ASP Web Development with Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 [Paperback]

Rachel Andrew (Author), Alan Foley (Author), Rob Turnbull (Author), Drew McLellan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 26, 2004

This is a concise, compact, no-nonsense book that teaches the reader how to develop accessible, standards compliant ASP-driven web sites using ASP Web Development with Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 as the development tool. This book presents ASP Web development with Dreamweaver in real-world tutorials so you can expect fast results as you progress through the book. Several of the authors are also Team Macromedia members as well as members of the Web Standards project

Technology involved:

- Microsoft Active Server Pages version 3.0 is Microsoft’s classic server-side scripting framework, still very popular amongst web developers, which is one of the 5 server models supported in Macromedia’s new version of Dreamweaver, MX 2004

- Microsoft IIS and PWS are Microsoft’s web servers, used to host ASP pages

- Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 is Macromedia’s new version of their hugely popular WSIWYG web page creation tool, with much improved features

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Rachel Andrew is a director of edgeofmyseat.com, a U.K.-based web solutions company, and is an experienced web developer. Rachel is a member of the Web Standards Project on the Dreamweaver Task Force, and hopes to encourage best practices in the support and use of W3C Standards in Dreamweaver. In addition to co-authoring several books, Rachel writes for various magazines and resource sites, both online and off. When not writing code or writing about writing code, Rachel spends time with her daughter, tries to encourage people to use Debian GNU/Linux, studies with the Open University, and enjoys a nice pint of beer.

Alan Foley is an assistant professor of instructional technology at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, where he teaches graduate classes in the College of Education. Alan holds a Ph.D. in educational technology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research interests include web accessibility and pedagogy, and accessible multimedia production.

Prior to completing his Ph.D., Alan was a high school English teacher. While teaching, he was introduced to the world of instructional technology and web design. He has taught web design in a variety of educational and corporate settings, and consults for schools and universities on accessibility and usability issues.

Rob Turnbull is the senior developer for Lighthouse Design for Business Ltd., an established new media design and marketing company based in Shrewsbury, U.K. Clients across Europe—from small businesses to blue chip companies—provide an increasing workload, which includes the development of databases, web sites, multimedia presentations, interactive CD-ROMs, promotional videos, and 3D artwork (animations and stills). His personal web site, www.robgt.com, is primarily focused on offering help and guidance to fellow Dreamweaver users, including tutorials and links to helpful resources and some useful extensions.

Drew McLellan has been involved in web design and development since 1996. Starting originally as a hand-coder, Drew quickly saw the great productivity benefits that could be brought by a visual editor with the arrival of Dreamweaver 1.2. Since then, Drew has been pushing the boundaries of Dreamweaver through its solid HTML-based methodology and powerful extensible architecture. With literally tens of thousands of his Dreamweaver extensions in use around the globe, Drew has established a firm seating within the center of the online Dreamweaver community and can be found on a daily basis teaching and aiding fellow developers in Macromedia's news forums. Drew also helps out at the Web Standards Project (http://www.webstandards.org) as a Dreamweaver expert, focusing on the issues surrounding web standards in Macromedia's flagship HTML editor. As a Team Macromedia volunteer, Drew is a committed Dreamweaver user and enjoys nothing more than being able to share his knowledge and experience of the product with fellow developers.

Product Details

• Paperback: 456 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (February 26, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590593499
• ISBN-13: 978-1590593493
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,950,777 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am Managing Director of UK web consultancy edgeofmyseat.com. The company specialises in web development for design agencies and start-up companies who do not have in-house developers.

I am a member of The Web Standards Project and try to take a practical approach to web standards and accessibility issues.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Helped a non-programmer build a dynamic app, July 16, 2004

By 

Ben Fider (Minneapolis) - See all my reviews

This review is from: ASP Web Development with Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 (Paperback)

I've used DW for 3 years. Within the last year, I've begun using DW to build basic ASP pages, linking information from an Access database to my company's web site. I was ecstatic about this breakthrough, and so was my boss. She thought that since I could do this, I could do anything! That was a buzz-kill. I soon learned that I was going to be responsible for more dynamic web application development that was waaay over my head...

So, I bought this book (and every other DW/DB/ASP book I could find.) I flew throught this book in one night, and suddenly, things started to come to me. I was then able to use the examples in the book (and MANY resources online) to build the applications that I needed for work. I had NO grasp of cookies or sessions, and I sooned learned that these variables were the key to having my online users move through my web pages while entering information into a normalized database.

This book is well worth 30$, and I will use it often...

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Title is Misleading - Missing "and SQL Server", May 19, 2005

By 

Andrew R. Turner "Andrew" (Alabama, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: ASP Web Development with Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 (Paperback)

Yes, this book is about using ASP with Dreamweaver MX 2004 - in COMBINATION with MS SQL. I'm at home doing some personal programming and can't afford the SQL server software, so what good does this book to to me? A very small amount of the book is about ASP and access, which is the most commononly used database solution for small time web developers. Maybe a book entitled "ASP Web Development with DW MX 2004 for the Enterprise" would be a great idea.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars For beginning Dreamweaver/ASP users only!, August 29, 2005

By 

Kevin C McGillivray (CA, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: ASP Web Development with Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 (Paperback)

I'm a moderately experienced ASP developer and was looking for some guidance on how best to apply Dreamweaver to my projects so I picked up this book based on various reviews I've read. I was sorely disappointed. The book is largely targeted at beginners and doesn't cover any of its topics to any depth.

The book doesn't get to ASP until Chapter 4 and the first 120 pages (or so) of this 400 page book are entirely fluff that should have been edited out. Chapter 3, for example, covers "Accessibility and Dreamweaver MX 2004" which, in and of itself, is not a bad topic but it doesn't fit the overall subject matter.

The remaining chapters cover database features built into Dreamweaver such as paging through a recordset or authenticating against a database using a form. These are interesting topics although they are easily learned by reading the online help and don't really have that much to do with ASP, specifically, as these features abstract the programmer from the code and are available when using Dreamweaver with other programming languages such as PHP.

In short, there is nothing groundbreaking in this book for anyone except the most basic beginners. If you have had mild exposure to ASP or Dreamweaver, save your money and use Dreamweaver's online help.