User Guide

310 Chapter 17: Server Formats
The Server Formats API
The server formats API consists of the following data formatting functions.
applyFormat()
Availability
Dreamweaver UltraDev 1.
Description
This function can edit a user’s document by adding a format function declaration to it. When a
user selects a format from the Format text field in the Dynamic Data or the Dynamic Text dialog
box or in the Bindings panel, Dreamweaver makes two changes to the user’s document: It adds
the appropriate format function before the HTML tag (if it’s not already there), and it changes
the dynamic data object to call the appropriate format function.
Dreamweaver adds the function declaration by calling the
applyFormat() JavaScript
function in the data format file. It changes the dynamic data object by calling the
formatDynamicDataRef() function.
The
applyFormat() function should use the DOM to add function declarations to the top of the
user’s document. For example, if the user selects Currency - Default, the function adds the
Currency function declaration.
Arguments
format
• The format argument is a JavaScript object that describes the format to apply. The JavaScript
object is the node that corresponds to the
format tag in the Formats.xml file. The object has a
JavaScript property for each attribute of the corresponding
format tag.
Returns
Dreamweaver expects nothing.
applyFormatDefinition()
Availability
Dreamweaver UltraDev 1.
Description
Commits the changes to a format that was created using the Edit Format dialog box.
Users can create, edit, or delete formats with the Edit Format List dialog box. This function is
called to commit any modifications that are made to a format. It can also set other, arbitrarily
named properties on the object. Each property is stored as an attribute of the
format tag in the
Formats.xml file.