Virtual Mechanics partnered with Opera Software to further develop WebEngine as a tool for the creation of Web Pages for the Internet and Mobile devices. Over the past while we have been developing new functionality that will enable you to create a site for both the web and for a cell or PDA device in WebEngine and only have to publish it once.

We have posted the new WebEngine beta to our Virtual Mechanics MyOpera site available here.

A word of warning - we choose to post this release to VMI's MyOpera site because this is a new version of the software and is very much still in development. If you are a current user of WebEngine and use it to build your site, then you probably don't want to try the new version just yet. However, if you are interested in seeing where WebEngine is going and helping us by providing feedback, then we would be happy to have you give it a try.

Derry,

Is there a way to install the new version without negating the existing version? I guess I am worried that the new version may have DLLs that may render my current version in-op.

The best way to do be able to run the current version of WebEngine (assuming you have a recent version, not a pre 200g version) after installing the new beta is to save a copy of the IMSEngineV2.exe from your '...\Web Engine V2\bin' folder' before you install the new version.

After you install the new beta, you can run the old exe from another folder or rename it and run it from the \bin folder.

Both exe versions will share all the the same settings, publish profiles etc.

You might also want to save the old '...\Common\IMSExtract.dll' just in case there is something up with the new one that doesn't work well with the old exe. That is unlikely though.

As with all versions, uninstalling should not remove your files or settings so you should be able to uninstall the beta and reinstall 200N without much impact.

As always, backup any files that you can't afford to lose just in case!

Thanks VM! -- I like what I see so far. Here are a few things I have discovered, with a little help from Derry:

1. This version has Opera built right into it. There is a new Browser folder in the VM install folder that has all the Opera bits and pieces. You don't need to have the full Opera browser installed on your system.

2. The new preview tab is for viewing your site using Opera. This has functions like viewing in different page sizes. The old preview buttons work your default browser just like they always have.

3. There are new settings under Options > Project Options

4. There is a little help in the readme.txt file in the VM install directory

5. CSS code can be split off into separate files.

6. There is a new PNG 32 image format. I'm not sure yet what advantage this has over the old PNG format (really PNG 24). If it supports alpha-channel transparency that would be great!

There are still some things I haven't figured out. Such as the significance of combined format as compared to desktop. And what does "Blend Edges" do?

Just curious if the technology used on the iPhone will or can be ported to other cell phones in the future. With the iPhone there is no need to visit web sites designed specifically for mobile devices. It is incredibly cool how it scales any web page for easy navigation. I am not sure if this functionality is part of Safari browsers or something embedded in the iPhone itself. In any case I can't imagine why other mobile devices would not jump on this technology if they can. Makes designing mobile device web sites obsolete.

www.azballbusters.com
Support Arizona Paintball

Hi skydad,

Keep in mind that rendering standard web pages for mobile devices alters the page. That is, the original design is changed to accommodate the device. Opera does the same thing with their Small Screen Rendering functionality in their mobile browser. What happens is the browser looks at the page and if it does not see that the page was created specifically for a mobile device, then the page is altered to fit the screen.

This is fine if you are not that concerned with how your page is displayed on a small screen - it may be that your page looks fine. However, the benefit WebEngine has is that you can see how your page will be displayed on a mobile device - be it a cell phone or PDA - and then adjust the design for that specific device as you like.

Derry,

I understand how web pages get altered on cell phones and Windows PDA's. With the Apple iPhone this issue does not exist. You can log onto any web page and look at it just like if you were on a PC. Thus when using the iPhone there is no need to go to mobile specific web sites. Was curious how they did this.

The iphone browser works by showing a scaled down version of regular web pages and then letting you tap on an area to zoom in and then scroll as needed. My guess is that this technique would not work as well on screens that are smaller than the iphone's. There would be just too much tapping and scrolling.

Either way, I think there will be many cases where a mobile version of the page will do a better job of displaying the information at hand. For example, if you are waiting (or paying) for every byte you download you may want to see what the latest version of SiteSpinner is but you probably don't want to see the VM girl sipping her tea.

There is a demo of iphone browsing here for anyone who hasn't seen it

Is there any particular place to post comments about Web Engine 2.90 beta 2?

I installed it and had a play. First thing, I looked in Add and Remove Programs and found yet another WebEngine 2 entry. I had already gained a second one when I updated in May. Now I have three!

Cheers,

Ray D

This is a known problem, reported here. If you have something else that looks like a bug, I suggest post it in the "Report Suspected Bugs" forum.

Otherwise, general comments/ discussion about WE Beta 2 should be just fine in this thread.

Yes, I reported it myself in that thread. My comment above was to point out that it still happens with the new version.

Cheers,

Ray D

I installed this version over the webengine v2.90 beta 3. Did I miss up, is a full install needed to go back to this version series?
thanks

If you are reverting to WE 2.00N, it is probably a good idea to to uninstall your Beta 3 first -- there have been some major changes. To upgrade to Beta 4 -- just install it over the top of Beta 3.

Thanks, guess I'll unload the beta 3 and load-up WE 2.00N.
-----
update: The WE2.00N will not load my Beta 3 projects. A error message comes up saying they were made with a newer version. Any ideas on how to get straightened out?, thanks

This message has been edited. Last edited by: btech,

It is not going to be possible to go back easily. The usual advice is:

quote:

Hold Down Ctrl+Shift as you click "Save". This step saves the project in the old project file format which is compatible with the older version.

This works fine for a small backtrack over one file version change. However the current file (Beta 4) version is 225, the old one (2.00N), I'm fairly sure is 222. This means you have to track back through possibly three versions starting with your Beta 3 -- I don't think anyone has done that before. This doesn't seem practical

If you want to continue using your Beta 3 project(s), I suggest continue with Beta 3 or Beta 4. If you have some problem with the Betas, there may be a workaround -- that seems preferable to going all the way back to 2.00N.

Where do we post/send comments, suggestions, etc. about the new WE beta versions?

Send them to vmsupport@virtualmechanics.com

All feedback is greatly appreciated !