How to Learn Dreamweaver

May 15, 2005

Magpie RSS for PHP

My RSS aggregator mysteriously broke, so I patched it up with Magpie.

The trick is to get your cache directory set to the proper permissions (755).

Now check out learning.dom.net and mob.dom.net.

Thanks for the hint, Eric!

Posted by at 11:17 PM | TrackBack

April 20, 2005

How to Create Flash with Dreamweaver

This week in class we covered the following topics:

In Dreamweaver:

• 10 Steps to Create a Site
  1. Start by drawing a page
  2. Begin Storyboarding (again, on paper)
  3. Decide on a layout that portrays that storyboard
  4. Freeze static elements of the design
  5. Break the design into reusable modules
  6. Assign "editable regions" or areas that will change from page instance to page instance
  7. Either create a Template in DW or use includes for the reusable elements
  8. Create the rest of the page instances
  9. Test publish to staging server
  10. Final publish to live site
• Back up your site by creating a duplicate site and putting to another local folder
• Check 'Put dependent files' to just back up a few files and their associated images, etc
• Insert > Media > Image Viewer
• Insert > Media > Flash Text
• Insert > Media > Flash Button
• The Flash Video Kit
  • Example 1: Surfing
  • Example 2: Snowboarding
• Anatomy of a Bug
  • Subject
  • Platform
  • Description
  • Steps
  • Actual Results
  • Expected Results

In Code:

• The Power of phpinfo()

Homework:

Follow the steps above to create a new site from scratch. Before you begin, take a look at some free Flash to incorporate into your design:

• Google Search for "Free Flash swf"

Final site should have the following characteristics:

• Original and different from your previous designs
• More than two pages of complete content
• Some kind of Flash embedded in your design
• Published to your domain, URL sent to the class

Next week: Stump the Master!

Posted by at 08:29 PM | TrackBack

April 14, 2005

Advanced Server Interaction

This week we covered the following topics:

In Dreamweaver:

• Insert > HTML > Script Objects > Server-Side include
• The Power of the Server-Side include
• The Power of the Application panel (i.e. Build a Blog with Dreamweaver)
• Insert > Application Objects > Recordset
• Multiple Repeat Regions in the Same Page
• Insert > Application Objects > Master Detail Page Set
• PHP include syntax

On the Mac:

• The Importance of Tiger
• Running PHP
• Running MySQL

Regarding Design:

• Designing for Video
• RSS Tool: Newsfire
• PHP is FREE
• Designing for Mobile
• Designing for Ads
• Recycling Designs

Homework:

1. Set up a sub-domain as a PHP testing server
2. Set up your machine to run the latest PHP
3. Set up your machine to run MySQL
4. Draw a design flexible enough to incorporate an unknown amount of data.
5. Access student database via Application panel
6. Create a repeating region from the database, and place it in your design.
7. Prototype using Live Preview button.
8. Save to server, send URL.

Next Week: How to Create Flash With Dreamweaver!

Posted by at 11:32 PM | TrackBack

April 01, 2005

Free Blog Syndication using PHP

This week, I've set up two different syndication sites:

Student Blog Aggregator

and

Mobile News Aggregator

Here's how to do it:

1. Upload and configure Magpie.
2. Use a simple PHP or HTML include to stick one of the PHP templates onto your page, surrounded by some important links.

And there you have it, your own custom news page!

Posted by at 04:49 PM | TrackBack