The Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS3 with CSS, Ajax, and PHP [Paperback]

David Powers (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1590598598 | ISBN-13: 978-1590598597 | Publication Date: August 3, 2007 | Edition: 1st 2007. Corr. printing

Dreamweaver is a huge selling product with over 3 million users worldwide, and the new version, Dreamweaver CS3, promises to be just as popular, with new features such as Ajax support.

The Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS3 with CSS, Ajax, and PHP is written by best selling Dreamweaver author David Powers. Inside he presents a strictly practical, real world series of tutorials to teach aspiring and existing Dreamweaver users how to do everything they could possibly want to do in terms of CSS, PHP (bar far the most popular server-side language Dreamweaver supports, and the only one that is really used a great deal,) and Ajax web sites, from beginner to advanced topics.

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the reviews:

"The scope of this book is an ambitious one: to provide an intermediate-level guide to the entire new functionality of Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 … via cascading style sheets (CSS) and dynamic interaction with Ajax. … this work is best suited for those Dreamweaver developers who know something about PHP, Ajax, and MySQL, but are looking to extend their skill set to use them together. … Powers provides a logical, well-written book that well serve intermediate developers who are looking to expand their skills … ." (Pascal V. Calarco, ACM Computing Reviews, October, 2008)

About the Author

David Powers is a professional writer who has been involved in electronic media for more than 30 years, first with BBC radio and television and more recently with the Internet. He has written or co-authored seven books on PHP and ActionScript, including the highly successful Foundation PHP for Dreamweaver 8 (ISBN: 1-59059-569-6) and Foundation PHP 5 for Flash (ISBN: 1-59059-466-5). He is an Adobe Community Expert for Dreamweaver, and provides regular support and advice on PHP and other aspects of web development in several online forums.
What started as a mild interest in computing was transformed almost overnight into a passion, when David was posted to Japan in 1987 as BBC correspondent in Tokyo. With no corporate IT department just down the hallway, he was forced to learn how to fix everything himself. When not tinkering with the innards of his computer, he was reporting for BBC TV and radio on the rise and collapse of the Japanese bubble economy. Since leaving the BBC to work independently, he has built up an online bilingual database of economic and political analysis for Japanese clients of an international consultancy.
When not pounding the keyboard writing books or dreaming of new ways of using PHP and other programming languages, David enjoys nothing better than visiting his favorite sushi restaurant. He has also translated several plays from Japanese.

Product Details

• Paperback: 784 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1st 2007. Corr. printing edition (August 3, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590598598
• ISBN-13: 978-1590598597
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #421,113 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #36 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Languages & Tools > Ajax
  • #82 in Books > Computers & Technology > Graphic Design > Web Design > Dreamweaver

More About the Author

I specialize in writing about web design using Dreamweaver, PHP, and CSS. PHP is the most popular server-side language that brings life to websites by communicating with external data sources, such as databases, news feeds, and XML documents. Adobe has recognized my expertise in web development by appointing me an Adobe Community Professional (ACP) for Dreamweaver. You'll often find me giving help in the Dreamweaver forums and Dreamweaver Community Help. In 2010, I became one of the first to qualify as a PHP 5.3 Zend Certified Engineer.

Before turning my hand to writing about web design, I spent nearly 30 years as a BBC radio and TV journalist, working both in front of the microphone/camera and behind the scenes. That gave me a wealth of experience in explaining sometimes difficult concepts in straightforward, easy to understand language - experience which shows through in my books.

I spent a large part of my broadcasting career in Japan, first on loan from the BBC to NHK, the Japan Broadcasting Corporation, and later as BBC correspondent. I have traveled all over Japan, and love taking photos, many of which end up being used in my books. Over the years, I have worked closely with the Shiki Theatrical Company, Japan's leading producer of musicals; and have translated several of their plays into English.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for a Visual Learner, August 29, 2007

By 

Kelley A. Rao - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS3 with CSS, Ajax, and PHP (Paperback)

As a developer who is modestly adept with PHP, this book is a welcome addition to my library. With the recent release of CS3, it covers the nuts and bolts of the application(s) including the newly introduced Spry Widgets. Being a visual learner, I especially appreciated the chapter entitled "Creating a CSS Site Straight Out of the Box." The instructions were clear and concise and provided a great foundation for building future CSS based sites.

Every chapter, at least for me, was full of "Ah Ha" moments. I think I've learned more from this book than any other I've read in the past year (and there's been plenty). I even figured out how to get PHP My Admin running, thanks to this book! I recommend it highly.

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wealth of Knowledge..., November 30, 2007

By 

LCO - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS3 with CSS, Ajax, and PHP (Paperback)

If you are VERY comfortable with PHP and MySQL, this may not be the best book for you. (I say that with some reservations, though, because of the vast wealth of knowledge in this book between page 1 and page 729.) Also, if you don't know how to code in PHP, the "Introduction to the Basics of PHP" in Chapter Ten may not be enough instruction for you to comfortably appreciate this book. BUT, if you have some knowledge of PHP (for example, you are a self-taught PHP coder like myself), need the power of PHP and MySQL, and are curious about any benefits there might be from this new technology SPRY (Adobe's implementation of AJAX), this will be an excellent book for you. The writing is clear, concise (in spite of its detailed explanations), and logical.

The strength of Powers' book is providing you with the vast majority of tools you will need to create, test, and implement a dynamic Web site using the power of PHP, MySQL, SPRY, and more. For instance, Chapter Four has detailed instructions on setting up a PHP server on your hard drive to enable you to test your server-side programs. Those instructions begin with downloading the PHP installation files and end with trouble-shooting possible configuration problems, including all necessary steps in between.

The book continues with how to set up a PHP site using Dreamweaver, learning the rules, tips, and benefits of cascading style sheets (CSS), the advantages and creation of a SPRY navigation menu bar, and an in-depth examination of on-line forms and data validation. Since the next logical step is doing something with the form data, the MySQL database product is tackled beginning, again, with its installation, continuing with the use of the phpMyAdmin feature, and ending with the storage of database records (including access control and security issues). As if this was not enough information to digest, the book ends with a guide to and uses for XML and XSLT in your Web site.

One more big plus from this book is that it offers the code (tested and commented) for a number of commonly used functions on Web sites today. If you are looking for a login function, form validation function, mail function, (and the list goes on) you'll find the code in this book.

Again, there is a wealth of knowledge in this book from front cover to back cover - well organized and easy to grasp.

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Widgets forever..., September 29, 2007

By 

Paul Shortis "Graphic Designer" (Orlando) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS3 with CSS, Ajax, and PHP (Paperback)

A fabulous book so easy to follow and informative.
This brings Dreamweaver to today and has dropped completely the outdated use of tables that others (such as H.O.T.) seem to be stuck with when the industry trend is only to insert tables into a page when using excel spreadsheets and such and never to use them for page building.
The extensive introduction of Widgets is a delight and has completely replaced those Javascript drop menu's avoiding all the pitfalls they entailed. The author leads you into dreamweaver in the usual way, most of these titles use, then easily run through tutorials that demonstrate how to build a site from simple CSS templates and from scratch. Step by step the author leads one from simple site to the introduction of widgets (new to DW CS3) through to PHP pages and on to databases and includes.
Very easy to folow and brings one up to date on the new CS3 architecture.