Adobe Extending Dreamweaver CS4 - Manual (Page 253)

247 EXTENDING DREAMWEAVER CS4
Server behaviors
Dreamweaver architecture
When you use the Server Behavior Builder to create a Dreamweaver-specific extension, Dreamweaver creates several
files (EDML and HTML script files) that support inserting the server behavior code into a Dreamweaver document
(some behaviors also reference JavaScript files for additional functionality). The architecture simplifies your
implementation of the API and also separates your runtime code from how Dreamweaver deploys it. This topic
discusses ways of modifying these files.
Server behavior folders and files
The user interface (UI) for each server behavior resides in the Configuration/ServerBehaviors/ServerModelName
folder, where
ServerModelName is one of the following server types: ASP_Js (JavaScript), ASP_Vbs (VBScript),
ColdFusion, PHP_MySQL, or Shared (cross-server model implementations).
Extension Data Markup Language
Dreamweaver generates two EDML files when you use the Server Behavior Builder: a group EDML file and a
participant EDML file corresponding to the names that you provide in the Server Behavior Builder. The group file
defines the relevant participants, which represent code blocks, and the groups define which participants are combined
to make an individual server behavior.
Group files
Group files contain a list of participants, and participant files have all server-model-specific code data. Participant files
can be used by more than one extension, so several group files can refer to the same participant file.
The following example shows a high-level view of the Server Behavior Group EDML file. For a complete list of
elements and attributes, see “
Group EDML file tags ” on page 259.
In the groupParticipants block tag, each groupParticipant tag indicates the EDML participant file that contains
the code block to use. The value of the name attribute is the participant file name minus the .edml extension (for
example, the moveTo_declareParam attribute).
Participant files
A participant represents a single code block on the page, such as a server tag, an HTML tag, or an attribute. A
participant file must be listed in a group file to be available to a Dreamweaver document author. Several group files
can use a single participant file.
For example, the moveTo_declareParam.edml file contains the following code: