Dynamic Url parameters not working?

[graceful_member6C29]

Hi, not sure if I am overlooking something ridiculously simple, but I am having a problem using the dynamic url link parameter function.

I have a repeating region of dynamic text which selects a category based on a name from a recordset. I link the dyanmic text to a category.php page, and click the parameter section in the link dialog, enter the category name in the box, click the lightening icon and select the appropriate field. DW CS 4 always prints the link in PHP code  like this -

<a href="SpryAssets/category.php?<?php echo $row_rsCategories['categoryID']; ?>="><?php echo $row_rsCategories['categoryName']; ?></a>

which does not work. To get it working, I continually have to manually change the PHP code to something like this -

<a href="category.php?categoryID=<?php echo $row_rsCategories['categoryID']; ?>"><?php echo $row_rsCategories['categoryName']; ?></a>

I have tried to follow tutorials in David Powers' and other books that use this method very carefully but with great frustration as my Dreamweaver never prints the correct code.

[David_Powers · Accepted solution]

purplebetter1 wrote:

I have tried to follow tutorials in David Powers' and other books that use this method very carefully but with great frustration as my Dreamweaver never prints the correct code.

Dreamweaver generates the correct code. You're just doing it wrong - as do countless others.

Here's an illustration from my Dreamweaver CS4 book. Examine it carefully.

You type the variable name in the Name field of the Parameters dialog box, and then click the lightning icon to the right of the Value field. What confuses you and so many others is that there is a lightning icon to the right of the Name field also.

Click the wrong lightning icon, and you get the result that you did. Click the correct one, and Dreamweaver generates the expected code.