NetObjects Fusion (NOF) is a

web design Web design encompasses many different skills and disciplines in the production and maintenance of websites. The different areas of web design include web graphic design; user interface design (UI design); authoring, including standardised code a ...

tool, from 1996 to 2001 developed and distributed by NetObjects, Inc., marketed from 2001 until 2009 by

Web.com Web.com is an American dot-com company that provides a website builder, along with website hosting, domain name registration, web development, and various digital marketing services. It serves as a partner for very small to small-sized bu ...

(formerly dubbed Website Pros), which bought the

application Application may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks ** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a ...

in 2001, and from July 2009 on distributed again by the re-established NetObjects, Inc. NetObjects Fusion has a

graphical user interface A graphical user interface, or GUI, is a form of user interface that allows user (computing), users to human–computer interaction, interact with electronic devices through Graphics, graphical icon (computing), icons and visual indicators such ...

and generates

HTML Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It defines the content and structure of web content. It is often assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets ( ...

or (since release 11)

XHTML Extensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML) is part of the family of XML markup languages which mirrors or extends versions of the widely used HyperText Markup Language (HTML), the language in which Web pages are formulated. While HTML, pr ...

through its own

proprietary {{Short pages monitor ). The visualization technology of NetObjects Fusion has been patented. In a hierarchical tree structure, pages can be built and arranged. The folder structure on the web server can follow this layout or can vary – leaving the site structure only as a logical structure. In Page view, the

desktop publishing Desktop publishing (DTP) is the creation of documents using dedicated software on a personal ("desktop") computer. It was first used almost exclusively for print publications, but now it also assists in the creation of various forms of online co ...

model is most obvious. The user operates with a draw-based layout editor very similar to

Desktop publishing Desktop publishing (DTP) is the creation of documents using dedicated software on a personal ("desktop") computer. It was first used almost exclusively for print publications, but now it also assists in the creation of various forms of online co ...

(DTP) or

Computer-Aided Design Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve c ...

(CAD) software. Toolbars offer text, image, table and other choices to design a page. Since version 8, basic bitmap editing capabilities are integrated in the image tool. All objects can be placed accurately with pixel-level control on the page, can be aligned or evenly distributed. With version 11, NetObjects Fusion moved along to CSS-based layout to enable pixel-level control of all objects on the page. According to the vendor, the code generation has been completely re-written to this end. Earlier versions generated complex hidden tables and blind

GIF The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF; or , ) is a Raster graphics, bitmap Image file formats, image format that was developed by a team at the online services provider CompuServe led by American computer scientist Steve Wilhite and released ...

s for layout. The Team Fusion Client (coming with the NetObjects Authoring Server) had used CSS-driven layout at least since 1999. NetObjects Fusion release 11 still offers table-based layout as an option to maintain upwards compatibility to complex projects built with earlier versions. Page design is divided into an interior layout and an outside masterborder area. Masterborders allow designers to have exactly the same set of objects on a given number of pages. A tab on page view starts an integrated browser (

Microsoft Internet Explorer Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated as IE or MSIE) is a retired series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft that were used in the Windows line of operating ...

) to show an immediate preview without leaving NOF in Internet Explorer. Netobjects Fusion 11 can show a preview also with

Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements curr ...

up to 3.6. Style view offers pre-installed or online-offered sets of designs with banners, navigation bars, backgrounds, text styles and so on. Styles can also be completely user-defined and based on Cascading Style Sheets. Other views include the Asset view, where image and media files are managed; the Publish view, which allows for local previewing or remote publishing with a built-in

FTP The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard communication protocol used for the transfer of computer files from a server to a client on a computer network. FTP is built on a client–server model architecture using separate control and dat ...

module; and the Online view, which was added with NetObjects Fusion MX (6) to provide access to third-party modules, tutorials, or customer support.

Strengths

The

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine fro ...

of NetObjects Fusion has been praised as elegant and user-friendly by users and observers. The changed and extended interface of the versions since release 10 was reviewed less favourably. NetObjects Fusion proved to be flexible for small to medium-sized projects. For instance, novices are able to build a small site with styles that come with the product, and set up a simple online shop with the built-in

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) refers to commercial activities including the electronic buying or selling products and services which are conducted on online platforms or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile co ...

engine. Experts can take advantage of NOF's layout capabilities and use it as a mere front-end to

PHP PHP is a general-purpose scripting language geared towards web development. It was originally created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1993 and released in 1995. The PHP reference implementation is now produced by the PHP Group. ...

SQL Structured Query Language (SQL) (pronounced ''S-Q-L''; or alternatively as "sequel") is a domain-specific language used to manage data, especially in a relational database management system (RDBMS). It is particularly useful in handling s ...

database or advanced e-commerce solutions. According to Web.com, NOF 11 now allows to connect to any "commercially relevant databases". Third-party support was one of the highlights in earlier times, but seems to have been discouraged by Website Pros' policy to offer their own components. Many formerly popular components by third-party vendors like Coolmaps or Bitmotion have been discontinued or remain in the state of just maintaining compatibility to new versions of NetObjects Fusion without further development.

Limitations

Scalability Scalability is the property of a system to handle a growing amount of work. One definition for software systems specifies that this may be done by adding resources to the system. In an economic context, a scalable business model implies that ...

was a known problem of early versions of NetObjects Fusion. Depending on complexity and the user's working method, a single project might have reached its limits of performance and handling at a few pages. Bigger sites had to be broken into several projects causing increased management effort, especially for links and menus. Newer releases proved to be a little bit more robust. With release 11, relying on improved database connectivity and the ability to integrate XML-files into any objects on pages, scalability is not seen as an issue any more by the vendor. Though at least one user thinks otherwise. The limited access to

is seen as a critical flaw by many web developers. However, NetObjects Fusion was not designed to this end.

Latest developments: CSS, XHTML, nPower, Essentials

Since the acquisition of NetObjects Fusion, Website Pros kept a steady pace of new releases with enhanced functionalities. Engineering had been outsourced to

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

. In 2008 Web.com "terminated the outsourced software development" and decided to "use existing in-house resources to assist with the future development" of NetObjects Fusion. Beginning with version 10, NetObjects Fusion improved compliance with modern web standards. NOF 10 (2006) came with full

W3C The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web. Founded in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee, the consortium is made up of member organizations that maintain full-time staff working together in ...

and CSS 2.1 compliance and with a major overhaul of the user interface. However, CSS could be applied to text formatting only and page design stayed table-based. Release 11 (2008) offered CSS-positioned layout and publishing with

1.0 compliance. Enabling typical Web 2.0 sites, a collection of

AJAX Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * Ajax (play), ''Ajax'' (play), by the an ...

widgets like accordions and tagged panels have also been introduced with release 11. Starting with release 9, Website Pros also distributed "NetObjects nPower", a collaborative

content management Content management (CM) are a set of processes and technologies that support the collection, managing, and publishing of information in any form or medium. When stored and accessed via computers, this information may be more specifically referre ...

solution, to use with NetObjects Fusion. The development of nPower was stopped after the two releases for NetObjects 9 and 10. In November 2007, the basic version NetObjects Fusion Essentials was introduced for free download. Essentials is identical with NOF release 7.5. In July 2009, NetObjects, Inc. was re-established as an independent company. It acquired all NOF-related assets from Web.com. for approximately $4.0 million and released version 12 on December 31, 2010.

Support

Support is granted by an active user community in

newsgroup A Usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system for messages posted from users in different locations using the Internet. They are not only discussion groups or conversations, but also a repository to publish articles, start ...

s. Some web sites lik
gotFusionBeyond FusionGerman Forum / NOF CommunityGerman Forum / NOF Schule
o
NOF-Club (Germany)
offer third-party support. The publication of books covering NetObjects Fusion has decreased with shrinking market share. In January 2009,

McGraw-Hill McGraw Hill is an American education science company that provides educational content, software, and services for students and educators across various levels—from K-12 to higher education and professional settings. They produce textbooks, ...

published ''NetObjects Fusion 11'' in their "How to Do Everything" series. NetObjects Fusion 2015 appears to be the final release and some users have reported problems running it under Windows 10.

Versions

All versions have been released in English and German. The given release year is for the English versions. * NetObjects Fusion 1 (1996) (Windows/Mac) * NetObjects Fusion 2 (1997) (Windows/Mac) * NetObjects Fusion 3 (1998) (Windows/Mac) * NetObjects Fusion 4 (1999) (Windows) * NetObjects Fusion 5 (2000) (Windows
Review
* NetObjects Fusion MX (2001) (Windows
Review
* NetObjects Fusion 7 (2002) (Windows) * NetObjects Fusion 7.5 (2003) (Windows) * NetObjects Fusion 8 (2004) (Windows) * NetObjects Fusion 9 (2005) (Windows) * NetObjects Fusion 10 (2006) (Windows) * NetObjects Fusion 11 (2008) (Windows) * NetObjects Fusion XII (2010) (Windows
Review
* NetObjects Fusion 2013 (2013) (Windows) * NetObjects Fusion 2015 (2015) (Windows)

References

Sources and links

* http://netobjects.com (Product homepage) * Webster, Timothy (1996). ''NetObjects Fusion Handbook''. Indianapolis: Hayden Books. . * Gassaway, Stella (1997). ''Killer Web Design: NetObjects Fusion''. Foreword by

Clement Mok Clement Mok (born 1958) is a graphic designer and author. Mok founded several design-related businesses — Studio Archetype (acquired by Sapient), CMCD and NetObjects, Inc. In 1997, Mok recruited George Chen in a photoshoot for an early ...

. Indianapolis: Hayden Books. . * NetObjects (2005). ''NetObjects Fusion 9 User Manual''. Website Pros, Inc. ASIN B000FDVK9C. * Plotkin, David (2009). ''NetObjects Fusion 11. How to Do Everything.''. New York:

. . {{HTML editors HTML editors 1996 software Web.com