introduction

Macromedia Dreamweaver has been the market leader in visual HTML editors for years, combining ease of use, power, and unusually high quality code writing. But since version 1 was first released, the Web has changed. Over the years, numerous technologies, many developed quite independently of the Web, have emerged as critical Web authoring tools, including JavaScript, databases, SQL, Java, WML, WSDL, cascading style sheets, XML, XSLT, CGI scripting, and above all a group of new server languages that enable developers to turn Web pages into powerful, data-driven, interactive Web applications: these include Macromedia ColdFusion, Microsoft ASP and ASP.NET, as well as JSP and PHP. Without compromising its ease of use or the quality of code it has always generated, Macromedia Dreamweaver has absorbed these technologies, not only making it possible to work with each of them in isolation, but also making it possible to build sophisticated applications combining these technologies.

But while Dreamweaver has managed to keep up with the rapid evolution of Web technologies, many developers have not fared so well. HTML, image editing, and cascading style sheets are one thing: document object models, for loops, relational data, concatenation, recordsets, cookies, and methods are something else. Yet for many of us, our careers depend on our ability to make the jump from static HTML to full-fledged dynamic Web applicationsand that means gaining competence with several of the technologies listed in the previous paragraph.

That's where Macromedia Dreamweaver MX Dynamic Applications: Advanced Training From the Source comes in. In a series of hands-on tutorials, you'll build competence in working with two of today's hottest dynamic application development languages: Microsoft ASP (VBScript) and Macromedia ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML). Along the way, you'll also learn about database design, writing SQL queries, cascading style sheets, the new XHTML standard, and more.

The book takes a novel strategy of mixing enough hand-coding for you to become competent with programming in these languages, while also providing extensive coverage of the dialog- and wizard-based server behaviors and pre-built application objects that Dreamweaver provides to speed up application development. The goal is not simply to build dynamic applications, but for you to gain a deep understanding about how they work, even when you are relying on GUI-based server behaviors.

The curriculum of this course should take you 20 to 24 hours to complete and includes the following lessons:

Lesson 1: The Present and the Future

Lesson 2: Upgrading to XHTML

Lesson 3: Creating the Presentation Layer

Lesson 4: Dynamic Web Sites

Lesson 5: Passing Data Between Pages

Lesson 6: Sending Email From a Web Form

Lesson 7: Building a Tour Price Calculator

Lesson 8: Databases on the Web

Lesson 9: Completing the Price Calculator

Lesson 10: Filtering and Displaying Data

Lesson 11: Building the Tour Descriptions