Ben Forta's Blog - Tips (Dreamweaver)

The Dreamweaver Team Is Blogging

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 22:54:00 -0400

Title says it all, the Dreamweaver team blog is online.

Studio 8 Launched: New Versions of Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks

Mon, 08 Aug 2005 11:26:13 -0400

Title says it all. See the Studio 8 page for more details. And at 8:00 am on 8/8, what an incredible coincidence. ;-)

WebAssist Database Search

Mon, 23 May 2005 21:55:59 -0400

A colleague just forwarded me a link to a page describing WebAssist Database Search, a Dreamweaver extension which generates rather impressive looking search and drill-down interface code against databases of your choice. Code is generated for ColdFusion, ASP, and PHP (as the code supports CF5 or later I am assuming that it does not generate CFCs which is a bit of a bummer). I've not played with this one myself yet, but considering just how many of the apps I run into that are database search front-ends, this one could be well worth $150.

ColdFusion MX Installation Tip

Mon, 07 Feb 2005 06:30:54 -0400

ColdFusion creates a folder named /cfide/installers under the ColdFusion web root. This folder contains two files, one is the ColdFusion Report Builder installer, and the other is Macromedia Extension file (MXP) used to install the ColdFusion MX 7 extensions for Dreamweaver MX 2004. If you are installing ColdFusion MX 7 on a shared development server, you'll want to run these two installers from each developer workstation.

Blackstone Dreamweaver Extensions #4

Mon, 22 Nov 2004 11:58:25 -0400

Dreamweaver supports the creation and use of ColdFusion Recordsets (essentially tags), listing returned columns as bindings which can subsequently be used in output code. Dreamweaver has been able to do this for a while, generating a single .cfm page containing both the query and the output code. One of the Blackstone Dreamweaver extensions enhances this functionality so that generated code adheres to best-practices guidelines while retaining the simplicity inherent in the feature. The extension optionally changes the generated code so that Dreamweaver creates a ColdFusion Component containing a method that returns the query, output code that uses to invoke the CFC method, and still populates the bindings properly. This extension will make Dreamweaver Recordset functionality useful to those of us who have shied away from it in the past, and will also teach and demonstrate better coding practices to those that do rely on this functionality already.

Blackstone Dreamweaver Extensions #3

Mon, 20 Sep 2004 09:47:12 -0400

ColdFusion debug output is displayed at the bottom of the generated page, right? Well, not necessarily. Ever since ColdFusion MX, this output has also been available in a separate window, as well as in the results panel in Dreamweaver (in a really nice tree control). But, as many Dreamweaver users know, clicking the debug button might generate no debug output at all, because the relevant IP address may not have been defined in the ColdFusion Administrator. One of the Blackstone Dreamweaver extensions solves this problem, cleanly and transparently, so that debug output will be generated when the debug button is clicked without having to manually set any IP address.

Blackstone Dreamweaver Extensions #2

Wed, 15 Sep 2004 11:46:14 -0400

Need to add a datasource but don't have access to the ColdFusion Administrator? One of the Blackstone extensions to Dreamweaver solves this problem for you. Click the + button above the list of datasources and you'll be prompted for all the details needed to define a datasource, details which Dreamweaver will then submit to ColdFusion creating the datasource on the server (without ever having to open the ColdFusion Administrator). This one will make life easier for lots of users.

Blackstone Dreamweaver Extensions #1

Tue, 14 Sep 2004 23:31:02 -0400

Blackstone will ship with Dreamweaver extensions designed to simplify ColdFusion application development (especially for beginners, but some useful for all developers). One that I was just using is a toggle inserted into the Application panel that changes the list of displayed CFCs, toggle one way to show all CFCs and toggle the other way to see just the ones in your application. My server-wide CFC list has grown to the point that this list was too long to be useful, and this little enhancement is much appreciated.

DRK7 Is Available

Mon, 26 Apr 2004 18:51:34 -0400

DRK7 is available, see http://www.macromedia.com/software/drk/productinfo/product_overview/volume7/. This edition includes content for ColdFusion, Dreamweaver, Flash, and more.

New ColdFusion Training Videos

Fri, 16 Apr 2004 11:34:42 -0400

A new six-part ColdFusion training series has been posted to http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx/coldfusion/articles/rd_cf.html. These Flash based videos start with absolute basics, and move up to data driven pages, and even using ColdFusion Components. If you are new to ColdFusion, or have yet to work with CFC's, these are highly recommended. (FYI: these tutorials were created using Macromedia RoboDemo).

Stop/Start/Restart ColdFusion From Within Dreamweaver

Sat, 10 Apr 2004 23:21:12 -0400

I have not tried this one, but Katsuyuki Sakai (a Japanese ColdFusion and Dreamweaver user) has created a Dreamweaver extension that allows for ColdFusion service stopping, starting, and restarting right from within Dreamweaver. See http://www.wcan.jp/blog/katz/archives/000385.html for details. Thanks to Gus for brining this o my attention.

Software Updates Available

Thu, 11 Mar 2004 21:52:30 -0400

JRun: http://www.macromedia.com/software/jrun/ Studio (DW, FL, FW, FH): http://www.macromedia.com/go/studioupdates

Column: "I Don't Hate Dreamweaver"

Thu, 15 Jan 2004 15:16:48 -0400

My latest CFDJ column, entitled "I Don't Hate Dreamweaver", is now online. You can read it at: http://www.sys-con.com/coldfusion/article.cfm?id=696.

Adding File Extensions to Dreamweaver

Fri, 19 Dec 2003 06:52:41 -0400

Dreamweaver features color coding and language awareness for lots of languages, all built in. Files are associated with a language by file extension, but what if you wanted to add an extension? I recently needed to edit an XML file as an XML file, but it did not have an XML extension, and so Dreamweaver treated it as text only (and would not even open it when clicking on in the Files panel). Some users save ColdFusion files with extensions other than CFM or CFML, and Dreamweaver won't recognize those by default. It took some digging around (and e-mailing the Dreamweaver team) to find out how to add my file extension, and now that I have it working I thought I should share the info in case others want to do the same. So: 1) The list of files that Dreamweaver edits are stored in Configuration\extensions.txt (under the Dreamweaver root). This is a plain text file, and you need to add the extension to two places, the "All Documents" line, and the specific file type line ("XML Files" for my file). Doing this allows you to click on a file in the Files panel so as to edit it. 2) You may have a second copy of this file in the user configuration directory (for example, mine is in C:\Documents and Settings\ben\Application Data\Macromedia\Dreamweaver MX 2004\Configuration), and you'll need to make the same changes to that file. 3) Next, edit file \Configuration\DocumentTypes\MMdocumenttypes.xml (this is the file that associates color coding with file extensions), locate the document type ("XML" in my case), and add the extension to the extension list. 4) And then restart Dreamweaver. That should do it!

Horwith on Dreamweaver MX 2004 and ColdFusion

Wed, 05 Nov 2003 12:13:42 -0400

ColdFusion expert (and long time CF Studio user) Simon Horwith has written an intriguing article on using Dreamweaver MX 2004 with ColdFusion. He presents some very compelling ways to extend Dreamweaver for ColdFusion use, and even confesses "the truth is that the more I use Dreamweaver MX 2004, the more I am convinced that it offers developers benefits that are superior to anything we ever had with ColdFusion Studio". Regardless of how you feel about Dreamweaver, this one is worth checking out: http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx/dreamweaver/articles/server_behaviors.html.