Newsgator Forums / Technical Support and Requests / TopStyle

Using TopStyle for MVC application with URL rewriting

basilisk — Sat, 10 May 2008 11:49:07 GMT

I am considering using TopStyle to develop XHTML/CSS for a PHP MVC application that uses Smarty template views, URL rewriting, and dynamic/static content sepration. There is no single "root folder", but files are in various locations in my project. Also, templates can include other temples, and tags are generated by template macros and don't appear verbatim in the markup. All this should in theory be no obstacle for TopStyle to function properly, yet I can not configure Topstyle to behave the way I want to work in this environment. What I need is the following behavior:

1) Map an arbitrary HTML (template) source file to an arbitrary URL, e.g.
X:\Dev\www\application\views\pages\main_home.tpl => http://localhost/
X:\Dev\www\application\views\pages\main_search.tpl => http://localhost/s1?q=ipod
X:\Dev\www\application\views\pages\auth_signin.tpl => http://localhost/l
etc.
Though this seems trivial, it's apparently not possible. It would even help if I could just force the browser to always show a single fixed URL, but even that seems not to be possible, it apparently must always use the smartypants mapping. Is there a solution to this?

2) When I hit refresh (F5), I want my source file to be saved and the embedded browser preview to reload, or, even better, do this as I type, so I can immediately see the effect. Again I cannot configure this, need to manually save, then hit refresh it seems -> tedious.

3) Can I just tell TopStyle a list of folders/files where to look for CSS (like DreamWeaver "Design Time")? My CSS files are located in X:\Dev\www\htdocs-static\css and some other folders, and the tags are generated by template macros, so they cannot simply be automagically parsed out of my HTML.

4) Can I tell TopStyle to run the W3C validation on the HTML/CSS that comes back from the server (localhost), not my source template?

Thanks!
Markus

Intellisense in CSS

FataL — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:03:18 GMT

When creating styles TopStyle should lookup for structure of HTML markup.
This is already implemented in Microsoft Sharepoint Designer 12 (new Frontpage).

You can [url=http://www.runaware.com/microsoft/en-us/2007office/td/launch]test this feature here[/url] for free (only Internet Explorer)

I created animated GIF to show how it works:
[img]http://files.myopera.com/FataL/files/css-intellisense.gif[/img]

Style Sweeper: Shortened Hex color values

mcwilliams132 — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:18:52 GMT

Maybe I'm not seeing it, but when using the Style Sweeper, I'd like to see an option to convert Hex color values to their shorted value when possible.

So [color: #336699;] would become [color: #369;].

Thanks!

Feature request: Saveable Workspaces

Oneness — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:35:11 GMT

It would be very useful to have a feature whereby it's possible to open a site and all previously opened css files were reopened, prefereably in the same windows that they were opened in last time that site was 'opened'.
Alternatively a feature where you can pen all the files you need, then can save that configuration of opened files in a workspace.
I get tired of swapping between sites that I a working on then having to re-open all the files I was working on within that particular site.

TS 4... Q2 of 08?

zurdog — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 10:37:50 GMT

Can we expect some sort of beta soon? I'm itching to see the new program and what features are going to be implemented.

-Matt

quick find in keyboard shortcuts

isk — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 08:28:44 GMT

Hi developers,

It would be very usable to add quick find function in keyboard shortcuts dialog, i.e. filtering list of commands by typing in quick find box, like similar settings are done in latest Opera or Eclipse for example.

Thanks for great tool!
Igor.

3.5 Problems

Banners — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 05:09:05 GMT

Hey,

Since upgrading to 3.5 last week, I have encountered numerous errors. This caused nearly a dozen error reports to be sent in one session alone(!) Initially, I had an error box come up with the message "File ...LOCALS~1\Temp\tsinspect.htm is in use by another program". Pausing a moment caused the CSS Selector window to refresh, and then things carried on fine for a few minutes until it happened again.

This was bad enough, but now I cannot see any preview at all and am told "File ...\_ts3tmp.html" is in use by another program.

This never happened on 3.12. Is there any way I can downgrade?

Cheers.

TS 3.5 crashing with error Floating point division by zero.

iggymak — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 20:00:37 GMT

Hi all,

Just downloaded 3.5 and this weird thing now happens. I open a sheet, choose a selector, add a property and choose a value... then it beeps and I get the message in the subject line. Clicking OK then crashes the program.

Opening past fully formed sheets gets the same treatment as soon as they open... :-(

What can I do? Anyone else get this?

Thanks,
Iggy

PHP prevents generation of the Style Inspector for inline styling

Louise — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 05:08:09 GMT

Take this construct

<?php
print "<div style='|'>This content</div>";
?>

I felt sure that in previous versions that if the cursor was placed between the single quotes, the Inline Style Inspector would display. This doesn't happen, at least on this 64 bit Vista machine with version 3.5.0.9.

Is my memory astray?

Louise

how default Save to current folder

tcloud — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 10:38:08 GMT

Is there some way I can set TopStyle to save to the current folder rather than to the last used folder?

IOW, when I open an html file, for example, and choose HTML >> Convert Style Blocks ... the initial folder offered to save the file into is whatever folder that was used the last time TopStyle was used. I'd like for it to always default to the current folder, if possible.

thanks,
Tom Cloujd

Looking for Clip Libraries

caribmedia — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:59:06 GMT

I am looking for clip libraries. In particular a good XHTML and a CSS one. Otherwise a converter for Textpad clips would work. Thanks in advance.

Installation problem - tshook.dll

BruceMac — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 20:45:44 GMT

I'm having a problem upgrading from 3.12 to 3.5

The installation fails - or rathers gets to a stage where it goes no further - reporting a problem trying to replace tshook.dll (see screenshot at http://temporarius.massey.ac.nz/tshookdll.png

Any suggestions?

Thanks/Bruce

TS 3.5.0.9 - CPU Pinned

mcwilliams132 — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 08:05:36 GMT

Hi guys...

Windows XP sp 2
1gb ram
1.7ghz Pentium M HP nw8000 Laptop

(yeah.. it's old... I have a request in for a new system :hehe:)

Lately TS has been pinning my CPU to the wall and I can't figure out why. No preview pane open. Tried uninstalling/reinstalling - same results.

When closing TS, it never closes properly (app closes but process continues to run) and I have to kill the process.

Ideas? Suggestions (beyond a new laptop...)?

TopStyle not finding Root directory -- please advise

craighd — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 15:34:53 GMT

Hello,

I'm a new user of TopStyle.

I'm working on a site that requires all paths be coded to the root directory. (ie: /images, /index.html, /style.css etc)

I've tried to setup the site in TopStyle a dozen times, and specified the root directory, and TopStyle never recognizes the root. So none of my pages can find their css styles or images within the program. I'm not generally a Dreamweaver user, but did a test in that program, and Dreamweaver mapped to the root without a problem.

I also am never able to access those site settings again once the site is set-up.

Can someone please help? I think this is a great program, but I'm really frustrated that something so simple isn't working. And I can't find anything in the Help information -- except that it sounds like the program should be able to find the root.

Thank you in advance,

Craig

Can you set a Bookmark in gutter?

webfred — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 06:50:55 GMT

Ive just converted to Topstyle Pro from 1st page 2000. (1st page 2006 was as unstable as ***) Most of the coding I do is ASP but its convenient to have the style sheets and links to include files that topstyle permits.

However, with pages often running into 1000 lines of code and multiple functions embedded within the page it would be really great to be able to set bookmarks in the gutter, and go to line numbers not to mention goto a specific named function within the page.

If any of this is included already please let me know as i have trawled the menus, online help, and forum for bookmark and cannot find anything.

Cheers

webfred

HTML Entities

Peter_LT — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 16:36:49 GMT

Hello Folks,

The new & insight is great, however, there are several missing...
e.g. É is missing its lower case companion é

Is there a way of adding these?

TopStyle and Java Server Faces JSF

Joe-X — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 12:09:30 GMT

Hallo,
is it possible to use TopStyle 3.5 and Tidy not only for HTML but also for sites including Java Server Faces components? Is there anyone out there to write about his experiences ?

Lost registration

Larry — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 12:32:33 GMT

I need to install TS on a new computer. I have the order info from my original purchase but it doesn't have a registration code on it. I don't see where it's showing in the About Box and Newsgator support hasn't replied to my request to have the code sent to me.

Does anyone know where the code is stored or how to get it again off my old computer? Both are WinXP Pro.

Thanks,
Larry

Error: Canvas does not allow drawing (EInvalidOperation)

Penny — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 05:24:04 GMT

Have gotten the above message the last time I used Top Style 3.5.0.9. Not quite sure what that means or why it's happening...

Focus jumping with Fierfox preview

lenniegordo — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 16:59:56 GMT

I got all excited when I saw that a new free upgrade for top style. so I downloaded and got my self ready for battle.

Oh no I realise that the one thing that annoyed me about topstyle that was fixed in a patch a while back has returned. there is a focus jumping problem when using firefox preview browser.

Put the cursor on the text editor type and the focus changes to the preview screen - ahhhhh!
it's so madding - i'm pulling my hair out trying to find the fix for it.

this bug nearly made me leave Topstyle last time
does anyone know where that fix went?

Opera

Alan Palmer — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 08:49:06 GMT

Browsing the BetaNews FileForum, I came across SiteSpinner Pro. I noticed that the blurb says [quote]It incorporates Opera technology in the software[/quote]I realise that SiteSpinner is a WYSIWYG editor, but is there any chance of TS being able to use Opera for previews?

TopStyle UTF-8 support?

Jesper Rønn-Jensen — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 08:23:39 GMT

I can't seem to find info on it here, could you provide me of info as to when you plan to release a TopStyle version with support for UTF-8 files?

Any links or similar info I should be aware of?

thanks!

/Jesper

TS 4.0 Timeline

zurdog — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 11:32:12 GMT

How is development on TS 4.0 going to work? Are we going to vote on features? Or is there going to be an alpha at some point? I know the success of TopStyle was partly due to users contributing ideas and voting on features.

-Matt

Possible bug in TS 3.5.0.9

barock — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 05:24:32 GMT

If I maximize the TopStyle window then some lines of code disappear.

If the line is very long, it disappears and when I minimize the window the line appears.

I'm running Windows XP SP2.

Let me know if you need any more information from me.

Lack of colour definition with Windows Aero and Vista basic

Louise — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 00:50:43 GMT

I have attached a couple of screen shots of the Files bar (??) You will notice that neither Aero or Vista basic provide sufficient colour definition to indicate which file is open. I have found no method to change the tab colour.

Windows standard and classic colour schemes cause the display to be the traditional grey.

Louise

Possible Add-On [Adblocker]

the_TAHK — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:00:22 GMT

I just started using FeedDemon, and I REALLY like it. Its simple to use, simple to install, very clean and useful.
I only have one suggestion, the addition of an ad blocker similar to that of Firefox's Adblocker Plus.
I understand that sites need to make money, and need to be fancy like nobody's business, BUT I also want to be able to read my articles without annoying flashing ads, selling me anything from Viagra to Cialis, and back to Viagra! :D or even worse paper copies of the articles I'm reading.
FeedDemon makes my day surfing the news sites so much easier and simplifies everything I do.
Thank you

Print Site Reports?

rcherny — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 14:16:18 GMT

Is there a way to print the CSS site reports that TopStyle can generate? Maybe I'm missing something obvious?

Style Upgrade Capability

jajr — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 07:53:21 GMT

I have an existing site with 350 pages. It has an external style sheet, but a lot of deprecated font settings manually set on various pages.

Can Style Upgrade go through the whole site and convert deprecated settings to the external style sheet for the whole site? Not sure if I understand the process. Thanks.

Topstyle and RegEx question - can I use $1 etc?

geoffacox — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 17:01:32 GMT

Hello,

Is it possible to use regex to change a whole series of instances similar to the one below?

Assignment Track Records

I have tried following but it appears not possible to use the $1 and $2?

([\.|\,|\-| |A-Z|a-z|0-9]*)

$2

I get a replacement but with literal $1 and $2, i.e.

$2

Cheers

Geoff

Copy to clipboard shortcut key fails to work after selecting text with keyboard

msephton — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 06:16:48 GMT

If I select some text (usually, using the keyboard) and then press Control+C to copy selected text to the clipboard, sometimes it doesn't work.

Control+V (paste) in this scenario also does not seem to do anything.

Any ideas?

ps: I am so far unable to reproduce on demand

3.5 Final - Fill in Use?

zurdog — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 08:35:55 GMT

I'm using Vista Ultimate and sometimes when I go to save my style sheet it says the file is in use. Usually hitting 'retry' solves the problem, but every so often... retry doesn't work. I have a dual pane open, so if I hit retry, it doesn't work, but then when I click in my html document (in that pane) the file all of a sudden gets saved. It's getting annoying but also is very flighty. Any ideas?

***Title is supposed to say 'File' for this post.

-Matt

TS 3.5.09 - Possible bug ?

LadynRed — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 08:26:14 GMT

I looked to see if anyone else reported this as a problem but haven't seen any.

Kudos for all the great improvements, including the preview file management, it's so much easier now to manage the preview files. However, this is also where I'm experiencing what appears to be a bug.

When I click on the down arrow to choose a preview file, the selection window box won't stay open if I let my finger off the mouse button. This isn't a problem if I only have a few files in the list, but when the number of files in the list generates a scrollbar and requires scrolling up or down, I can't scroll. I can't let my finger off the mouse button to grab the scroll bar and it doesn't seem to auto-scroll right if I move to the top or bottom of the window, it's sporadic if it does it and it's not smooth.

The window needs to stay open w/o me having to hold down the mouse button when there's a long list. I might work on 30-40 pages or more in a day. I do have it set to auto-add, it's easier for me that way. Anyone else having this problem ?

My system is running WinXP SP2.

Thanks !

ERROR Application in _ts3tmp.aspx

nuovo24 — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 02:58:36 GMT

i made mapping for use topstyle 3.5 with asp.net pages

All is ok, but, when a page is a content page that uses a master page, preview dosn't go for me

i receive an error application:

Parser Error Message: Only Content controls are allowed directly in a content page that contains Content controls.

Source Error:

Line 1: Line 2: <style type="text/css">Line 3: <!--Line 4: *{

the error is in _ts3tmp.aspx.

i checked in options not to use the temp file, but topstyle uses it the same

thanks

Unable to get rid of _t3tmp message

campbell — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 15:34:12 GMT

I've recently come across a new problem. Whenever I open or save certain files I get a message "Do you want to open or save this file?" and the file name is _t3tmp.php. I can't seem to get rid of this. It only happens when I open certain files, so I suspect it's something to do with the program having been stopped previously in a strange state. Even if I try and copy the contents of the affected files into new files it still happens. I've also uninstalled and reinstalled TopStyle, but the problem's still there.

Any ideas?

TopStyle 3.5 ignores Windows Task Bar "window tiling" functions

PockyLover — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 02:01:50 GMT

It's a bit frustrating for people like me who use these functions of Windows XP a lot:

Windows XP (and Vista) supports vertical or horizontal tiling of selected windows (great if you want two or more applications next to each other and to fill the screen evenly) - e.g. say you want a view of a database open next to a code window, you can select both of them on the Task Bar using the Ctrl key and then select to tile them horizontally or vertically next to each other.

If you didn't know about this feature then try it yourself now with your current browser window and another browser window (or other application): select one of them on the Task Bar, then hold Ctrl and right-click the other one on the Task Bar. From the menu that comes up you can tell Windows to tile the two applications horizontally or vertically.

Unfortunately TopStyle is the only application I know of that doesn't respond to the tiling command correctly - it doesn't resize at all, and the other selected application then fills the whole screen - the correct behaviour is that TopStyle and the other selected application(s) should be resized evenly to fill the screen.

Any idea why this is and if it can be fixed?

P.S. nice work on TopStyle 3.5 - very happy with the upgrade!

Style Inspector generates Style Inspector on file save

Louise — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:41:55 GMT

[i]Sorry I mistyped the subject. Meant to write

[b]Scripted file generates Style Inspector on "save as"[/b][i]

Hi,

vista64

Working with a totally scripted page without any markup or styling. If the file is saved (CTRL+SHIFT+S) when the unpopulated Tag Insp is docked (default) the Style Inspector develops and is focused.

The php file as a txt file is attached

Louise

TopStyle, exclusions, robots.txt, robots meta tags and sitemaps.

Mike Gale — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 15:48:57 GMT

After my recent tests of TopStyle 3.5 I found that I had inadvertently triggered some side effects when TopStyle created a site.

In other words TopStyle fired a page invisible to browsers and Search Engines that I considered "safe".

Fortunately I have a "checking robot" that detected the problem and sent me an email alert.

(There may be a feature that already does what follows. I didn't find it. If it's there my apologies in advance.)

It seems to me that TopStyle acts like a robot, but with privileged access: it can see the filing system. The web site in question has a robots.txt which prohibits access to the files I don't want touched.

To guard against such problems l suggest:

TopStyle reads the robots.txt file and, by default, adhere to it instructions. (When using server mappings to access pages.)
TopStyle should be individually addressable as a user agent in robots.txt.

(There are possible applications of the robots meta tag, for a similar purpose. My current concern cannot be addressed that way. Sitemaps are not a mechanism for doing this as they only list pages you can access.)

I'm usually careful about this sort of thing but let my guard down when testing!!

TS 3.5.0.9 - Preview pane

treebeard — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 07:43:08 GMT

Much as the red box mouseover effect is a nice touch, I'm actually finding that its distracting from getting a clear view of some effects when I test them. Any way it can be switched off?

Preview Engine

leafykun — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 19:20:39 GMT

I am absolutely in love with TopStyle, it suits all of my needs. The one weakness I find quite unfortunate is its reliance on IE as its rendering engine, which is notorious for being the least-standards compliant, ESPECIALLY when it comes to css. IE7 made some nice strides, but it still is very lacking.

Yes, Mozilla is available but the version TopStyle requires hasn't been updated in some years and I am not sure if it is even possible to get a more recent version without some advanced knowledge of programming and editing the Mozilla codebase. I'd love to see an updated version using the latest version of Gecko but there doesn't seem to be much of a market for embedding Mozilla, apart from a few niche products like TopStyle. Most 3rd party software utilizing Mozilla include their own customized version of it (see programs like Activestate's Komodo, which is wonderful)

I am wondering if there is a third option. On windows we now have access to a native port of [url=http://webkit.org/]Webkit[/url] which is updated very regularly. Is there a way to embed it? If so, can future versions of TopStyle offer it as an alernate embedded
brower for the preview?

Or what about the Opera engine? Or is this only available to licensed parties (like Adobe)?

How exciting would that be?

Namespaces; Temporary files

redbourne — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 11:02:31 GMT

I am new to TopStyle (currently a Dreamweaver user) and just trying out the eval version (3.12 I believe). I must admit that I am quite impressed so far but I have a few unconventional usage needs and I wonder if anyone knows the answer to a couple of questions:

1. Is it possible to define custom keyword tables using namespaced tags? I have a tag of the form [i]<rb:script>...</rb:script> [/i]which contains server javascript so I tried copying the ECMAscript.dat keyword table and changing the third line to [i]state=rb:script[/i] but TopStyle said it could not understand the file. Is there another way? Also is it possible to do the same for other server side tags in a modified HTML.def file?

2. When setting up a mapping I am getting an access is denied error on the creation of a temporary file. The reason is TopStyle is trying to set up the temporary file in the root directory of the mapping which happens to be read only. Can the temp directory location be changed at all?

Thanks in anticipation.