User manual MACROMEDIA DREAMWEAVER 8 - EXTENDING DREAMWEAVER

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Notwithstanding the foregoing, the owner or authorized user of a valid copy of the software with which this manual was provided may print out one copy of this manual from an electronic version of this manual for the sole purpose of such owner or authorized user learning to use such software, provided that no part of this manual may be printed out, reproduced, distributed, resold, or transmitted for any other purposes, including, without limitation, commercial purposes, such as selling copies of this documentation or providing paid-for support services. Acknowledgments Project Management: Charles Nadeau, Robert Berry Writing: Anne Sandstrom Editing: Anne Szabla, John Hammett Production and Editing Management: Patrice OíNeill and Rosana Francescato Media Design and Production: Adam Barnett, Aaron Begley, Paul Benkman, John Francis, Geeta Karmarkar, Mario Reynoso Localization Management: Melissa Baerwald Special thanks to Jay London, Raymond Lim, Alain Dumesny, and the entire Dreamweaver engineering and QA teams. First Edition: September 2005 Macromedia, Inc. 601 Townsend St.` San Francisco, CA 94103 Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Installing an extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Creating an extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Additional resources for extension writers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 What's new in Dreamweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 Conventions used in this guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 PART 1: CUSTOMIZING DREAMWEAVER Chapter 1: Customizing Dreamweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Ways to customize Dreamweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Customizing Dreamweaver in a multiuser environment. . . . . . . . . . . . .27 Working with browser profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Changing FTP mappings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Extensible document types in Dreamweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Chapter 2: Customizing Code View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Code hints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Code coloring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Code validation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Changing default HTML formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 63 92 95 PART 2: OVERVIEW OF EXTENDING DREAMWEAVER Chapter 3: Extending Dreamweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Types of Dreamweaver extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Configuration folders and extensions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .102 Extension APIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105 Localizing an extension. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Working with the Extension Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .109 3 Chapter 4: User Interfaces for Extensions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Designing an extension user interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Dreamweaver HTML rendering control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .112 Using custom UI controls in extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .113 Adding Flash content to Dreamweaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Chapter 5: The Dreamweaver Document Object Model . . . . . . 127 Which document DOM? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 The Dreamweaver DOM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 PART 3: EXTENSION APIS Chapter 6: Insert Bar Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 How object files work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 The Insert bar definition file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .141 Modifying the Insert bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 A simple insert object example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 The Objects API. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .161 Chapter 7: Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 How commands work. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Adding commands to the Commands menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A simple command example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Commands API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 168 168 176 Chapter 8: Menus and Menu Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 About the menus.xml file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 Changing menus and menu commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .191 Menu commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 A simple menu command example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 A dynamic menu example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 The Menu Commands API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 Chapter 9: Toolbars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 How toolbars work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 A simple toolbar command file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 The toolbar definition file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 Toolbar item tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .226 Item tag attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .232 The toolbar command API. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .238 4 Contents Chapter 10: Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 Site reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 Stand-alone reports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 The Reports API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 Chapter 11: Tag Libraries and Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 Tag library file format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Tag Chooser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A simple example of creating a new tag editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tag editor APIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262 268 270 275 Chapter 12: Property Inspectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279 How Property inspector files work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .281 A simple Property inspector example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282 The Property inspector API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285 Chapter 13: Floating Panels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289 How floating panel files work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 A simple floating panel example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .291 The Floating panel API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297 Chapter 14: Behaviors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305 How Behaviors work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306 A simple behavior example. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307 The Behaviors API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .312 Chapter 15: Server Behaviors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321 Dreamweaver architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322 A simple server behavior example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324 How the Server Behavior API functions are called . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326 The Server Behavior API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329 Server behavior implementation functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335 Editing EDML files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337 Group EDML file tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340 Participant EDML files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347 Server behavior techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369 Contents 5 Chapter 16: Data Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379 How data sources work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380 A simple data source example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .382 The Data Sources API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391 Chapter 17: Server Formats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399 How data formatting works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400 When the data formatting functions are called . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402 The Server Formats API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403 Chapter 18: Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407 Component basics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .407 Extending the Components panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408 How to customize the Components panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408 Components panel files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409 Components panel API functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412 Chapter 19: Server Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423 How customizing server models works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .423 The Server Model API functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424 Chapter 20: Data Translators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433 How data translators work. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434 Determining what kind of translator to use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .435 Adding a translated attribute to a tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .435 Inspecting translated attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437 Locking translated tags or blocks of code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437 Creating Property inspectors for locked content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439 Finding bugs in your translator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442 A simple attribute translator example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443 A simple block/tag translator example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .447 The Data Translator API. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452 Chapter 21: C-Level Extensibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457 How integrating C functions works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .457 C-level extensibility and the JavaScript interpreter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459 Data types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460 The C-level API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461 File Access and Multiuser Configuration API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .470 Calling a C function from JavaScript. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .479 6 Contents PART 4: APPENDIX Appendix: The Shared Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483 The Shared folder contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483 Using the Shared folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .491 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493 Contents 7 8 Contents Introduction This guide describes the Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 framework and application programming interface (API) that lets you build extensions to Dreamweaver. It provides information about how each type of extension works; the API functions that Dreamweaver calls to implement the various objects, menus, floating panels, server behaviors, and so on, that make up the features of Dreamweaver; and a simple example of each type of extension. This guide also explains how to customize Dreamweaver by editing tags in various HTML and XML files to add menu items or document types, and so on. To add an object, menu, floating panel, or other feature to Dreamweaver, you must code the functions that the particular type of extension requires. This guide describes the arguments that Dreamweaver passes to these functions and also the values that Dreamweaver expects these functions to return. For information on the utility and general purpose JavaScript APIs that you can use to perform various support operations in your Dreamweaver extensions, see the Dreamweaver API Reference. If you plan to create extensions that work with databases, you might also want to review the sections in Getting Started with Dreamweaver about making connections to databases. Background Most Dreamweaver extensions are written in HTML and JavaScript. This guide assumes that you are familiar with Dreamweaver, HTML, XML, and JavaScript programming. If you are implementing C extensions, the guide assumes that you know how to create and use C dynamic link libraries (DLLs). If you are writing extensions for building web applications, you should also be familiar with server-side scripting on at least one platform, such as Active Server Pages (ASP), ASP.net, PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP), Macromedia ColdFusion, or Java Server Pages (JSP). 9 Installing an extension To become familiar with the process of writing extensions, you might want to explore the extensions and resources that are available through the Macromedia Exchange website (www.macromedia.com/exchange). Installing an existing extension introduces you to some of the tools that you need to work with in your own extensions. To install an extension, use the following procedure: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Download and install the Extension Manager, which is available on the Macromedia Downloads website (www.macromedia.com/software/downloads). Log on to the Macromedia Exchange website (www.macromedia.com/exchange). From the available extensions, select one that you want to use. Click the Download link to download the extension package. Save the extension package in the Dreamweaver 8/Downloaded Extensions folder of your installed Dreamweaver folder. In the Extension Manager, select File > Install Extension. In Dreamweaver, select Commands > Manage Extensions to start the Extension Manager. The Extension Manager automatically installs the extension from the Downloaded Extension folder into Dreamweaver. Some extensions need Dreamweaver to restart before you can use them. If you are running Dreamweaver when you install the extension, you might be prompted to quit and restart the application. To view basic information on the extension after its installation, go to the Extension Manager (Commands > Manage Extensions) in Dreamweaver. Creating an extension Before you create a Dreamweaver extension, visit the Macromedia Exchange website at www.macromedia.com/exchange to see if the extension you plan to create already exists. If you do not find an extension that meets your needs, you then perform the following steps to create the extension: Determine the type of extension you want to create. For more information about the extension types, see "Types of Dreamweaver extensions" on page 100. Review the documentation for the type of extension you plan to create. To become familiar with creating that type of extension, it's a good idea to create the simple extension example in the appropriate chapter. 10 Introduction Determine which files you need to modify or create. Plan the user interface (UI), if any, for the extension. Create the necessary files and save them in the appropriate folders. Restart Dreamweaver so that it recognizes the new extension. Test the extension. Package the extension so that you can share it with others. For more information, see "Working with the Extension Manager" on page 109. Additional resources for extension writers To communicate with other developers who are involved in writing extensions, you might want to join the Dreamweaver extensibility newsgroup. You can access the website for this newsgroup at www.macromedia.com/go/extending_newsgrp/. What's new in Dreamweaver Dreamweaver 8 includes the following new features and interfaces that are extensible. Each of these features has new related functions, which are listed in the Dreamweaver API Reference. Improved site synchronization The comparison of local and remote files is more reliable in Dreamweaver 8. Copy and paste improvements Copy and paste choices have been simplified. Users can also now set the default behavior of a paste operation to be to paste text only. Site root-relative links mapping has been improved. Code collapse Dreamweaver now lets users selectively collapse or expand segments of code. Code view toolbar Dreamweaver now provides a toolbar in Code view that allows quick access to commonly used commands. Background file transfer This feature lets users to do other things in Dreamweaver while processing server-related tasks. File compare integration Dreamweaver now lets users launch a third-party file comparison application to compare two local files, two remote files, or the local and remote versions of a file. What's new in Dreamweaver 11 Streamlined handling of CSS styles The CSS Styles and Relevant CSS panels have been combined. The Design panel is now named CSS; the CSS Styles panel is now named Styles. There is now a menu option for Document CSS Styles and Selection CSS Styles in the Window menu. In addition, an Edit Rule button has been added to the Property inspector. Visual aids for CSS divs and layers Dreamweaver now includes visual aids to let users see their CSS page layout. Zooming in and out Dreamweaver now lets users zoom in and out while viewing their web pages. Guides Dreamweaver now lets users create guides in their documents. Documentation changes Extending Dreamweaver includes the following improvements to help new extension authors get started. New and updated examples New examples have been added for Reports and Behaviors. The example for Property inspectors has been improved. The steps for creating each type of extension are presented as a tutorial, which you can follow to understand what the files do and how they interact. New organization Each chapter now begins with a table that lists the files required to create the type of extension described in the chapter. For information on the new functions that have been added to the Utility API and the JavaScript API, see the Dreamweaver API Reference. Macromedia Press Improve your Dreamweaver skills with books from Macromedia Press. Check out the latest content written by the experts. See www.macromedia.com/go/dw2004_help_mmp. Deprecated functions In Dreamweaver 8, several functions have been deprecated. For information on the functions that have been removed from the Utility and JavaScript APIs, see the Dreamweaver API Reference. 12 Introduction Errata A current list of known issues can be found in the Extensibility section of the Dreamweaver Support Center (www.macromedia.com/go/extending_errata). Conventions used in this guide The following typographical conventions are used in this guide: Code font indicates code fragments and API literals, including class names, method names, function names, type names, scripts, SQL statements, and both HTML and XML tag and attribute names. font indicates replaceable items in code. Italic code The continuation symbol (¬) indicates that a long line of code has been broken across two or more lines. Due to margin limits in this guide's format, what is otherwise a continuous line of code must be split. When copying the lines of code, eliminate the continuation symbol, and type the lines as one line. Curly braces ({ }) that surround a function argument indicate that the argument is optional. Function names that have the prefix dreamweaver. as in dreamweaver.funcname, can be abbreviated to dw.funcname when you are writing code. This manual uses the full dreamweaver. prefix when defining the function and in the index. Many examples use the shorter dw. prefix, however. You--the developer who is responsible for writing extensions The user--the person using Dreamweaver The visitor--the person who views the web page that the user created The following naming conventions are used in this guide: Conventions used in this guide 13 14 Introduction PART 1 Customizing Dreamweaver You can customize Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 to suit your web development needs, including changing settings in dialog boxes, setting preferences in a variety of areas, and changing keyboard shortcuts. You can also customize code hints and code coloring in Code view, the cascading style sheet (CSS) profile, and Dreamweaver's default HTML formatting. Chapter 1: Customizing Dreamweaver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Chapter 2: Customizing Code View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55 1 15 CHAPTER 1 Customizing Dreamweaver In addition to creating and using Dreamweaver extensions, you can customize Macromedia Dreamweaver in many ways, which lets you work in a manner that's familiar, comfortable, and efficient for you. 1 Ways to customize Dreamweaver There are several general approaches to customizing Dreamweaver. Some of these approaches are covered in Using Dreamweaver. These approaches let you customize your workspace. You can also change settings in dialog boxes in Dreamweaver. You can set preferences in a variety of areas, including accessibility, code coloring, fonts, highlighting, and previewing in browsers, using the Preferences panel (Edit > Preferences). You can also change keyboard shortcuts, using the Keyboard Shortcut Editor (Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts). The following list describes some of the ways you can customize Dreamweaver by editing configuration files: Rearrange the objects in the Insert bar, create new tabs to reorganize the objects, or add new objects. See "Modifying the Insert bar" on page 148. Change the names of menu items, add new commands to menus, and remove existing commands from menus. See Chapter 8, "Menus and Menu Commands," on page 181. Change browser profiles or create new ones. See "Working with browser profiles" on page 30. Change how third-party tags (including ASP and JSP tags) appear in the Document window's Design view. See "Customizing the interpretation of third-party tags" on page 21. Customizing default documents Customizing page designs Customizing the appearance of dialog boxes In addition, you can tailor Dreamweaver to meet your needs by doing the following: 17 Changing the default file type Customizing the interpretation of third-party tags Customizing workspace layouts Customizing the Code view toolbar Customizing default documents The DocumentTypes/NewDocuments folder contains a default (blank) document of each type that you can create using Dreamweaver. When you create a new blank document by selecting File > New and selecting an item from the Basic Page, Dynamic Page, or Other categories, Dreamweaver bases the new document on the appropriate default document in this folder. To change what appears in a default document of a given type, edit the appropriate document in this folder. If you want all the pages in your site to contain common elements (such as a copyright notice) or a common layout, it's better to use templates and library items than to change the default documents. For more information about templates and library items, see Using Dreamweaver). NO TE 18 N OT E Customizing page designs Dreamweaver provides a variety of predesigned cascading style sheets, framesets, and page designs. You can create pages based on these designs by selecting File > New. To customize the available designs, edit the files in BuiltIn/css, BuiltIn/framesets, BuiltIn/ Templates, and BuiltIn/TemplatesAccessible folders. The designs listed in the Page Designs and Page Designs (Accessible) categories are Dreamweaver template files; for more information on templates, see Using Dreamweaver). You can also create custom page designs by adding files to the subfolders of the BuiltIn folder. To make a description of the file appear in the New Document dialog box, create a Design Notes file (in the appropriate _notes folder) that corresponds to the page design file. Customizing Dreamweaver Customizing the appearance of dialog boxes The dialog box layouts for objects, commands, and behaviors are specified as HTML forms; they reside in HTML files in the Configuration folder within the Dreamweaver application folder. You edit these forms as you would edit any form in Dreamweaver. For more information, see Using Dreamweaver. Remember that in a multiuser operating system, you should edit copies of configuration files in your user Configuration folder rather than editing Dreamweaver configuration files. For more information, see "Multiuser Configuration folders" on page 104. N OT E To change the appearance of a dialog box: 1. 2. In Dreamweaver, select Edit > Preferences, and then select the Code Rewriting category. Unselect the Rename Form Items when Pasting option. Unselecting this option ensures that form items retain their original names when you copy and paste them. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Click OK to close the Preferences dialog box. On your disk, find the appropriate HTM file in the Configuration/Objects, Configuration/ Commands, or Configuration/Behaviors folder. Make a copy of the file somewhere other than the Configuration folder. Open the copy in Dreamweaver, edit the form, and save it. Quit Dreamweaver. Copy the changed file back to the Configuration folder in place of the original. (It's a good idea to first make a backup of the original, so you can restore it later if needed.) Restart Dreamweaver to see the changes. You should change only the appearance of the dialog box, not how it works; it must still contain the same types of form elements with the same names, so that the information Dreamweaver obtains from the dialog box can still be used in the same way. For example, the Comment object takes text input from a text area in a dialog box and uses a simple JavaScript function to turn that text into an HTML comment and insert the comment into your document. The form that describes the dialog box is in the Comment.htm file in the Configuration/Objects/Invisibles folder. You can open that file and change the size and other attributes of the text area, but if you remove the textarea tag entirely, or change the value of its name attribute, the Comment object does not work properly. Ways to customize Dreamweaver 19 Changing the default file type By default, Dreamweaver shows all the file types it recognizes in the File > Open dialog box. You can use a pop-up menu in that dialog box to limit the display to certain types of files. If most of your work involves a specific file type (such as ASP files), you can change the default display. Whatever file type is listed on the first line of the Dreamweaver Extensions.txt file becomes the default. If you want to see all file types in the File > Open dialog box (even the files Dreamweaver can't open), you must select All Files (*.*). This is different from All Documents, which shows only the files Dreamweaver can open. NO T E To change the Dreamweaver default File > Open file type: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Make a backup copy of the Extensions.txt file in the Configuration folder. Open Extensions.txt in Dreamweaver or in a text editor. Cut the line corresponding to the new default and paste it at the beginning of the file so that it becomes the first line of the file. Save the file. Restart Dreamweaver. To see the new default, select File > Open, and look at the pop-up menu of file types. To add new file types to the menu in the File > Open dialog box: 1. 2. 3. Make a backup copy of the Extensions.txt file in the Configuration folder. Open Extensions.txt in Dreamweaver or in a text editor. Add a new line for each new file type. a. b. In capital letters, enter the filename extensions that the new file type can have, separated by commas. Add a colon and a brief description to show in the pop-up menu for file types that appear in the File > Open dialog box. For example, for JPEG files, enter the following: JPG,JPEG,JFIF:JPEG Image Files 4. 5. Save the file. Restart Dreamweaver. To see the changes, select File > Open, and click the pop-up menu of file types. 20 Customizing Dreamweaver