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no asp.NET enhancements?

August 8, 2005 by Aron K

I was hoping the new version would offer more ASP.net features. Currently Dreamweaver is in superior Visual Web Express 2005 (for coding in .net)

Since most programmers are being forced to switch from Classic ASP to ASP.net I thought Macromedia would adapt Dreamweaver to fit our needs.

I was wondering that myself, Aron.

August 8, 2005 by Joel Rea

Even Web Matrix (free from Microsoft) is considerably superior to DW, through MX 2004, for ASP.Net coding. DWMX server-side behaviors, while easy to use for the most part, are horrendously inefficient, whether ASP Classic or ASP.Net (and I presume for other server platforms as well, with the possible exception of their own ColdFusion). For instance, every MM:DataSet is a full DataSet, even if all you really need is a much less resource-intensive fast-forward-only DataReader (for populating a drop-down list, for instance). Also, each one uses its own Connection to the back-end database which is ridiculous. Use one Connection, share it, and close it when done. But you can't with DWMX's own server behaviors. Absolutely no mention was made of any improvements in this area (or ASP Classic, for that matter) for DW8. At present, you have to jump through hoops to use Web Matrix in conjunction with DWMX2004, using Web Matrix for ASP.Net coding and DWMX2004 for layout and site management. If you have even one MM:Dataset, Web Matrix will barf all over the code if you so much as open it in Design View or click on the Design Tab. Likewise, I have found no way to bring Web Matrix's excellent mxDataGrid (like regular DataGrid, but supports Paging, Sorting, and Editing, all at once -- try that with Macromedia's versions and, for instance, while it may page, when you try to sort as well, it only sorts the items on the current page! USELESS! You can Page OR Sort, but better not do both or else you're going to have some very angry clients! Also, if you Sort, and then try to Edit a row, the row that gets edited is the one that WOULD have been in that position in the original sort order! WORSE than useless!) and other behaviors (e.g. SqlDataSource and AccessDataSource) into DWMX, or bring support for the various MM: tags into Web Matrix (inferior though they are, it would be handy for conversion purposes). Hey, George, there may be a market here for you for another product: a set of Extensions that allow DWMX, MX2004, and 8 to work better with Web Matrix and Visual Web Express (ASP.Net 2 free development platform)!

Disappointment

August 11, 2005 by Neil Patmore

I totaly agree.

I've been holding out diving in to VS in the hope that DW8 will include something special. I'm sorely disappointed and have a learning curve ahead!

RE: Disappointment

August 12, 2005 by Aron K

It's the new Adobe influence. Adobe has never supported any type of server side scripting. Hence the new Studio 8 is only about one thing CSS.

Ok, so what did I want most?

-         Support for new MySQL 5 Stored Procs

- ASP.net 2.0 Features (yes it’s Beta, but Beta 2.0 is solid and being release in 2 months)

- An advanced query builder like Visual Studio 2005 / Visual Web Express

However, I'm sure Studio 9 will be great :)

RE: RE: Disappointment

August 13, 2005 by Jerry Hole

But, that won't be out in a couple of months but instead, at least a year, maybe two. That is too long in this market.

RE: Disappointment

August 17, 2005 by Jason Greene

For users working with advanced web application development, there will never be a single product that covers all bases. Where DW suffers in .NET development, Microsoft products suffer horribly in their support of web standards. (not to mention development of anything that doesn't carry the MS moniker) As someone who develops a significant amount of .NET apps that rely on strict adherence to web standards, I've long been combining DW with VS and have been quite happy with the results.

Not worth upgrading!?

September 12, 2005 by Marcellino Bommezijn

Just downloaded the new version 8 from my DEVNET subscription. I must say very dissapointing, some minor enhancements, but nothing on additional features when it comes to application/server behaviors.