The Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS4 with CSS, Ajax, and PHP

By David Powers

Dreamweaver CS4 is a massive step forward in terms of integration with the rest of the CS4 suite (Flash, Fireworks, Photoshop, etc.), and also includes whole host of exciting new features of its own. The Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS4 with CSS, Ajax, and PHP concentrates on getting the best out of Dreamweaver CS4, rather than going into every menu item and toolbar icon. The emphasis is on developing websites compliant with the latest web standards, using CSS, JavaScript libraries (with particular emphasis on Spry, Adobe’s implementation of Ajax), and PHP.

The book covers all aspects of the new user interface, including workspace layouts, iconic panels, the related documents feature, Live View, Code Navigator, and Live Code. It also shows how to use the improved CSS editing features, and JavaScript code introspection. There is also coverage of other new features, such as version control through Subversion integration, and the improved support for Photoshop integration through the use of Smart Objects.

• Takes you through your development environment set up
• Covers everything you need to create both standards compliant web sites, and dynamic web applications
• Teaches real world techniques using a series of step by step tutorials

What you'll learn

• Streamline your workflow with the Related Files toolbar, Live view, and the Code Navigator
• Bring your pages alive with Ajax widgets from Spry, jQuery, and the Yahoo! User Interface Library
• Use server-side includes, templates, and Adobe's InContext Editing online service
• Create dynamic web applications using Dreamweaver's PHP server behaviors
• Build real world web site functions, such as form validation, random quote generator, search function, user management/login pages, dynamic Ajax gallery, and much more
• Consume RSS feeds and create Spry data sets
• How to publish your site after you've created it

Who is this book for?

This book is for both beginners who want a solid grounding in Dreamweaver CS4, and intermediate web designers and developers with previous Dreamweaver experience, who want to get up to speed with the new features.

This book is part of friends of ED's 'Essential Guide' series

The Essential Guide series takes a pragmatic approach to learning. We understand that you might not have the time or the inclination to read through a long book before you can get up and running, and we designed this series to give you the knowledge you want when you want it. The learning is always by example, with lots of code snippets that you can take with you and use in your own applications. The focus is on targeted learning for web professionals—providing the essential tools that the modern web developer needs. A book in this series won't focus as much on the basics as a Foundation book, but it will take you further, introducing some advanced topics that are essential for using a particular technology in the real world.