BIOS: Technology Means Business

NetObjects Fusion 9 (£139) is a very powerful software application that makes it relatively easy to build decent Web sites quickly without having to know any HTML. Even if you do know a little HTML, it’s a heck of a lot more user-friendly than Macromedia’s market-leading Dreamweaver. But in terms of positioning, NetObjects Fusion goes head-to-head with Microsoft’s Frontpage (and we much prefer the former!).

But the software’s more than a code generator or page builder - it’ll create and organise an entire Web site, if you like. Starting from either a blank page or one of the software’s many bundled templates (use nested HTML tables), you can drop new pages into your site’s structure and automatically build navigation buttons. There’s also a range of tools that can be dropped straight into pages, from visitor counters to e-commerce functionality, and you can have as much or as little control over the design of your site as you want.

When you nest tables, the ‘nested’ table is contained within another table, which contains it. This is quite useful for creating table-based layouts, such the templates provided with NetObjects Fusion, but can easily become confusing and there are browsers which cannot handle nested tables in general or which get confused with complicated nested tables.

Of course, nested tables can be the natural way of expressing information, when it is logically an array of something which may in turn be an array. Basically, you just need to be very careful in writing HTML code for nested tables. No new elements or other features are needed, just a combination of those which have already been described. But due to deep nesting one easily makes mistakes and the results can be really messy - and locating the error may take time.

Key new features of the software include new design functionality, Flash-enabled banners and navigation (no need to learn or buy Flash) and enhanced Cascading Site Styles (CSS) capabilities. The new version of the software also introduces new features and tools that let novice users and experienced Web designers alike build relatively sophisticated Web sites, thanks largely to its WYSIWYG (‘what you see is what you get’) environment and familiar drag-and-drop functionality. Other hallmarks include logical site building steps to help get sites built quickly and efficiently, and built-in e-commerce functionality.

Unlike other Web development wannabies, NetObjects Fusion 9 is actually a contender. It lets you create Flash banners and flash navigation features from within the software without requiring any previous Flash design experience and you can pick the font, colours, type of animation and more. Integrate Google search functionality is now built in using Google’s Web Search, SiteSearch and SafeSearch technology, and you can now offer ‘e-mail this page to a friend’ option on sites, add FAQ, testimonials, guest books and create secure log-in pages. These feature will likely we wasted on seasoned professionals (who tend to hand-code in Notepad anyway), but should be welcomed by the rest of us.

We also really liked the way you can edit and manage text styles throughout a site using enhanced CSS tools. In a flash you can change font colours, sizes and also apply changes to database functions and forms, as well as automatically save site versions on your Web server and quickly roll back to previous versions in case of a mistake or problem. The software now supports ASP.net, has enhanced database functionality and improved form control in one toolbar for easier accessibility, as well as a new label, hidden field and file upload element. Multi-platform support for forms has also been added to work with PHP or ASP.

The new eye dropper tool helps to match colours exactly (just like in Photoshop), and the new form validation tools simplify scripting forms thanks to drag and drop. Remote versus local database profiling can be set up test environments and you can switch from the local database environment to the live environment when ready.

There are cheaper ways to design a simple Web site, but NetObjects Fusion 9 comes with some handy templates and wizards, and is powerful enough to grow with you as your skills develop. It’s also very well supported and has a relatively large and loyal user-based. As expected, experienced developers will find its code a little weighty, but not too much - the bloatware crown belongs to Microsoft.

The biggest problem is the lack of a decent HTML source editor - the current one is relatively restrictive and far from intuitive, especially if you frequently switch from WYSIWYG to code view and back again. If you’re a small-business user looking to put together some pages online with the minimum of fuss, it shouldn’t bother you. Dreamweaver users will probably disagree. [8]

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