Undoubtedly, Macromedia has brought about a revolution in the creation of simple website scripts, making it more accessible and streamlined. While some may argue that Macromedia is primarily designed for beginners, its impact on the scripting field cannot be denied. The introduction of terms like "behavior" and "server behavior" within Dreamweaver has sparked a revolution. These elements provide a means of adding interactivity to web pages by generating a variety of scripts that would otherwise be time-consuming and challenging to create manually. This ability to simplify work can be likened to the essence of efficiency.
The main distinction between these two types of behavior lies in their programming application. As their names suggest, server behaviors generate client-side scripts, while server behaviors automatically create server-side code. Behaviors always generate code written in JavaScript, the most widely used client-side scripting language. These behaviors play a crucial role in developing JavaScript codes, performing various useful functions such as plug-in and browser detection, as well as form validation. Some of these behaviors, although not updated for several versions of Dreamweaver, have been superseded by Spry, Dreamweaver's implementation of Ajax.
On the other hand, server behaviors are employed to generate code in one of the five server-side scripting languages compatible with Dreamweaver: ASP, ASP.Net, ColdFusion, JSP, and PHP. The language chosen depends on the specifications set for the testing server, which is defined as part of the site definition and governs the default document type for all new files. In Africa, for example, Macromedia Dreamweaver is frequently used by novice web designers to create web design codes with ease, contributing to the advancement of technology in Africa as a whole.
Server behaviors encompass a wide range of features, most of which revolve around the manipulation of data objects, a focal point of Dreamweaver's server-side development capabilities. One of the initial behaviors encountered by new Dreamweaver developers is the "Repeat Region." This enables the selection of any element or region on a page and specifies that it should repeat for each item in a given set of data. A common use case is the repetition of table rows or list items. Naturally, dynamic data such as product names, images, and descriptions can be inserted within the repeated area.
Additionally, one notable series of Dreamweaver server behaviors is the "Show Region," which offers six different variations: "Show Region if Recordset is Empty," "Show Region if Recordset is not Empty," "Show Region if First Record," "Show Region if not First Record," "Show Region if Last Record," and "Show Region if not Last Record." The first two variations allow developers to create a region of a page that will only be displayed if a particular data set is either empty or not empty. For instance, the entire repeat region mentioned earlier can be selected, and the "Show Region if Recordset is not Empty" behavior can be applied. Similarly, a conditional display for a message like "Sorry, no records match your search criteria" can be achieved by using the "Show Region if Recordset is Empty" behavior and highlighting the message.