

Show HN: StackHive – Live Web Coding and Visual Styling from the Browser - kshitizshankar

StackHive is a browser based website development tool that helps developers and designers in saving a majority of their development time.<p>Packed with a live code editor, importing existing websites and a visual editor; StackHive brings the best of both worlds (Visual Editing and Full Code Control) to responsive website development and converts the browser into a fully functional and extremely capable IDE for static web development.<p>We just released it a few days back and would love to get some feedback from the developers out there who struggle with front-end development!<p>You can check it out http:&#x2F;&#x2F;stackhive.com
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dkyc
_Really_ well done and feature-rich. Every web developer has thought about a
product like this at some point. However, I don't understand who you're
targeting: It's an incredibly feature-rich product, but no clear value
proposition. Are you targeting backend developers that can't write HTML/CSS?
Are you targeting HTML/CSS-devs that need a better IDE? Are you targeting
website optimizers?

Your product seems like a combination of IDE, web-based WYSIYWIG (à la Weebly
or Unbounce), SEO/Optimization (Optimizely or VWO), and Chrome Developer
Tools. The integration is great from a technical perspective, but I don't see
why I as a Web Dev should switch my entire tool chain to your service. The USP
is kind of missing.

(I'm also from Germany, and the rendering is kind of slow, as hxseven has
mentioned. Not sure if due to connection or client-side JS.)

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kshitizshankar
Thanks a lot! The basic idea was to help developers like myself who are not
very great with front-end development but have a good back-end knowledge. Once
I started developing it (and picked up front-end development along the way), I
realised that the even developers who have fair knowledge of the front-end
part can really utilise a browser based tool for visual CSS development since
a lot of us use browser tools like Firebug and Chrome developer tools which
tend to get quite limited.

So yeah, that's how the idea evolved and I started creating a visual editing
tool that not only helps developers with visual development but also provides
a more extensive browser based coding IDE.

Browser plays an integral role in most of the web development cycle and so if
we can combine the development and testing process and create a more
streamlined Test Driven Development flow, it save a huge amount of time..
especially when it comes to responsive web development..

The way I envision it is to create a full stack development IDE inside the
browser itself; so the only developer tool anyone would need is just a
browser.. HTML/CSS/Javascript/Database+Server-Side Programming.

So yeah, to come back to the question...I am targeting mostly developers
(majorly freelancers) right now.. who have a lot of work load and can actually
benefit by saving a lot of time by using StackHive.. After that I think there
is a great opportunity to bring on Designers onboard as well and create the
full web development ecosystem inside the browser :)

(For the slow rendering, I made a temporary fix for now.. sorry about that..
should be able to get it in the groove in a few hours!)

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hxseven
Interesting project, the user interface looks very nice and polished. But the
access from Germany (Europe) is very slow which makes the IDE very
unresponsive and tedious to work with.

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kshitizshankar
Can you try now? Should be working fine!

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hxseven
Thanks for the feedback, now the load time feels a bit faster. But in my
opinion the overall experience could be a bit snappier. If I notice anything
else I will let you know.

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kshitizshankar
Awesome! Thanks..

