Types of Dreamweaver Extensions

There are different types of extensions available for dreamweaver. The following describes some of the types of extensions at the Macromedia Dreamweaver Exchange.

Accessibility

These are the extensions that make pages more accessible to individuals with disabilities. Among the extensions listed in this category there are testing scripts to determine the usability of your site to see if it meets 508 and w3c standards. There is also an extension that overrides the dreamweaver image object to allow for alt text and longdesc URL within the form field.

App Servers

Extensions tha thelp connect to databases or work with middleware scripts usch as ColdFusion, PHP, ASP etc.

Browsers

These are the extensions that helpf with browser detection and redriection, inclduing extensions to set a default browser homepage and extension to close pop-up windows after a preset tim.

DHTML/Layers

These are the extensions that allow Dynamic HTML objects on your page, including draggable layers, drop-down menus, scrollers and page transitions.

Navigation

Extensions to aid in creating, including and maintaing web site navigation. These extensions include an Anchors Extension to list and allow for linking to any anchors in a given page, close a broser window, and add a collapsible menu.

Security

Extensions that add security features such as ignoring right mouse clicks and making sure your site is openeed in its designated frameset, even when the page is opened directly.

Text

Extensions tha tallow for text editing within a page in Dreamweaver and within a browser page. Examples incldue tools to change the case of text on a page or add particular math symbols and special characters.

Commerce

Extensions that assist in developing e-commerce sites including the paypal shopping cart extension that we just went through an example of.

Creating Extensions

If you are proficient in programming with ColdFusion, ASP.NET, Javascript, VBScript, PHP or Java, you can code your own server behaviors.

You can create a dreamweaver extension by writing one or more code blocks that perform the required action with the server behavior builder. The Server Behavior Builder is used to add the code block or blocks that the behavior inserts into a page.

To write a server behavior code blocks

1. In the Server Behaviors panel (Window > Server Behaviors), click the Plus (+) button and select New Server. The New Server Behavior dialog box appears.

   
   Figure-8.10

2. Choose the type of server behavior from the Document Type Menu.
   
3. Enter the name for the behavior in the Name text box.
   
4. Select the option Copy Existing Server behavior if you want to copy an existing server behavior to add to your new server behavior.
   
5. If this checkbox is selected, the list of available server behaviors will be displayed to choose from.
   
6. Click OK. The Server Behavior Builder dialog box is displayed.

   
   Figure-8.11

7. To add a new code block, click the Plus (+) button. The Create a New Code Block dialog box is displayed.

   
   Figure-8.12

8. Enter a name for the code block. The name you entered in the dialog box appears in the Server Behavior Builder along with the appropriate scripting tags available in the Code block text box.

   
   Figure-8.13

9. In the Code Block text box, enter the code to implement the server behavior. You can insert only a single tag or code block for each named code block (for example, myBehavior_block1 etc.). For multiple tags and code blocks, you must create an individual code block for each of them.
   
10. For including runtime parameters in a code block, Place the insertion point in the code block where you’d like to insert the parameter.
    
11. Click the Insert Parameter in Code Block button.
    
12. Enter a name for the parameter in the Parameter Name box.
    
13. Click OK. The parameter name is inserted in the code block.
    
    Repeat the steps for each new code block you want to create. In the parameter Name menu, enter name for the parameters and click OK. The parameters are inserted into the code block at the position where the insertion point was placed prior to the defining of the parameter.
    
14. Select an option from the insert code menu and specify the location where you want to embed the code blocks

Testing Server Behaviors

To test your Server Behaviors

1. Apply the behavior from the Server Behaviors panel. In case it has a dialog box submit valid data into each field. Check that no error occurs on applying the behavior. Check out the runtime code for the server behavior in the code inspector.
   
2. Repeate the same step with all sorts of invalid data, blank fields, special character etc. You can write code to manage the situation in case any invalid data is entered.
   
3. Look into the Server Behaviors panel to check that the name of the server behavior appears in the list of behaviors in the page.
   
4. If applicable, verify that server-side script icons show up on the page. The generic server-side script icons are gold shields. To see the icons, enable Invisible Elements (View > Visual Aids > Invisible Elements).
   
5. In Code view, (View > Code) verify that no invalid code is generated.
   
6. In addition, if your server behavior inserts code in the document establishing a connection to a database, create a test database to test the code inserted in the document. Verify the connection by defining queries that produce different sets of data, and different sizes of data sets.
   
7. Finally, upload the page to the server and open it in a browser. View the page’s HTML source code and verify that no invalid HTML has been generated by the server-side scripts.
   

Manage Extensions

You can perform any of the following tasks with the Extension Manager to manage your extensions:

1. Sort installed extensions
   
2. Enable and disable installed extensions
   
3. Remove extensions
   
4. Go to the Macromedia Exchange
   
5. Package and submit new extensions
   
6. Obtain support information for an extension

This section describes how to perform each of these tasks.

Sort Installed Extensions

In the Extension Manager, click a column heading such as Version, Type, or Author.

For example, to sort alphabetically by author name, click the Author column. To reverse the order of the sort, click the column heading again.

Enable and Disable Installed Extensions

In the Extension Manager, select the checkbox in the On/Off column next to the extension you want to enable or disable, or select the extension and press the spacebar.

A check mark in the On/Off column next to the extension indicates that it is enabled; if there is no check mark in the column, the extension is disabled.

If you have installed large numbers of extensions using the Extension Manager, you can selectively enable and disable them to help manage the application’s performance.

Remove Extensions

1. In the Extension Manager, select a Macromedia application (such as Dreamweaver 8) from the pop-up menu that lists the installed programs.
   
   A list displaying that application’s currently installed extensions appears.
   
2. Select an extension from the list of installed extensions.
   
   If an extension doesn’t appear in the list, you can’t remove it.
   
3. Select File > Remove Extension. Confirm that you want to remove the extension by choosing Yes in the confirmation dialog box.

The extension is removed.