, I have used the RPL action for testing purposes and it is
rather amazing how easily an inline layout can be built. But (big
but), for very complex layouts it does seem to struggle, at least in
my experience, and it does not allow for liquid layouts. If you can
keep your layout relatively simple and fixed in width, it’s a great
asset.
You can also combine techniques with part built as box model and part not, but output with RPL applied. The sticky issue though is you still have to be cognizant how a box model functions for that portion. Also it is best not to overlap edges too much.
Chuck, I can imagine overlapping items would throw a wrench into RPL. Especially here, the grid is our friend!
One of the things I wonder about with the RPL action is if I lose a bit of ability to sort out problems. Margins, especially, can wreck a bit of havoc if not done just right, but then again, the action likely creates everything perfectly from a code standpoint, so, apart from bogging down a bit with overly complex layouts, how many problems will there likely be?
Yes, there would be some lack of control over certain things. I can see my suggestion working for headers/menu bars that remain static more or less using the RPL, with the box model area being the content area that would expand with a footer. Upper portion being master page oriented and the rest would be per page box model.
So just to confirm, the action is OK with combining box model with regular layers?
I did notice this done in one of the templets that came with the new 5.5. Was leery of this as I thought the whole site had to be build with standard drag and drop CSS layers.
Take a look here for an example of inflow items (commonly called box model) being used to make the header, body and footer stretch the full width of the page, and the RPL Action positioning the rest of the items.