Rapidweaver

[RJH]

I started using RW a few years ago, and bought a number of plugins - about
£100 worth - and it ticks along nicely.

However, they've recently changed to a subsciption model. I *think* my paid
for version will keep working for now, but it's out of support. So it, or one
of the plugins, /may/ stop working at some point, or I might miss an update to
say a security feature.

I'm not quite sure what to do. The RW forums are (apparently) sanitised, and
there's a fair bit of noise on other forums.

Reading between the lines, I can adopt a subscription model which won't
expire, but will stop updating after the subscription period (£100/year) if I
ask RW nicely. But I can see that opportunity being withdrawn soon. Or
subscribe - £100pa. Or plod on. Or move to some other software - which won't
be easy as I've set up a few sites now.

Any users out there with any thoughts?

--
Cheers, Rob, Sheffield UK

[David Kennedy]

Well, whichever way you look at it, it's a bummer. I stopped using GoLive for
the same reason.
The upgrade, according to the email I got. is £40 (39.99) billed annually.
That's enough to deter me let alone any future increase.
I had thought that things were moving away from these licensing deals but it
does seem that they have come back to haunt us. Even BMW now want you to pay a
subscription to allow you to use the gadgets you already paid for when you
bought the car - following on from Tesla I suspect.
But, coming back on topic, I looked around when I first got the email and
there are very few straight purchase apps these days.

[Chris Ridd]

On 29/08/2022 06:30, RJH wrote:

This is a timely post! The last bit of software I need to migrate from
my old steam powered MBP to my M1 is an old version of Rapidweaver and
Stacks.

It looks like upgrading to the new RW would be £40 (annual subscription)
and a $60 purchase for Stacks.

A quick google finds blocsapp.com for $120, sparkleapp.com for £115 but
also for a £65 annual subscription, and everwebapp.com for $90.

I hadn't got around to trying any of them. I wonder how well they'd
import an old RW project or whether you'd have to start each one again
from scratch.

--
Chris

[David Kennedy]

When I switched to Rapidweaver IIRC there was some kind of import facility.
Whether that's possible with other apps...

It is a distinct pain in the nether regions though.

[Martin S Taylor]

On Aug 29, 2022, Chris Ridd wrote
(in article <tehks2$vej3$1...@dont-email.me>):

> A quick google finds blocsapp.com for $120, sparkleapp.com for £115 but
> also for a £65 annual subscription, and everwebapp.com for $90.
>
> I hadn't got around to trying any of them. I wonder how well they'd
> import an old RW project or whether you'd have to start each one again
> from scratch.

I never got on with RapidWeaver, and I'm now evaluating Sparkle, so I'm
following this thread with interest.

MST

[Chris Ridd]

I found RW 5 (!) quite limited and a bit finicky with page titles or
something like that (it was a long time ago.) The need for Stacks to
anything non-trivial sticks in the throat somewhat - and I bet RW and
the Stacks authors have some sort of arrangement where RW never gets a
feature that Stacks provides :-(

How's Sparkle? It looked very desktop-publisher-y with grids and
whatnot. The range of themes/templates didn't look very extensive.

--
Chris

[David Kennedy]

On 29/08/2022 08:58, Martin S Taylor wrote:

It's another subscription though.

[Chris Ridd]

Not so, their web site will sell you a £115 version.

They seem to also have a variety of fully paid versions via the app
store: £29 Sparkle Basic (limited to 10 pages on one site), £48 Sparkle
One (unlimited pages on one site) and £115 Sparkle Pro (unlimited pages
on unlimited sites)

--
Chris

[David Kennedy]

Must have misread it. Just got a little disillusioned with all these companies
wanting to tie you up* for the rest of your life...

* hoping that when you stop using it you'll forget about the DD

[Theo]

David Kennedy <davidke...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Must have misread it. Just got a little disillusioned with all these companies
> wanting to tie you up* for the rest of your life...
>
> * hoping that when you stop using it you'll forget about the DD

I'm not familiar with these tools but I wonder if, for the annual money they're
asking for, you could pay for a hosted CMS. Being hosted, somebody else
upgrades Wordpress or whatever so it's always up to date, and you get the web
server (and maybe domain etc) as part of the package. The delta between
basic hosting and adding a CMS addon often isn't very much (on the backend
typically it's just a database and a few packages to install) - maybe it can
be added to an existing hosting package.

I'm sure there are use cases where a local website generator has its appeal,
but paying an annual fee makes it significantly less attractive than just
doing it on the server.

Theo

[RJH]

Looks interesting - thanks. I'll give the free version a whirl.

[Martin S Taylor]

On Aug 29, 2022, Chris Ridd wrote

(in article <tei1m0$10jnc$1...@dont-email.me>):

> How's Sparkle? It looked very desktop-publisher-y with grids and
> whatnot. The range of themes/templates didn't look very extensive.

You're right, but I've never liked pre-ordained themes and templates. I'm
much happier making my own.

More of a pain is that there are some things you have to do in its specified
way.

For example, I'd like to use the triple-line symbol (which people are
starting to call a 'hamburger') which you can click on to show the menu bar.
In Sparkle, I don't think you can do this. Instead, the menu bar appears when
you mouse-over the hamburger, without clicking. This is strictly against the
Apple Interface Guidelines (1986 edition), and I hate it. To see how awkward
it is, compare the Sparkle home page https://sparkleapp.com (which does it
correctly) with the documentation page https://sparkleapp.com/docs/ (which
doesn't).

The upside is that it makes it easy to design your site using basic Apple
knowledge. As they say in the blurb, if you can use Keynote, you can use
Sparkle.

One huge feature is that it's very easy to preview your site. I can modify my
site using the Sparkle app, and as I do so I see how it will appear, right in
front of me, on my physical iPhone, in real time.

Also, for the right host, it's very easy to upload the site.

Lastly, they have a good reputation for user support, and the one little
query I had was answered pretty much instantly, on a Sunday morning.

So in summary, I like it despite its flaws, and I think I'm going to stump up
the cost for a subscription for one year. The cut-down versions are too
limited, and (IMO) it's worth going for the full Monty. I'm no fan of
subscriptions, but in this case I'm prepared to give it a try-out for a year.

MST