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Title: Dreamweaver MX 2004 Unleashed

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Title

Find where to Buy Now

Dreamweaver MX 2004 Unleashed

Authors

Zak Ruvalcaba
Matthew Pizzi

Publisher

Sams

Release date

September 17, 2004

Reviews

October 27, 2004 5

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Manuel Lemos
manuellemos.netDreamweaver is undoubtedly one of the most popular Integrated Development Environment (IDE) tools among Web site developers. Over time it has evolved to address more and more of the needs of this class of software developers. The Dreamweaver MX 2004 version has continued this trend.

Dreamweaver MX 2004 Unleashed is a book that covers the capabilities of this development tool extensively, focusing on the enhancements of this release.

The book has about 30 chapters divided into 7 main parts. The first part covers aspects specific to the MX 2004 version like what is new, the user interface, site management and other essential concepts.

The second part focuses on the creation of sites with static Web pages, creating tables, forms, frames, using Dreamweaver templates, using the assets panel, working with library items and creating and using CSS style sheets.

The third part talks about how to add interactivity to Web site pages using client-side behaviors, layers, audio, video, Flash and Shockwave movies, and the integration with external editor programs like Fireworks and Photoshop.

Parts four, five and six are more interesting for dynamic Web site developers. These parts focus on aspects of Web application development that have to do with Web scripting languages such as PHP, ASP and Coldfusion, as well with SQL databases and XML Web services.

Part five has separate chapters to talk about the Dreamweaver built-in support for developing Web applications in PHP, ASP and Coldfusion. The chapter about PHP talks about the basics of the language and specifically how to build dynamic sites interfacing with MySQL. It explains in detail how to setup a MySQL database structure with PHPMyAdmin and then use Dreamweaver wizards and visual editors to establish a database connection and generate dynamic pages using MySQL query record sets.

Part six is particularly interesting for those who prefer to learn by studying concrete examples of typical use cases that are common in many Web applications like implementing database driven search pages, adding shopping carts, and implementing security and page access authentication mechanisms.

The last part basically consists of a few appendices which address aspects like accessibility and resource sites where more related information can be found.

There is also one appendix in this part of particular interest to developers and power users who are interested in learning how to extend Dreamweaver. It teaches with examples how to develop custom HTML and JavaScript objects, new client-side and server-side behaviors, customizing Dreamweaver menus, and sharing new extensions through Macromedia Exchange.

Dreamweaver MX 2004 is a powerful tool for those who prefer a visual environment to work productively on the development of Web applications. This book can be an invaluable resource of information on how to take the most of Dreamweaver MX 2004, irrespective of whether you are a beginner with a lot to learn or an advanced user who knows this tool very well but wants to extend it to address special needs.

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