Product Reviews

Nobody ever expected the Internet or, more specifically, that portion of it called the World Wide Web to become a global phenomenon - if they had, a superior browser-friendly language would have been chosen. Over the last decade, Web designers have been working within the limitations imposed by that 'browser-friendly language' called HTML to create vibrant Web sites. It's been an uphill struggle, but over recent years, with the release of version 4 browsers and dedicated Web design tools, it's become a lot easier. The Holy Grail of Web design, however, has always been the true wysiwyg coding tool.

NetObjects' Fusion 2 was an excellent effort at wysiwyg HTML design, enabling designers for the first time to tackle Web pages without having to get their hands dirty in code. The downside was the tortuous HTML, riddled with convoluted tables and one-pixel transparent GIFs that were used to precisely position objects (be they images, textboxes or tables). It was absolutely impossible to change a Fusion-designed page with anything other than Fusion and the resultant pages were notoriously large.

The completely revised Fusion 3 retains its wysiwyg design but adds a large number of much-needed features to the blend. HTML code or custom scripts can be added directly into pages, frames are well supported, Dynamic HTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSSs) have been included and - since many people still haven't upgraded their browsers - there's a new feature called Everywhere HTML, which creates code targeted at specific generations of browser.

NetObjects has clearly been listening to feedback from Fusion 2 users, because many of the features in Fusion 3 were at the top of my wishlist. Most important of all is a new three-tier approach to page design, which recognises that the rigidly anchored 'object' model of Fusion 2 was not always a blessing.

An enhanced graphical style editor is still present in Fusion 3, replete with varied advanced button, image and form functions. However, you can also opt for a Text Editor mode, which enables you to design pages in a word processor style similar to the one found in FrontPage 98 (reviewed issue 38, p208), Dreamweaver (reviewed issue 42, p141) and many of the other pseudo-wysiwyg editors. Finally, there's an external HTML Editor option that gives you total control over the code - Allaire's excellent HomeSite 3 is bundled with Fusion 3 for this purpose.

A la mode

The Graphical Editor mode is designed to appeal to the Web designer who has absolutely no interest in code. Objects such as textboxes or images can be dragged and dropped directly onto the page and positioned, using a grid in much the same way you'd lay out a page in a DTP package. Using either Tables and Clear Pixels, Nested Tables or CSSs, depending upon the browser series you're designing for, these objects will not move, even if a browser window is enlarged or font settings are altered.

Fusion 3's new Text Editor mode is a useful feature that's irritatingly hidden away in the help documentation. Using the Text Editor, you can create a textbox of any size, into which you then drop images, tables, text or any other object. These embedded objects can be aligned and wrapped around in exactly the same way as in FrontPage 98's editor. Peeking at the code that this approach creates reveals that those horrendous Nested Tables really have gone.

For an application with such a visual bias, it's surprising to find a full version of HomeSite 3 bundled with Fusion 3. HomeSite is included for those moments when full HTML control is required, without the vague code that many Web design applications insert into pages. In such instances you can embed an entire HTML page within a Fusion 3 page - double-clicking on its icon then starts HomeSite, or any other HTML editing application that you choose.

Web sites start their life from within the Site Editor. From here it's possible to build the tree structure of your Web site, leaving Fusion to insert all the appropriate navigation buttons. Should you wish to move a page or a section of the Web site, then the buttons will be automatically updated. It's also within the Site Editor that you can import local or remote Web sites - a process that's surprisingly easy. It's worth noting that Fusion 3 did an excellent job of converting pages to its format, although the same operation isn't nearly as effective in reverse. To edit any of the pages within the site view, you simply double-click on its icon.

The main editor window, complete with new dockable icon bars, has been vastly improved. All of the tools, whether standard or advanced features, can be accessed from their own buttons,

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although these can't be customised in any way, merely repositioned on screen. The overall effect is quite pleasing, however, and for someone who comes from a design background the DTP look of the editor window is familiar.

Constructing pages within the editor is fast and productive, and you can move from site plan to beta within a very short period. If you opt for the rigid layout model, you don't have to spend time aligning objects or teasing text to flow in the right direction. And while it's possible to quickly see the finished page by hitting the Preview button, it's irritating that there's no overall HTML view, merely an HTML insertion window that enables you to drop custom tags in wherever you choose. More traditional tools are included, however, such as Find & Replace, a spelling checker and word counter.

It's from the main editor window that you control the kind of HTML that Fusion produces when it parses its own nod files. The Layout Properties window includes a drop-down menu that enables you to switch between Regular Tables, Nested Tables and CSSs and Layers. Regular Tables must be used if you're designing for more primitive browsers such as Mosaic or Lynx. Nested Tables can be used if you're designing for slightly more advanced browsers such as Navigator 2.01 and above. CSSs and Layers are supported only by version 4 browsers, but they offer a considerable degree of control over Web page elements.

Of course, some of the key users that NetObjects is targeting with Fusion 3 have no desire to get involved in raw code or graphical design. For such groups as busy IT departments charged with setting up an office intranet, the Style Editor will be a popular feature. Similar in design to FrontPage 98's 'themes', styles cover the entire look of a Web site from the banner text to the navigation buttons. The 56 styles included with the application vary from the slick and modern to the plain and simple. Applying any of these to a Fusion Web site is as simple as clicking a single button, and since you can mix and match elements and add further styles by downloading them, a considerable degree of variety is possible.

Fusion 3 also includes a number of extremely impressive features designed to add functionality to Web sites. Among these are a Message Board feature that takes just two clicks to set up, Picture Rollovers, and a Form Handler that can be set to publish to Windows, Mac or Unix systems. If I have any complaints about these features, it's that the Properties window is fiddly to operate.

Database integration is extremely well supported in Fusion 3, covering static and dynamic data publishing. Integration with Excel, Access or any ODBC-compliant database is supported, as are more comprehensive solutions such as Cold Fusion, Selective Server and Domino, although the last three require special connectivity components available from NetObjects. The ODBC approach uses a data object, data field and data list format that can work with any form of cell, such as text, pictures and multimedia files, and produces database sites that remain the same until the site's republished. For more serious database-driven Web sites, the professionally coded dynamic server approach is far more worthwhile.

Dynamic Fusion

With the new breed of browsers gaining increasing acceptance - and about to get a serious boost thanks to the IE 4-carrying Windows 98 - Fusion 3 includes lots of support for Dynamic HTML. Coding dynamic Web pages isn't as simple as it is in Dreamweaver, but it's slightly more flexible. Animations, actions, messages and behaviours can be added to any object on a page or the page itself, using the Actions Properties windows. While this approach will be of interest to non-coders, programmers can script actions instead, using JavaScript or VBScript.

In many ways, Fusion 3's single biggest failing is that it tries to be all things to all people, throwing as much effort into object positioning as into Dynamic HTML scripting. The result of this is a fairly tortuous design that hides important coding elements beneath levels of complicated window-clicking. For instance, Frameset design has been hidden beneath Fusion's own Autoframe feature.

The complicated mess of MasterBorders restricts you to a rigid five-frame design, unless you use an external script to create a custom Frameset. This is in order to facilitate the dynamic navigation buttons, which I understand, but I can't help feeling a much more elegant solution could have been arrived at.

Overall, however, Fusion 3 is a comprehensive and heavyweight package that reflects the nature of Web design in the late 1990s. Database-driven Web sites are becoming more and more popular, and Fusion reflects this, incorporating plenty of database connectivity options. People other than programmers are creating Web sites, and people other than designers are designing them, and this, too, is reflected in the package.

However, much more thought must go into how NetObjects bundles all these powerful features together, because, at the moment, getting to Fusion's intrinsic riches is a struggle. Power users will eventually unearth Fusion 3's secret weapons, but many of the novices at whom this program is aimed may struggle with its quirky design.