Yet Another Half-Baked Product - Expression Web

I don't know how this thing got released...

In trial mode if you open a web site from a directory and then double click on a page (or anything else you can do to try and get the damn page to open) the page won't open on the first run of the program. It's only the second time you run the program that it works.

And even then, all absolutely pathed files (i.e. /images/bg.gif) without the HTTP part and not relative don't display at all.
 
It also freaks out about master pages that it can't find for the same reason (absolute pathing: /masters/masterpage.master) that work just fine thank you if I load the same web site in VS.NET 2005

How did this get out the door when it doesn't even load the most basic of VS.net 2005 sites and won't open a page for editing the first time you open the application?  The average user, finding that they can't open pages to edit, gives up, closes the application and uninstalls it immediately.

*head shake*

Oh I'm glad you said it! It definitly has some great features like support for ASP.NET, but otherwise I miss FrontPage! FrontPage 2003 feels much more polished that Expression Web does. Like you mentioned, Expression Web does not always do what you tell it to do... or it does it in seemingly random ways. And it's very common to get lockups when working with pages either locally or off the server. If I could find a way to get FrontPage to work correctly on Vista I would use that in a heartbeat, but as it stands Vista breaks basic functions in FrontPage that makes it unusable.

With FrontPage, I would always turn to it when needing to design something for Visual Studio since it's design surface was way better than VS. But now with Expression Web, they are about the same to me. I have so many problems designing in Expression Web that I end up just doing the design in Visual Studio. Now that's sad!

numedia wrote:

Oh I'm glad you said it! It definitly has some great features like support for ASP.NET, but otherwise I miss FrontPage! FrontPage 2003 feels much more polished that Expression Web does. Like you mentioned, Expression Web does not always do what you tell it to do... or it does it in seemingly random ways. And it's very common to get lockups when working with pages either locally or off the server. If I could find a way to get FrontPage to work correctly on Vista I would use that in a heartbeat, but as it stands Vista breaks basic functions in FrontPage that makes it unusable.

With FrontPage, I would always turn to it when needing to design something for Visual Studio since it's design surface was way better than VS. But now with Expression Web, they are about the same to me. I have so many problems designing in Expression Web that I end up just doing the design in Visual Studio. Now that's sad!

blowdart wrote:

Is it me, have I missed it, or is there no method of tying it into source control?

cescotto wrote:


Have you tried DreamWeaver? Its template system and CSS support is amazing. It also can automatically get database informations from the remote server and lets you create queries and insert/delete forms just with a few clicks.

Is Expression Web for the vs.net developer? I had thought it was more for the hobbyist dev.

cescotto wrote:



numedia wrote:Oh I'm glad you said it! It definitly has some great features like support for ASP.NET, but otherwise I miss FrontPage! FrontPage 2003 feels much more polished that Expression Web does. Like you mentioned, Expression Web does not always do what you tell it to do... or it does it in seemingly random ways. And it's very common to get lockups when working with pages either locally or off the server. If I could find a way to get FrontPage to work correctly on Vista I would use that in a heartbeat, but as it stands Vista breaks basic functions in FrontPage that makes it unusable. With FrontPage, I would always turn to it when needing to design something for Visual Studio since it's design surface was way better than VS. But now with Expression Web, they are about the same to me. I have so many problems designing in Expression Web that I end up just doing the design in Visual Studio. Now that's sad!

Have you tried DreamWeaver? Its template system and CSS support is amazing. It also can automatically get database informations from the remote server and lets you create queries and insert/delete forms just with a few clicks.

Sadly we are seeing alot of half-baked products that Microsoft is trying to push out the door way too fast. Just look at XNA... Waay too fast.

Chadk wrote:

Sadly we are seeing alot of half-baked products that Microsoft is trying to push out the door way too fast. Just look at XNA... Waay too fast.

blowdart wrote:



numedia wrote:  blowdart wrote: Is it me, have I missed it, or is there no method of tying it into source control? You can tie into source control via the basic FrontPage or SharePoint check in/out. Otherwise, I check out a page using Visual Studio, then edit that page in Expression Web, then check back in with VS.

So the answer really is no. Relying on FrontPage's version isn't acceptable, even if it has VSS at the back end, because we all know what a big heap of poop that is.

numedia wrote:

Oh I'm glad you said it! It definitly has some great features like support for ASP.NET, but otherwise I miss FrontPage! FrontPage 2003 feels much more polished that Expression Web does. Like you mentioned, Expression Web does not always do what you tell it to do... or it does it in seemingly random ways. And it's very common to get lockups when working with pages either locally or off the server. If I could find a way to get FrontPage to work correctly on Vista I would use that in a heartbeat, but as it stands Vista breaks basic functions in FrontPage that makes it unusable.

With FrontPage, I would always turn to it when needing to design something for Visual Studio since it's design surface was way better than VS. But now with Expression Web, they are about the same to me. I have so many problems designing in Expression Web that I end up just doing the design in Visual Studio. Now that's sad!

numedia wrote:



cescotto wrote:  Have you tried DreamWeaver? Its template system and CSS support is amazing. It also can automatically get database informations from the remote server and lets you create queries and insert/delete forms just with a few clicks.

Used to use Dreamweaver, but couldn't stand the UI. It took took long to get things done and at the time there was no support for the full ASP.NET lineup. Perhaps that's changed now.

Minh wrote:



Chadk wrote: Sadly we are seeing alot of half-baked products that Microsoft is trying to push out the door way too fast. Just look at XNA... Waay too fast.

Well, this is the new MS with the more frequent release cycles. And, um, we've all been asking for this.

No one asked for half-baked software to come out faster. If they are being agile, then I would expect a solid base with a reduced feature set. Not a feature rich, buggy, p.o.s.

Still VS, kicks a$$. I use dreamweaver in combination, but only to have a rich code editor for the visual aspects of html. I can't stand front page, and I have been looking forward to expressions web. I guess I have to wait till it gets more mature.

ronin1855 wrote:



Minh wrote: Chadk wrote: Sadly we are seeing alot of half-baked products that Microsoft is trying to push out the door way too fast. Just look at XNA... Waay too fast. Well, this is the new MS with the more frequent release cycles. And, um, we've all been asking for this.

No one asked for half-baked software to come out faster. If they are being agile, then I would expect a solid base with a reduced feature set. Not a feature rich, buggy, p.o.s.

Still VS, kicks a$$. I use dreamweaver in combination, but only to have a rich code editor for the visual aspects of html. I can't stand front page, and I have been looking forward to expressions web. I guess I have to wait till it gets more mature.

Well, I think w/ the advent of the service packs, you can have all 3 points of the golden triangle: features, time, budget.

Minh wrote:

Well, I think w/ the advent of the service packs, you can have all 3 points of the golden triangle: features, time, budget.