Q&A with Elixir regarding RapidWeaver Elements and Stacks app

Elixir & Forum Updates
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With the recent release of more details about both RapidWeaver v9’s Elements plugin as well as information about YourHead Software’s standalone Stacks app, I wanted to take a few minutes to talk about how these two tools will affect things here at Elixir.

After receiving a large influx of email on the topic I thought it might just be easier and more transparent to create a public forum topic. This will also give you the ability to ask me questions you might have as well. With that said, I can only comment as far as the things I know and that have been made public.

With that out of the way let’s dive right in.

Q: Will Foundry work in RapidWeaver v9’s new Elements plugin?

Yes. It is my goal to make sure my products will continue to work within the RapidWeaver ecosystem. It has been made public knowledge that their new Elements plugin will allow developers like myself to bring their Stacks-based addons over to the Elements platform in RapidWeaver v9.

Realmac Software has also stated that there will be an opt-in process for this to ensure that developers who do not wish to have their Stacks addons compatible with Elements have the ability to make that choice.

I will be opting in to allow my Stacks-based addons to be useable within Elements. My primary goal in doing so is to provide continuity for users of my products, allowing them to continue to make use of their tools, like Foundry, within RapidWeaver.

My hope is that the transition is a simple matter of opting in and that not many changes will be needed to make this happen.

Q: Will Foundry work in YourHead Software’s new standalone app?

Yes. As I hear it there should be no need for changes to Foundry or my other Stacks addons to make them work within the standalone version of Stacks that YourHead Software is developing.

Much like with RapidWeaver, it is my goal to make sure customers have the ability to continue to use their Stacks-based addons that they’ve purchased from me within the Stacks standalone application.

Q: Have you tested Foundry in either of these two platforms?

No. Neither company has provided any developers with beta copies of their apps for testing at this time. Once I receive beta versions I will of course drop what I’m doing and start testing within both apps. I am very much hoping that there will not be any substantial changes needed, but you never know.

It is my hope that one version of Foundry will be able to serve both communities to make the transitions for users easy and pain free, allowing you to choose whether you wish to use Foundry in RapidWeaver or Stacks.

Q: Will RapidWeaver’s Elements Plugin be able to open Stacks-based pages?

I do not know the answer to this at this time. That information has not been made available.

I have heard that Elements should be able to import your page designs, helping you to not need to rebuild from the ground up.

Q: Will the Stacks standalone app be able to open RapidWeaver project files?

Much like the previous question, I do not know the answer to this at this time. That information has not been made available.

I have also heard that Stacks should be able to import your page designs, helping you to not need to rebuild from the ground up.

Q: Will Elixir themes continue to work within RapidWeaver?

I’ve been assured that themes will continue to work just as they have in the past. I don’t expect to need to do anything to prepare them for RapidWeaver v9 at this point. They should work as-is. It is also my understanding that they will work with the Elements plugin as well.

Ensuring continuity

As I said, it is my goal to make sure that my customers’ needs are met. This means ensuring continuity for you all as these two new platforms when they are released. It is also my aim to continue to offer new exciting addons, as well as improvements to existing addons, as well.

In short, I want to make sure your investment in Foundry, and Elixir as a whole, are solid and secure and that you can continue to use the tools you’ve purchased from me within RapidWeaver Elements or the Stacks standalone app.

This community means a lot to me. I’ve been at this since 2006 when I built my first RapidWeaver theme. I truly enjoy creating tools like Foundry that make it possible for users to more easily create beautiful, modular sites without needing a degree in computer science.

I plan to keep pushing forward, creating new products that help expand what you can do while also making it easy for you to do so. I’ve got a lot planned for the future of Foundry as well as other addons.

If you have questions

I’m happy to answer questions you might have below. I can only go off of the information I have that is public knowledge at this point, but there is a lot out there already. So ask any questions you might have in this thread and I’ll do my very best to answer them.

If I receive more information that I can make public I will post it here and update the thread.

Thanks for reading this far and thank you for your continued support. I think some exciting times are ahead of us all when it comes to building websites on the Mac platform!

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I’m glad to hear that from you

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Thanks Adam!

I have no worries regarding Elixir’s products because of your openness.

Cheers,
Erwin

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Thanks for putting this out there Adam. You put my nervousness at ease. :+1:t3: :sunglasses:

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Wise move. Chapeau. Thanks

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Im sorry Adam. But if you allow your products to be used by Elements then I will not be using your products anymore. (And I have them all and use them regularly) Elements is a deliberate move by RealMac to get rid of Stacks within Rapidweaver. RM are cheating Isaiah /Yourhead out of his livelihood. And the only reason is greed.
You do not have to make your stacks work with Elements for all of the users currently on here to continue to use your products. As long as they dont upgrade to RW9 your stacks ill continue to work. And Isaiah is making a Stacks app which will allow us to continue to use Stacks way into the future.

I really hope that you will think again and not support what is now being considered and proved by the community to be a very unethical, immoral and possibly illegal move from Real Mac.

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Hi @alixnotes!

Hope you’re having a nice weekend!

I’ve talked with Isaiah in length about my plans. He and I have an understanding I assure you.

There are a lot of users that will want to continue with RapidWeaver v9. That might not be your course or others, but it is the case for some, and each will have their own reasons.

I’ve been a supporter of @Isaiah for a very long time (nearly as long as I’ve been a developer in this community), and I still am. Heck I worked on some of the first UI elements in Stacks, believe it or not, as well as one of the plugin’s early icons.

As I said, I’m not going anywhere – I’ll still be building Stacks addons for a long time to come. I have lots of plans for them.

Not everyone’s wants and needs are the same thing. That said, I do want to support my customers and their needs, whatever those may be. And making sure my products work for everyone is the way I can do that, no matter the platform you choose.

It is good to see your enthusiasm for Stacks. I am sure Isaiah really appreciates it! I really like seeing it. That said, I don’t feel it is right for me to be roasted for wanting to make sure all of my customers are covered going forward. Especially when you might not be privy to the talks behind the scenes.

I hope that I can support you and you needs going forward, as well as my many other customers. If you decide not to purchase something from me in the future, whether for Stacks or for RapidWeaver, I can respect that. But I would encourage you to try and see it from my perspective as well and know that I have talked through things with Isaiah and he understands my perspective.

I hope we can keep this thread civil, as I want this to be a place where people can ask questions. I know there are other areas where tempers are high right now, but I’d like to keep this a place for calm rational discussion.

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This is not just me being awkward, Adam, or causing trouble. Isaiah is being ripped off. And if every developer stood with him then RW would have no where to go with their scam

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@alixnotes —

Good morning!

I did not say that it was you being awkward. Far from it. I outlined exactly why I am planning to support both platforms in my previous posts in this thread. I have been quite transparent about my reasons.

Your post seems to assume a lot, including that I’m unaware of what is going on elsewhere in the community, both publicly and privately. That is far from the truth. I am simply not on every public forum posting about this topic daily.

I understand your response to the situation, but you’re not aware of the content of my private conversations. And honestly I wish to keep my private conversations just that – private.

Isaiah and I are friends and have been for a very long time. And I hope that it remains that way. As I mentioned before I have spoken to him already, multiple times. He understands where I’m coming from. And as I’ve also said above in this thread, I support his work on Stacks.

I’m not sure that there is anything I can say here that will make you happy about my decision to support my customers needs in the way that I plan to. I wish there were. Know though that your investment in my products is still a sound one. You and all of my other customers will continue to be able use Foundry, and your other addons from Elixir, in Stacks and RapidWeaver, no matter the platform you or they choose.

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HI Adam

Do you know if RW9 will continue to support/offer the built-in blog plugin from previous versions.
I’m running a site that uses your Mint theme with a large blog page -do you think this will still be ok?
Also, do you know if its true that RW9 will be a paid monthly subscription service, rather than off payment?
I’m running a couple of sites that use Foundry with TotalCMS. Do you think these will continue to work ok with RW9?

Thanks and best wishes, James

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I haven’t heard this but I would be surprised if this were the case.

I suspect sites already built with the RW blog plug-in will continue to work, for existing sites but I don’t think you’ll be able to choose the legacy blog page in the new Elements pages. I can’t make your promises here as I’m just going off of my own intuition.

I plan to support Foundry in RW 9 but you’d need to check with Joe Workman on his support forum to know if Total CMS will work in RW 9 or not.

Edit — looks like @anon97693703 beat me to answering your questions about the blog and subscription rumor, so read that one above for sure.

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great, thanks Adam for clarifying

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Great, thanks @anon97693703 for confirming. I look forward to seeing the new features in RW9.

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WOW.
I have been away from web design a bit the last year or so, and haven’t visited the RW site in quite a while. I stumbled upon a Joe Workman tweet that led me to these recent events. This is surprisingly emotional news about some people I’ve never personally met, but I’ve been using RW since about 2005 and Isaiah’s contributions shortly after that. I’m just stunned that it’s come to such an ugly end. (that https://forum.rw4all.com post was heartwrenching)

Anyway, I want to thank you for posting your Q&A, and I hope you are able to navigate these troubled waters. I’ve been a fan and user of your products for a long while as well, and knowing that if I dump RW for Isaiah’s product means I can still use Elixir’s brilliant creations really eases my mind!

Best wishes to you and everyone here, and I hope this isn’t as disgusting as it appears to be on the surface. :confused:

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I’m sure Dan will be getting that post deleted.

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Hi @gmedlock — hope you’re having a good weekend. We’re trying to keep to facts and not bickering or instigating in this thread.

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As we head towards the release of RW Elements, I have to say I’m with @alixnotes on this one. Whilst I appreciate that you have an understanding with Isaiah, as a long term Stacks user this has a moral implication for me. RM have simply created Elements as a replacement for Stacks and then created a conversion tool to convert the Stacks, completely cutting Yourhead who made all of this possible out of the picture.

RM could have created their own system and allowed developers to create elements for this, instead they’re piggybacking off Stacks and that doesn’t seem right.

I appreciate that for developers it will be financially better to sell on two platforms rather than one.

You may be happy to support RMs sherlocking of Stacks, but I am not and will cease using and purchasing Stacks that encourage this behaviour.

Just to be clear, there is no animosity here. I think Elixirgraphics produces some of the best Stacks, and I want to thank you for having supplied some great tools that have allowed me to produce good websites.

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I know that I’m repeating myself from earlier in the thread, but since it has been some time since this topic has been touched on here I’ll reiterate a little.

I think it is important to support my customers. I’m doing my best to support those who have purchased products from me and not make their decision as to which platform they wish to use for them. Customers like yourself deserve the ability to choose which of the two platforms that they prefer to use and I want to ensure the products they purchased from me work on those platforms. If they wish to continue to use my tools in Stacks, Stacks Pro or Elements, that is up to them. I created these tools to work with RapidWeaver & Stacks from the beginning and want to continue to do so and I don’t feel it would be right to leave customers high and dry when they’ve loyally supported me for nearly 2 decades.

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