v8.5.0 beta released

[leehack]

some beta testers.

Would that be the killed a black cat, struck by lightening and lost the winning lottery ticket Malcolm?

[RuralWeb]

Thats me Im going in for a second try now - see you at 3 in the morning!

[completerookie]

there you go again, claiming there's two 3'oclocks in a single day ( or should that be 24hrs)

[CymraegKev]

friendly help:

http://www.kdmtechnologies.com/kdmtechnologies.asp

in your sig. is borked.

Fully aware thanks - am updating the site with my new Vista Aero look and feel....

[cbarling]

Has anyone tried the new design features in v8.5? These are particularly edit layouts in Dreamweaver in similar manner to editing in the v7 DW extensions and right click on class to edit in CSS file), and are our response to "popular demand".

Would be interested to heer if people can get these working.

Chris

[pinbrook]

Has anyone tried the new design features in v8.5? These are particularly edit layouts in Dreamweaver in similar manner to editing in the v7 DW extensions and right click on class to edit in CSS file), and are our response to "popular demand".

i'm holding off 8.5 for a month or 2 - to see how it settles before jumping in.

Would be interested to heer if people can get these working.

this makes it sound as if you aren't very confident about it, how about providing some documentation rather than feeding us to the dogs. Testing and experimenting all takes time so it wouldbe nice to get a helpig hand?

[RuralWeb]

These are particularly edit layouts in Dreamweaver in similar manner to editing in the v7 DW extensions and right click on class to edit in CSS file), and are our response to "popular demand".

I have posted about this on another thread to say that the DW editing works very well especially with the tabled designs and does exactly what the old template manager did if not better - so I for one am VERY impressed that you have got this working again.

As we discussed on the telephone back in July 06 I felt that removing this feature was the biggest fault in V8 and having it back will I think make V8 a killer application.

As for the CSS edit - Ive not tried it yet but I imagine it will help a great deal as wading through the css file is a pain.

[impos]

Get it working!

Hi have created a new basic default actinic site- the one when you select new site. In Dreamweaver I am unable to see which file to edit as it does not show any of the traditional brochure pages. - Which one do I edit to change the content page?. There do not seem to any HTML pages in this directory.

Might need some documentation to follow this.

[RuralWeb]

Remember you need the 8.5 beta to see this functionality and it is BETA with a few bugs so dont use it to build sites. If you read the release notes it tells you how it works - its new to all of us.

Open the design view of the test site and at the bottom you will see the edit in DW button.

[RuralWeb]

Which one do I edit to change the content page?

The DW extension is only designed to allow changes to the outer layer (Template in V7). If you want to do changes to the body of the page you will need to work in the inner layer within V8 not DW - although you can copy and paste code between the two.

[impos]

Browser check errors

I have 8.5 Beta . It is coming up with 50 browser check errors but this is not important. I cannot see how to change the content page layout.

In V7 and Dreamweaver this was easy but in V 8- In v7 I canopen Actbrochureprimary.html and edit it but in V8 -nothing.

Am I missing something?

[RuralWeb]

In V7 and Dreamweaver this was easy but in V 8- In v7 I canopen Actbrochureprimary.html and edit it but in V8 -nothing

STOP - V8 is TOTALLY different to V7. You would be best searching the forum as most of the basics of V8 have been discussed in great detail over the last 6 months.

What you did in V7 will no longer work with V8 - Templates have gone and are now replaced with an outer and inner layer.

[george]

STOP - V8 is TOTALLY different to V7. You would be best searching the forum as most of the basics of V8 have been discussed in great detail over the last 6 months.

What you did in V7 will no longer work with V8 - Templates have gone and are now replaced with an outer and inner layer.

Malc, on behalf of Andy and the number of people now looking at v8 for the first time a wee paragraph explaining how the (old) templates are now merged into these layers in v8 may help. Just to have a little more understanding of the new engine compared to the old one?

[leehack]

As for the CSS edit - Ive not tried it yet but I imagine it will help a great deal as wading through the css file is a pain.

This is a nice improvement for sure, the CSS file is nothing short of a joke and needs a complete overhaul. I would like to see them move towards a global CSS file for styles across all themes and then a second CSS file specific to each theme.

It's a really simple concept - theme specific css in a theme specific css file and global css in a global css file. Maintenance is the easiest you can get it and site owners, developers and alike will all benefit.

Now on the surface it may seem like that's going to be a whole load of files for them to maintain, but in fact it isn't, that is the whole point of a global css file. If Actinic, a developer or a site owner want to change something they go to the specific css file for that theme.

In addition, to help when looking at styles, any style within the global file is prefixed with GB, so when you are looking through coding it is very clear where you need to go to change it. If prefixed with GB e.g. #GBmenuHeader or .GBlogoHeader then its the global file, if not then it's the theme specific file.

This would result in a site having CSS as the web is moving toward. One huge CSS file (as we currently have) is large (at least a 75% wasted download), a pain in the backside to navigate and more importantly than anything is so inefficient and negates some of the advantages of CSS.

A theme specific CSS file would also remove the styling that we see within the code itself, which once again goes against using CSS. These are to overwrite styles already in the stylesheet and is just another area, where they are code bloating for no other reason than it's easier that way.

In V8 we now have a great piece of software that easily caters for the masses, we have a fantastic forum (maybe too good, people just ask instead of investigating now) and we have great documentation. Get the CSS streamlined, written CORRECTLY and make all of our lives easier.

[RuralWeb]

wee paragraph explaining how the (old) templates are now merged into these layers in v8 may help

OK - As simplistic as I can. In v7 the design was controlled by templates - two main ones controlling the outer design act_primary and act_brochureprimary and many smaller ones that made up the body of each page eg product layout. Editing of these could be done through DW using the template manager or opening the templates direct from Site1.

In V8 these templates have been replaced an outer layout (V7 act_primary and act_brochureprimary) and a series of other layouts which can be added to control the content. The other main one being the Inner layout which holds the main content of the page.

The outer layout can be linked to DW using the DW extension so you can create a design in DW, insert Actinic "bits" and register it with Actinic as the design for all or specific pages OR you can now open a design from Actinic in DW as we did with V7.

The outer layout can be edited in DW or Actinic but generally the inner layout can only be edited in Actinic ( you can if you copy and paste). This is all beacuse the layouts are contained within the database and not site1 as they were with V7.

CSS is another area which has changed in that it is controlled withing Actinic - if you need to link your own css file then see the AUG for how to do it.

It will be hard for people moving from V7 to get to grips with V8 - I know because Ive spent the last 6 months learning it as have the other regulars and if you look back at the threads from july/aug last year you will see that we were all having major problems with it BUT thing have become easier and most of the bugs have been fixed so its getting better every day.

I now struggle to get my head round V7 when I have to work on it