Before I get into it, let’s quickly cover some basics …<\/p>\n

1 – What are Dreamweaver Server Behaviors?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a nutshell: Dreamweaver Server Behaviors are point-and-click tools that will write out the server-side code (PHP, ASP, ColdFusion) that will allow to do things like:<\/p>\n

\n
• Display and update records from a database.<\/li>\n
• Create password protected pages.<\/li>\n
• Process HTML forms.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  Beyond the basic tools that come built into Dreamweaver CS3, there are lots of 3rd party plug-ins that extend its’ power where you can do all kinds of things that you would expect programmers to take care of. <\/p>\n

  For example, Adobe themselves have something called ‘Adobe Dreamweaver Developer Toolbox’ – often simply referred to as ‘ADDT’. From their site:<\/p>\n

  \nAdobe\u00ae Dreamweaver\u00ae Developer Toolbox is a set of Dreamweaver server behaviors and commands for creating dynamic web applications using PHP, Adobe ColdFusion\u00ae, and ASP VBScript server scripting technologies. This Dreamweaver extension helps web developers create membership-based websites, portals, blogs, and image galleries, as well as content management systems, CRM back-ends, and other web-based solutions without requiring advanced programming knowledge.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

  Sounds great, except in real life … it ain’t so sweet. So much so in fact (the rumor has it) that ADDT will be discontinued.<\/p>\n

  Let’s get to the point: <\/strong><\/p>\n

  Dreamweaver’s Server Behaviors are NOT a replacement for good old fashioned programming ability – not even close. You should only use Server Behaviors to:<\/p>\n

  \n
  • Create very simple database driven pages.<\/li>\n
  • To prototype a web application.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    2- What’s wrong with Dreamweaver’s Server Behaviors?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Basically, the code that Dreamweaver generates, is organized\/disorganized in a brittle way – it is easily broken when you make even minor changes. <\/p>\n

    I don’t want to get into the nerd-details, but what I can tell you is that if you do anything beyond the very simple, you will end up breaking your code along the way. <\/p>\n

    … Most of time, you will end up having to rewrite the code by hand anyway … loosing any time savings you might have gained using the server behaviors. <\/p>\n

    What can a web designer do?<\/strong> <\/p>\n

    So what’s the solution for web designers who need to build dynamic web sites beyond the limitations of Dreamweaver Server Behaviors? Simple, learn to program! <\/p>\n

    … It reall isn’t that hard if you can find good tutorials or better yet, good video tutorials on server side programming<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Thanks for reading.<\/p>\n

    Stefan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    What are Dreamweaver Server Behaviors?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    In a nutshell: Dreamweaver Server Behaviors are point-and-click tools that will write out the server-side code (PHP, ASP, ColdFusion) that will allow to do things like:<\/p>\n

    \n
    • Display and update records from a database.<\/li>\n
    • Create password protected pages.<\/li>\n
    • Process HTML forms.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,16],"tags":[185],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.killersites.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.killersites.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.killersites.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.killersites.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.killersites.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.killersites.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.killersites.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.killersites.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.killersites.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}