TechNote (Archived)

Dreamweaver MX 2004 dynamic FAQ

Application and web server specific questions

What web servers was Dreamweaver MX 2004 tested on?
Does a web application server need to be running to use Dreamweaver MX 2004?
What server models are supported by Dreamweaver MX 2004?
What version of ColdFusion does Dreamweaver MX 2004 support?
Does Dreamweaver MX 2004 support ColdFusion Components?
What version of ASP does Dreamweaver MX 2004 support?
What version of ASP.NET does Dreamweaver MX 2004 support?
What version of PHP does Dreamweaver MX 2004 support?
What version of JSP does Dreamweaver MX 2004 support?
Does Dreamweaver MX 2004 support JavaBeans?
Does Dreamweaver MX 2004 support Enterprise JavaBeans?
Does Dreamweaver MX 2004 support Servlets?
Does Dreamweaver MX 2004 support COM Objects?
Does Dreamweaver MX 2004 support Web Services?
Does Dreamweaver MX 2004 support XML?
Does Dreamweaver MX 2004 allow the use of custom tag libraries?
What about sites developed in Dreamweaver UltraDev 4?

Database specific questions

Is a database needed on a local machine to use Dreamweaver MX 2004?
What databases have been tested with Dreamweaver MX 2004?
What databases drivers have been tested with Dreamweaver MX 2004?
Can UDL (Universal Data Link) files be used with Dreamweaver MX 2004?
Do I have to use ODBC?
Where can I find JDBC drivers?
What version of JDBC does Dreamweaver MX 2004 support?
How can I connect to an Oracle database?
How can I connect to a SQL Server database?
How can I connect to a MySQL database?

Application and web server specific questions

What web servers was Dreamweaver MX 2004 tested on?

Dreamweaver MX 2004 was tested on IIS 5 and 6, Apache 1.3 and 2.0, and the ColdFusion MX embedded web server.

Does a web application server need to be running to use Dreamweaver MX 2004?

To use Dreamweaver MX 2004'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, or SFTP. If you don't have access to an application server you can use all of the features of Dreamweaver MX 2004 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 MX 2004?

Dreamweaver MX 2004 generates code for ColdFusion, ASP (VBScript and JavaScript), ASP.NET, JSP and PHP (with MySQL) server-side technologies.

What version of ColdFusion does Dreamweaver MX 2004 support?

Dreamweaver MX 2004 supports, and integrates with, ColdFusion MX 6.0 and 6.1. Dreamweaver MX 2004 also supports ColdFusion 5.0.

Does Dreamweaver MX 2004 support ColdFusion Components?

Dreamweaver MX 2004 can be used to create and modify CFCs. You can also use Dreamweaver MX 2004 to build web pages that use CFCs. You can use CFCs only with Macromedia ColdFusion MX version 6.0 and above. CFCs are not supported in ColdFusion 5.

What version of ASP does Dreamweaver MX 2004 support?

Dreamweaver MX 2004 supports ASP 2.0. Sites built in Dreamweaver MX 2004 can be deployed on IIS 5 and 6 (Windows 2000 and above) which use ASP 3.0. IIS 5 and 6 have been tested with Dreamweaver MX 2004. However, the basic features of Dreamweaver MX 2004 do not include any of the ASP 3.0 features such as Server.Transfer. Extensions can be created for ASP 3.0 features.

What version of ASP.NET does Dreamweaver MX 2004 support?

Dreamweaver MX 2004 supports ASP.NET 1.0 on IIS 5 and ASP.NET 1.1 on IIS 6.

What version of PHP does Dreamweaver MX 2004 support?

Dreamweaver MX 2004 supports PHP 4.1.1 and higher, 4.2.x and 4.3.x running on Apache 1.3. PHP is supported only with MySQL databases.

What version of JSP does Dreamweaver MX 2004 support?

Dreamweaver MX 2004 supports JSP 1.0. Any JSP server that supports JSP 1.0 should be compatible with Dreamweaver MX 2004 generated code. Dreamweaver MX 2004 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 MX 2004 also supports Java Web Services.

Dreamweaver MX 2004 has been tested with the following JSP servers:

Macromedia JRun 4.0
Macromedia JRun 4.0/Axis Proxy Generator
BEA WebLogic 8.1
IBM WebSphere 5.0
Apache Tomcat 4.1
Oracle 9iAS

Does Dreamweaver MX 2004 support JavaBeans?

JSP pages can connect to JavaBeans. You can register any JavaBean as a Dreamweaver MX 2004 Data Source. Dreamweaver MX 2004 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 MX 2004 support Enterprise JavaBeans?

Dreamweaver MX 2004 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 MX 2004 support Servlets?

Dreamweaver MX 2004 does not include any built-in support for servlets. You can manually write the code to call servlets in the HTML inspector.

Does Dreamweaver MX 2004 support COM Objects?

Dreamweaver MX 2004 does not include any built-in COM objects. However, you can instantiate COM objects by writing the appropriate scripts in the HTML editor or you can create objects and server behaviors for them using Dreamweaver MX 2004's JavaScript API. Printable instructions on how to create objects and server behaviors using Dreamweaver MX 2004's JavaScript API are available on the Extending Dreamweaver support page.

Does Dreamweaver MX 2004 support Web Services?

Dreamweaver MX 2004 supports the creation of web service consumers using ColdFusion, ASP.NET, and JSP document types. Web services development with Dreamweaver MX 2004 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 NT/2000/XP/2003 or UNIX on which to run the web service proxy and its application environment.

Does Dreamweaver MX 2004 support XML?

Dreamweaver MX 2004 allows for XML editing and manipulation, including the import of DTDs and schemas, and validation to ensure that documents are well formed.

Does Dreamweaver MX 2004 allow the use of custom tag libraries?

Yes. Dreamweaver MX 2004 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.

What about ColdFusion sites developed in Dreamweaver UltraDev 4?

Dreamweaver MX 2004 does not include the UltraDev 4 ColdFusion server objects (which were available in Dreamweaver MX). In order to edit ColdFusion pages built in UltraDev 4, or in Dreamweaver MX using UltraDev server objects, the pages must be updated to use the Dreamweaver MX 2004 server objects for ColdFusion.

Database specific questions

Is a database needed on a local machine to use Dreamweaver MX 2004?

If you are building dynamic pages utilizing data from a database, 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 run-time database.

What databases have been tested with Dreamweaver MX 2004?

Dreamweaver MX 2004 has been tested with the following databases. Note that PHP is supported only with MySQL databases.

Microsoft Access 2000 and 2002 on Windows
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 on Windows
MySQL 4.0 on Linux and Macintosh OS X 10.2.6
Oracle 9i Enterprise on Linux and Windows

What databases drivers have been tested with Dreamweaver MX 2004?

Dreamweaver MX 2004 has been tested with the following database drivers:

ColdFusion MX JDBC/ODBC drivers
MDAC 2.6 and 2.7 (for ASP.NET) on Windows
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 JDBC driver
MySQL Connector/J 3.0 and MySQL Connector/ODBC 3.5
Oracle Thin JDBC Driver Type IV, JDBC 2.0

Can UDL (Universal Data Link) files be used with Dreamweaver MX 2004?

Yes. Dreamweaver MX 2004 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 MX 2004 document, create an ADO (Connection String) connection within Dreamweaver MX 2004 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. 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 MX 2004 support?

Dreamweaver MX 2004 uses JDBC 1.0. Because JDBC is backwards compatible you can use JDBC either 1.0 or 2.0 drivers with Dreamweaver MX 2004. 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 any Oracle database through an ODBC driver or an OLEDB driver. You can get ODBC drivers for Oracle 8 and 9 from Oracle.

For ColdFusion sites you can connect to an Oracle database natively, through JDBC, or ODBC. For a list of the configurations supported see the feature comparison matrix document (requires Acrobat Reader).

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 any SQL Server database through an ODBC driver or an ADO connection. SQL Server ODBC drivers are included with Microsoft's Data Access Objects.

For ASP.NET sites you can connect to any SQL Server database through an ADO connection or the Managed Data Provider for SQL Server supplied by the .NET Framework.

For ColdFusion sites you can connect to a SQL Server database natively, through JDBC, or ODBC. For a list of the configurations supported see the feature comparison matrix document (requires Acrobat Reader).

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