Ask HN: Review our web app

#1

Post by onktak » Fri, Jan 07, 2011, 2:16 AM UTC

browsedit is a web application for designing web pages/web user interfaces directly on the browser. Currently supports firefox, chrome and safari browsers with other browser support coming soon.

Ask HN: Review our web app
browsedit.com

Re: Ask HN: Review our web app

#2

Post by _sh » Fri, Jan 07, 2011, 4:58 AM UTC

I have absolutely no idea what it is or how to use it. It's a web page editor right?

I clicked on the image of a web site on the landing page which loaded what looks like a designer/editor, but clicking around and trying to type things (assuming its an editor) had no result. I 'added a page' or something, but this just confused me even more: now there's the text 'this is just an example page' and I've no idea if I'm supposed to edit it, or what (but I can't anyway so forget it). I looked into the DOM tree to find a text area or anything I could use to interact, but no luck.

I tried, honestly.

Re: Ask HN: Review our web app

#3

Post by coderdude » Fri, Jan 07, 2011, 5:06 AM UTC

It seems pretty cool, but I broke it, so I assume you'll want to know how. :)

I added a new page named butt.html (I usually pick a random word when I don't care what I'm doing with it. I would have just pretended that it was test.html but you might have logs somewhere to help you track errors so I'm being honest.) I went back to the first page that shows (demo.html, I think) and went to code view. I then changed the href of the anchor tag surrounding the logo to butt.html and when I went back to the design mode and clicked the logo it attempted to take me to browsedit.com/butt.html. When I clicked back, only butt.html was in the editor.

Hope that helps. Really great progress so far.

Re: Ask HN: Review our web app

#4

Post by _sh » Fri, Jan 07, 2011, 5:07 AM UTC

_sh wrote: post #2

I have absolutely no idea what it is or how to use it. It's a web page editor right? I clicked on the image of a web site on the landing page which loaded what looks like a designer/editor, but clicking around and trying to type things (assuming its an editor) had no result. I 'added a page' or something, but this just confused me even more: now there's the text 'this is just an example page' and I've no idea if I'm…

Ah, I get it now. There's a two-button toggle: 'code/design'. Pressing 'code' allows you to type in HTML. I think 'design' should be renamed 'preview' because I can't edit in design mode (on Chrome but should that make a difference?).

So yeah, if I'm going to be typing HTML, I'll likely do it with my own editor.

Re: Ask HN: Review our web app

#5

Post by onktak » Fri, Jan 07, 2011, 5:18 AM UTC

_sh wrote: post #2

I have absolutely no idea what it is or how to use it. It's a web page editor right? I clicked on the image of a web site on the landing page which loaded what looks like a designer/editor, but clicking around and trying to type things (assuming its an editor) had no result. I 'added a page' or something, but this just confused me even more: now there's the text 'this is just an example page' and I've no idea if I'm…

Thanks. Yes, it is a web page editor. By clicking on the code button, you get the html code which can be edited and to view the design you click on the design button. The work flow is the same as (text editor[desktop app]) + (check on browser) but this time everything is on the browser. Usually "click and drag" programs don't spit maintainable code which is something i want to avoid.

Re: Ask HN: Review our web app

#6

Post by ehutch79 » Fri, Jan 07, 2011, 5:18 AM UTC

why is this better than a dedicated editor like coda? or even notepad with firefox split screened. if i have to click anyway, might as well be clicking reload.

Re: Ask HN: Review our web app

#7

Post by T-R » Fri, Jan 07, 2011, 7:38 AM UTC

Very cool. It'd maybe be nicer with a double pane layout, with the code and the preview side by side, using a key combination to reload the preview.

Still, you'd have trouble convincing me to give up my favorite editor, browser, and alt+tab,F5. Might be good for ChromeOS users, though.