Dreamweaver MX 2004: Your Connection to the Internet - Web Servers
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The Application Server
Unless you’re ignoring the powerful data features of Dreamweaver, you will have pages in your site that require more processing than the Web server provides. Pages that connect to databases will have extensions such as .asp, .jsp, .php, or .cfm. These pages require the attention of an application server that handles the code or tags in your pages that do the real work. The application server works closely with the Web server, however, to deliver pages that the user’s browser can handle.
Some application servers are tightly integrated with a Web server. These include IBM’s WebSphere, which can run with its own HTTP server or with another one such as IIS, or Microsoft’s asp.dll, which requires IIS to run. Still others, such as ColdFusion, depend on an outside Web server in the production environment. What combination works best for you depends on the specific features you are looking for.
The Data Store Now that you are using Dreamweaver MX 2004, you have an amazing array of powerful data features available to you. As you get better with the program, you are likely to want to connect to a database and make your site more dynamic. Theoretically, data can reside in a number of different kinds of files, including Excel spreadsheets and delimited text files, but as a practical matter, you will want the flexibility that a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) provides. A number of database applications qualify—from Microsoft Access, which can be had for a couple hundred dollars, up to enterprise-level server-based systems costing thousands of dollars and requiring significant hardware resources.
It is important to select your database application early in the planning process. Depending on the way you build your site, changing data stores midstream can be a frustrating, labor-intensive task.
The Staging Server The Internet is a very public place. When you post something to it, people can and do look at it. When your company or your clients depend on what the world reads about them, it is extremely important to get it right before it is made available on a live Web server. The more complex the sites you build, the more important it becomes to make use of a staging server in your development cycle.
A staging server is an interim publishing step that allows Web pages to be posted on a nonpublic server for review and quality-control purposes. Depending on the size of your organization, this staging server could be an actual computer set up to serve that purpose on an intranet Web server, or it could just be a folder underneath the root of your Web site to which you can publish a copy of your site and any changes or maintenance items. These items can then be reviewed in a private setting, within the context of the entire site. Once approved, the new pages are then copied or replicated to the live Web site.
NOTE What you don’t want to happen is to be forced to put your test content up on a live site in order to debug it. Even if you just set up a hidden directory structure within your production domain, do something to allow the testing and review of your work.
CAUTION Everything from the images you use to the grammar and spelling on your Web site makes a statement about your company or your client. Use of a staging server to allow comprehensive review of the information you intend to post is vital to preserving your reputation.
The Live Data Server One of the revolutionary parts of Dreamweaver MX is its ability to “bounce” data off of a live server and provide an editable design environment using actual data from your data store. Although we discuss this later, it is important at this point to consider how you will facilitate the use of this feature. For Windows users working with the ASP model, it is easiest to use either Personal Web Server or a localized copy of Internet Information Services. Those using other technologies will want to identify a way to take advantage of this valuable design tool.
 This chapter is from Dreamweaver MX 2004: A Beginner's Guide, by Tom Muck and Ray West (McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2004, ISBN: 0-07-222996-9). Check it out at your favorite bookstore today.
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