Help converting VS2005 to Dreamweaver

Report · Feb 02, 2007

My client's IT dept recently chose to switch to DW for web development. I am mid-stream in a development project for one of their branches using Visual Studio 2005. Does anyone have experience converting from 1 to the other?

I am specifically concerned about the portability of some .net components (ALGRID) and if .dwt files can handle a ContentPlaceholder control.

Any information would be very much appreciated.

Report · Feb 03, 2007

Just from some of the people I have worked withs experiences ...

1. VS is much better for .net stuff, DW is better at the front end stuff ...
2. DW is quite a good code editor, but your almost better off leaving the
development in VS and where possible using (brains funny this morning)
external code.

Sorry if this isn't the best response - DW is only really good at coding its
own code, and not always great at that!

Gerry

http://www.Usablehost.co.uk

"weatherworman" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:eq09qc$ebf$1@forums.macromedia.com...
> My client's IT dept recently chose to switch to DW for web development. I
> am
> mid-stream in a development project for one of their branches using Visual
> Studio 2005. Does anyone have experience converting from 1 to the other?
>
> I am specifically concerned about the portability of some .net components
> (ALGRID) and if .dwt files can handle a ContentPlaceholder control.
>
> Any information would be very much appreciated.
>
>
>

Report · Feb 03, 2007

Tell them not to be silly, if you have VS.NET 2005 its just plain stupid to
switch to DW for ASP.NET applications, DW is handy for tweaking the layout
and tags but it's completely hopeless for editing .NET code when compared
against MS tools, even the free ones.

--
Kevin Marshall
WebXeL.com Ltd
http://www.webxel.com

ASP.NET Dreamweaver Extensions
http://www.webxel-dw.co.uk

"weatherworman" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:eq09qc$ebf$1@forums.macromedia.com...
> My client's IT dept recently chose to switch to DW for web development. I
> am
> mid-stream in a development project for one of their branches using Visual
> Studio 2005. Does anyone have experience converting from 1 to the other?
>
> I am specifically concerned about the portability of some .net components
> (ALGRID) and if .dwt files can handle a ContentPlaceholder control.
>
> Any information would be very much appreciated.
>
>
>

Report · Feb 04, 2007

Thanks for the input. I was afraid that DW was more of a tool for visuals and layout and not for the database connectivity and .net components. Looks like I am stuck between a rock and a hard place - my client is not going to budge....

Report · Feb 04, 2007

Just tell them that DW does not support the ASP.NET2.0 framework that Master
Pages are a kew element of, therefore it is not a coding tool for DotNet.
Many of us use both DW & VS2005 side by side using each product in the areas
that it is strong.

--
Paul Whitham
Certified Dreamweaver MX2004 Professional
Adobe Community Expert - Dreamweaver

Valleybiz Internet Design
www.valleybiz.net

"weatherworman" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:eq50c6$pq9$1@forums.macromedia.com...
> Thanks for the input. I was afraid that DW was more of a tool for visuals
> and
> layout and not for the database connectivity and .net components. Looks
> like I
> am stuck between a rock and a hard place - my client is not going to
> budge....
>

Report · Feb 04, 2007

I wish I could tell them. They are a large UN organization whose IT Dept made the decision and the branch I am working for is begging them to not go with DW but I fear it is too late. They gave me the .dwt template to use, I could mimick it in a masterpage, but one of the requirements is that later on, when my contract is over, they can edit the pages....good luck. I think their main requirement is that lay people (non-developers) can edit pages, but they do not realized the complexity of dynamic databases.

You say you use them interchangeably? Is your base VS than you pretty it up with DW? I guess the key is you have VS masterpages...

Report · Feb 06, 2007

I habdle all of the coding in VS, and use DW only for design elements.You
can get DW to render a master page, but it can't render a page that uses
that master with all of the elements of the master.

--
Paul Whitham
Certified Dreamweaver MX2004 Professional
Adobe Community Expert - Dreamweaver

Valleybiz Internet Design
www.valleybiz.net

"weatherworman" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:eq5o4r$m45$1@forums.macromedia.com...
>I wish I could tell them. They are a large UN organization whose IT Dept
>made
> the decision and the branch I am working for is begging them to not go
> with DW
> but I fear it is too late. They gave me the .dwt template to use, I
> could
> mimick it in a masterpage, but one of the requirements is that later on,
> when
> my contract is over, they can edit the pages....good luck. I think their
> main
> requirement is that lay people (non-developers) can edit pages, but they
> do not
> realized the complexity of dynamic databases.
>
> You say you use them interchangeably? Is your base VS than you pretty it
> up
> with DW? I guess the key is you have VS masterpages...
>
>
>

Report · Feb 15, 2007

quote:

Originally posted by: Paul Whitham
...Many of us use both DW & VS2005 side by side using each product in the areas
that it is strong.

This is exactly what I am about to do, but I welcome any advice you have regarding how to go about doing it. I have a VS2005 web application that uses master pages, and now a designer in my company is going to create the pretty UI with Dreamweaver. Do I have to convince him not to use templates?

Dreamweaver can't even open a page with a .Master extension, so how would he edit it at all? Do the developers just make elements of the design, which are then dropped into the appropriate places in VS2005? Should I encourage him to use DW for design, but VS2005 to update pages?

Again, any advice is welcome. How do you work?

Thanks in advance
--
Charlie

Report · Feb 15, 2007

Charlie

If you are building a site that uses ASP.Net 2.0 stay away from Dreamweaver
templates as there are known issues with updates stripping out content that
is needed to access code behind pages.

Get your designer to create the page designs in DW with all their graphical
elements. These can be saved as simple html documents. Then you will simply
copy the html from this page into the appropriate areas of the master page
so that the design will render okay

--
Paul Whitham
Certified Dreamweaver MX2004 Professional
Adobe Community Expert - Dreamweaver

Valleybiz Internet Design
www.valleybiz.net

"MilwaukeeCharlie" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:er1r4e$iq0$1@forums.macromedia.com...
>

quote:

Originally posted by: Paul Whitham
> ...Many of us use both DW & VS2005 side by side using each product in the
> areas
> that it is strong.

>
> This is exactly what I am about to do, but I welcome any advice you have
> regarding how to go about doing it. I have a VS2005 web application that
> uses
> master pages, and now a designer in my company is going to create the
> pretty UI
> with Dreamweaver. Do I have to convince him not to use templates?
>
> Dreamweaver can't even open a page with a .Master extension, so how would
> he
> edit it at all? Do the developers just make elements of the design, which
> are
> then dropped into the appropriate places in VS2005? Should I encourage him
> to
> use DW for design, but VS2005 to update pages?
>
> Again, any advice is welcome. How do you work?
>
> Thanks in advance
> --
> Charlie
>