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Dreamweaver 8 application server and database FAQ

This article answers some of the common questions received by Macromedia Technical Support related to ColdFusion, PHP, ASP, ASP.NET, JSP and databases.

Dreamweaver FAQs

Following is a list of additional Dreamweaver FAQs to be aware of:

Application and web server specific questions
Database specific questions
Application and web server specific questions
What web servers was Dreamweaver 8 tested on?

Dreamweaver 8 was tested on IIS 5.0, 5.1 and 6.0; Apache 1.3 and 2.0; and the ColdFusion embedded web server.

Does a web application server need to be running to use Dreamweaver 8?

To use Dreamweaver 8's Live Data Mode you will need to have access to your web application server. Access to the web application server can be through the local file network, FTP, SFTP or WebDAV. If you don't have access to an application server you can use all of the features of Dreamweaver 8 except Live Data. If you are building static pages (no server-side components), a web application server is not needed.

What server models are supported by Dreamweaver 8?

Dreamweaver 8 generates code for ColdFusion, PHP, ASP (VBScript and JavaScript), ASP.NET and JSP server-side technologies.

What version of ColdFusion does Dreamweaver 8 support?

Dreamweaver 8 supports, and integrates with, ColdFusion MX 7.0.1, 7.0 and 6.1. Certain new features in Dreamweaver 8 are only enabled if you're connecting to a ColdFusion 7 server.

Does Dreamweaver 8 support ColdFusion Components?

Dreamweaver 8 can be used to create and modify CFCs. You can also use Dreamweaver 8 to build web pages that use CFCs. New in Dreamweaver 8 is the ability to create a recordset using a CFC Query, and Dreamweaver can create the CFC for you without having to go into code view. You can use CFCs only with Macromedia ColdFusion MX version 6.0 and above.

What version of ASP does Dreamweaver 8 support?

Dreamweaver 8 supports ASP 3.0. Sites built in Dreamweaver 8 can be deployed on IIS 5.0, 5.1 and 6.0 (Windows 2000 and above), which use ASP 3.0. Dreamweaver 8 does not take advantage of any of the new ASP 3.0 features such as Server.Transfer. Extensions can be created that utilize ASP 3.0 features.

What version of ASP.NET does Dreamweaver 8 support?

Dreamweaver 8 supports ASP.NET 1.1.

What version of PHP does Dreamweaver 8 support?

Dreamweaver 8 supports PHP 4.3.x and 5.0.x running on Apache on Windows, Macintosh and Linux. The Dreamweaver PHP server model only has support for MySQL databases.

What version of JSP does Dreamweaver 8 support?

Dreamweaver 8 supports JSP 1.0. Any JSP server that supports JSP 1.0 should be compatible with Dreamweaver 8 generated code. Dreamweaver 8 does not include any built-in features for JSP 1.1 or above. However, the product can be extended via Tag Libraries by importing JSP 1.1 and above tags, and through the JavaScript API to support specific JSP 1.1 and above features. Dreamweaver 8 also supports Java Web Services.

Dreamweaver 8 has been tested with Macromedia JRun 4.0.

Does Dreamweaver 8 support JavaBeans?

JSP pages can connect to JavaBeans. You can register any JavaBean as a Dreamweaver 8 Data Source. Dreamweaver 8 will introspect JavaBean class, jar, and zip files. Once JavaBeans are registered, you have drag-and-drop access to JavaBean properties in the Bindings tab of the Application panel.

Does Dreamweaver 8 support Enterprise JavaBeans?

Dreamweaver 8 does not include any built-in support for EJB's. You can create a JavaBean which can instantiate an EJB and call the JavaBean from a BEAN tag on a JSP page.

Does Dreamweaver 8 support Servlets?

Dreamweaver 8 does not include any built-in support for servlets. You can manually write the code to call servlets in code view.

Does Dreamweaver 8 support COM Objects?

Dreamweaver 8 does not include any built-in COM objects. However, you can instantiate COM objects by writing the appropriate scripts in code view or you can create objects and server behaviors for them using Dreamweaver 8's JavaScript API. Printable instructions on how to create objects and server behaviors using Dreamweaver 8's JavaScript API are available on the Extending Dreamweaver support page.

Does Dreamweaver 8 support web services?

Dreamweaver 8 supports the creation of web service consumers using ColdFusion, ASP.NET, and JSP document types. Web services development with Dreamweaver 8 is limited to the Windows environment. To develop pages that access web services on the Macintosh, you must use a separate application server running either Windows 2000 or 2003 or UNIX on which to run the web service proxy and its application environment.

What are the new XSL Transformation server behaviors?

Dreamweaver 8 includes new functionality to introspect XML data from an XML file or a URL of an XML feed, enabling you to drag and drop the appropriate fields onto the page. The new XSL Transformation server behavior lets you use XSLT files in ColdFusion, PHP, ASP or ASP.NET pages. More information on Dreamweaver 8's new XML/XSL functionality is available from the Dreamweaver product page and Visual authoring with XML data FAQ.

Does Dreamweaver 8 allow the use of custom tag libraries?

Yes. Dreamweaver 8 includes an integrated tag database for storing information on native and custom tags. Edit the properties of existing tags, and import new ones with the Tag Library editor.

Database specific questions
Is a database needed on a local machine to use Dreamweaver 8?

To build dynamic pages utilizing database content, we recommend you have access to the database on your network or local machine. You can set up a different connection for run-time and design-time database connections. If you don't have network access to your database, you can use an FTP connection, or a different database like Microsoft Access for the design-time connections. If using a different database, you need to make sure the database field names match the names in your production database.

What databases have been tested with Dreamweaver 8?

Dreamweaver 8 has been tested with the following database configurations. Note that PHP is supported only with MySQL databases.

  • Microsoft Access 2000, 2002 and 2003 on Windows
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2000 on Windows
  • MySQL 4.0 on Windows
  • MySQL 4.0.21 on RedHat Linux
  • MySQL 4.1.7 on Windows
  • Oracle 9i on Windows
  • Oracle 10g on Windows
What databases drivers have been tested with Dreamweaver 8?

Dreamweaver 8 has been tested with the following database drivers:

  • ColdFusion MX JDBC/ODBC drivers
  • MDAC 2.7 and 2.8 on Windows
  • i-net SPRINTA2000 for Microsoft SQL Server
  • Ojdbc14.jar Oracle 10g 10.1.0.4 JDBC driver
  • Classes12.jar Oracle 10g 10.1.0.4 JDBC driver
  • JRun JDBC drivers
Can UDL (Universal Data Link) files be used with Dreamweaver 8?

Yes. Dreamweaver 8 works with UDL files just like ADO works with UDL files. For example, to use a UDL file as a "data source" for an ASP page and also for the design-time Dreamweaver 8 document, create an ADO (Connection String) connection within Dreamweaver 8 such as: "File Name=C:\mydata\myudlfile.UDL;"

Do I have to use ODBC?

No. For ASP sites you can also connect to a database using OLEDB. For ASP.NET sites you must use OLEDB or the native ASP.NET SQL Server connector. For ColdFusion sites you can connect through native databases drivers for some databases. For JSP sites you can connect using any JDBC 1.0 or 2.0 driver.

Where can I find JDBC drivers?

You can download JDBC 1.0 and 2.0 drivers from various vendors. See Sun's Java Web site for a complete and up-to-date list of drivers and vendors.

What version of JDBC does Dreamweaver 8 support?

Dreamweaver 8 uses JDBC 1.0. Because JDBC is backwards compatible you can use JDBC either 1.0 or 2.0 drivers with Dreamweaver 8. To find a JDBC driver for your database see Sun's Java Web site.

How can I connect to an Oracle database?

For ASP sites you can connect to an Oracle database through an ODBC driver or an OLEDB provider. You can get ODBC drivers for Oracle from Oracle.

For ColdFusion sites you can connect to an Oracle database natively, through JDBC, or ODBC.

For JSP sites you can connect to an Oracle database using any JDBC 1.0 or 2.0 driver for Oracle. You can find a list of drivers for Oracle databases at Sun's Java Web site.

How can I connect to a SQL Server database?

For ASP sites you can connect to a SQL Server database through an ODBC driver or an OLEDB provider. SQL Server ODBC drivers and OLEDB providers are included with Microsoft's Data Access Objects.

For ASP.NET sites you can connect to any SQL Server database through an OLEDB provider or the native ASP.NET SQL Server connector.

For ColdFusion sites you can connect to a SQL Server database natively, through JDBC, or ODBC.

For JSP sites you can connect to a SQL Server database using theMicrosoft SQL Server 2000 JDBC driver.

How can I connect to a MySQL database?

For PHP sites, you can connect to MySQL using built-in PHP connectivity.

Can I use SSL to connect to my database during design-time?

Dreamweaver's design-time remote database connectivity feature does not support SSL (https). In other words, in the Testing Server category of the Site Definition dialog box, the URL prefix field cannot be set to https://my_secure_server/. Dreamweaver accesses scripts via http to perform remote database connectivity, and https is not currently supported. Dreamweaver also does not support RDS connections to SSL servers. Finished pages created with Dreamweaver will work on a secure run-time server, since the Dreamweaver design-time scripts are not utilized during run-time on a production server.

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Document Details

ID:98dd5a1
OS:Windows (All)
Mac OS (All)

Products Affected:

dreamweaver