One thing that didn’t make the cut this year though, as mentioned on the Expression team blog by Steven Schermerhorn, is the ability to view authenticated pages within your site out of the box.  Instead, when previewed, these authenticated pages will display what they would normally display to an unauthenticated user, which will probably be your standard ‘please log in’ screen.

Whilst the ability for SuperPreview to ‘log in’ to your page is not in this release, Steven does suggest a possible workaround in the form of configuring your web site for debug access.

You can read the full post including a more detailed description of the workaround here, and it sounds like we can expect to see this feature in the next version of SuperPreview.

Technorati Tags: Expression Web, expression web 3, superpreview

MSDN license holders should find Expression Studio including Expression Web 3 available for download now from the MSDN web site, whilst everyone else can take advantage of free trials (the Expression Web 3 trail can be downloaded here and is around 122mb) and upgrade offers, where appropriate.

Expression Web 3 brings some exciting stuff to the table to improve on the already popular Expression Web 2.

Amongst the most notable features are;

• Brand new look and feel to match the darker style seen in Expression Blend 2.

Image used taken from Expression Web site from Microsoft. Coptright Microsoft.

• SuperPreview – allowing you to view your pages / sites in multiples browsers and examine and resolve any cross browser compatibility issues with your designs.
• SnapShot Preview – A browser preview that automatically updates side by side with your design / code, meaning that you do not have to load the browser everytime you make a change to see what it will render like.
  

  Image used taken from Expression Studio Web Site from Microsoft. Copyright Microsoft.

• Silverlight and DeepZoom support – You can now embed Silverlight movies as well as DeepZoom movies into your pages using Expression Web 3.
• Improved FTP Publishing and Site Management – Expression Web 3 now claims to upload and sync your sites with your remote server faster than before, uploading multiple files at once.  It now also boasts improved site management which should make switching between sites and saving associated settings a breeze.
• Internet Explorer 8 Support – Support for IE8 now comes with EW3 allowing you to target web sites for this browser.
• Expression Design 3 Included – The graphical editor from Microsoft, Expression Design is now included with Expression Web.

Also released as part of Expression Studio 3 are the new versions of Expression Blend, Expression Encoder and,  as already mentioned, Expression Design.

I have only just installed the new version of the studio, but will post some follow ups of anything interesting I think would be worth sharing.

Below are some links to pages for Expression Web 3 and Expression Studio 3;

Expression 3 Web Site

Expression Web 3 Trial Download

Expression Web 3 Product Information

Let me know your thoughts on the new versions….

Technorati Tags: expression studio, Expression Web, expression web 3

The expected time for this being available is 4pm GMT in order to conincide with the second keynote at MIX 09.

IE8 boasts much better web standards support, and now that Microsoft have released a beta of SuperPreview, allowing you to test your web sites in multiples versions of IE, Firefox and Safari, you don’t have to worry about not having IE7 on your system for testing.

The download should be available from the main download centre and the Internet Explorer 8 web site.

Will you be downloading it today?    What do you think of the improvements in this version?

Technorati Tags: ie8, ie8 rtm, internet explorer 8

Basically the Windows Web Gallery is a single web site that makes community apps available based on both ASP.Net and PHP.  The site is still in its early days, but already features well known apps such as DotNetNuke and WordPress.  There is also a submission system for you to have your own apps included as long as it meets the guidelines set out by MS (I haven’t read them yet).

The plus points are it should allow you to always ensure you have the latest versions of the apps and keep your eyes out for new material arriving on the scene.

Check out the Web Gallery now here.

Technorati Tags: ASP.Net, community apps, open source, php

Scott Gu has just announced Expression Web 3 at Mix09 focussing on one feature in particular, SuperPreview.

SuperPreview finally allows you to test your web sites created with Expression Web on different platforms right from within the application itself.  SuperPreview supports IE6, IE7, IE8, Firefox and Safari.

Even better than this, you can compare two browsers side by side or even use an overlay view to see any unwanted differences.

When you have identified a problem area you can even click on that area of the page to highlight that area of the DOM to assist you in fixing any cross-browser issues.

I am very excited about SuperPreview as it is something that has been desperately needed for a while.

The best thing though is that it is also available as a standalone tool and the beta is available right now from here.

Technorati Tags: Expression Web, expression web 3, superpreview

Lakemere Environmental Services are a domestic and commercial cleaning services company, who offer amongst other things wheelie bin cleaning (hence the title).

Their web site, which I have developed using Expression Web 2, went live recently.  It is written in ASP.Net / C#, has a SQL 2005 back end and uses ASP.Net Dynamic Data for the administration panel for updating news etc.  The web site also features basic WorldPay integration.  However, I am most pleased with the look and feel of this web site and the initial feedback from the client has been fantastic.  They have already had several new online orders roll in.

So, if you want to see the web site to check out the design, or you fancy getting some wheelie bin cleaning or commercial cleaning services for yourself, I can highly recommend Lakemere Environmental Services for the job.

Seriously though, shamless plug aside, please do leave a comment and let me know what you think.  I also have some more sites due to go live in the coming weeks and I will link to them as well.

One thing I have been working on is the latest project for my colleague, James Farrer, a Trout Fisheries directory. Now, although the subject of Trout fishing is not the most enthralling (at least for me), I have been trying to assist in the area of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).

James is using quite a few ASP.NET controls on his pages, including Collapsable Panels, Link Buttons and some of the AJAX extenders for pop up links. None of these are very search engine friendly.

So we are currently working to increase the indexability of his web site by using pure html links and QueryStrings instead of the horrible JavaScript links produced when using LinkButtons and other controls. I know……I Know…..QueryStrings aren’t very search engine friendly either! This is the first stage. The next is to introduce some URL re-writing so that we have some friendly URLs to link to as well.

There is alot more that can be done to make this site more ‘spiderable’ and I will post again when we are further on. Also, do check the site out as it does use GoogleMaps and AJAX in quite a nice fashion.

Trout Fisheries in England

Technorati Tags: AJAX, SEO