No. 30

February 27, 2001

 

Technology:

Dreamweaver UltraDev

I like Macromedia's Dreamweaver UltraDev. I like it a lot, despite the fact that so far I've used only version 1.0, which frustrated me at times: connecting to databases proved more complicated than it should be; certain very common elements had to be created from scratch; the LiveMode page gave me perplexing errors instead of data output. Yet these were fairly minor flaws in comparison with the power placed at my fingertips, and I hope that the current version is free of them anyway.

One might call Dreamweaver UltraDev "Dreamweaver on steroids", but that would be a gross oversimplification, like calling an RV camper "a car on steroids". Dreamweaver is a pretty powerful Web page and Web site creation tool. Dreamweaver UltraDev is that, too, but it is also a Web application development environment, like ColdFusion Studio but without being limited to a single scripting platform. In fact, one of the stronger points of Dreamweaver is that it lets the developer choose between creating applications using ColdFusion tags, Visual Basic (for Active Server Pages), or Java. Naturally, one would have to commit oneself to a single platform for any given application, probably dictated by the available serving environment. (Without access to a ColdFusion application server, pages created with ColdFusion tags would be pretty useless.)

The list of things one can do with this tool is rather long, so let me just highlight a few:

  • Create database-driven pages, for sites where information displayed on a page changes frequently and updating it manually would be a pain
  • Create Web front-ends to databases, giving users the ability to view, search, update, add, or delete records stored in a database
  • Maintain a local mirror of a site, so that development can occur without any disruptions on the main site, and the two are synchronized when the new pages are finished and tested
  • Check-out a page under development, so that it can't be changed by someone else in the team until it is checked back in.
  • Do a search-and-replace on the entire site (or any subsection thereof), e.g. to change a tag or a piece of text on every page. (Powerful!)
  • Switch from WYSIWYG mode to source code editing for added flexibility in situations, where one wants to force certain elements to behave in a way not foreseen by people who designed their drag-and-drop versions
In terms of usability, Dreamweaver UltraDev is a tool that might be a bit too complex and overwhelming for an inexperienced user, but would probably infuriate a serious hacker with its sometimes silly adherence to the drag-and-drop paradigm, where what could be accomplished with two lines of code requires multiple "trips" of the mouse across the screen and countless clicks to define the "properties" of every new element. It will, however, satisfy scores of people "in the middle".

Dreamweaver UltraDev functions (click on thumbnail):
Server behaviors 
Replace function

For more information please visit Macromedia's site or search the ACT database.
 

Conference:

CFP2001
  • 11th Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy
  • Held March 6-9, 2001 in Cambridge, MA
  • CFP is the leading policy conference for exploring the impact of the Internet, computers and communication technologies on society.  For more than a decade, CFP has anticipated the policy trends and issues and shaped the public debate on the future of privacy and freedom in the online world. Each year at CFP, key members of the technical, government, business, education, non-profit, legal, law enforcement, security, media and hacker/cracker communities gather together to address the cutting edge questions in computing, freedom and privacy. CFP themes are broad and forward-looking. CFP explores what will be, not what has been.

Initiatives:

KnowNet Initiative
URL: http://www.cddc.vt.edu/knownet/
Mission/goals: "(..) to popularize and facilitate knowledge networking in developing countries for overall human development through the amalgamation of Information and Communication Technology and remote volunteering.."
Slogan(s): "Knowledge incubates in the Human Mind and when applied innovatively becomes a factor of growth and development"
Services: Web site; Web site building toolkit and course; links to publications
Sample projects: KnowNet Weaver; TechKnow; Digital Governance
E-mail contact: knownet@knownetweaver.org  or V.Nath@lse.ac.uk (Vikas Nath, founder)

She said, he said:

"An expert is someone who knows more and more about less and less, until eventually he knows everything about nothing." -- Anonymous


© 2001 Vlad Wielbut and the Alliance for Community Technology