This book gets you up to speed on using Macromedia Dreamweaver MX, the new version of Macromedia's premier visual web site design tool, to produce dynamic, creative, visually stunning sites that comply with web standards and accessibility guidelines. It gets straight to the heart of the matter so you spend less time reading, and more time building your site.

Dreamweaver MX boasts some fantastic new features, including greatly improved support for XHTML and CSS standards, and tools that allow easy creation of accessible sites and effective use of Dreamweaver MX by people with disabilities. However, it doesn't stop there - Dreamweaver MX also features support for a wide range of server-side scripting languages, allowing professional dynamic web applications to be created with ease, using built-in ready-to-use chunks of code called Server Behaviors.

Who is this book for?

This book is primarily for anyone who wants to learn how to use the new advanced features of Dreamweaver MX to easily create professional static and dynamic web pages (concepts demonstrated using ASP) that are standards-compliant, and as accessible as possible. This book assumes some knowledge of HTML and web development concepts.

Table of Contents:

• Chapter 1 - Introducing Dreamweaver MX
• Chapter 2 - Valid (X)HTML in Dreamweaver MX
• Chapter 3 - Using CSS with Dreamweaver MX
• Chapter 4 - Accessibility features of Dreamweaver MX
• Chapter 5 - Server-Side Overview
• Chapter 6 - Databases
• Chapter 7 - Server Behaviors
• Chapter 8 - Basic Dynamic Website
• Chapter 9 - Dynamic User Interaction
• Chapter 10 - Advanced Techniques
• Chapter 11 - Extending Dreamweaver

Chapter 7 - Server Behaviors

The Application Panel

Now that you are familiar with ASP / VBScript coding and database structures, you can delve into the fabulous server behavior features Dreamweaver MX has to offer. We will be taking a stroll through the Application panel, whilst giving you a good understanding as to what each behavior has the capability of doing.

It is wrong to think that each server behavior does only one single thing. On the contrary, other than a few specific server behaviors (such as Log In User), each server behavior can have multiple uses for many different kinds of web applications. The behaviors are generic blocks of code that can be called upon for use in various aspects of your web applications.

It is important to know when and how to use the Application panel. We will look at full-blown applications in later chapters, but here we will concentrate on these areas:

·       Databases / Connections – how Dreamweaver deals with connecting to databases, via Data Source Names or Custom Connection Strings

·       Bindings – Dreamweaver makes binding data to pages via recordsets, and Application, Request, and Session variables very easy – learn how in this section

·       Server Behaviors – these are pre-written pieces of server-side code that you can add straight to your applications, speeding up web site development no end

Before Moving On – Creating a Virtual Directory

Please create a physical directory named webprodmx_files on your PC where you will save all the file examples for this chapter. To test examples locally we should create a virtual directory called webprodmx pointing to the physical directory you just created. For example, in PWS:

·       Go to Start > Settings > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Personal Web Manager

·       Go to Advanced > Add, and you should see the following dialog box:

·       Click Browse... and select the physical directory named webprodmx_files that you created above

·       Type webprodmx for the Alias

·       Check Read under Access Permissions and Scripts under Application Permissions, and click OK

·       Close the Personal Web Manager

You should now be able to access the physical directory by pointing your web browser to http://localhost/webprodmx. Make sure your server is running. When this virtual directory is accessed through the browser it will point to the root physical folder webprodmx_files that you created on your PC (for more on setting up web servers, see Chapter 5).

Buy this book	Title: Dynamic Dreamweaver MX
	Author: Rachel Andrew,Alan Foley,Omar Elbaga,Rob Turnbull,Bob Regan
	ISBN: 1904151108
	US: $29.99 UK: £21.99 CA: $46.99
	Publication Date: July 27, 2002
	Pages: 350
	© 2002 glasshaus

Dynamic Dreamweaver MX
Defining Your Site - Page 2