Moving from DW CS3 to DW 2021, but got a issue that could be a deal breaker

Report · Jun 26, 2024

Hi.

Been using DW CS3 for many years now, I develope in house intranet applications, running on a MySQL/PHP environment.

Just installed the 7 day trial of DW 2021, but found a issue. I flick from code view to design view lots, and in CS3 the design view would correctly include the style sheet to format the screen correctly. But in 2021, its not working.

Not my stle sheet is in a include file in the <head> part of the page. Its like this...

<!DOCTYPE html>
<head>
<? include "includes/header.php"; ?>
</head>

In that header.php. I have, apart from other things, the following...

CS3 was smart enough to find this style sheet and apply it to the design view, but 2021 isnt. Is this a configuration setting in 2021?

Thanks

Glenn

Report · Jun 26, 2024

Seeing that you are moving to another environment (CS3 -> 2021), may I suggest that you move away from Dreamweaver. The reason being that DW is on its last legs, there are no new features being added and the old ones - like PHP and Bootstrap - have already been deprecated.

I suggest that you use Visual Studio Code (VSC) which is free of charge, but does require a knowledge of coding. For a tutorial, see this Bootstrap 5 Tutorial.

If you intend to develop with a limited amount of coding, try Wappler. This is a video series that I have produced using Wappler with NodeJS as the server model.

Wappler, the only real Dreamweaver alternative.

Report · Jun 27, 2024

Unfortunately I need to switch between code view and design view often, and VSC is really just for code. DW CS3 is my daily tool and its perfect for the work I do, I would spend 5 or more hours a day using it. I was hoping DW 2021 would also work as its got a few more features ( like HTML5 ) thats CS3 lacks.

Report · Jun 27, 2024

In that case, the Wappler Basic version would be ideal for you.

Wappler, the only real Dreamweaver alternative.

Report · Jun 27, 2024

The workflow you describe works fine for me, no problems.

1. Switch from Design View to Live View. (Ctrl + Shift + F11).

If "Dynamically Files need to be Discovered...", you must define your local testing server from Site > Manage Sites panel.

In this example, my local site folder resides on my computer's primary hard drive, inside the testing server's default web folder. I'm using Wamp server. You may be be using another server but the set-up is similar for all (Wamp, Xampp, Mamp, Mamp Pro...). See screenshots below.

Local testing server is defined as follows:

Post back if you still have questions.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User, Community Expert & Moderator

Report · Jun 27, 2024

Hi Nancy

Unfortunately that didnt work. The site is big, over 1800 files, and uses sessions to track who is online, etc. Once I set up the server in DW and tried to open the page I was editing in Live view, the site detected I wasnt logged in and would kick me back to a log in screen in the Live view window

I think my only option is to move the "<link href="style.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">" from the header.php include file and back into the documents <head> tags. This probably isnt a big deal, a search and replace will do it.

Glenn

Report · Jun 28, 2024

I also work with log-in sessions. My local database is populated with relevant data so I can log-in.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User, Community Expert & Moderator

Adobe Community

Moving from DW CS3 to DW 2021, but got a issue that could be a deal breaker