| While the Web was still in its infancy, the technologies used to deliver it were
always changing. I remember a time when I had to hand-code every page in a Web
site. At that time, a Web site was just a couple of static pages. Still, dealing with raw
HTML tags was not very pleasant. A few WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get)
tools began to appear, but nothing really impressed me. Most tools did not produce
clean HTML that looked identical in popular Web browsers like Microsoft Internet
Explorer and Netscape Navigator. Static content seemed to rule. But the size of the
Web sites that I was developing grew beyond the point where I could hand-code
every page.
I dreamed of a tool that could answer all my prayers, a tool that would allow me to
create Web sites visually and still allow me to tweak the code. In 1997, Macromedia
made my dream come true when they released Dreamweaver. It certainly answered
the prayers of Web developers all over the world. Dreamweaver is currently one of
the most popular Web site design tools.
Today, static pages no longer rule the Web, though technologies are still always
changing. The trend has once again shifted, and database-driven Web sites are now
the norm. Once again, you have to acquire new skills—this time in database design
and server-side scripting.
All this required knowledge can be overwhelming unless you have a sound programming
background or the time to leverage your existing skills to create dynamic database-
driven applications. Until recently, you had a steep learning curve ahead.
Enter Dreamweaver MX, an amazing upgrade to Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver MX
allows you to create a Web-enabled database in a snap. You can simply design your
database without having to worry about writing code to perform standard tasks such as
displaying, inserting, updating, and deleting records. So even if you’re an expert at
hand-coding dynamic Web sites, Dreamweaver MX can vastly improve your productivity.
Probably the best feature is that Dreamweaver MX supports five of the most popular
application servers available: ASP (Active Server Pages), ASP.NET, JSP (JavaServer
Pages), PHP, and ColdFusion. Using a single tool to develop for multiple application
servers is now a reality. As a Web developer who is comfortable with using Dreamweaver
MX, you can now develop applications that will run just about anywhere. |
