Dreamweaver: Building Robust Web Applications

Course Overview

Dynamic, fast, eye-catching and personalised Web sites are essential to maintain a leading-edge position. In this course, you gain extensive experience using the rapid automated design process of Dreamweaver. You learn to create and edit fast, sophisticated, data-driven Web sites with server-side code, and maximise productivity and functionality with server behaviours. You also gain hands-on experience formatting pages, enhancing navigation, and linking to databases.

Hands-on Training

• An authentic case study provides you with experience using Dreamweaver. Exercises include:
• Formatting pages using Dreamweaver layout tools, Cascading Style Sheets and graphics
• Enhancing navigation with hyperlinks, hotspots, rollover buttons and Spry Widgets
• Integrating database content with server-side code
• Building Web applications and maintaining state with reusable scripts
• Linking to a database using forms
• Implementing user authentication to secure database access

Audience

Anyone involved in establishing, developing or maintaining a Web site. Knowledge of Web technologies at the level of Course 470, "Developing a Web Site", is assumed.

Skills Gained

You Will Learn How To

• Design and build data-driven Web sites with Dreamweaver
• Create and integrate images, Flash and CSS for enhanced effects
• Automate the creation of client-side JavaScript and server-side application code
• Build master/detail and database management Web pages linking to databases
• Improve productivity with custom server behaviours, templates and libraries
• Implement access control to Web content with user authentication

Course Outline

Dreamweaver Overview

• Work area, toolbars and behaviours
• Customising the development interface and setting preferences
• Establishing the site foundation for ASP, ASP.NET, PHP, ColdFusion and JSP
• Publishing your site using FTP
• Editing an existing site

Designing and Formatting Web Pages

Sophisticated layout capabilities

• Accurately aligning text and objects using layout cells
• Deploying Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for a precise and consistent appearance
• Creating templates for site consistency and ease of maintenance
• Coping with browser compatibility

Implementing site navigation

• Hyperlinks and custom controls
• Spry Widgets and behaviours

Creating special effects with images and animation

• Adding rollover graphics
• Organising media with the Asset Manager
• Working with images in Photoshop
• Creating a magnetic interface with Flash Text and Flash Buttons

Constructing Interactive Web Pages

Capturing user input

• Utilising form fields to guide user input
• Processing data from form submission and HTTP environment variables
• Intuitively creating SQL queries with point-and-click functionality
• Loading variables with user input for database interrogation

Building JavaScript with Dreamweaver tools

• Validating forms with point-and-click
• Client- vs. server-side scripting
• Customising server behaviours
• Reusing code with script libraries

Developing Web pages with ASP and ASP.NET

• Manipulating data dynamically
• Using Dreamweaver to simplify utilisation of session variables to maintain state
• E-mail enabling forms
• Creating custom server behaviours for automated programming
• Building data-aware pages

Integrating Real-Time Data

Connecting to diverse data sources

• Documents, file systems and RDBMSs
• Creating data-driven drop-down list boxes
• Linking to SQL Server with ADO.NET and OLE DB

Reading and searching databases

• Developing single field search
• Building multiparameter search pages using advanced SQL capabilities

Creating update and delete data pages

• Defining and manipulating Recordsets with queries and stored procedures
• Building a drill-down master/detail form with the results page
• Displaying multiple records with the repeat region behaviour
• Creating Recordset navigation controls

Implementing access control and user authentication with server behaviours

• Creating a secure administrative Web interface for your database
• Constructing a secure, hierarchical, data-oriented search interface
• Designing login pages
• Restricting access to certain pages

Improving productivity

• Storing and reusing code
• Building custom server behaviours
• Creating Dreamweaver extensions
• Adding extensions from the Dreamweaver Exchange
• Utilising application objects for automatic page creation

Dreamweaver: Building Robust Web Applications / 548