Adobe Dreamweaver CC 2014 v.13 - Manual (Page 230)

Designing dynamic pages
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Dreamweaver and dynamic page design
Note: The user interface has been simplified in Dreamweaver CC and later. As a result, you may not find some of the options described in this
article in Dreamweaver CC and later. For more information, see
this article .
Dreamweaver and dynamic page design
Follow these general steps to successfully design and create a dynamic website.
1. Design the page.
A key step in designing any website—whether static or dynamic—is the visual design of the page. When adding dynamic elements to a web
page, the design of the page becomes crucial to its usability. You should carefully consider how users will interact with both individual pages
and the website as a whole.
A common method of incorporating dynamic content into a web page is to create a table to present content, and import dynamic content into
one or more of the table’s cells. Using this method you can present information of various types in a structured format.
2. Create a source of dynamic content.
Dynamic websites require a content source from which to extract data before they can display it on a web page. Before you can use content
sources in a web page, you must do the following:
Create a connection to the dynamic content source (such as a database) and the application server processing the page. Create the
data source by using the Bindings panel; then you can select and insert the data source in the page.
Specify what information in the database you want to display, or what variables to include in the page by creating a recordset. You can
also test the query from within the Recordset dialog box, and make any needed adjustments before adding it to the Bindings panel.
Select and insert dynamic content elements into the selected page.
3. Add dynamic content to a web page.
After you define a recordset or other data source, and add it to the Bindings panel, you can insert the dynamic content the recordset
represents into the page. The Dreamweaver menu-driven interface makes adding dynamic content elements as easy as selecting a dynamic
content source from the Bindings panel, and inserting it into an appropriate text, image, or form object within the current page.
When you insert a dynamic content element or other server behavior into a page, Dreamweaver inserts a server-side script into the page’s
source code. This script instructs the server to retrieve data from the defined data source and render it within the web page. To place
dynamic content within a web page, you can do one of the following:
Place it at the insertion point in either Code or Design view.
Replace a text string or other placeholder.
Insert it into an HTML attribute. For example, dynamic content can define the src attribute of an image or the value attribute of a form
field.
4. Add server behaviors to a page.
In addition to adding dynamic content, you can incorporate complex application logic into web pages by using server behaviors. Server
behaviors are predefined pieces of server-side code that add application logic to web pages, providing greater interaction and functionality.
The Dreamweaver server behaviors let you add application logic to a website without having to write the code yourself. The server behaviors
supplied with Dreamweaver support ColdFusion, ASP, and PHP document types. The server behaviors are written and tested to be fast,
secure, and robust. The built-in server behaviors support cross-platform web pages for all browsers.
Dreamweaver provides a point-and-click interface that makes applying dynamic content and complex behaviors to a page as easy as
inserting textual and design elements. The following server behaviors are available:
Define a recordset from an existing database. The recordset you define is then stored in the Bindings panel.
Display multiple records on a single page. You select either an entire table or individual cells or rows that contain dynamic content, and
specify the number of records to display on each page view.
Create and insert a dynamic table into a page, and associate the table with a recordset. You can later modify both the table’s
appearance and the repeating region by using the Property inspector and Repeating Region Server Behavior, respectively.
Insert a dynamic text object into a page. The text object you insert is an item from a predefined recordset, to which you can apply any of
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