Tag Archives: Web Design

Using an iPad to maintain websites – my workflow

A couple weeks ago I wrote about my website managment workflow changing up a bit due to Panic’s recent announcement that they were discontinuing Transmit. To summarize, yes, Transmit will continue to work for the time being and Panic has stated that it will continue developing Coda for iOS. But they’ve been slow to adopt new iOS features such as drag one drop while plenty of others are already offering that support. So, I’ve been checking out my options.

After two weeks with the new workflow on the iPad I can say this was a great decision and I no longer consider it tentative or experimental. This is going to stick and I’m pretty excited about it. I’ve moved Coda off my dock and into a folder. In it’s place are Textastic and FileBrowser. Not only is this going to work, it’s going to be much better than I expected. Here’s why.

iCloud Storage, FTP, Two Pane View
Textastic allows for my “local” file storage to be in iCloud. So, unlike Coda, my files are now synced between all devices. Next, Textastic’s built in ftp is excellent. And I get the two pane file browser I’ve gotten used to with Transmit and Coda. Local files on the left, server files on the right. The html editor is excellent and is, for the most part, more responsive than Coda. Also, and this is really nice as it saves me from extra tapping, uploading right from a standard share button within the edit window. Coda requires switching out of the edit window to upload changes.

Drag and Drop
Unlike Transmit and Coda, the developers of FileBrowser have implemented excellent drag and drop support. I’ve set-up ftp servers in FileBrowser and now it’s a simple action to select multiple files from practically anywhere and drag them right into my server. Or, just as easily, because I’ve got all of my website projects stored in iCloud I can drag and drop from anywhere right into the appropriate project folder in the Files app then use the ftp server in Textastic to upload. Either way works great. Coda/Transmit do not support drag and drop between apps and are a closed silo. The new workflow is now much more open and with less friction.

Image Display and Editing
One benefit of FileBrowser is the display of images. In the file view thumbnails on the remote server are nicely displayed. If I need to browse through a folder of images at a much larger view I can do that too as it has a full screen image display that allows for swiping through. Fantastic and not something offered by Transmit or Coda. Also, from a list view of either Files or FileBrowser, local or remote, I can easily drag and drop an image to import into Affinity Photo for editing. Or, from the list view, I can select the photo to share/copy to Affinity Photo (or any image editor).

Textastic and Files
This was another pleasant surprise. While I’ll often get into editing mode and just work from an app, in this case Textastic, every so often I might come at the task from another app. Say, for example, I’ve gotten a new images emailed from a client as happened today. I opened Files into split view with Mail. In two taps I had the project folder open in Files. A simple drag and drop and my images were in the folder they needed to go to. The client also had text in the body of the email for an update to one of his pages. I copied it then tapped the html file in Files which opened the file right up in Textastic. I made the change. Then uploaded the images and html files right from Textastic.

Problems?
Thus far I’ve encountered only one oddity with this new workflow and it has to do with this last point of editing Textastic files by selecting them from within the Files app. As far as I can tell, this is not creating a new copy or anything, it is editing the file in place within Textastic. But for any file I’ve accessed via Files it shows a slight variation in the recents file list within Textastic. Same file, but the app seems to be treating it as a different file and it shows up twice in the recent files list. Weird. It is just one file though and my changes are intact regardless of how I’m opening it. As a user it seems like a bug but it may just be “the way it works”.

Panic, Transmit and Keeping My Options Open

I’ve been coding websites for the web since 1999 and doing it for clients since 2002. I started using Coda for Mac when the first version came out and when Transmit and Coda became available for iOS I purchased both. When I transitioned to the iPad as my primary computer in 2016 those two apps became the most important on my iPad. But no more.

A couple weeks ago Panic announced that they would no longer be developing Transmit for iOS. They’d hinted in a blog post a year or two ago that iOS development was shaky for them. They say though that Coda for iOS will continue. But I’m going to start trying alternative workflows. In fact, I’ve already put one in place and will be using it for the foreseeable future. Why do this if Coda still works and has stated support for the future?

I’m not an app developer. I’m also not an insider at Panic. But as a user, I find it frustrating that we are over three full months since the release of iOS 11 and seven months since WWDC and Panic’s apps still do not support drag and drop in iOS 11. Plenty of other apps that I use do. I find myself a bit irritated that Panic occupies this pedestal in the Apple nerd community. It’s true that their apps are visually appealing. Great. I agree. But how’s about we add support for important functionality? I really love Coda and Transmit but I just don’t feel the same about Panic as a company. Sometimes it seems like they’ve got plenty of time and resources for whimsy (see their blog for posts about their sign and fake photo company) and that’s great I guess. I guess as a user that depends on their apps I’d rather they focus on the apps. I’m on the outside looking in and it’s their company to do as they please. But as a user I’ll have an opinion based on the information I have. And though they’ve said Coda for iOS will continue, it’s time to test other options.

I’ve been using FileBrowser for three years just as a way to access local files on my MacMini. I’d not thought much about how it might be used as my FTP client for website management in conjunction with Apple’s new Files app. Thanks to Federico’s recent article on FTP clients I was reminded that FileBrowser is actually a very capable ftp app. So, I set-up a couple of my ftp accounts. With this set-up I can easily access my servers on one side of my split screen via FileBrowser and my “local” iCloud site folders in Files on the other side. I really like the feel of it. The Files app is pretty fantastic and being able to rely on that in this set-up is a big plus. It feels more open which brings me to the next essential element in this process: editing html files.

One of my frustrations with Coda and Transmit was that my “local” files were stuck in a shared Coda/Transmit silo. Nice that they were interchangeable between the two but I could not locate them in DropBox or iCloud. With this new set-up I needed a text editor that could work from iCloud as a local file storage. I’ve got two options that I’m starting with, both have built in ftp as well as iCloud as a file storage option. Textastic is my current favorite. Another is GoCoEdit. Both have built in preview or the option to use Safari as a live preview. So, as of now, I open my coding/preview space and use a split between Textastic and Safari. I haven’t used Textastic enough to have a real opinion about how it feels as an editor when compared to Coda’s editor. But thus far it feels pretty good. My initial impression is that navigation within documents is a bit snappier and jumping between documents using the sidebar is as fast as Coda’s top tabs.

So, essentially, this workflow is relying on four apps in split screen mode in two spaces. One space is for file transfer, the other is for coding/previewing. Command Tab gets me quickly back and forth between them. I often get instructions for changes via email or Messages. Same for files such as pdfs and images. In those cases it is easy enough to open Mail or Messages as a third slide over app that I can refer to as I edit or for drag and drop into Files/FileBrowser.

It’s only been a few days with this new 4 app workflow but in the time I’ve used it I like it a lot. I get drag and drop and synched iCloud files (which also means back-up files thanks to the Mac and Time Machine).

iPad Journal: Setting up a new website

I keep forgetting that the iPad is only meant for watching movies and reading websites! While I did use the Mac today to do a bit of revision on an annual report with InDesign most of my time was spent on the iPad:

  1. Set-up a new website for Revival Trade and Coffee Company. This entailed purchasing domain, configuring account, setting up files on server, creating and editing raw code on html and CSS files using Coda. Image optimization via Workflow. Various file transfers to and from local Mac with Transmit.
  2. Used Transmit to retrieve a pdf from a server then marked it up for review by a client.
  3. Updated a website with new pdf content which was converted to jpg and web optimized.
  4. Converted another pdf to web optimized jpg for client use on social media.

Recent Work: Midwest Tiny Houses and Sheds

I don't just love tiny houses, I live and work in one. It suits me very well because I don't own much stuff and what I do keep around serves a function. Not much clutter in my world. My small space has served me very well and I don't see that changing for any reason. A couple months ago a local fellow started a new tiny buildings business and asked me to do a website and other marketing materials. Of course I was excited to see a new Fredericktown business and one that was going to be building tiny houses made it all the more interesting to me.

In the short time they've been around they've already built several buildings including a couple of cabins and garden sheds. Midwest Tiny Houses and Sheds will be building for local clients but are planning to build and deliver their buildings to clients in the St. Louis area and Cape Girardeau too. Basically they'll be focusing (initially) on St. Louis and Southeast Missouri.

I've had a first hand look at the construction and it's solid and well crafted. These are beautiful buildings that will last many years. Looking forward to seeing them thrive.