User Guide

Extensible document types in Dreamweaver 51
Note: String identifiers, such as myJSPDocType/Description in the previous example, must be
unique within the application. Dreamweaver, when it starts, parses all XML files within the
Configuration/Strings folder and loads these unique strings.
Rules for document type definition files
Dreamweaver lets document types that are associated with a server model share file extensions.
For example: ASP-JS and ASP-VB can claim .asp as their file extension. (For information on
which server model gets preference, see “canRecognizeDocument()” on page 328.)
Dreamweaver does not let document types that are not associated with a server model share
file extensions.
If a file extension is claimed by two document types where one type is associated with a server
model and the other is not, the latter document type gets preference. Suppose you have a
document type called SAM, which is not associated with a server model, that has a file extension
of .sam, and you add this file extension to the ASP-JS document type. When a Dreamweaver user
opens a file that has a .sam extension, Dreamweaver assigns the SAM document type to it, not
ASP-JS.
Opening a document in Dreamweaver
When a user opens a file, Dreamweaver follows a series of steps to identify the document type
based on the file’s extension.
If Dreamweaver successfully finds a unique document type, Dreamweaver uses that type and
loads the associated server model (if any) for the document that the user is opening. If the user has
selected to use Dreamweaver UltraDev 4 server behaviors, Dreamweaver loads the appropriate
UltraDev 4 server model.
If the file extension maps to more than one document type, Dreamweaver performs the
following actions:
• If a static document type is among the list of document types, it gets preference.
• If all the document types are dynamic, Dreamweaver creates an alphabetical list of the server
models that are associated with these document types and then calls the
canRecognizeDocument() function in each server model (see “canRecognizeDocument()”
on page 328). Dreamweaver collects the return values and determines which server model
returned the highest valued positive integer. The document type whose server model returns
the highest integer is the document type that Dreamweaver assigns to the document being
opened. If, however, more than one server model returns the same integer, Dreamweaver goes
through the alphabetical list of those server models, picks the first in the list, and uses that
document type. For example, if both ASP-JS and ASP-VB claim an ASP document and if their
respective
canRecognizeDocument() functions return equal values, Dreamweaver assigns the
document to ASP-JS (because, alphabetically, ASP-JS is first).
If Dreamweaver cannot map the file extension to a document type, Dreamweaver opens the
document as a text file.