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

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 784 pages
• Published by: friends of ED July 22, 2007
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1590598598
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1590598597
• Book Dimensions: 9 x 7.6 x 1.7 inches
• Weighs: 2.9 pounds

Product Description
With over 3 million users worldwide, Adobe's Dreamweaver is the most popular web development software in the world, and it just took another step forward with CS3, the new version released in 2007. Having come a long way from its humble beginnings as a simple web design tool, CS3 allows you to rapidly put together standards compliant web sites and dynamic web sites with server-side languages and Ajax, and much more. To complement this great new application, David Powers has written the ultimate guide to itThe Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS3 teaches you everything you need to know about the application, from setting up your development environment environment to publishing your sites and applications on the web, and everything in between.

• Takes you through your development environment set up
• Covers everything you need to create both standards compliant web sutes, and dynamic web applications
• Teaches several real world techniques using a series of step by step tutorials

What youll learn

• How to set up your ideal development environment, using Mac OSX/Windows, Apache (and IIS on Windows,) Apache, MySQL, and phpMyAdmin
• Creating standards compliant web sites using CS3's XHTML and CSS features
• Creating dynamic web applications using CS3's PHP and Spry Ajax server behaviors
• Building several real world web site functions, such as form validation, random quote generator, search function, user management/login pages, dynamic Ajax gallery, and much more.
• Creating an interface design in Fireworks CS3 and importing it into Dreamweaver CS3.
• How use Dreamweaver CS3's XML functionality, to consume RSS feeds, and create Spry data sets
• Using includes, templates and master detail pages.
• How to publish your site after you've created it

Summary of Contents

• Chapter 1: Dreamweaver CS3Your Creative Partner
• Chapter 2: Building Dynamic Sites with Ajax and PHP
• Chapter 3: Getting the Work Environment Ready
• Chapter 4: Setting Up a PHP Site
• Chapter 5: Adding a Touch of Style
• Chapter 6: Creating a CSS Site Straight Out of the Box
• Chapter 7: Building Site Navigation with the Spry Menu Bar
• Chapter 8: Sprucing Up Content with Spry Widgets
• Chapter 9: Building Online Forms and Validating Input
• Chapter 10: Introducing the Basics of PHP
• Chapter 11: Using PHP to Process a Form
• Chapter 12: Working with PHP Includes and Templates
• Chapter 13: Setting Up MySQL and phpMyAdmin
• Chapter 14: Storing Records in a Database
• Chapter 15: Controlling Access to Your Site
• Chapter 16: Working with Multiple Tables
• Chapter 17: Searching Records and Handling Dates
• Chapter 18: Using XSLT to Display Live News Feeds and XML
• Chapter 19: Using Spry to Display XML
• Chapter 20: Getting the Best of Both Worlds with PHP and Spry

About The Author
David Powers is an Adobe Community Expert for Dreamweaver and author of a series of highly successful books on PHP, including PHP Solutions: Dynamic Web Design Made Easy (friends of ED, ISBN-13: 978-1-59059-731-6) and Foundation PHP for Dreamweaver 8 (friends of ED, ISBN-13: 978-1-59059-569-5). As a professional writer, he has been involved in electronic media for more than thirty years, first with BBC radio and television and more recently with the Internet. His clear writing style is valued not only in the English-speaking world; several of his books have been translated into Spanish and Polish.

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.

Reader Reviews
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.