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OmniWebsite 7.0

by Linda Sharps on June 7, 2007

Our intrepid James has been toiling behind the scenes for many weeks now to convert Omni's website into something a little less baroque, content-management-wise. I don't know all the technical details, but he seems to have streamlined a giant pasta-dish of code into a far more accessible system that can actually be updated without doing the web version of Twister. Plus, we have finally gotten rid of the dreaded FRAMES that earned us one of the more entertaining flame mails I've ever read (it involved many, many exclamation points).

Please take a look around when you get a chance, we're hoping you let us know if you encounter any glitches.

 

Comments

Only 2.0? I remember a couple of ooold Omni site designs from back in the day…

William

06.07.07 10:22 AM

As do I, but figuring out the actual version number would have taken far more time than writing “OmniWebsite 2.0”.

Linda

06.07.07 10:28 AM
Team Member

I think it might actually be v7.0.  Let's see what we find in the Wayback machine...


1994 - Original simple text layout

1998 - Textured backgrounds

2000 - Fallout handheld front page, frame-based navigation

2001 - Hello, Aqua

2002 - Goodbye, pinstripes

2004 - More white and clear, less blue and metal

2007 - Goodbye, frames and textures!

Ken Case

06.07.07 10:34 AM

Okay then, I've updated the post, but Seven-Point-Oh makes me think this baby should make lattes and fold my laundry, in addition to serving up HTML and images.

Linda

06.07.07 10:38 AM

Ooh. Do you want to post said entertaining flame email? Please?

gdw

06.07.07 10:39 AM

Sadly, I think the mail in question was answered (diplomatically, of course) and deleted a long while back. You'll just have to take my word that it was EXTREMELY! PASSIONATE!!!!

Linda

06.07.07 10:45 AM

Looks good, the download link for OmniFocus seems to be missing though.


*teehee*

Tom

06.07.07 11:21 AM

Ahem, shame the designers didn't test it in OmniWeb. Looks ok in Safari but it goes all wonky in OmniWeb; the title wraps over 2 lines and the app links are down below the news items.

Gianni

06.07.07 3:34 PM

It's beeeyuutifuul.


It made me realize I need to buy OmniWeb to keep the other omniapps company while they wait all lonely for OmniFu 1.0 to join them. (OmniFu alpha is quarantined in its own room and not allowed to play with them until it's feeling stronger.)


Oh dear, it all makes me write silly-like. I can't stand the Apple/Omni/Google excitement these days. A great time to be alive and a mac slut, aint it?

Alexandra

06.07.07 3:48 PM

Don't forget to restyle shopping page on buyolympia.com :-)

ksenia

06.07.07 7:18 PM

And Omni store still has the old textures…

ksenia

06.07.07 7:20 PM
Team Member

Thanks for bringing the problem to our attention!


We do use OmniWeb, not surprisingly, and the site works fine in OmniWeb—but it does wrap oddly when your windows are narrow, whether you're using OmniWeb or any other browser (including Safari).


(Presumably your Safari windows are set to be wider than your OmniWeb windows; the pages should render identically in the two browsers otherwise, except where we make use of some new CSS features that are in OmniWeb but not yet in Safari.)


For now you can avoid the issue by making your windows wider, but we'll fix this as soon as possible.

Ken Case

06.07.07 9:39 PM

I'm afraid even at full screen 1600x1200px I get the same problem in OmniWeb (5.5.4 v607.17) and it doesn't wrap oddly for me in Safari even when sizing the window right down.


I'll send a screenshot in to the webmaster.

Gianni

06.07.07 10:47 PM
Team Member

Ohhh.  Maybe the problem is that we're all using the internal alpha builds of OmniWeb 5.6?  (At least I know I am.)


We'll check it out, thanks again!

Ken Case

06.07.07 10:51 PM

Hi Guys - do you want visual feedback? Ignore this if not. Whilst all the visual elements on the front page are attactive and franky beautiful in their clarity, I can't help feeling the elements have all been squashed together to choking - dispite the nice stuff due to a lack of space above and below elements such as the news flashes it looks really busy (in this respect alone it was much better before). Also in comparsion to the font sizes elsewhere the news flash text is ugly big, which again crushes things together. I'm really sorry if this is out of order, its all subjective anyway. Hope you don't want to hit me with a stick! I'm one of those anoying ex-graphic designers that can't stop scratching an itch. College made me a monster!

Kelsang Norbu

06.08.07 12:57 AM

You also get the wrapping when using Rather Large Fonts in Safari, in addition to Rather Narrow Windows.


At first I thought it was some sort of avant garde layout technique:


0[]%!        The Omni

      Group


“Why, yes, I work for The Group…  The Omni Group.” 


Yeah, I could see Joel saying that.

johnny0

06.08.07 3:04 AM

Ah, I see it now. If you increase the font size, yes, weird things happen on the front page. There's also the navigation menu wrapping problem on the application pages if your window is narrow.


Both of these problems have been noted, and we'll get to work on fixing them. :D

William

06.08.07 5:43 AM

It's much nicer….

Tommy Weir

06.08.07 10:16 AM

You guys really should consider hiring a professional web designer to do your site (I assume this is an internal job). Frankly the typography sucks, nothing lines up with anything else because you don't specify a page width and your home page looks totally different to the rest of the site.

Rory

06.09.07 7:28 PM

are people really that pathetic? Who cares if a site uses frames or not! If frames are a problem for someone then they have to be using some really archaic system that needs updating. Ridiculous.

kev

06.11.07 8:27 PM

Would sure love to be viewing it with OmniWeb 6.

Ralph Fontcuberta

06.12.07 7:19 AM

Safari: iApple + iGoogle = iHappy


Standards, open source and a new new way to get WebKit into the open?


Omniweb 5.5.4

As a paid for browser using the WebKit tools… I would have expected the GREAT and WONDERFUL Omni group to update their

WebKit integration of Omniweb… It is outdated, and even the new and buggy Safari is operating better on lots of Web 2.0 sites than OW.

 

Please OW group! Give us the Best experience we came to expect…

 


PS - You have the BEST browser in the world, don't let Steve's stupid comments about Safari… intimidate you… ;-)

 

To be continued…

 

Rohey

06.18.07 6:59 AM

Hi guys…


Good effort on the new site but I'm afraid it doesn't get my vote.


I feel the typography chosen for the titles of the apps wasn't great - letters are hard to make out, as I think the font has kerning problems ..


The whole page also looks way too small in my opinion. I much preferred the previous layout with the apps lined up on the left side.


I can't remember exactly what the site looked like without using archive.org but it seems a lot plainer and a little less inviting now.


Hope you don't mind me saying about this, just think you guys deserve something special as your app design is always first class.

Rob Record

06.26.07 11:03 PM
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