apologies for the late answer. In general if there’s a layout discrepancy between the in-canvas view and the browser output we will need you to send the .sparkle file that shows the issue and we can investigate. I agree the color shouldn’t make a different, so perhaps there’s some combination of font and exact text frame width that’s causing the problem. We generally solve these quickly and send out a pre-release of Sparkle or a workaround when this happens.
The problem with missing TTF/OTF is Sparkle is rendering the canvas not via HTML but via native code, and we currently don’t have a way to import a woff. I’m not really sure how code access would help you here, as you might get the effect you need in the final published site but you still can’t show the fonts in canvas.
Thanks for the suggestion about rulers. They’re on our list already, but we’re always happy to hear new ideas.
Duncan
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Duncan,
Excuse me if I am re-asking. Did I understand correctly that there is no way to include a way for my client to make simple edits to areas of text or to upload a photo to a designated block? A simple content management system is a requirement of MANY clients these days and would be something I would need to make Sparkle my go-to web design software.
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I don’t recall you asking, sorry for dropping the ball on this. Sparkle doesn’t include a CMS and doesn’t integrate with any either.
There are several reasons for this. One is that we haven’t found a CMS that will produce code on par with Sparkle’s, particularly for responsive images. Another is the CMSs I have seen have a really terrible, decontextualized interface for the end users. Yet another is Sparkle’s code output is a very tight knit combination of layout and content, so a seemingly simple edit could end up breaking the layout in a way that is not understandable for the end user, not to mention no integration with the built-in style or color management.
Sparkle is itself a CMS (it lets you manage content afterall) that is simple enough for end users to use directly, and many do, not unlike people not using a consultant to build their Powerpoints and Keynotes.
So in essence we are pushing this feature back as we develop other aspects of Sparkle further. Hopefully in the not too distant future it will make sense to revisit this and find a proper solution.
Thanks,
Duncan
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Thank you for the reply Duncan. That would be the deal breaker for me then. I want to offer my clients the opportunity they desire to make simple modifications on their own, such as edit text or images in designated areas. But I do not want to allow them access to the whole site. Using Sparkle as a CMS is great for me, but not for my clients. Thank you.
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Thanks to all for this thread. I maintain my current Freeway sites, but time will come when I have to move forwards. I looked at Sparkle, and thought, I will wait for it to evolve. I am much clearer now on the issues at stake. And for me its simple. I dont want to code. So, no coding, no problem. And I appreciate Duncan’s time and attention to issues raised. That kind of responsiveness makes a difference in my confidence about jumping platforms.
One of the things stellar about Freeway was FreewayTalk, and the example set by the Freeway staff, who would answer all queries and problem, in a timely manner, in great detail. I consider the best quality tech-support I have EVER experienced. It made a huge difference in learning Freeway, dealing with problems I came across. I hope that Sparkle will be able to be this responsive, as is evidenced by Duncan on this forum. And yeah, Duncan, your help guide needs to be a little more detailed and searchable. I will be taking advantage of the discount…
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Finally got a chance to learn about picture dimensions … in the Retina world.
Thank you for all the fantastic input & assistance from the FRW community over the years with FRW and its entanglements!
Having now moved on to Sparkle 2.1 what I like is the relative ease with which beautiful webpages can be designed - with live preview and responsiveness as is.
Yes it’s the Smartphone era we’re in and if the bells & whistles aren’t there it’s quite ok for me.
(And the masses are on Facebook anyway
/
with best regards,
Omar KN
Stockholm, Sweden
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Regarding Sparkle 2.1, where did you get it? It doesn’t seem to be on offer
here (U.S.). I have a 2.0.6. The “check for updates” menu choice says that
version is the latest.
Thanks for any info you can give.
On Mon, Jan 16, 2017 at 4:28 PM, OmarKN email@hidden wrote:
Hi and good day,
Finally got a chance to learn about picture dimensions … in the Retina
world.
Thank you for all the fantastic input & assistance from the FRW community
over the years with FRW and its entanglements!
Having now moved on to Sparkle 2.1 what I like is the relative ease with
which beautiful webpages can be designed - with live preview and
responsiveness as is.
Yes it’s the Smartphone era we’re in and if the bells & whistles aren’t
there it’s quite ok for me.
(And the masses are on Facebook anyway
Sparkle (co)developer here. Really sorry about the tease, we actually give out 2.1 betas when there’s a critical bug that the beta fixes, in an effort to be helpful and solve our users’ troubles with Sparkle.
We really wouldn’t have the ability to respond to the feedback that a widespread distribution of the beta would entail, so we keep it limited.
We haven’t announced the 2.1 release date yet, but we’re in the final phases of the development cycle so it shouldn’t be long.
Thanks, Duncan. Omar’s note made me wonder if I had somehow missed the
release.
I will wait (mostly) patiently for 2.1.
Ranald
On Mon, Jan 16, 2017 at 7:24 PM, Duncan Wilcox email@hidden
wrote:
Hi Ranald,
Sparkle (co)developer here. Really sorry about the tease, we actually give
out 2.1 betas when there’s a critical bug that the beta fixes, in an effort
to be helpful and solve our users’ troubles with Sparkle.
We really wouldn’t have the ability to respond to the feedback that a
widespread distribution of the beta would entail, so we keep it limited.
We haven’t announced the 2.1 release date yet, but we’re in the final
phases of the development cycle so it shouldn’t be long.
I use Sparkle and find their support to be second to non, there are many shortfalls with the app but it’s great value and I have no doubt whatsoever it will get better and better.
I had an issue and was given 2.1 which fixed it - panic over after issues with freeway only to find Softpress doors closed caused a significant financial loss in late '16 . My business like so many others is 100% web dependent for new prospects - though we have a great repeat and referral rate we always need new blood. I managed to get a couple of hundred page website rebuilt in rudimentary form in pretty short order. I have had menu, font and memory issues but found easy workarounds.
All in all I found a 9/10 app in my hour of greatest need.
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You said you rebuilt “a couple hundred pages” in Sparkle. By chance, were those very basic pages, or did you have a lot of Actions and/or HTML markup on them?
Thanks,
James Wages
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You said you rebuilt “a couple hundred pages” in Sparkle. By chance, were those very basic pages, or did you have a lot of Actions and/or HTML markup on them?
Hi James,
I’m not sure what site Tom built.
Just to clarify Sparkle doesn’t have “actions”, and while HTML blocks are possible they’re not the primary way to create content in Sparkle, and they don’t affect publishing performance.
We have seen very large sites built by our customers, and while I’d say that going above 100 pages is pushing the limit, there’s nothing in Sparkle actively preventing it.
The trouble is mainly navigating the site, the thumbnail list on the left of the window limits the number of visible pages to about 5 (depending on the screen height), so it’s impractical to have hundreds. We are aware of this and will improve it. Meanwhile the Sparkle engine is happy to export/publish any number of pages with any content.
Duncan
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The reason why I have been hoping to hear back from Tom T-D is because I wanted to know if all of those “hundreds of Freeway pages” originally used lots of Actions and HTML Markup. My sites certainly do, and so if he informs me that his site in Freeway used a lot of actions and custom markup too, then it would be a clear indication to me that Sparkle would be the proper tool for me to make a transition away from Freeway. Right now, I am still using Freeway, mainly because I have two huge sites that rely on a lot of custom HTML Markup code and Actions. And while I understand that I must rebuild everything again in Sparkle, knowing that my rebuilt sites would work as well as the original Freeway sites is a concern that has held me back from moving to another app. And I’ll be completely honest, there are only 2 apps that I’ve personally considered to be prospective alternatives to Freeway for me: (1) Sparkle and (2) Blocs.
So, Tom T-D, if you are still watching this thread, I would appreciate having your feedback.
Many thanks!
James Wages
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I recently needed to get a new site up. I had hoped to move from Freeway Pro to Pinegrow but never managed to find the time to get to grips with Pinegrow before the trial expired. Pinegrow really needs a 30 day trial for non-professionals like me.
For whatever reasons Freeway Pro 7 with Backdraft was not playing nicely with my design for an Ecwid based site.
Duncan had been very helpful when I trialled Sparkle earlier even letting me have a copy of the beta of 2.1 which allowed the Ecwid store to expand vertically. So I thought why not give it a go.
The latest version was Sparkle Pro 2.2.1 and two things were immediately evident:
This is a very intuitive app for anyone coming from Freeway.
Forget Sparkle’s automatic scaling across devices (sorry Duncan!)
Once you realise that you will have to manually intervene at every device size life become much easier. As Caleb noted earlier in this thread Sparkle is not truly responsive. But with a little effort you can make make a pretty good pass at it!
Anyway, I managed to create what I wanted in Sparkle (and a few tweaks to its generated code with Brackets - setting height of an image to 100vh and applying text-shadow) pretty quickly. The results, still a work in progress (my real business is growing plants as you’ll see) can be seen here:
For a straightforward single page site Sparkle Pro proved to be an excellent replacement for Freeway Pro. I’ll be adding more pages and more detail over the next few weeks, which is why I have purchased the Pro version, but see no reason why there should be problems.
Steve
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I guess the lingering bigger question is “when” and “what” will the next incarnation of FreeWay be? Likewise, will those whom moved on to other apps have enough reason to be enticed back to being FreeWay users after moving on?
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Simply stated … almost every single Freeway alternative offers (far) more than whatever Freeway did when it hit the iceberg. So any new app that will be released by Softpress has to -at least- beat these apps, we’re not ‘here’ just for nostalgic reasons. Freeway did have a lot of potential in it’s former life, but wrong choices were made and well … we know what happened then.
Blocs offers some awesome stuff, and in my case Coffeecup offers a whole bunch of apps who just work together seamlessly. They could learn a thing or two from Freeway; even Freeway 1 offered functionalities I miss dearly in today’s Responsive Site Designer. But even though it still runs circles around Freeway 7 … it’s all that I’ve ever wanted and more.
Nevertheless I’m still around, Freeway was my first love … so for as long as there’s a light turned on in Softpress towers, I’m here for support and pure enthusiasm.
– Richard
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No, I’m still updating my existing sites with Freeway Pro 7. I’ve also been helping out in the Blocs Beta process, because it shows a lot of promise. But for me to move completely to it means I need some missing features like an easy means to create responsive tabular data and a site wide search feature. Neither of those features will likely see the light of day until sometime in 2018.
So for now, ditto what Richard said.
James Wages
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Testing the design in Safari’s responsive design mode showed that Sparkle did not scale well automatically between the devices. Some of the issues were minor but a few moments spent adjusting the design on the intermediate devices was, in my view, worthwhile.
Therefore, I actually used all of Sparkles five devices and also needed to override some behaviour using Ecwid’s custom CSS.
The majority of my traffic is, as you say, mobiles and tablets - 80% in fact. But - and this may be for another thread entirely. purchases from my other sites are still about 50% desktop. I guess that people either like to purchase securely in their own homes or the purchase is a shared decision.
Richard is spot on - if Freeway does rise from the ashes then it has some serious work to do to tackle the likes of Blocs, Pinegrow, the whole Responsive suite and Adobe Muse, too.
My biggest fear is just how long will Freeway work with MacOS - the next release (High Sierra) probably due in around a month promises a new file system. New file systems usually mean problems so I won’t be an early adopter!
Frankly, if you are a serious web site builder rather than a casual user, then you have a plethora of frameworks and supporting tools to choose from.
The real problem is the maintenance of Freeway legacy sites, some of which may have many many pages. Sparkle will not help - if Freeway folds you will need access to the HTML and CSS it generated.
I really do see why Thomas went down the Pinegrow route…
Steve
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There ultimately is one choice you have to make when choosing a website builder.
You want to future proof your website forever.
You want to create content without much fuss and with a high level tool that helps and simplifies.
For some reason many people seem to conflate the two, as if there really can be a tool that solves both.
That’s a practical impossibility. A hypothetical tool that was visual enough to meaningfully hide all HTML and CSS concepts, while working with just the HTML file, would need to extract meaning that isn’t conveyed by just HTML.
What use is a visual editor that doesn’t let you edit a slideshow as a slideshow, but only as a collection of images with a weird layout? #2 tools have their own internal concept of what a slideshow is, and save that to their own proprietary file format, which then lets you edit the slideshow directly.
So all this is to say, if you want #1 you can’t escape the HTML common denominator, which means using non-visual tools (or visual tools which ultimately drop you down into HTML/CSS), integrating different components at the code level and generally having an understanding of what the different parts of HTML, CSS and JavaScript do.
#1 is a perfectly reasonable thing to pursue, there’s a great choice of tools. These days web technologies are so many and so complex that it kind of requires HTML/CSS to become your job, to follow along the coding community and to own your tools and frameworks. But I’m certainly biased.
If you can’t do #1 or actually prefer #2, you’re in luck. There are many tools, their existence is legitimate and not an alternative to #1 tools.
Just don’t hold your breath for something that does both 1 and 2. They’re lying if they promise, and will fail in delivering (see Macaw).
I feel a bit of an intruder on this forum, and wish the Freeway folks luck. This is an excellent, tight knit community, definitely a great asset.
Duncan
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