Operation Manual

USING DREAMWEAVER

Working with Dreamweaver sites

Last updated 3/28/2012

Set up a testing server

If you plan to develop dynamic pages, Dreamweaver needs the services of a testing server to generate and display

dynamic content while you work. The testing server can be your local computer, a development server, a staging server,

or a production server.

For a detailed overview about the purposes of a testing server, see David Powers’s Dreamweaver Developer Center

article,

Setting up a local testing server in Dreamweaver CS5.

More Help topics

“Choosing an application server” on page 506

“Preparing to build dynamic sites” on page 497

Set up a testing server

1 Select Site > Manage Sites.

2 Click New to set up a new site, or select an existing Dreamweaver site and click Edit.

3 In the Site Setup dialog box, select the Servers category and do one of the following:

• Click the Add New Server button to add a new server

• Select an existing server and click the Edit Existing Server button

4 Specify Basic options as necessary, and then click the Advanced button.

Note: You must specify a Web URL in the Basic screen when specifying a testing server. For more information, see the

next section.

5 Under Testing Server, select the server model you want to use for your web application.

Note: As of Dreamweaver CS5, Dreamweaver no longer installs ASP.NET, ASP JavaScript, or JSP server behaviors.

(You can manually

re-enable the deprecated server behaviors if you wish, but keep in mind that Dreamweaver no

longer officially supports them.) If you’re working on ASP.NET, ASP JavaScript, or JSP pages, however, Dreamweaver

will still support Live view, code coloring, and code hinting for those pages. You do not need to select ASP.NET, ASP

JavaScript or JSP in the Site Definition dialog box for any of these features to work.

6 Click Save to close the Advanced screen. Then in the Servers category, specify the server you just added or edited

as a testing server.

About the Web URL for the testing server

You must specify a Web URL so Dreamweaver can use the services of a testing server to display data and to connect

to databases while you work. Dreamweaver uses the design-time connection to provide you with useful information

about the database, such as the names of the tables in your database and the names of the columns in your tables.

A Web URL for a testing server comprises the domain name and any of your website’s home directory’s subdirectories

or virtual directories.

Note: The terminology used in Microsoft IIS may vary from server to server, but the same concepts apply to most web

servers.

The home directory The folder on the server mapped to your site’s domain name. Suppose the folder you want to use

to process dynamic pages is c:\sites\company\, and this folder is your home directory (that is, this folder is mapped to