Updated: Replacing Dreamweaver Server Behaviors with DMXzone Extensions

August 29, 2014

From the server to the client with DMXzone Database Connector and Provider

Client-side development is becoming more and more popular, as a client-side developer who is responsible for the markup, you want to have full control over your templates. Although some applications might work well by letting the server generate all the HTML necessary, many applications can be enhanced by integrating client-side data binding that dynamically converts JSON data returned from the server into HTML. In this article we'll show you the huge difference between Dreamweaver Server Behaviors and the technologies that HTML5 Data Bindings, DMXzone Data Connector PHP/ASP, DMXzone Security Provider PHP/ASP and DMXzone Database Updater PHP/ASP use.

The Story

Below you can see the comparison between the technologies used by the deprecated Dreamweaver server behaviors and the DMXzone Data Connector PHP/ASP .

Database Connection -> DMxzone Database connection

  • Deprecated: Dreamweaver Server Behaviors - For PHP development, Dreamweaver only supports the MySQL database system and MS Access, MS SQL Server and Oracle for ASP. Note: The code, generated from the server behaviors uses MySQL API, which is deprecated as of PHP 5.5.0, and will be removed in the future.



  • New: DMXzone Database Connector - For PHP developments, DMXzone Database Connector supports MySQL, PostrgeSQL, SQLite, SQL Server and SQL Server Native, and Access, Access ODBC, MySQL ODBC, ODBC File DSN, ODBC System DSN, SQL Server, SQL Server Express for ASP. You can also choose a custom database type form both PHP and ASP.
Note: In order to connect a custom developed database you can always enter your custom connection string, which follows the syntax for PDO, if you're using PHP, or ADO if you're using ASP.



Recordset -> DMXzone Database source

  • Deprecated: Dreamweaver Server Behaviors - You can create a recordset without manually entering SQL statements.


  • New: DMXzone Database Connector - The built-in connection wizard allows you to connect to your database easily and get your data the Ajax way. It comes with full support for wide range of well-known databases and uses specific adapters for each type database so that it can use the native power of the database without bothering you with weird SQL syntax!

Repeat region -> HTML5 Data Bindings Repeat region/Repeat Children

  • Deprecated: Dreamweaver Server Behaviors - Repeating regions enable you to control your page layout by repeating certain items, such as a catalog item and description layout, or a row for data such as a list of items.


  • New: DMXzone Database Connector - In order to repeat any HTML element on your page you can use repeat region and also to repeat the children of any parent-child structure (for example ul>li) you can apply the repeat children option to the parent.

 

Recordset paging / first/prev/next/last -> HTML5 Data source Paging options + data.show/data.hide attributes

  • Deprecated: Dreamweaver Server Behaviors - This set of behaviors lets you add links to jump to different records in a recordset.


  • New: DMXzone Database Connector - With the HTML5 Data Bindings show/hide bindings attributes, you can decide when to show and hide regions depending on the data being available. With the Control HTML5 Data Binding behavior, now you can refresh your database source data by just moving to the next, previous, first or last page. Only the repeat region with the data will be refreshed and not the whole page.



Show region -> HTML5 Data Bindings show/hide region

  • Deprecated: Dreamweaver Server Behaviors - Use show region to control content that may or may not be displayed.



  • New: DMXzone Database Connector - The HTML5 Data Bindings allow you to make a special conditional region of any data repeating element.  Just select it and you will see, along with the repeat regions insert, you will have a show and hide Region option. This way you can make a region visible or hidden when its data is available only. Very useful for example to show “No records found” message when there are no records.

Display record count -> HTML5 data source total data element

  • Deprecated: Dreamweaver Server Behaviors - Record counters display the total number of records returned, and the current records being viewed.



  • New: DMXzone Database Connector - You display the total number of records returned and also the total number of pages that your records are split into. Also you can show the current page.



Dynamic text -> HTML5 Data Binding

  • Deprecated: Dreamweaver Server Behaviors - The data is rendered on the server and then is returned from the server as HTML.



  • New: HTML5 Data Bindings  - The data is rendered on the client side and not on the server, using data bindings.

Below you can see the comparison between the technologies used by the deprecated Dreamweaver server behaviors and the DMXzone Security Provider .

Dreamweaver Server Behaviors

 

DMXzone Security Provider Builder

DMXzone Security Provider Executor


 

DMXzone Security Provider Enforcer

 

Log In User -> Security Provider Builder

  • Deprecated: Dreamweaver Server Behaviors - You add a Log In User server behavior to make sure the user name and password users enter are valid. The authentication is only possible if you have a database table containing the user details.


  • New: DMXzone Security Provider  - The most simple way to secure your site and resources is to apply a single user login security for your website. Then, you have just one username and password for all your security needs. But you can create a whole users list with usernames and password where you can add permissions for each user individually. And of course, thanks to the great integration with DMXzone Database Connector PHP/ASP you can retrieve the users list fully dynamically from your database, define permissions and add conditions per permission that define when the permission is valid.

Restrict Access to Page -> Security Provider Enforcer

  • Deprecated: Dreamweaver Server Behaviors - Using the Server Behaviors you can restrict your page based on username, password and access level and redirect user if access is denied. 


  • New: DMXzone Security Provider - Using DMXzone Security provider you can restrict the access to any page and do an automatic redirect to a login page or access denied page if a user is not logged in or unauthorized.

Log Out User -> Control DMXzone Security Provider Executor

  • Deprecated: Dreamweaver Server Behaviors - Using Server Behaviors you can choose to logout a user on clicked link or page load.




  • New: DMXzone Security Provider - Using the control DMXzone Security Provider Executor, you can choose to show the modal login dialog if the user is not logged in or to logout if the user is already logged in. It can be applied to any page element and executed on any event such as mouse click, double click, page load and even onscroll. 

Check New Username ->  HTML5 Form Validator & DMXzone Database Connector

  • Deprecated: Dreamweaver Server Behaviors  - The Check New Username server behavior verifies that the requested username is not already in the data source, redirecting the user if it is.

  • New: HTML5 Form Validator & DMXzone Database Connector - Using both Dreamweaver extensions you can check if a record exists before inserting (or updating) data into your database.

Insert/Update/Delete Record Server Behaviors -> DMXzone Database Updater PHP/ASP

The Database Updater Action Builder lets you visually define any database update action. A database action defines a single global action for your site that executes a record insert, update or delete. You can have as many database actions as you wish and you can reuse them on multiple pages. Each database action just defines the database table it is operating on, which columns receive values and if any filters are applied for record selection. Database actions are executed by the so called Database Action Executors thought AJAX , so that you can execute them without any page refresh!

  • Deprecated Dreamweaver Server Behaviors Insert Record - Insert record server behavior requires a form on your page and needs a page refresh every time you insert a record.
  • New: DMXzone Database Updater Action Builder (Insert record) - DMXzone Database Updater extension does not require any form on your page. Use the insert type of action to insert new records into a database table. Database actions are executed by the so called Database Action Executors thought AJAX , so that you can execute them without any page refresh!
  •  Deprecated Dreamweaver Server Behaviors Updater Record - Dreamweaver Server Behaviors Update record also requires a form on your page and you can not update multiple records. It also requires page refresh.
  •  New: DMXzone Database Updater Action Builder (Update record) - Use the update type of action to update existing records in a database table. You can also update multiple records without page refresh. 
  • Deprecated Dreamweaver Server Behaviors Delete Record -Dreamweaver Server Behaviors Delete record again requires a form on your page and you can not delete multiple records. It also requires page refresh.

  • New: DMXzone Database Updater Action Builder (Delete record) - Use the delete type of action to delete rows in a database table. You can also delete multiple records.

Related Blog Posts

Lubov Cholakova

Lubov CholakovaLubov has been with DMXzone for 8 years now, contributing to the Content and Sales departments. She is bringing high quality content in the form of daily blog updates, reviews, tutorials, news, newsletters,update emails and extensions' manuals. If you have a product that needs publicity or any other questions about the entire DMXzone community, she is the one you can contact.

See All Postings From Lubov Cholakova >>

Comments

Be the first to write a comment

You must me logged in to write a comment.