Creating Data-driven pages in Macromedia Dreamweaver MXWritten by Kay Zetkin
With Macromedia’s release of new version of Dreamweaver, Dreamweaver MX 2004, creating data – driven pages have several requirements before you can begin making them. Unlike Dreamweaver 4, a previous version of Dreamweaver, wherein you can just dive in and everything you need are there in application already, Dreamweaver MX requires some bits and bobs that should be in order and set up your environment. There are three things you need. Here are they: 1. A Web Server – now, don’t panic with this! You can run some free web server software in your computer, for development purposes. Yes, when we say it’s free, you won’t have to spend a dime on any more equipment and you won’t even have to learn much about it. You need a web server because Dreamweaver MX creates sites using five main technologies – these are ASP, ASP.NET, JSP, PHP and ColdFusion. All these systems require processing of pages which have to be done using a server. This is main feature that makes Dreamweaver MX different from previous versions. For you to see your pages working, a server is needed to do processing for you. If you are a beginner, you might find it best to start working with ASP, since it's most common choice. There are also lots of people around who'll know how to help you out once you get stuck. For ASP, web server you need comes free with Windows but it's not installed by default. If you have NT (with latest Service Packs), Windows 2000 Pro or Windows XP Pro, then you'll have IIS (Internet Information Server) on your Windows CD. To add it, go to Add and Remove Programs. Apache web server is on your machine if you’re running OS X. And if you’re on Mac, things can be more complicated but reachable still. You can use PHP as an advisable option in order to keep your costs low. But if you have plenty of budget to spare then, ColdFusion is best. Chili!Soft makes ASP servers for many different platforms, including Linux, in addition to Microsoft servers. Its good news if you already have a web server on your network. Still, if you want to run using JSP or ColdFusion, then you’ll need to set up appropriate servers for those. Once you have a web server running, we have a method of viewing dynamic pages. Now we need to pay attention to source of our data.
| | Macromedia Dreamweaver MX Snippet: Create It and Use It!Written by kay
By Kay ZetkinThe Macromedia Dreamweaver MX have these powerful new addition to its toolset – introducing, Snippets! Do you often use blocks of code? Well, snippets make it easy to save it or put it over same conversion on a block already written on your page. It also allows you to save and reuse chunks of code over and over. Snippets save you time and effort in maintaining a large Web site. You can use snippets to store things like: * Headers and footers * Logos * Scripts * ... In this tutorial, you will get to know how to create snippets and use them to your heart’s content! Creating snippets are not that difficult and would take only at least 5 minutes of your time to do… Of course, you need to have Macromedia Dreamweaver MX downloaded and ready on your PC and then, let’s start creating snippets! Here’s how… Upon opening Dreamweaver MX, click “Snippets” in Window menu. You can also access it by holding down shift key and press F9 (Shift-F9). A number of useful snippets are already pre-installed in Dreamweaver. Then, highlight text or code you wish to turn into a snippet and click on New Snippet icon below snippets window. This icon looks like a file with a plus sign. Assign a title to your chosen snippet, plus, provide it with a concise description.
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