Expression Web team blog

I just made my first contribution to the newish Gallery section of the Expression Community website where anyone can add content and templates to share. Here’s a screenshot of the current categories:

One of many cool things about the gallery is that you can select a friendly URL name for your contribution and it’s instantly generated. I chose LoremIpsum because I contributed a code snippet that enables Expression Web users to easily insert up to five paragraphs of Latin lorem ipsum filler text into their page. Here are the new code snippets as they appear in the Code Snippets list of of Expression Web:

Here’s the URL of my contribution:

http://gallery.expression.microsoft.com/LoremIpsum

To read the rest of my blog post, in which I show you how to install and use the Code Snippet, and link to a post on how to create your own code snippet, see my post Lorem Ipsum Code Snippet.

Anna

To learn more about this offer, go to the following URL and be sure to read the fine print:

http://www.microsoft.com/web/jumpstart/platinum-hosting/default.aspx

The team that provides technical support for Expression Web maintains a very helpful blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/xwebsupport, which I’ve just added to our blog roll. Their latest post provides solutions for solving problems with installing Expression Web 2:

http://blogs.msdn.com/xwebsupport/archive/2009/04/21/known-causes-for-expression-web-2-installation-crashes.aspx

The Expression community website has a new portal devoted exclusively to helping FrontPage users transition to using Expression Web: http://expression.microsoft.com/frontpage

The FrontPage to Expression Web portal currently features:

• A Getting Started area:
  
  
  
• A Community Resources area that presents a different resource each time you visit the page:
  
  
  
• Step-by-step solutions written exclusively for FrontPage users:
  
  
  
• And How Do I? Videos which feature a different video each time you visit the page:
  
  

The initial launch of this website was done with the input of FrontPage MVPs and Expression Web MVPs, as well as Microsoft employees. To make this portal as useful to FrontPage users as possible, we need YOUR ongoing input to ensure we’re providing FrontPage users with the resources they need to successfully move to Expression Web. To suggest article ideas and other content for the FrontPage to Expression Web community website please email fp2xweb@microsoft.com.

Anna

When former FrontPage users first start using Expression Web, a common question is “How do I edit the permissions to my Website or subweb?”.

While FrontPage 2003 provides users the ability to manage permissions to their FPSE Website through an Administration Website linked to from the application, Expression Web doesn’t provide the same level of integration. 

When using FrontPage 2003 to edit your FPSE Website or subweb, users can manage its permissions by using the Tools -> Server -> Permissions menu. That will bring up the Administration Website for your FPSE Website on your Web browser.

When using Expression Web to edit your FPSE Website or subweb, you can browse to http://[Server_Name]/[FPSE_Web_site_Name]/[Subweb_Name]/_vti_bin/_vti_adm/fpadmdll.dll on any browser after substituting [Server_Name], [FPSE_Web_site_Name] and  [Subweb_Name], with the appropriate strings.

For example:

To edit the permission for the FPSE Website http://xweblab01sql/SurfHaven, just use your browser to browse to http://xweblab01sql/SurfHaven/_vti_bin/_vti_adm/fpadmdll.dll and you'll be prompted for the appropriate username and password if needed.

To edit the permission for the subweb "Hawaii" in the FPSE Website http://xweblab01sql/SurfHaven, browse to http://xweblab01sql/SurfHaven/Hawaii/_vti_bin/_vti_adm/fpadmdll.dll

On this Administration Website, you can specify the following:

• To use the same permission as the parent Website or not
• If you decided to use a different set of permission as the Parent Website, you can fine-tune your Website or subweb permissions by:
• Allowing or disallowing anonymous access 
• Managing its users 
• Managing its user roles

Sayuri Wijaya
sayuri.wijaya@microsoft.com
Expression Web Program Manager

The Expression Web team is seeking individuals with web design experience for a usability study focusing on Expression Web SuperPreview.

In particular, we are looking for individuals with experience designing web pages (writing and diagnosing markup, CSS)  for compatibility in multiple browsers.

Participant Criteria:

• Participants do not need to have experience with Expression Web SuperPreview.We are looking for new users and experienced users.
• Participants will need to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).
• Participants must be in the Redmond or Seattle area.
• Study will take approximately 1-hour to complete.

The usability studies will be conducted between March 26 and April 3.

If you or somebody that you know meet the participation criteria and would like to participate, please contact justin.harrison@microsoft.com.

Thanks!

Justin Harrison

Program Manager – Expression Web

Hi,

My name is Justin Harrison and I worked with Alex Moskwa to get SuperPreview for Internet Explorer ready for this release. You can find me on Twitter as @JustinHar.

Today we announced public availability of SuperPreview for Internet Explorer. Since this morning a number of frequently asked questions and issues have emerged and now seems like a good time to address them!

 1. I only see Internet Explorer 8 in SuperPreview - I thought SuperPreview includes Internet Explorer 6.

Internet Explorer 6 is not available on Windows 7. This is a known issue that will be addressed in later releases.

2. How do I get Firefox and Safari to show up in SuperPreview?

Expression Web SuperPreview for Internet Explorer only supports Internet Explorer. Expression Web 3 includes SuperPreview with support for Firefox and Internet Explorer. Safari for the Mac will be supported with our cloud service to be made available sometime after Expression Web 3 is released.

3. Is there any more information available about the SuperPreview cloud service?

The cloud service will be made available sometime after Expression Web 3 is released. The cloud service will support Safari for the Mac. At this time we have not announced our plans for other browsers and platforms on the cloud service.

4. Are there any plans to support other browsers such as Opera, Chrome, or Safari for Windows?

At this time we have not announced our plans for supporting for browsers other than Firefox, Safari for the Mac (with our cloud service), and Internet Explorer.

5. The error message "Insufficient memory to continue execution of the program." displays while analyzing a page.

This is a known issue. See the Expression Web Forum for a workaround.

6. SuperPreview for Internet Explorer crashes when I start it.

This is a known issue that has to do with running SuperPreview in VMware Fusion. See the Expression Web Forum for a workaround. 

7. I am encountering a bug or have feedback about SuperPreview.

Click on the bug icon in SuperPreview and follow the on screen instructions to submit a feedback report.

Release Notes

There are a number of documented, known issues in this beta release of Expression Web SuperPreview for Internet Explorer. Known issues are problems that we plan to address in later releases.

• Filters/Behaviors in Internet Explorer 6 do not work properly. This impacts most IE6 PNG transparency workarounds.
• SuperPreview does not support sites that require authentication.
• Mouse over highlight of DOM elements may not work properly.
• SuperPreview may have trouble analyzing very long pages.

For the complete list, click here.

 The Expression Web team takes customer feedback very seriously. If you have any suggestions for SuperPreview or if you are encountering any issues, please use the feedback button in SuperPreview.

Hi, I'm a Program Manager for SuperPreview and wanted to blog a bit about how the technology of SuperPreview works. My goal is to help our users better understand the capabilities of SuperPreview and some of its limitations.

SuperPreview captures an image rendering and DOM after a web page loads.

SuperPreview relies on the locally installed browser rendering engines to take a snapshot in time of how the page is rendered. In taking this snapshot we do a few things to provide the most complete picture possible.

• Capture key information from the Document Object Model of the browser. We provide users with information that will help them indentify their elements and diagnose problems. For every visible element on the page this information includes:
  • ID and Class
  • Height & Width
  • Position on page from top left corner.
• Scroll the viewport to get a full rendering of the web page regardless of the page's length.

It is important to note, this is a snapshot in time, so interactive elements such as Javascript roll-over or accordion menus will not manifest in SuperPreview.

Javascript support through onLoad in SuperPreview

Through exhaustive testing we found that many sites use Javascript to do fix ups on their pages to address cross browser problems. To support web designers and developers using these types of fixes SuperPreview runs Javascript up thru the onLoad event of the page. After the onLoad Javascript runs we take our snapshot rendering of the page to get the most accurate picture possible of how your site will present itself to your users.

How the available browser list is built.

To do comparisons, SuperPreview for Internet Explorer uses your locally installed browser versions. It also includes a copy of Internet Explorer 6, allowing users to escape the neccessity of a virtual machine for testing IE 6. Depending on which version of IE you have installed different browser versions will appear available in SuperPreview.

Known Issues

We are currently aware of problems with IE 6 not showing up on Win 7 and are actively investigating. For other known issues please review the Release Notes (readme.en.htm in your install directory.)

Links

Download SuperPreview for Internet Explorer

Hopefully this post will help you better understand what SuperPreview does and how you can incorporate it into your workflow to more easily design cross-browser compatible sites.

Thanks,
Alex Moskwa

Steve Guttman, Product Unit Manager for Expression Web, contributed the following article on SuperPreview to the Expression Community website:

http://expression.microsoft.com/en-us/dd565874.aspx

If you’ll be at MIX 2009 this week, be on the lookout for the following folks from the Expression Web team:

Steven Guttman (Product Unit Manager):

Tyler Simpson (Development Manager):

Erik Saltwell (Group Program Manager):

and Steven Schermerhorn (Software Developer Engineer):

Erik is doing a demo of Expression Web 3 as part of Wednesday’s Keynote from 9 – 11am. Steve Guttman and Tyler are presenting the following session:

Microsoft Expression Web: No Platform Left Behind MIX09-C03F

Thursday March 19 |2:30 PM-3:45 PM | Delfino 4105

By: Steve Guttman, Tyler Simpson Tags: Expression

Come learn how to use Expression Web to build resilient standards-based sites for use across a wide range of browsers and platforms. Hear about the current version of Expression Web and also some sneak peeks at future work that will make creating great sites even easier for designers. With a focus on workflow, you will also see how well Expression Web integrates with ASP.NET and PHP.

When you use the Preview in Browser feature in Expression Web for an ASP.NET or PHP page, Expression Web runs the Microsoft Expression Development server to preview your content in an environment that emulates a real-world web server.

Microsoft released a signature update to Windows Defender and Microsoft Forefront Security on March 9, 2009 that modifies your system’s hosts file to address a vulnerability. One of the side effects of this update is that an entry for localhost may have been removed from your system hosts file.

This means that, when you preview your application using the ASP.NET Development Server, your browser will simply show a “Page cannot be displayed” (or equivalent) message.

To fix this problem, open C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts in Notepad, and add the following entry:

127.0.0.1       localhost

For example, here is what a system host’s file looks like (note, if you are not running Windows 7, the below lines may not be commented out):

A subsequent signature update to both Windows Defender and and Forefront Client Security, released on the same day as the earlier update, should not cause this problem.

The original source for this information comes from the Visual Web Developer Team’s blog post on this topic.

This is Paul Laberge, Web Platform Advisor for Microsoft Canada.

Microsoft Canada has a great offer for any Canadian web solution provider that isn’t already a Registered Microsoft Partner.

For a limited time, we are offering a free copy of Expression Web 2, our premier web design tool for building compelling web sites.

All you need to do is go to this site, register as Microsoft Partner on the site (which is completely free) and enter your Partner ID to get your free copy of Expression Web 2.

There are many other benefits with this offer as well.  We are offering access to free training on Microsoft web platform technologies, great hosting offers and other benefits as well.

In addition to all that, by registering as a Microsoft Partner, you get other offers for training, deeply discounted software to help you start your business as well as support from Microsoft to help you grow your business.

If you haven’t registered as a Microsoft Partner yet, this may be a great time to do it!

-Paul

http://blogs.msdn.com/seesharp/

This is Paul Laberge, Web Platform Advisor for Microsoft Canada.

I wanted to share this with you as it shows some great work by Morten Rand-Hendriksen, an Expression Web MVP out of Vancouver.  Morten is a web designer and feels the pain of supporting multiple browsers (and multiple versions of each browser) when building a web solution for his clients.  As a result of this, he’s decided to take an idea that was implemented in one of the news sites from his home country of Norway (for story see http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/02/norwegian-websi.html) and implement it for his own sites.

He believes that IE6 is a browser that ought to be retired given IE7 is out and since IE8 will be available very soon.  As a result, he has written a piece of JS code that he is hosting on http://StopLivingInThePast.com that will hopefully get people to upgrade to the newest version of IE.

Below is the post he has written for his blog describing this work:  http://www.designisphilosophy.com/browsers/stoplivinginthepastcom-is-live-join-the-movement-to-phase-out-ie6-forever-20090221/).

And here is a link to the public forum for Expression Web where Morten and others are earnestly discussing Morten’s http://StopLivingInThePast.com website and his efforts to phase out IE 6:

http://social.expression.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/web/thread/b83381a9-859b-479e-882c-0dcee8bf2601

What do you think? Should web developers continue to ensure their designs work in Internet Explorer 6 or should they push their site visitors to upgrade their browser? Join the discussion! --> http://social.expression.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/web/thread/b83381a9-859b-479e-882c-0dcee8bf2601

paul laberge

web platform advisor | microsoft canada | blog:  http://blogs.msdn.com/seesharp