Martha's COIN 74 Week 10

Martha's COIN 74 Week 10 Exercises

Day Six -EXTRA

SOURCE: Robert D. Cormia's online text
my comments in blue

Homework 11: (this entire page was "commented out" in the online text; I print it here "just for the info")

Complete your final project by using a form validation behavior on your form and adding the behaviors listed on the requirements list.

Libraries vs Templates

It is often difficult when building a site to decide which techniques to use to make your site building easier. In the Knowledge Quest lesson, one or more of your classmates presented their findings on Templates and Libraries or Assets. When you create a template, you specify areas of the template that will not change from page to page, such as a copyright statement, a background graphic, etc. You also specify at least one editable region, which will contain the content that will change from page to page. Once you create a template, you can quickly create pages by choosing the File>New From Template command.

Using templates can help you to build a site quickly, especially one containing lots of pages that have the same elements in the same places on each page. The value of using templates for building a site is highest when you're creating a site that needs consistency among large numbers of pages. For example, you might create a site that contains biographical information for all of the members of a trade association. Certain elements, such as the association logo, will always appear on all the bio pages in the same place. You would create an editable region to contain the actual biographical information for each member.

Often, however, templates are not the best tool for building a large site. You may have elements that you want to use on many pages, but you might want pages to be arranged differently. In this case, Dreamweaver's Library feature of the Assets Panel might be a better choice.

Libraries give you the advantage of designating elements that you want to use often as page elements, but they allow you to implement those elements in a more flexible manner. For example, suppose you have a company logo that you want to use on various pages in the site. If you created a page template, you would most likely place that logo on the template, but not in an editable region. You would simply place it in a location on the page, which would be applied consistently to any pages that use that template. Once you do that, however, you really don't have the flexibility of moving that logo anywhere else on the page.

By placing the logo into a library, you can easily add it to the pages on your site in any location on the page.

You might be wondering at this point what advantages the Library feature has, since placing an element from a library seems to be similar to simply inserting an element on the page the "old fashioned way." Here is the main advantage: Once you add an item to a library and then place the item on a page, the library item on the page is linked to the library. Once that link is established, the management of the library items is done within the library, and not on individual pages.

For example, if you place a logo in a library, and then use the library to place that logo on various site pages, all of the pages that use the logo can be updated immediately. Managing repeating elements is much easier in this respect.

Libraries vs. Server-Side Includes

Many experienced web developers also wonder how libraries differ from server-side includes. A server-side include is a common site element that is stored on a web server and is brought onto a page via a script. By using a server-side include, you manage repeating site elements more easily than placing them individually on multiple pages. When you update a server-side include on a web server, the pages using that element will update, since the element is loaded with the pages as they are transferred to the viewer's computer.

However, server-side includes are more difficult to implement. First, a script is necessary to have the web server transfer the element along with the page. The script contains much more code than standard HTML tags, making the download time longer. Second, this strategy can easily tax a web server, since each time a page is accessed the server will also have to execute those scripts.

So, Libraries are just another tool you can use if your site calls for it. If you have a site with dozens of pages that are the same, it might be best to use a template. But, if you need to simply be able to quickly place and manage repetitive elements, then Libraries really could be your ticket.

What about RSS Feeds?

Amy Gahran says that "an RSS feed is a particular kind of XML file that contains information about your new content (headline, description, excert, anything you care to specify." She states that not "a lot of people know about RSS right now, it's getting popular quickly. I wouldn't be surprised if in the next couple of years RSS becomes as widely known and used as the Web and e-mail." What is an RSS Feed? "It stands for Rich Site Summary (or Really Simple Syndication...). It's a new way for people who publish content online to notify people interested in that content whenever fresh content is made available online. - Contentious: http://blog.contentious.com/archives/000038.html

More RSS Resources: http://www.webreference.com/authoring/languages/xml/rss/intro/

http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/12/18/dive-into-xml.html

Extension Manager

You can learn about Extensions by going to the Help Menu - Help>Extensions>Extending Dreamweaver...

You can view all your extensions through the Extension Manager located in the Dreamweaver Folder of your Applications. Select the Extension Manager Applicaiton from the Macromedia Extension Manager folder...

Launch the Extension Manager. The Nowhere Link is selected and the description of the Extension appears in the lower panel of the Extension Manager window...

Since this is your last lesson before the final critiques, I want you to know about some of the advanced features of Dreamweaver. The Macromedia Extension Manager will enable you to make use of hundreds of scripts written by and usually shared freely by some of the top Dreamweaver gurus. Some of these wonders are: Jaro von Flocken (yaromat.com), Al Sparber (projectseven.com), Massimo Foti. Heck - you could even write an extension and submit it to the exchange...

Notice the different Icons in the illustration of the Extensions Manager above. I have selected the "Check Form" Extension from Jaro von Flocken. To the left of the extensions name is the icon for behavior. If you look in the Type column of the manager, it says Behavior. Above the selected extensions you'll see an object by Massimo Foti. Objects will be added both to the Objects Panel and the Insert Menu. Behaviors will be added to the Behaviors Panel. Commands will be added to the Commands Menu, etc. Notice that the Commands Menu has a command saying Get More Commands... and the Insert Menu has a command saying Get More Objects... . These will take you to the appropriate pages of the Macromedia website to download the extensions.

The bottom pane of the Extensions Manager Window defines the extensions. The "Check Form" extensions description indicated that it offers much more than the native DW behavior for form validation. It also lists known issues with specific browsers flavors and versions.

The wonderful feature of these extensions is that for many, you don't need to know any JavaScript and you don't have to configure anything. You just click a button as you would do for the native DW behaviors, etc. I'm not going to show you how to use any of the extensions that I have installed but want you to be aware of this wonderful feature and community of DW friends. By the way, the Macromedia Extensions Manager loads extensions for both Dreamweaver AND Flash. Use the dropdown menu at the top of the window to select either DW or Flash.

Marcia's Dreamweaver Resources

Join mailing lists and forums...tons of them. You can get their daily digests so you don't get single emails all day. You can read the digest at your leisure. You can get RSS feeds.

Do a search for Dreamweaver on yahoogroup.com - I'm a member of many Dreamweaver Yahoo Groups and get incredible information from the masters.

Go to Macromedia's Site for Dreamweaver. From the Help Menu go to Help>Dreamweaver Support Center and Help>Macromedia Online Forums.

A classmate already included Tek-Tips as a wonderful resource.

Check these, my favorite dreamweaver sites and sign up for their lists or forums. Wait...I'll make a jump menu OK....it's easy enough...here goes...

Remember, first create a form. Then put the jump menu inside the form. I'm going to use Al Sparber's Project7 Jump Menu.

This was such an easy extension to use. You can download it from the http://www.projectseven.com site in the jump menu. PS. a lot of these guys and gals who write the extensions and the books participate actively on the discussion and mailing lists. I have gotten several personal replies to emails from some of the most famous conference lecturers and authors on the subject. That's what I love about this stuff. Everyone seems so willing to help and share their experiences. I hope you'll carry on that tradition.

Conferences - check out http://www.thunderlizard.com.

Go grab some free templates for websites from Macromedia's Template Page.

Check out webdeveloper.com and webmonkey.com. Whew! It's never-ending. There are so many resources for Dreamweaver, Javascript, XML, DHTML, ASP, PHP, etc.

Cool Tip of the Day:Here's a way to insert the subject and body information into an email link. You may want to try this on your site so you can use the filters of your email program and sort your incoming mail based on subject headings.