

Frontend: The web visual editor - marizmelo
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/emoriz/frontend-the-web-visual-editor
Kickstart campaign for the most advanced open-source web editor for your browser.
======
sorich87
A shameless plug for my own similar open source project with an already
functional version
[http://www.brickseditor.com/](http://www.brickseditor.com/). It uses
Bootstrap for the layout but there are plans to support other frameworks. It's
built on AngularJS. I'm currently working on it full time. Maybe there could
be some way we could collaborate if this Kickstarter isn't successful?

~~~
tmikaeld
Very nice! Yours is much more than just a front-end editor, yours create
complete apps.

EDIT: And yours is not MIT licensed and has separate commercial licenses.

~~~
sorich87
The goal is to allow make the whole development process, from prototyping to
deployment, easier.

It's AGPL. The commercial licenses are for people or companies who may want to
modify it without releasing their modifications back to the community. If they
don't want to contribute their code, they will at least contribute
financially.

~~~
tmikaeld
It really does, just don't over-complicate things and add support for plugins
and it will be perfect!

Do the commercial license cost 299$ per year? Is it limited per install, or
company-wide?

~~~
sorich87
Support for plugins is high priority!

It will be per install. I just put that price as a baseline. It will be
adjusted depending on the needs and use cases. If you would like to talk about
it in depth, shot me an email.

------
alco
It pains me to see how he repeats the same action for each subtitle-block
element, doing the same thing 3 times total. Imagine you had a scrollable area
with 20 blocks.

If it's a mockup editor, then it should be easy to customize from JS to make
anything useful from the mockup.

If it's a site builder, better add support for templates, so that one would
then be able to drag and drop data (e.g. json) onto the canvas and bind it to
a template to automatically populate a whole set of elements at once.

P.S. No matter how slick your UI is, if it's not programmable, it's not
useful.

~~~
marizmelo
The system has a code editor for your convenience @alco. I will try to make
that more clear.

Also, you will be able to select multiple elements and parent elements and
apply the same actions.

------
bbx
Although Frontend is impressive, the target market is a bit blurry. As a
front-end developer, I don't see myself using such a tool. And non tech-savvy
people would probably feel a bit overwhelmed and would still have issues
designing a decent layout considering it's not their job.

For some time, I've had in mind a service where people could easily build
their websites. A bit like Squarespace (which is amazing) but with a different
interface. For many clients who only need a homepage, a contact page, an about
page, and some content pages, I usually end up building a custom WordPress
theme because its admin interface is efficient and user-friendly, and because
I have much experience in it. But still, I don't consider it the best tool for
the job.

I'm not a great programmer, but I have UI, UX, and front-end skills. I'll
probably try to develop a workable draft of this app I have in mind, but if
anyone is interested in building an easy-to-use platform for non tech-savvy
people, feel free to contact me. I have some ideas about how the workflow
should be and what features it should have.

~~~
madoublet
I am working toward a similar goal with my open source project
(respondcms.com): allow the developer/designer to focus on design while
allowing the end-user to focus on creating content.

~~~
marveller
I have been watching on this CMS for some time, great job!

~~~
madoublet
Thank you. It is always a work-in-progress, but it (hopefully) gets better
with each release.

------
eonil
Looks cool. But nothing related to Photoshop. They can say this something like
iWeb or DreamWeaver, but not Photoshop at all.

------
jwarren
Bro, do you even Bootstrap? Edit: Sorry, it's not Bootstrap, it's their own
framework. Though visually it's very similar.

But seriously, I'm not sure who this is for. It looks like there's quite a
technical hurdle to setting it up - node.js and vagrant aren't easy to install
for a novice user, and they aren't suitable for any shared hosting environment
that I've come across.

I imagine (possibly incorrectly) that the market for simple point and click
interfaces wouldn't necessarily overlap with that of people who are
comfortable setting up complex hosting environments.

Now, as an online subscription model, I think it could be quite competitive.
That's an entirely different route which definitely has a market.

~~~
marizmelo
Hey jwarren. Thanks for the comment.

Online system is definitely an option down the road.

About the setup. Basically the only thing you need to install is vagrant. The
Frontend VM has all the files and tools required to run the application on
your machine.

1\. Install Vagrant (with our installer);

2\. Run VM

3\. You are ready to go.

------
kayoone
The open source part of it is cool, but i still have a couple of issues with
it:

\+ why do you need 75K as a minimum ? Sounds a bit high, even for 2 people

\+ They say its built with node, but what about the frontend of frontend ?
Only jquery ?

\+ does it support bootstrap or other layouting frameworks?

\+ when will they let people contribute to it ?

Id really like something like this being open source, but in that case i feel
it would need some more flexibility to be integrated into CMSes and
Frameworks. Abstracted reusable components to plug it into existing systems,
some kind of Content Repository integration for versioning etc. If thats the
plan, ill fund in a heartbeat. If its meant just as a downloadable tool to
built basic websites it wouldnt have much appeal to me though.

~~~
ilaksh
It is a CMS in itself. How is 75k high for two people? Are they supposed to
commit to living below the poverty line?

~~~
BenjaminN
In which country living with $75k is living below the poverty line exactly?

~~~
Samuel_Michon
As I understand it, that's for 2 devs. Subtract the Kickstarter fees, sending
out the Kickstarter rewards, and various taxes, that leaves them with maybe
$20k per person. Of course, that number is meaningless by itself, not knowing
how long it will take them to complete the project. If they devote more than a
year to the project, depending on where they live that's not a lot of income.

------
glazskunrukitis
Have you seen Webflow[0] and Froont[1]?

[0] [https://webflow.com/](https://webflow.com/)

[1] [http://froont.com/](http://froont.com/)

~~~
marizmelo
Yes, they are great. I have met with the Webflow team (great guys).

The differences:

1\. Frontend is open-source;

2\. Database integration;

3\. Plugins (components) create by users;

Other differences will appear on the stretch goals.

------
ilaksh
Do the components include back-end Node.is code also? If so I really hope your
project becomes popular and is open source. Because I think that developers
should code components not UIs or reinventing Crud or email sign up forms. So
this is the right direction for developers not just designers or novices. The
popular approach with a lot of manual code for basic things like layout and
other things is very dumb. Components are the way to go.

~~~
marizmelo
Components should be easy to plugin on the system using any available APIs out
there. Facebook Login, Twitter Feeds, Database integration, etc. Our goal is
not to build a simple visual editor. We want to create an ecosystems for
developers, designers, and regular users. This is just a "kickstart".

------
marizmelo
Hey everybody. Please give a second look over the project. We tried to make
clear the differences between Frontend and the other options out there. Let us
know about anything we can improve on the Kickstarter page. Thank you.

[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/emoriz/frontend-the-
web-...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/emoriz/frontend-the-web-visual-
editor)

------
mooted1
Webflow, an existing product, is much more powerful and pretty affordable.
Macaw, if it's as awesome as it looks in the demo, may be better than Webflow.

This, this is thoroughly underwhelming. Sorry.

If open source is your biggest differentiator, I think you should emphasize
this. Being able to use this as a part of other environments would make it
much more compelling. Maybe change up the kickstarter page?

~~~
marizmelo
Webflow is great and Macaw seems amazing, but let me try to make the
difference clear here:

Frontend vs Webflow:

1\. Frontend is open-source (as you mention);

2\. Frontend has a databased integration (ORM);

3\. Frontend let users create their own components and templates and plugin on
the system;

4\. You can develop locally (for speed) and push projects to the web whenever
you are done;

6\. You can host frontend on your own server online and deploy projects from
there;

Frontend vs Macaw:

1\. Frontend runs on the browser, there is not "preview" process;

2\. Frontend is open-source;

3\. Frontend let users plug their own components and templates;

4\. You can develop locally and push projects whenever you are done;

5\. You can host frontend on your own server online and deploy projects from
there;

6\. Frontend is responsive (mobile ready), with Macaw you need to check if
your project will work on mobile first (and on tablet);

More differences will appear on the stretch goals.

Thank you for the comment.

------
kanakiyajay
1.How is it different from macaw or Adobe Muse ? 2.I did not understand why
are you using a custom web framework xtyle , instead why not go for Bootstrap
?. Its already used by millions and you also save a lot of time. 3.Components
feature sounds exciting , but how much similar is it to angular directives.
4.What is target market ? front-end developers or non-tech people?

~~~
marizmelo
Macaw and Muse are commercial tools. Frontend was created as an open-source
alternative.

We use xtyle by default, but you can for sure use Bootstrap (its your choice).

Components are anything you can plugin on the system (including directives if
you are an Angular developer). The target market are front-end developer,
designers, and non-tech.

------
meerita
This is Microsoft Frontpage all over again.

I'm sure they will have market: people who don't have the money to contract
serious developers, and some novel developers who may like this idea, but in
the end, I think it's a product with few possibilities.

------
elsurudo
Looks to me like it works pretty much just like Squarespace (except self-
hosted and open). The way Squarespace makes it easy for non-web-designer folk
to put together nice-looking websites is excellent, so it's a good model to
work from.

------
izolate
It irks me that this is called Frontend. It's not, it's design. Call it
Design. Or Frontpage 2013. Whatever. Frontend is a development skill, which
requires intricate knowledge of markup and javascript languages/frameworks.

~~~
skrebbel
Oh come on. "Frontend" isn't a skill. It's a piece of software that makes
interfacing with another piece of software easier.

There have been frontends long before there was HTML.

~~~
izolate
That's a fair point. I may have made the assumption that this was named after
the skill.

------
incimou
What about [https://rukzuk.com/en/](https://rukzuk.com/en/) ? Not open source
but the only tool I found which has integrated CMS. Website says it's even
extendable with custom code.

~~~
tmikaeld
It's a really nice tool, but it's a SAAS - no go for us.

------
joosters
The reward structure is odd. For example, the 'super backer' $1000 level is
limited to 200, yet the rewards given (e.g. The memory stick) are unlimited in
the previous levels. Why artificially limit yourself to 200?

~~~
marizmelo
You are right Joosters, thank you for your comment. We will work on the
rewards.

------
korussian
This seems to be more or less exactly the same as
[http://jetstrap.com](http://jetstrap.com)

~~~
ilaksh
Looks like its different because its not for building only front ends but
actually fully functional websites on Node.us. and its open source.

------
sycren
The product looks amazing but the Kickstarter reward levels need to be
rethought.

~~~
marizmelo
I agree sycren. We are first timers on Kickstarter, but we will work on that.
Thank you for the comment.

------
duiker101
there are many of this apps already, and while there are a couple that are
nice my question is: has anyone actually ever used any of this for something
serious?

~~~
porker
Yes but this one is slightly different being open source - it means (rather
than everyone re-inventing the wheel) it can be integrated into Drupal,
Wordpress, any other CMS... which I for one would be in favour of, as it would
level the playing field again.

~~~
tmikaeld
+1 for this excellent argument!

------
brickcap
Nice. What technologies are you using to build Frontend?

------
dennyoi
If you have no ideas - create secure messenger...or web builder.

