DMX|ZONE
Register Login

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

MySQL and Multiple Tables: Part 2

Last time we introduced designing a MySQL database with multiple tables in mind. We discussed the basics of how to put together some SQL to JOIN our tables together in useful ways. This tutorial follows on, looking a bit closer at using the database we created in Dreamweaver.

This time we're going to look at using some JOIN queries in a web application, using Dreamweaver MX 2004 and its server behaviours. Again we'll be using our CD database as an example. We'll also look at some of the functions we can use to group rows returned by our queries together.

Read More
Matt Machell
5043
FREE

Free! - Writing effective link text

Writing effective link text

When I was younger I used to love reading choose-your-own adventure books. Instead of reading the book from start to finish I could make the decisions for the main character and ultimately decide the outcome of the book. The Internet is essentially the same, except it's the largest choose-your-own-adventure book ever with literally billions of pages to choose from.

Why is link text so important?

Because of this unique ‘choose-your-own adventure’ way the Internet is structured, it's essential that we can find and understand links quickly. Most pages we visit on the web don't contain the information we're looking for, but merely help us find the page we want. Think about the process you go through to find information on the web:

  • You go to a website
  • You scan the page looking for a link that might take you where you want to go
  • You follow the link and scan this new page looking for the information you're after
  • If you can't find what you want you scan through the links on this page and click on one
  • And so on until you find what you're looking for (or until you give up!)

I can recall situations where I've spent up to 20 or 30 minutes just searching for something on the Internet, every few seconds clicking on links that I was desperately hoping would take me to the information I was looking for. If I could have easily found those links and quickly understood their destination maybe I wouldn't have had to search for so long.

So, we've established that it's important for link text to be easy to find and understand. So what can you do to achieve this goal? Simple. Follow these six guidelines for how to write effective link text and your site visitors will be able to find what they're looking for quickly and efficiently.

Read More
Trenton Moss
10184

Creating a blog part three Using Wordpress as a simple CMS

This article is the third in a series of articles about the popular blog software ‘Wordpress’. In this article I had intended to show how to use Wordpress as a simple Content Management System (CMS) rather than a blog. However, in the gap between my writing the last article and this one, Wordpress 1.5 was released which contains new functionality called “Themes” and so this article will use the new Wordpress themes in order to create a site that uses Wordpress as a CMS type application rather than a blog.

Installing or upgrading to Wordpress 1.5

This article assumes that you have a working copy of Wordpress 1.5 installed on your server with the default template installed – basically just what you get after installing for the first time.

Read More
Rachel Andrew
10468

ColdFusion MX: CFForms and Back-End Administration part 1

ColdFusion MX: CFForms and Back-End Administration (part 1 of 2)

In the last article we began to build a web application using forms to insert records into a MySQL database.  The concept was simple, we had potential customers that were interested in a vacation from our OKCTravel.com website and they used a form to have their information and interests stored in a database.  I gave an overview on HTML forms as well as the SQL for an insert statement and how to orchestrate a “form page, action page” type of application.

In this article we’d like to expand a little on our forms by introducing CFForms using the <cfform> tag.  Without giving away all of its secrets, ColdFusion will parse your page and create valid JavaScript routines to handle some very common client side validation of your forms.  This is great because end-users will be prompted with JavaScript alert boxes of the things that are incorrect on their form which saves them from having to submit the form to the server to do the checking. 

Here are the topics that we’re going to cover in part 1 of this article:

  • <cfform>
  • <cfinput>
  • Server-Side vs. Client-Side Validation

These topics will give us a chance to explore everything there is to offer about forms and client-side validation in addition to building out our back-end administration (in part 2).  This article will not cover security just yet.  We’re going to build the framework and a working application and perhaps in the next article we’ll discuss securing our application, but by the end of this article series you’ll have a completed framework for your entire website.  When you read this article, don’t forget to grab the source code too – it’s all included just for you!

Read More
Rob Sherman
2978

No-database Flash-PHP Chat. Part I: Creating Basic Chat Functionality

Objectives

The fact that you are reading this means that you are interested in building a web-based chat application.

If you haven’t done so already I would suggest researching some of the options you have in this area: Java applets, XML socket based applications, instant messengers, Flash Communication Server (Flashcom), and others –each of them could be a solution you are looking for.

Read More
Alex July
21506

Exploring Browser Style

New Series Overview:

Welcome to a new premium content series on CSS and Dreamweaver. CSS from the Ground Up is a bit different than the other CSS series and articles found currently on DMXzone. This series, instead of focusing on an individual technique per article, will teach you to become not only a good CSS designer, but one who understands the language in-depth as well as being capable of gaining great results within the Dreamweaver work environment. But instead of each article being heavy on theory, the majority of learning is achieved within the context of Dreamweaver, allowing you to learn how to work with CSS on an expert level without having to leave the comfort of the design and development environment with which you are familiar.

Read More
molly holzschlag
1485

Changing the appearance of components

Flash MX introduced us to the world of components. It shipped with a number of UI components that were similar to the form controls we use in HTML pages – checkboxes, radio buttons, drop down boxes etc.

The release of Flash MX 2004 changed the way components are structured and it uses what we call Version 2 architecture. Many of the previous UI components have been upgraded for the new architecture. If you have the professional version of Flash MX 2004, you have extra UI components like the DataGrid and Tree as well as data components. It’s important that you don’t mix your version 1 and components and that you set your publish settings correctly. You can find out more about component versions and the Flash player at

http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx/flash/articles/v2component_migration02.html

When you use the Flash MX 2004 components, they'll appear in the standard grey colour with a green highlight. This component design is called the Halo theme. A common task for designers and developers is to change the default appearance to something a bit more interesting.

In this article, we'll look at the different ways that you can change the visual appearance of Flash MX 2004 components. We'll look at:

  • Setting styles with ActionScript – both globally and on a single component
  • Changing skins for all components
  • Changing skins for a single component

The tutorial assumes that you are using Flash MX 2004 Professional and that know how to add ActionScript to a movie.  It also assumes that you are familiar with using and configuring components with the Component Inspector.

Before you start, make sure you have downloaded the 7.2 patch for Flash (code named ellipsis) as it contains updated help documentation for component styling.

You can download the source files for the tutorial from the blue Properties box that contains the article PDF. There's a heading titled Code Download and you can click the Details link next to it to get the zip file. The download includes the starter file components.fla as well as the completed file components_completed.fla.

Note: If you have difficulties downloading the source files or PDF, you might have a problem with your cookies. Delete the cookies from your machine and try again. In Internet Explorer, you can do this by choosing Tools > Internet Options… and clicking the Delete Cookies… button on the General tab.

Read More
Sas Jacobs
5651
FREE

Free! - Linking out is good!

Linking out is good

Many websites I come across don't have a single link to another website. Ask the webmaster why not, and the answer you get is simple enough: “If I link to other websites people might leave my site.” At this point I break the news that site visitors will leave your site. And there's nothing you can do about this.

Site visitors won't leave your site because you provide links to external sites. They'll leave for one of two reasons:

  • They've found what they were looking for and no longer have a reason to stay on your website
  • They can't find the information they're looking for and leave to seek it elsewhere

“OK, so site visitors are going to leave my site. But why should I hunt around for websites to link to?” I can think of four reasons why linking out is good for you and will ultimately increase traffic to your website:

Read More
Trenton Moss
1977

MySQL and Multiple Tables: Part 1

When you're creating your PHP applications with Dreamweaver, it's necessary to have a good basic knowledge of how SQL works and how to get the information you want, from the tables you've got.

In this article, we're going to explore the mysteries of working with multiple tables, and the relationships they have between them. We'll start off by talking about how to define your data so each table has a logical relationship to each other table, then move on to using those relationships to create useful queries. It's aimed squarely at people who only have the basics of how to work with MySQL, and want to delve a bit further.

We're going to use a simple database about a CD collection to show off the concepts.

Know your Data

When you first start out, it's very easy to just dump bits of data about a concept into one table.

A typical table that somebody new to database might create would be:

CDs

Id (BigInt)

Name(Varchar 60)

Artist(Varchar 60)

Owner(Varchar 60)

Publisher(Varchar 60)

1

Regular Urban Survivors

Terrorvision

Matt

EMI

2

Appetite For Destruction

Guns and Roses

Matt

Geffen

Now, the problem with this is that you get a lot of repetition. Every time I add a new CD I re-type the Band, the Owner and the Publisher, if somebody different owns the CD I have to add a new CD with a different owner. This isn't very good for storage purposes (I'm storing the names multiple times), results in very big tables and just isn't very efficient. With just 5 columns this isn't too noticeable, but when we start adding more details like owner contact number, owner addresses, publisher addresses, the duplication will start to become really unwieldy.

Read More
Matt Machell
10755
FREE

Free! - Coldfusion MX 7, Learning the new features

What’s new in ColdFusion MX 7

Finally a real “developer” version is released of ColdFusion. The release of MX a few years ago was more a performance update by making it a Java based server instead of the “full of memory leaks” C++ version.

With the capabilities of Java, the ColdFusion team managed to create some very helpful features, such as reporting capabilities, FlashPaper 2/PDF creation, Rich Forms, new Charting engine, improved search engine (Verity), Dreamweaver MX 2004 server management integration, Gateways, Administrator API and lots and lots of other features.

So let’s start with one of the, in my eyes, best productivity enhancements, Rich Forms.

Rich Forms

With the ColdFusion Rich Forms you can easily create complex forms, generated in plain HTML, Xforms (XML) or Flash forms. Let’s take a look at an example of a Rich Form in Flash format.

<cfform name="foo" action="process.cfm" method="post" format="flash" skin="haloBlue" width="390" timeout="10" preloader="true">
      <cfformgroup type="tabnavigator">
            <cfformgroup type="page" label="Message Inbox">

Cultural Contrasts: The Problem between Popular Perception and Reality

Design, Marketing, and Popular Perceptions

A Cultural Dilemma…

When we create a website, especially a site that appeals to or represents a certain culture or ethnic group, do we rely on popular perceptions or “reality”? “Popular perception” is a key phrase that means a wide population either subconsciously or consciously refers to a specific person, place, or thing in a specific venue that is often labelled “traditional.” For instance, if I say, “Native American,” what patterns, textures, and colours pop into your head? Did you think about vivid colours, feathers, fringed leather, moccasins, and beads? Or, is your experience different, and do you visualize other patterns, textures, and colours? The latter response is a “specific” reaction based on personal experience and/or knowledge. Which image is correct (politically and otherwise), and does either response matter when we create a website to help a client market his or her identity?

The following information is based on my personal experiences with the Monacan Indian Nation, a Native American group based in Amherst County, Virginia, USA, near Lynchburg. Only recently, the state of Virginia granted the Monacan Nation official Native status and now the tribe is actively pursuing Federal recognition. In this article, I will share how this little-known Native American nation began to alter their image – both in real life and on the Web – to achieve their goals.

Read More
Linda Goin
2430
Currency:
Copyright © 2001-2024 Dynamic Zones International B.V., All Rights Reserved.