Operation Manual

504
USING DREAMWEAVER
Preparing to build dynamic sites
Last updated 3/28/2012
A relational database A database containing more than one table, with the tables sharing data. The following database
is relational because two tables share the DepartmentID column.
A server technology The technology that an application server uses to modify dynamic pages at runtime.
The Dreamweaver development environment supports the following server technologies:
• Adobe® ColdFusion®
• Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP)
• PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP)
You can also use the Dreamweaver coding environment to develop pages for any other server technology not listed.
A static page A web page that is not modified by an application server before the page is sent to a browser. For more
information, see
“Processing static web pages” on page 498.
A web application A website that contains pages with partly or entirely undetermined content. The final content of
these pages is determined only when a visitor requests a page from the web server. Because the final content of the page
varies from request to request based on the visitor’s actions, this kind of page is called a dynamic page.
A web server Software that sends out web pages in response to requests from web browsers. A page request is
generated when a visitor clicks a link on a web page in the browser, selects a bookmark in the browser, or enters a URL
in the browser’s address text box.
Popular web servers include Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) and Apache HTTP Server.
Set up your computer for application development
What you need to build web applications
To build web applications in Adobe® Dreamweaver® CS5, you need the following software:
• A web server
• An application server that works with your web server
Note: In the context of web applications, the terms web server and application server refer to software, not hardware.
If you want to use a database with your application, you require the following additional software:
• A database system
• A database driver that supports your database