Webmaster forum - Currently using Dreamweaver/Contribte

Author

Currently using Dreamweaver/Contribte - what's the MS equivalent?

Kevin Blount

2007-10-22, 6:19 pm

Some time ago I made the decision to re-write my companies website
with .NET. As I was limited to allowing not Web Developers to write
content, I had to searh for ways to allow me to control how these
authors could interact with the site, so as not to screw anything up.
At the time (which itself was limited) I found that if I used
Dreamweaver to create the site itself, I could also create templates
that could be used by Contribute to create static marketing pages,
without being able to delete or changes background design or code.

It all still works reasonably today, but I'm looking now to start
using Visual Studio more directly for my own work. I'm wondering if
there is now any solution from Microsoft that might allow me to create
the site in VS2005, but still allow me to create roles for authors
(i.e. this person can create new pages, but needs to send for review;
this person can review and publish pages; this person can only
publish) and allow authoring based on Master Pages, but without all
the confusing aspects of VS2005 (to non-developers).

Is there any MS version of the Contribute & Dreamweaver partnership?

SpaceGirl

2007-10-22, 6:19 pm

On Oct 22, 2:02 pm, Kevin Blount <kevin.blo...@XXXXXXXXXX> wrote:
> Some time ago I made the decision to re-write my companies website
> with .NET. As I was limited to allowing not Web Developers to write
> content, I had to searh for ways to allow me to control how these
> authors could interact with the site, so as not to screw anything up.
> At the time (which itself was limited) I found that if I used
> Dreamweaver to create the site itself, I could also create templates
> that could be used by Contribute to create static marketing pages,
> without being able to delete or changes background design or code.
>
> It all still works reasonably today, but I'm looking now to start
> using Visual Studio more directly for my own work. I'm wondering if
> there is now any solution from Microsoft that might allow me to create
> the site in VS2005, but still allow me to create roles for authors
> (i.e. this person can create new pages, but needs to send for review;
> this person can review and publish pages; this person can only
> publish) and allow authoring based on Master Pages, but without all
> the confusing aspects of VS2005 (to non-developers).
>
> Is there any MS version of the Contribute & Dreamweaver partnership?

Microsoft Expression. DW CS3 is better though, IMO.

Kevin Blount

2007-10-22, 6:19 pm

Thanks SpaceGirl. I heard about Expression las week at the VSLive
conference in Vegas, but it was specifically the 'Blend' version,
which I think is more Silverlight than websites.

The issues I'm finding with DW/CS3 are:
- DW8 doesn't have the .NET intellisense that VS does (big loss when
you're a relatively new C# programmer like me!)
- DW uses templats to create pages, and so does CS3. So, how to
codebehind/codefile pages work? My understanding is that they cannot.
So, my template has a single codefile (I'm using 2.0) page, i.e. every
page on the site uses the same codefile, making updates a big issue. I
was hoping that by using VS/Expression I could use Master Pages, but
each .aspx would still have it's own codefile.

That's it really.. I'd be interested in your opinion on those two
points

Kevin

On Oct 22, 9:34 am, SpaceGirl <nothespacegirls...@subhuman.net> wrote:
> On Oct 22, 2:02 pm, Kevin Blount <kevin.blo...@XXXXXXXXXX> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Microsoft Expression. DW CS3 is better though, IMO.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Kevin Blount

2007-10-24, 6:18 pm

On Oct 22, 2:00 pm, Kevin Blount <kevin.blo...@XXXXXXXXXX> wrote:
> Thanks SpaceGirl. I heard about Expression las week at the VSLive
> conference in Vegas, but it was specifically the 'Blend' version,
> which I think is more Silverlight than websites.
>
> The issues I'm finding with DW/CS3 are:
> - DW8 doesn't have the .NET intellisense that VS does (big loss when
> you're a relatively new C# programmer like me!)
> - DW uses templats to create pages, and so does CS3. So, how to
> codebehind/codefile pages work? My understanding is that they cannot.
> So, my template has a single codefile (I'm using 2.0) page, i.e. every
> page on the site uses the same codefile, making updates a big issue. I
> was hoping that by using VS/Expression I could use Master Pages, but
> each .aspx would still have it's own codefile.
>
> That's it really.. I'd be interested in your opinion on those two
> points
>
> Kevin
>
> On Oct 22, 9:34 am, SpaceGirl <nothespacegirls...@subhuman.net> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> - Show quoted text -

/shameless bump, as I really would value some advice here..

SpaceGirl

2007-10-24, 6:18 pm

Kevin Blount wrote:
> On Oct 22, 2:00 pm, Kevin Blount <kevin.blo...@XXXXXXXXXX> wrote:
>
> /shameless bump, as I really would value some advice here..
>

:)

Okay, well. I've never used Templates in DreamWeaver, but they are there
and are apparently pretty good. .NET integration... hm well, hardly any
at all really, but that doesn't matter much. We tend to hand code
anyway. In ASP classic DW works great, mapping all our datasources and
everything. Best thing abou DWCS3 is all the new AJAX stuff (SPRY) .
very powerful, like it a lot.

We use includes when building a site - header, footer, functions. So
it's very simple to create a new page and simply include those elements
and all the page setup is done for you. We do it by hand, but that's no
big deal!

I'm really new to the .net way of things, and I cannot stand visual
studio. Seems to me to only be any good if you want your site/web app to
look like a Visual Studio application! All of our work is VERY visual,
so it just didn't work well for us at all.

But, I'm working 90% if Flash now so either way doesn't bother me that
much as I rarely see it! I work in Flash's own code editor, or
DreamWeaver when I have to dabble in back end code or HTML or CSS.

--

x theSpaceGirl (miranda)

http://www.northleithmill.com

-.-

Kammy has a new home: http://www.bitesizedjapan.com

Chaddy2222

2007-10-24, 6:18 pm

SpaceGirl wrote:
> Kevin Blount wrote:
>
> :)
>
> Okay, well. I've never used Templates in DreamWeaver, but they are there
> and are apparently pretty good. .NET integration... hm well, hardly any
> at all really, but that doesn't matter much. We tend to hand code
> anyway. In ASP classic DW works great, mapping all our datasources and
> everything. Best thing abou DWCS3 is all the new AJAX stuff (SPRY) .
> very powerful, like it a lot.
>
I have had a look at DW8, it was not bad.

> We use includes when building a site - header, footer, functions. So
> it's very simple to create a new page and simply include those elements
> and all the page setup is done for you. We do it by hand, but that's no
> big deal!
>
I do a similar thing with my sites, but with PHP includes useing
KompoZer http://www.kompozer.net it's the bug fix for NVU.

> I'm really new to the .net way of things, and I cannot stand visual
> studio. Seems to me to only be any good if you want your site/web app to
> look like a Visual Studio application! All of our work is VERY visual,
> so it just didn't work well for us at all.
>
> But, I'm working 90% if Flash now so either way doesn't bother me that
> much as I rarely see it! I work in Flash's own code editor, or
> DreamWeaver when I have to dabble in back end code or HTML or CSS.
>
>
I have just been working on a new portfolio for my site, I decided to
do it in Flash, as I wanted to set it up so users could just click to
view both the screen shot and a description.
--
Regards Chad. http://freewebdesign.awardspace.biz/portfolio.php