Dreamweaver MX 2004: Your Connection to the Internet - Choose Server Technologies
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Dreamweaver MX 2004 ships with five server models on which you can base your site: ASP, ASP.NET, JSP, PHP, and ColdFusion MX. The decision of which to use is guided by several factors and may guide other decisions you need to make. It is important to make this decision early in your development cycle.
NOTE Be careful when choosing which server technology you want to program for. Once youstart generating pages, it’s not easy to switch to a different one. Dreamweaver createscode based on the preferences you have set as you work. At this time, there is nofacility for converting that code.
Active Server Pages
I would venture to say that the most common server language selection among Dreamweaver users will be ASP. Microsoft’s technology is ubiquitous, easy to learn and use, and available on the many Windows-based servers currently used for Web site hosting. Although some would question its speed and scalability and its ability to keep up with the needs of a growing e-commerce site, it is certainly more than capable of providing tremendous functionality to all but the most complex applications.
If you are using a Windows NT or Windows 2000 server running Internet Information Server versions 4 or 5 to host your site, you are all set to include ASP in your pages. IIS4 supports ASP 2.0, which is the specification that Dreamweaver is designed to. IIS5 (shipped with Windows 2000) supports ASP 3.0. Although the standard Dreamweaver code will not take advantage of any of the newer features found in version 3, you can certainly hand-code portions of your application to do so.
If you are running Windows NT 4 and don’t have IIS installed, you will need to get hold of the NT Option Pack. Included are several applications you will find useful when running Web applications, but the most important at this point are Internet Information Server and Microsoft Transaction Server (a must to run ASP). You can purchase an Option Pack CD or download it for free at http://www.microsoft.com/ntserver/nts/downloads/recommended/NT4OptPk/default.asp.
NOTE Versions 4 and 5 of IIS (on Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 Server) are referred to as Internet Information Server, while version 6 is known as Internet Information Services. The are basically versions of the same application.
ASP on Non-Microsoft Servers
If you need to use a server that runs an operating system other than Windows or uses a Web server other than IIS, you can still use Active Server Pages for your site thanks to companies who have ported ASP to other platforms through their proprietary server applications.
ChiliSoft (www.chilisoft.com) makes a program called ChiliASP that provides complete ASP support on AIX, HP-UX, Linux, OS/390, Solaris, and Windows NT. They are willing to consider any other platform, and they invite visitors to their Web site to make suggestions about the next platforms they should support.
Instant ASP from Halcyon Software (www.halcyonsoft.com) promises to provide ASP support on any Web server, application server, or OS platform. It is a Java-based port of the ASP specification and is designed to allow the ultimate in portability. Instant ASP supports an impressive list of operating systems and Web servers, too many to list here. Complete information is available at their Web site.
The most difficult thing for non-Microsoft solutions to handle is the conversion of the COM components that make ASP so powerful. Most handle this by converting them to some sort of Java or JavaBean implementation.
ASP Scripting Languages You’ll also need to decide what scripting language to use in your ASP code. You will be writing code (or letting Dreamweaver write it for you) that is intended to run at the server (your Web server) and the client (your visitor’s browser). Typically, the two choices are Visual Basic Script (VBScript) and JavaScript (or the Microsoft variant JScript). Which language to learn and use is an often-asked question.
VBScript
VBScript is a subset of the Visual Basic programming language. Because ASP is a Microsoft technology, it is not surprising that VBScript is the preferred language for ASP development. Because of this, most ASP tutorials feature VBScript, making sample code easy to find. It is relatively easy to learn because its syntax resembles English, and there are tons of programmers with Visual Basic experience who find it a comfortable way to use ASP.
The downside of VBScript is that it is not practical as a client-side scripting language. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer supports it for browser scripting, but Netscape’s Navigator (the other major browser) does not. For this reason, some have concluded that using JavaScript for both the server and the client is a better alternative, especially for newer users, who will only need to learn one language.
JavaScript
Anyone who does any serious Web programming will need to learn JavaScript. Although you may be most familiar with JavaScript as a client-side language used for things such as form validation and Dynamic HTML (DHTML) effects, it is actually a robust language that allows sophisticated object-oriented programming on the server side. Because it can be used for the client side and the server side, it is a logical language choice for the new user, who can become productive by learning just the one language. Also, if you plan to write extensions for Dreamweaver, you will need to be intimately familiar with the entire JavaScript language.
However, JavaScript is more difficult to learn than VBScript. It has a less intuitive syntax, and sample code is more difficult to find. It is more comparable to C or Java in its format, but it must not be confused with either of these; it is its own language. Those coming from a C or Java background may suffer a bit of confusion trying to remember which command goes with which, but having a good reference handy solves this quite nicely.
ASP.NET ASP.NET is Microsoft’s newest server-side technology. It promises to be the best of the other platforms rolled up into one, and to a certain degree, it has successfully integrated many of the ideas that have made other platforms superior to ASP. ASP.NET sports support for compiled code, broader and more powerful language choices, and total integration with the base Microsoft development platforms through the .NET framework. A good understanding of ASP is a real advantage when learning ASP.NET, and this book should prepare you to move into this new area.
 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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