Premium Content
Premium Content articles are the very best articles from the world's leading internet technology, subject-matter experts. We have many categories of content below on a wide variety of subjects that have all been commissioned from big name authors.
Explore the Premium Content
ASP.NET CodeBehind and Code Re-Use Using Inheritance
CodeBehind is when the HTML portion of the page that contains the HTML mark-up and the server side code are separated into two files. This allows designers to make modifications to the HTML without messing up the programmes server side code. It also allows programmers to edit their code without messing up the designers HTML. When the server side code is compiled into an assembly (DLL) each section of the page can even be published to the server separately.
Dreamweaver users do not have native support for CodeBehind like Visual Studio .NET users have, so this article will go some way towards redressing the balance.
This tutorial will guide you through implementing ASP.NET CodeBehind and Code Re-Use techniques using a .NET feature known as Inheritance. You will learn how to define and use your own class files, about re-using and extending existing .NET Classes using Inheritance. For one example the article will outline how to create a new type of Button Server Control that derives from the standard ASP:Button Server Control, and extends its capabilities by adding an “Are you sure you want to do that?” prompt upon clicking the button. You will also learn how to implement CodeBehind in your ASP.NET applications using only Dreamweaver and how to compile your code into assembly (DLL) files.
The following topics will be covered:
- An introduction to Classes in .NET
- An introduction to Class Inheritance in .NET
- An introduction to ASP.NET CodeBehind
- Implement CodeBehind Classes in a page
- Utilize Code Re-Use with CodeBehind Classes
- Extending the Button Server Control
- Compiling the Button Server Control
- Using the extended Button Server Control in a page
As usual, Kevin gives his sample code in both C# and VB.NET - the two most-used languages for coding ASP.NET pages.
Read MoreSaving PHP thumbnail data
In today’s tutorial we write a series of PHP scripts that allow a page to take a user-uploaded image, resize it - and generate a thumbnail of the image that is uploaded. We’ll then take that thumbnail data and save it in a database. When we look at how we can save our images in a database, we’ll have to look at how we can first change the binary data so that it is safe to store in the database, as well as taking a look at how PHP can ‘buffer’ its output. This tutorial utilises the free GD library. Read MoreUsing the .NET Collection Classes
This tutorial which is the first part of a 2 part series will give an introduction to the Collection classes built-into the .NET Frameworks System.Collections namespace; these classes are used to hold collections of values or objects in memory and are commonly known as arrays. The three commonly used collection classes are ArrayList, Hashtable and SortedList, this tutorial will serve as an introduction to these classes. An example use for these collection classes could be to store user specific data in a collection class that can itself be stored in a session variable allowing data to be shared easily across multiple pages. Read MoreCreating a Print Stylesheet
In this tutorial, Rachel Andrew shows you how to use Design-Time Stylesheets in Dreamweaver to make a print stylesheet for your pages - even if they use tables for layouts!Despite the promised utopia of a paperless office, you are likely to find that users will print out your web pages for reference, or to read away from the computer. As we know, what looks good on the web does not necessarily look good in print and if you site uses many graphics, the user is going to be using up much unnecessary printer ink in getting their copy, as your navigation buttons aren’t of much interest once the application is printed!
Many sites link to ‘printer friendly’ versions of their pages. What these versions usually are, is a separate version of the document, created either by hand (which means you have to maintain 2 versions of the document) or by a script, and the printable document will be formatted for print and contain no, or minimal graphics. While this method works well, you do have the additional development time of creating the new pages or writing the script to create the printable page, and you need to have a link on each page that launches this special version.
A print stylesheet gets around all of these problems. The print stylesheet comes into play when the user prints any document to which it is linked. You can define any element on your page differently in the print stylesheet and these are the styles that will be used when the document is printed. You can use the print stylesheet to hide areas of the page, such as navigation, graphics-intensive headers or unnecessary pictures; you can change the font styles, colors and sizes in order that the page is readable when printed; you can ensure that the contrast between colors works well even if the document is printed in black and white, and you can even add to the document areas that will only display on printing – such as page related information, to make it obvious where the document came from. Read More
Database performance tuning and optimisation
Welcome to an introduction on database performance tuning and optimisation. My previous tutorial, SQL Made Simple, lookedata normalised database, and explored some of the queries we would use to make information from data in its normalised state. Today, we’re going to look at ways to shorten query processing time on this same database.Optimising databases is a balance between normalised data and optimised queries. We look at two ways to find this balance; de-normalisation, and the use of indexes. We'll de-normalise our design just a little to remove unnecessary table joins. We also make use of a new status code value to eliminate a query entirely. We look at indexes and the performance gains they give us, and consider their use in the context of search functionality. Read More
Controlling Page Layout with Templates
Suppose you want to give a template driven sites content editor(s) (using Contribute or Dreamweaver MX+) a little layout control while retaining the lock facility of the main site images, the navigation system and the footer content. By providing the content editors with some layout control (through provision of several Optional regions), you build in the capacity to allow the content editor a little stylistic freedom for the content that they are responsible for.
Below are 5 screenshots, showing the different available layouts of the finished project. The 4th screenshot shows how it'll look if no layout is selected when the page is created from the template, and the 5th screenshot shows more than one layout being enabled on the page. As you can see from the screenshots, there is quite a bit of flexibility for the content configuration of each unique page.
In this 27 page tutorial, Brad teaches you how to achieve these templated designs to allow content editors the leeway over content and layout that they need, while ensuring that branding or navigation can't get accidentally broken. All the source files, templates and images are provided for download.
Read MoreThumbnail generation with PHP
In this tutorial we will be taking a look at how we can open existing images, check on their current dimensions and then intelligently do a proportionate resize on them., dynamically creating thumbnails on the fly to display in the browser.
In previous tutorials we have looked at how we can set up PHP so that our extensions are correctly installed. Rather than covering that again, this week we will look at ways that you can check if the extension that you want is installed and supports the things that you want to do. We will be working with the free GD extension.
Read MoreFREE
Whipping Content into Gold Medal Shape
Good content and good copy draws readers. It attracts repeat visits and grows loyalty. As Web Professionals, we're sometimes so busy Photoshopping the images, wrestling with the CSS, designing the database and scripting the server - that we forget what the audience comes for, and what will bring them back. Content Maven Meryl Evans has written this free article for DMXzone members with a few pointers on turning your purple prose into gold medal content.
Read MorePhotoshopping Seamless Tiles
In this tutorial we’re going to take a look at creating a pattern for a web background. Tiling on the web is a way of creating quite a rich and textured feel for your site.Often when cutting up a site you'll need to create an area that will repeat itself in a pattern, as a background or as decorative bars - but there’s nothing worse than an image that doesn't seam together properly. Let’s take a look at how to create a seamless pattern for use on any web page that looks great, joins well, saves bandwidth and loading time, and automatically adjusts to the size of the user's display screen. Read MoreCreating Calendars in PHP – Part 4
In this last part of the series on creating a calendar application in PHP, we create an include file to hold the parameters required to connect to the MySQL database. Next, we create a page that displays all calendar events on a particular day, using the date which is passed as a URL parameter to find the correct records from the database.
Then, we create a page which allows a user to easily add events to the database through a simple web interface. Finally, we create a multi purpose page that allows a user to edit existing records in the database, or delete a calendar event from the database.
All the code is provided for download, so if you haven't followed the previous tutorials, it's all available for you to build this sophisticated calendar application for your users.
Please note that this article forms part of a chapter in the DMXzone e-book PHP Web Applications for Dreamweaver: Juicy Solutions for the Busy Developer.
Read More
Testing for Validation and Cross-Browser Compatibility
Validation is a vital part of a professional’s workflow, helping to ensure the best cross-browser compatibility and addressing quality assurance concerns. It's the process by which you take an existing web document and compare it to the Document Type Definition (DTD) that you are declaring. For example, if you create an XHTML document using Dreamweaver tools, Dreamweaver will add the proper structural components (especially if you’re working in Dreamweaver MX 2004) required to pass conformance. However, what you add to the document might not be within a given DTD.Molly takes you through validating your mark-up and CSS, how to interpret the results and warnings that you don't want (but which everybody gets!) and talks about times when it's considered legitimate to go live with invalid CSS in the interests of cross-browser compatibility. Read More