The Internet Hotel
As Good as It Gets?
A Review of Macromedia Backstage Internet Studio 2
by Ron Enderland
By now, we all know that web pages aren’t that scary, right? I mean, there aren’t too many of us who make them in a text file editor like they did in the Dark Ages (you know, three or four years ago). There are a ton of nice editors out there that will help everyone from the novice to the Alpha Geek design decent presentations, limited only by the bounds of the author’s imagination.
Administering a website, however, especially a complicated one with feedback forms, discussion groups, and the like can be a major undertaking. There are a few gurus out there who can handle it with nothing but their bare hands, but they are few and far between. For the rest of us, there are programs like Macromedia Backstage Internet Studio.
What makes Backstage different from the rest? Well, it’s just incredibly well-thought-out, from the simple WYSIWIG interface to the fact that you can create forms without tackling CGI scripting. You can also manage a huge website with numerous directories in a simple Windows-Explorer-like environment.
Backstage comes with O’Reilly’s above-average Website 1.1, if you decide to administer your site from your own NT machine. You can also use most other web server software, as well. Included is a slick FTP program that you can use if you set your site up on a remote server. Drag-and-drop is supported and the interface is quickly mastered.
Backstage Designer is the editor. It refuses to automatically open in full-screen format (really, my only complaint about the entire product). Once you’ve manually enlarged the editor to fill the screen, you see a nice WYSIWIG layout that will allow graphical files to appear as they would online (if you are putting your site together within Macromedia’s default Projects directory). If you’re using a site that is based on another directory on your hard drive, then you’ll get the familiar blank graphics markers.
Once you have created a web page, along with accompanying graphics, then calling it up for maintenance is a breeze. Just fire up Backstage Manager and double click on the page that you want to work on. Designer pops up with the page in place. You can even edit files directly on the remote server itself, without the upload process.
It’s simple to edit the HTML manually from a drop-down menu. This will prove a boon for the middle-to-advanced user, as well as anyone who ever cursed Microsoft’s Front Page for making you jump through the Notepad hoop to accomplish the same thing.
Once you finish editing your document and are ready to publish it, just drag and drop onto your remote server icon. The FTP feature will log in with your ID and password and upload the file (automatically overwriting, if necessary).
For the serious business designer, there is built-in forms handling capability. You can make forms that use the familiar CGI scripts, or you can use forms that Backstage itself will handle. These forms will access databases on your server. Nearly all database programs are supported. Most database functions can be performed, from executing SQL commands to running advanced queries. You can build a truly sophisticated information collector with Backstage.
In addition, you can insert (via the drop-down menus) ActiveX applications, Java Applets, and Netscape Plugins. You can go from blank page to sophisticated web presentation in nothing flat. There are nifty Backstage objects that can be inserted, as well, including automatic date/time stamps, pagehit counters, and fully automated discussion groups. These custom objects must be used in conjunction with Backstage Server, so that they can’t be run from most remote servers. However, if you have your own server machine, you can make your site do some amazing things, free from the confusion of CGI.
Is this the best site handler out there? It may well be. At 299 bucks, it’s a bit pricey for the tinkerer. But if you have a need for a sophisticated package that will handle nearly any challenge that might arrive in administering a website, then by all means give Backstage a try.
Internet Hotel Scorecard
| Product: | Macromedia Backstage Internet Studio 2 |
| Company: | Macromedia, Inc. |
| Cost: | $299.00 |
System Requirements:
Backstage CD-ROM drive for installation & clip art
Mouse or digitizing tablet
Color monitor recommended
Client: 16 MB RAM on Windows
Server: 24 MB RAM for Windows NT
Macromedia xRes SE
Windows 95, Windows NT 16 MB of RAM (24+ recommended)
14 MB available hard disk space
Platforms
Client: Windows 95, Windows NT 3.51 and 4.0
Server: Windows 95, Windows NT 3.51 and 4.0
Web Servers
Works with all popular Web servers including Netscape, Microsoft Internet Server, O'Reilly WebSite.
Databases
MS Access, FoxPro, dBase, Paradox, Excel, Oracle 7.3 and higher (HP, Sun OS, Solaris, IBM Unix), Sybase (HP, Sun OS, Solaris, IBM Unix), Informix (HP, Sun OS, Solaris, IBM Unix), and MS SQL Server
Breakdown:
Ease of Use 5
Quality 5
Concept 5
Interface 5
Overall Score:
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