Widgets a Gone Gone

[Master_Allusionist]

I want to sue Adobe in a class action lawsuit for antitrust violations implemented with this forced cloud update...Anyone want to join? I purchased my CS6 MASTER SUITE less then 6 months ago because I don't believe in leasing software via "The Cloud" BS! However, since my last Air update I can no longer access my widget browser. I get a bogus error that says It can't connect to the server to log in and to check the connection. My internet functions fine, otherwise I wouldn't be able to log in and post this comment/question. So  I'm left to believe that this is a deliberate action by Adobe to force people into the cloud. Furthermore, when I try to contact support it seems that Adobe has completely dissolved any real support functions and left that in the hands of it's fine community of PISSED OFF users...thanks Adobe!. So specifically to my problem. I'm designing a web site for a web series (I know, the irony) and it's at 90% completion. I'm trying to add my lightbox widget which I had already downloaded and installed moths ago and SURPRISE SURPRISE...it's not there. In fact none of my widgets are there! Does anybody know a work around for this issue because it seems you can't download the widgets independently from any legitimate web source, and I don't do torrents on my system. I am a freelance editor and graphic designer so this is a nuisance I don't have time to deal with. Any help from this community will be greatly appreciated! Additionally If someone from Adobe should happen to read this know that I am very serious about filing a law suite. It is fraudulent to sell a product for thousands of dollars and then remove all the tools associated with the use of that product! So either someone there is either going to A. provide a viable solution other then converting and paying for the cloud on top of what I already paid, B. issue me a full refund for my purchase since it's utter isles if I can't access the tools I need to do my job, or C. prepare for the social media onslaught and legal petitions from other consumers and uses just like me whose rights you've violated!

Kind Regards,

The Puritan

[Nancy OShea · Accepted solution]

It's not a bogus error message.  Widget Browser is gone.  The Widgets were old, outdated and most developers had no zeal to update them so Adobe pulled the plug on Widget Browser quite a while ago.   You can still visit the Add-on exchange. Adobe Exchange

Or, as many of us do, use jQuery plugins. 

Nancy O.

[Jon Fritz]

The widget browser is no longer available, it was disabled a while back and replaced by the Add-Ons site: https://creative.adobe.com/addons

Essentially, it's a deprecated feature of a program 3 versions removed from "current". I say "3 versions" because DWCS6 and DWCS6 Cloud were different enough to count as separate versions for certain aspects.

[mariocarnival2013]

So, where should we look for those "Added Plugs in" within DW interface? Through the extension manager? Thx.

[Nancy OShea]

Adobe Exchange

https://creative.adobe.com/addons

Nancy O.

[Master_Allusionist]

Thanks Jon and Nancy, I figured as much seeing as I was able to use the widgets as recently as May/June and now just POOF! I've visited the add ons site and found no viable solutions that were comparable to the Lightbox widget free of cost. And the free add-ons quite frankly don't cut the mustard! I can understand if Adobe wanted to pull the plug on the widget browser moving forward with their implementation of the CC takeover, but it doesn't negate their responsibility to continue supporting those with valid user licenses for CS6 such as myself. To send a notification stating Adobe Air must be updated in order to continue using widgets browser and then deliberately disable the tool and remove all the widgets I already had installed is a violation of consumer trust. Not to mention a disturbing precedent. It a systematic implementation of control and monitoring procedures that no company should have.

[Nancy OShea]

Look at jQuery Fancybox 2.  It's free & far superior to the old lightbox widgets.

http://fancyapps.com/fancybox/

Primer for using jQuery

Alt-Web Design & Publishing: Primer for Using jQuery Plug-Ins

Nancy O.

[kimh1522241]

I agree with you completely.  I have purchased CS4. then C5, then CS6 and now have CC and I hate it.  I feel that as they update to newer versions a lot of the old stuff should still be available.  I have been trying to insert a lightbox into an assignment for school for 6 days now and cannot figure this out.  I am a Graphic Design Major and my last two classes have been Web Design and Web Scripting.  I am having a lot of problems and it seems that inserting a widget for a lightbox is what I need to do.  I can switch back to using CS6 but the problem with this is that I learned how to do everything else on CC so now CS6 is confusing.  I just wish, as you do, that CC still had the Widget insert.

Thanks,

Kim

[Web Magi]

Not sure if this does what you want, but I remembered seeing it when testing their CSS menus recently: Flexi Lightbox for Dreamweaver | DW Extensions | ExtendStudio

These guys make a lot of Dw add-ons: https://creative.adobe.com/addons/producers/1607

[Master_Allusionist]

Thanks Nancy, I will check it out and let you know how its goes. If this proves to be the solution I needed I'll send you my undying gratitude!

[Trunker420]

So, how did it go with light box? I am with you... very unhappy about this "change".

[James-J]

Like wise very disappointed trying to teach myself how to use DW CS6 and now I have to go hunting else where to find the widgets I liked and have used in the past,

[Ketina_Martins]

Tenho um site na wordpress. Não tem problema nenhum de html.

[Mariah12]

It's not good that widgets are gone, now i have to search for widgets, which is so time consuming and difficult..

Mariah Albert

[Bird_on_the_Hand]

Firstly I hope all is well with your development and I'm glad I found this post.

I installed a new copy of cs6 18 months ago and that included widget browser.

Have just started to try and use it to produce menus suitable for tablets etc having found adobe posts and a help page on spry menu 2.

Spent the evening trying to get on line.

Uninstalled and downloaded widget browser. Reinstalled.

No mention anywhere I was wasting my time.

Come on adobe, update things so we don't waste time.

[Nancy OShea]

With Adobe's current rapid release cycle, 18 months is practically an eternity.  Unfortunately, Widget Browser has not been active for at least 12 months that I can remember.   Most of the widgets were sorely outdated and the 3rd party developers didn't express much interest in updating them.  Sorry you missed the announcements about it being discontinued.   There were several posted in this forum and on Adobe's web site.

Nancy O.

[FREE_]

I agree with Web Magi. I use Extend Studio DW extensions & love every one of them. Sorry to say, they are not free. I wish they were, but they are worth every penny. You need to try this one:

http://www.extendstudio.com/product/DW-Masonry-Gallery-for-Dreamweaver.html

It is the newest Responsive Gallery/Lightbox extension for DW. I use it with DW CS6 & it works just fine. I just want to add that I miss the Free Widgets to & stopped using DW until I found these extensions.

Andrew

[paulk7737514]

You're wasting your time. Upgrade to DW CC.

[FREE_]

Your wasting your money with Phukscription based everlasting payments.... downgrade to CS6 & make it work.

[paulk7737514]

I had the same attitude as you. But then I thought, "Do I really want to plunk down $2,900 for software that is nearly 2 years old?" I used a combination of CS2 and CS3  for as long as I could but when I saw the new features in CC I didn't regret upgrading.

[Jon Fritz]

From a purely cost perspective, if you/your company was used to getting the Master Collection and staying updated under the Creative Suite, a CC subscription is far cheaper and you get more.

$2,500 with CS vs $900 with CC every 18 months.

Even if you skipped a version every time, it's still takes years of CC to hit the same cost.

Aside from a few, what I would consider missteps (and one flat out fumble) by Adobe on a couple new features, it's been a very positive experience for me. 

[FREE_]

I am paying zero right now since I have already paid for CS6 ... Of course I understand I am not getting the updated CC, but I am also not getting a bill for $50 every month when I am not using the software.

[Jon Fritz]

The $600 annual payment option takes care of the month-to-month bill issue.

It takes a subscriber 4.3 years to spend what a CS purchaser has to put down up front, plus their programs will be up to industry standards with somewhere around 16 scheduled updates. They'll have more programs available to them and they'll have all of the other extras that come with the Creative Cloud including storage, resources and web space.

[bdsymmes]

Please, do not engage in the pretense that there isn't a thriving market in older Adobe software and that this is a gateway for many aspiring site designers etc. Adobe is doing what it can to force those people to upgrade to CC. In that case it's a very significant increase in the price of the software. Using retail pricing to define the options is a way of ducking the facts of the marketplace. People by a second hand version, then a licensed version as they become more successful. By the way, I used the Google widgets (already downloaded years ago) with DW CS5.5 to make some very nice additions to an existing web page for a 501c3 last month.

I have been using Dreamweaver since 1999 when it was a Macromedia product and I have to conclude that the corporate combat between the two companies prior to their "merger" left a bad feeling in the Adobe culture. Since 2005 Adobe has re-designed the Adobe exchange at least twice, and first one was a complete disaster with lost files and broken links that seemed like an embarrassment to the company. It seems that Adobe could never quite get their arms around the broad scope of their customer base, and focused on the design houses that do small and medium sized businesses. From that perspective, moving to Cloud based management makes complete sense. But they should be looking at ways to offer low cost support to the broad base of individual and 2-5 person businesses.
One of the things that must have played a role is the fact that when the Adobe Exchange was unmanaged, it was prone to having malware uploads. The idea of making Dreamweaver and the rest of the Creative Suite extensible was a great idea and added a lot of improvements to CS, but it was an area that was subject to support staff cutbacks as in most software companies.

Adobe is a company with a long history of playing an important role in digital publishing. It has been a shame to watch them lose respect for their customers, it will ultimately prove a very costly mistake. They are acting like investment analysts who believed the real estate market couldn't fail in 2006. Adobe thinks their market share is unassailable, when in fact they are pushing away their low margin customers, who are the potential labor pool for those small design houses.

[Daniel Kramer]

I hope Adobe adds back in a new and improved widget browser soon.

Los Angeles Web Designer

Daniel