DMXzone Server Connect and its Features

DMXzone Server Connect Workflow

Thanks to the Dreamweaver configuration and our HTML5 Data Bindings you are able to build dynamic client side pages and single page apps. These could also connect to various data sources, such as public feeds or private databases.
However there is still one issue, those used data sources were limited to single server actions and basic data feeds. Complicated Server Actions workflow was not possible. This is where DMXzone Server Connect comes in.

DMXzone Server Connect Action Builder

A visual way of building server actions workflow. Add any available action in a specific order, loop through them, add conditional execution and produce output.

• Server Connect Action Files - List of all the available Server Connect Action Files for the current website in Dreamweaver. Action Files can be organized in folders for logical hierarchy.

• Server Connect Action Steps - A list of Action Steps that are executed when the Action is ran. Some other things that are available here are global input variables for Server Side Data Bindings and a full drag & drop so users can easily reorganize the order of the Action Steps.
  

 

• Property inspector - A Property Inspector for each Action Step that provides access to the specific action step properties. Fields often contain value pickers for easy file access and reference to other steps or data.

 

Available actions for DMXzone Server Connect

Action steps List defines the workflow of execution.  It contains two main parts: Global input variables and Execution steps list.

• Global Input Variables – Here you can define any input data that is required for this Action Steps workflow. You can either manually define the variables or bind to a separate page containing regular HTML form.

• Execution Steps List – It defines the execution flow of the whole Server Connect Action. You can use many different types of actions. From Repeaters that execute multiple actions and repeat execution, conditional actions, to specific database actions, such as a query or update of databases.
  
  
  

 

Conditional Action

With the Conditional Action step you can choose a specific expression that will be evaluated. Depending on the result, the flow of actions will go to the then or else branch.

Note that all expressions follow the JavaScript dot syntax and should also be placed within the {{…}} tags to be marked as expressions.

Also next to the global input variables placed under $_GET or $_POST each step can produce its own data that can be referenced in later steps.

• Set Value Action - You can manually create a variable by assigning it a value with the Set Value step.

• Repeat Action - The Repeat step allows you to repeat a set of actions a number of times. How often is defined by a specified expression. You can also choose to repeat a collection or an array expression. This way you can iterate through some array input or through the records of a database query for example.
  

Executing the DMXzone Server Connect Action workflow

You can easily execute the defined Server Connect Action through Ajax by using the DMXzone Server Action Executor command in Dreamweaver. You can also define when the Server Connect Action should be executed and what data it should receive. Usually, the executor is bound to a form and its data is then submitted. Additional data can also be specified.

• DMXzone Behavior Connector - Fire an event before an action is executed.
  

 

Server Data Bindings Picker 

The Server Data Bindings Picker allows the user to easily pick data variables for the different action steps. Only Data Variables available from the previous steps are shown.

Database Connectivity

The database connectivity is done by the DMXzone Database Connector and the DMXzone Database Updater for cross database compatibility. Those two extensions integrate nicely in the DMXzone Server Connect.

Defining a database connection is easy with the DMXzone Database Connector Connection Builder. It supports a wide range of well-known databases on both ASP and PHP server platforms.

• A built-in connection wizard - It lets you define and manage your connections to all well-known databases. It is possible to choose from ready to go connections for MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, MS Access and many others.

 

• Database source query builder - The DMXzone Database Connector also includes an amazing Database Source Query Builder that will allow you to build fully visual an advanced query on your database source without any SQL knowledge. It even supports advanced filtering and SQL JOINs options and lets you directly view and test your database.

• Database updater action builder - The Database Updater Action Builder lets you visually define any database update action. Database actions are executed by the so called Database Action Executors fully thought AJAX, without any page refresh!
  

 

• HTML5 Data Bindings support - All the client side data can be easily browsed by the dedicated HTML5 Data Bindings floating panel. All used Server Connect Action Executors are also listed there.

 

• Support for nested database queries - Now thanks to DMXzone Server Connect you can execute multiple nested queries and return their result at once.

• Support for multi records forms - now with the new HTML5 Data Bindings you can have dynamic forms with multiple repeating elements that will be submitted as multi record form to the DMXzone Server Connect Action handler. Click the image for larger preview.
  

• Multiple Records Update - with DMXzone Server Connect support for multi records forms, now you can process those forms so you can have your own mass update of more than one record. Click the image for larger preview.

Server Actions workflow and its JSON representation