| ||||||
Review: Macromedia Contribute 2Reviewed By: Kirk Hiner Review Date: August 31, 2003
Macromedia has driven the final nail into FrontPage's coffin. Actually, that's not entirely accurate. FrontPage was built in a coffin from which it never really clawed its way out to begin with. But if there's one thing I've learned about devoted Microsoft users, it's that they don't mind working with the undead. Although Dreamweaver MX has been and continues to be, far and away, the better tool, I know of some web developers who still prefer to stick with FrontPage because of those FrontPage extensions. Now, I've worked with FrontPage extensions many times. I've had good luck with them, I've had bad luck with them. Our server will tell you the same thing. But, the one good thing they do is make it easy for a client to make his own changes to a website. With FrontPage extensions, he needs only visit the site in Internet Explorer, click the edit button, and type in a user name and password (provided he also has FrontPage installed on his machine). He can then make any changes he wants, click save, and they're online, ready to go. This gets scary, however, when the clients get ambitious. Sure, they all say they just want to update a calendar or add press releases, but it's never long before they want to add graphics, edit contact forms, or (horror of horrors) mess around with the include files. Suddenly, that site on which you've worked so hard now can't even been shown as a fair example of your quality of work. With Contribute 2, Macromedia could have just created an equivalent of what FrontPage can do with extensions. They could have just developed a program that makes it easy for clients to make their own changes and been done with it. Thankfully, the development team at Macromedia understand what it's like to be a web developer. They realize that, although it would be great to allow clients to make minor edits (freeing up the developer's time for the meatier work that pays the bill), there's plenty of code on a web page to which the masses should simply not have access. Macromedia has realize this, and they've realized a whole lot more. Installation of Contribute 2 is designed to be simple for the client. The instructions are very straightforward, the Quick Start guide is informative without being intimidating, and a tutorial option presents itself right away to help new users get started. This is sure to ease the comfort level of your clients, but you just know they'll keep calling you for support regardless. Another option that presents itself right away is the ability to locate and support .mac accounts. Unfortunately, because I don't have a .mac account, I was unable to test this feature. Beyond this, though, let me illustrate just how easy it is for a user to log onto a website and make some basic changes.
Upon launching Contribute 2, the user is presented with a browser-type window. On the Mac, this browser is based on Opera (Internet Explorer on the PC). If the site currently being viewed has not be set up for connection, a message announcing this will appear at the top of the browser window. The client can use Contribute 2's browser to visit the page that needs to be edited, then simply click the Create Connection button. Here, information such as name and e-mail address are required so that the web developer will know who has accessed the site and how to reach her. Of course, FTP information (including user name and password) are also required to prevent anyone with Contribute 2 from editing just any old site.
After the connection has been made, the user clicks the Edit page button to switch to edit mode. This creates a draft of the page (which can take some time to set up if the page is fairly complex) to which the client can make changes. Once these are done, the client can either cancel the changes, save them for publication later, or publish them directly online. One problem here is that a fourth option, Publish As New Page, is not presented in the main button bar. When my clients perform their own edits in FrontPage, I often have them "Save As" so they can first test their changes in a web browser, then go back to save their new page over the old one. I would recommend the same for clients using Contribute 2, so I'd like for that ability to be more prominent. On the other hand, Macromedia has implemented a "Roll Back to Previous Version" option in the event that things should go horribly awry. It should also be noted that there's no option in Contribute 2 to view the actual HTML code, as there is in FrontPage. I found this a little too constrictive at first, but removing this capability could prevent a lot of problems down the road, and hey...editing code directly is what Dreamweaver's for, right?
Of course, for web developers, this gets scary. Very, very scary. We all know what FrontPage likes to do with code it doesn't recognize...and quite often even with code it does recognize. For instance, when copying text from Microsoft Word to FrontPage, Microsoft assumes you want the text to look exactly the same and will therefore insert a ridiculous amount of non-compliant code to make this happen. The only way to get around this is to select "Paste Special" when inserting the text, but good luck convincing your clients that this is a necessary step worth remembering. In Contribute 2, all Microsoft tags are automatically stripped when copying and pasting, so your CSS can do its job. And speaking of CSS, Contribute 2 reads style sheets without much difficulty. I occasionally had problems viewing my Fireworks-generated pop-up menus when in Contribute 2's browse mode, but they worked fine in edit mode. Even better, as with DreamWeaver, Contribute 2 fully supports server side include files. Because FrontPage doesn't, our clients don't get to see the full page when they're performing their edits. We prefer it that way, as it also means they can't edit the content within the include files (although a few have accidentally deleted them when the couldn't remember what that exclamation mark icon was for). However, many of our clients have trouble visualizing the changes if they can't see them within the full content of the page. In Contribute 2, this isn't a problem. The include content is viewable, but it still cannot be edited. The best of both worlds. This is all well and good, but do you really want the client to be able to edit everything? No. Sometimes, even items outside of include files should be off limits, and Contribute 2 offers multiple ways to control this. The sites Administrator can define editable regions and assign passwords to these regions so that not everyone on the client's end can access each element of a site. Some may edit news releases only, some may have access to just a calendar area, and some may have both. That's up to you and the client. There are some drawbacks to this set-up. First, in order to have this kind of control, a lot of extra coding must be considered up front. This will increase the time needed to develop a website, and we all know how clients feel about signing that initial work order. As a web developer, you'll most likely have to be willing to swallow a few hours with the understanding that it'll ultimately save you from lost work time due to support and minor edits down the road. Also, sites that have been already developed will need to be overhauled. Aside from setting up the editable regions, developers may have to restructure the site's hierarchy. For instance, when adding new images, Contribute 2 likes to make sure they're going into an "/images" folder. If you weren't using such a folder or had multiple images folders set up, this could prove to get quite messy. Macromedia knows that, with all of these edits going on, there needs to be a way of keeping track of who did what. As is usually the case with Macromedia, they've given us multiple ways. The easiest is the traditional check-in/check-out method. Checking out a file means that no one else can touch it while you perform your edits, and checking in a file makes it read only so others can see your changes without allowing them to make more of their own. If a client has made a change to a page, you will be alerted to this by means of a note icon which appears in the Dreamweaver FTP window. Outside of Dreamweaver, you'll have to rely on date modification listings (which tend to be wildly inaccurate to begin with) or overwrite warning messages. FrontPage users are used to all of this, however, as they have no choice but to deal with it. Also, if the person editing the site so prefers, she can chose "E-Mail Review" when she's done with her changes as opposed to simply saving it. This will create a temporary folder where predetermined reviewers can check it out. These reviewers are automatically notified of the URL via e-mail. Upon approval, the changes can then be saved online which automatically deletes the temporary folder and its contents. My fellow web developers, that is officially sweet! There are a couple smaller but equally nice features as well. Contribute 2's method of handling images is much more user-friendly than that of FrontPage's (that whole "embedding files" warning in FrontPage continues to fluster our clients), and I like the option to easily save the changes for later in case the edits can't be completed in one setting. As users of FrontPage know, the only way to do this simply in there is to save the file online using a different name. If I like that feature, then I love the features that allows you set a maximum file size for each graphics. No more clients uploading 300dpi 5MB graphic files then calling you to complain that their pages are loading too slowly. And hey, how about this? Ebay users especially will be thrilled to note that Contribute 2 contains a wizard for the simple creation of PayPal E-Commerce transaction capabilities. You must already have an PayPal account, of course, but, aside from the normal transaction fees, there are no other payments required to start receiving credit purchases online from other PayPal users. And web developers are likely to explode when they see this feature: Contribute 2 allows the administrator to turn off font editing capabilities. You can control whether they see the HTML styles, CSS styles, neither, or both, and you can determine whether they are allowed to alter the fonts and sizes using either HTML tags or inline CSS styles...or neither. In other words, no more clients suddenly deciding that a bright red, 18 point, Century School Book typeface would do a better job of highlighting a heading than the <h3> tag you've already defined in your style sheet.
Unfortunately, it isn't all good news. Contribute 2 tends to insert what I deem unnecessary code when changes are being made. For instance, in Dreamweaver MX, my paragraph tags are simply that; <p>. However, after making an edit to a paragraph in Contribute 2 and viewing the code in Dreamweaver, I found that my paragraph tags had been replaced with <p style"margin-top; 0;">. Isn't this more of a FrontPage behavior? Also, although I appreciate the way Contribute 2 allows the administrator to control the type options, I wish the integration between font and style drop-down menus was a little easier for new users to understand. Another drawback, although not with this program, is that it's not included in the upcoming release of Studio MX 2004. Whether extensive Contribute 2 tools are built into Studio MX 2004 remains to be seen, but regardless, it would be nice to have a copy for when those inevitable support calls come in from confused clients. It's much easier to guide them through a program when you have the same program installed on your computer, of course. Also, the lack of synchronicity between the PC and Mac versions may make it difficult for Mac users to answer questions from clients using PCs. Beyond these, though, I'm thrilled with what Contribute 2 can do. The Mac version needs to do a little catching up with its PC counterpart, but that'll come. Also, its learning curve is steeper than I expected for both the developer and the content editors, but it makes life easier for both in ways of which FrontPage could only dream. As I worked through this review, I was constantly adding clients to a list of those who could benefit from its capabilities...if only my boss weren't so married to Microsoft and would seriously consider the alternatives. But hey, maybe this'll be incentive enough. If you're a web developer with quite a few clients, you may be happy to know that Macromedia does offer a reseller commission. This affiliate program is free, and there's no minimum sales requirement. Quite simply, each sale made through this relationship will pay you 10 percent on recommendations and referrals, with a check being cut each quarter in which you earn $25 or more. Granted, you have to link to Macromedia from your website, which seems like kind of a smarmy thing to ask a client to do, but can you imagine Microsoft making such a deal? I doubt they could afford it right now; funerals aren't cheap, and they're going to have a lot of copies of FrontPage to bury.
 [an error occurred while processing this directive] |
. |
Cool Mac Gear• iPod 1G-2G • iPod 3G • iPod 4G • iPod Mini • PowerBook-iBook • Keyboard Skins • Garageband
| ||||
As a result, this is a very clean, non-intimidating method for clients to make changes to their own website. On the left hand side of the browser window is a complete "How Do I..." section that answers many questions in a friendly, easy to navigate way. I'd like if there were some diagrams here instead of just text instructions, but these can be found in the Tutorial and the Quick Start Guide that are easily accessible from the Help menu.