OT: Bindings panel, Databases, and Server behaviors in Dreamweaver CC

[Preran]

Hi all,

There was a query on the Dreamweaver Facebook page about using server behaviors in Dreamweaver going forward. The product team replied to the post, and I am posting it on this forum for the benefit of users not on our Facebook page.

In Dreamweaver cc release server behaviors will be available as an extension. Once you install the extension server behaviors feature will be enabled and extensions dependent on it will work as before. In the CC release, you can find the extension at the location

* Vista/Windows 7: C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Dreamweaver CC\Configuration\DisabledFeatures
* Mac OS X: /Applications/Adobe Dreamweaver CC/Configuration/DisabledFeatures

Additional documentation is available at

http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/dreamweaver-cc-server-extensions.html

Also, check out this video created by Silas http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB2vmNfcq7A

The Dreamweaver team has posted their view about the latest changes in Dreamweaver in their blog post  http://blogs.adobe.com/dreamweaver/2013/06/a-look-at-the-modernized-dreamweaver-cc.html

Thanks,

Preran

[ollekar]

There is this tool from http://www.webassist.com/dreamweaver-extensions/data-bridge

Price is high $400. So it's not an option for many people.

Regards

Olle

[iraji]

Hi

Thank you but I am aware of the WebAssist extension but it still requires

the panel functionality in DW. Building dynamic websites is still pretty

popular and with php and MySQL keeping up with new technology and being

supported by a large support base, I can't see why Adobe is not supporting

it. I agree with the other submitters on this forum and will stay with CS6

version till then.

Iraji

[JeniB]

Just wanted to add that I am conserned about the removal of these panels and functionallity from DW CC as well. As a designer that is not a great coder- this allowed me to have simple dynamic pages and a database without using someone else's framework. Hope there will continue to be a built in solution for someone like me...

[François402]

If Adode persists to treat PHP that way, the whole Dreamweaver adventure will soon be deprecated too.

[Preran]

Hi all,

I would encourage you to have a look at the product team's blog post on this one: http://blogs.adobe.com/dreamweaver/2013/06/a-look-at-the-modernized-dreamweaver-cc.html

Thanks,

Preran

[nkhm]

Preran - this post does not provide anything new - siply reminds us that you've dropped all database functionality.  There is more to this than the bindings/database panels - what about mysql insert/update/delete wizards, repeat region wizards - all the stuff that made Dreamweaver an indespensible tool, which is now removed leaving the software no more than an overpriced CSS editor.  You are losing customers, quickly - and pointing us to third party companies to spend EVEN more money is not helping.

[johngordon12]

Agreed. I was hoping that Adobe might have mentioned that as part of the "modernisation of Dreamweaver", they were working on replacements for the old behaviours.

All this "announcement" says is that Adobe, who charge hundreds of dollars fir industry leading software haven't been able to incorporate modern replacements for these behaviours, but a much smaller company is able to provide an alternative, by way of an extension, for free.

I suppose its a solution, but if I'm paying top dollar (especially at European prices) for a product, I don't really expect features to be dropped, and then have to rummage around on the intermet for workarounds.

[jkbdks]

And please (yes I'm spamming) stop posting links which are leadin to NOT helpful tutorials/videos/youtube pages.

Write a new one. A compete one, and publish it where your customers can find it easily such in a page like... "myAdobe" !

[holymackeral]

The REAL question is, will Adobe make permanent this temporary fix (disabled features) in DW CC and address the deprecated PHP's mysql() function to now use the mysqli() function or PDO and update & maintain these server behaviors so they continue to properly work in future releases?

Is the Cloud subscription only going to extend my hanging on to Adobe products until the dangling carrot (bindings panel, databases, and server behaviors) is finally cut away?

I need assurances and answers NOW because I'm trying to make business decisions for the upcoming year - like contining with CS6 until an alternate is found.

[MyDreamweaverExtensions-UlW0et]

I am sorry to say so, but your disappointing blog post just tells us two things:

1. You claim that you are listening to your users, but you have just proved you don’t. Despite the high volume of disappointment expressed through the comments to previous posts of this blog, through comments in Dreamweaver Help or through the Community Forum, you show no change of direction, nor any will to cater for the disrupted workflow that Dreamweaver CC is introducing. Instead, you are just producing blog posts that desperately try to prove us that you are “streamlining” and “modernizing” Dreamweaver. An extension that brings back half of the features is not a strong-enough signal that you have taken into account our needs. Extensions written by third parties which you claim are alternatives but are not resemble more leg-pulling than anything else. Will you reduce Dreamweaver’s price for the removal of killer features that were sold with the software before?
2. You do not seem to know how Dreamweaver users use the software or at least, to be fair, how a large number of users do. I thought the aim of software makers was to sell a tool that aids its clients in, and brings value to, their work.

As an extension writer, I can tell that the vast majority of my users are either DIY guys or professionals working on their own. Not big companies with teams of developers. The majority of those never have been Dreamweaver users and will never be, having different needs and ways of working.

As responses to your “streamlining” and “modernization” of Dreamweaver have shown, for a large number of users, the strength of Dreamweaver lies in its extensibility, of which server behaviors are the most advanced feature. I am not talking about the code they write, which we all agree has to be updated (and we have been waiting this for a number of releases, now…), I am talking about their very mechanism, which allow us to write our code and use Dreamweaver to speed up our job by helping us to write it again, faster, without errors, visually.

No other tool offers this possibility. Without server behaviors and database support, Dreamweaver is simply not worth its price…

Obviously, you are the ones with the real figures and only you can tell if it is a strategic decision or a big mistake. I was a bit surprised though by the number of voices that rose after the Dreamweaver CC release, so I tend to think that Mr. Adobe would not be that pleased by the loss of a good number of faithful clients. But then at least, be honest enough to tell us if you intend to drop a part of long-term users, and stop serving us your commercial soup…

Now, what will happen?

1. You still refuse to listen to the numerous voices who have called against your decision to remove useful features to us, and in this case, we will act accordingly: we are big enough, we do not need your blatant propaganda even by the product manager himself to decide whether Dreamweaver CC will still be worth its high price into our workflow, if the new features will outweigh the loss of server behaviors and database support. If not, of course, we will not upgrade just because you are marketing the supposedly wonderful new features, and we will turn to other tools, with features that will help us improve our workflow in other ways. And goodbye Adobe, we do not trust you anymore… It is as simple as that.
2. You show us you really are listening to your customers and you bring back updated server behaviors and database support. In this case, we will know that we can trust Adobe again, that you do listen to us, and will applaud with both hands.

And, more important to you, we will have a valid reason to upgrade and we will. Come on guys, our productivity is at stake, but your jobs may be in the line too…

[pixonti]

I would like to add my disappointment in Adobe's decision to remove the database, bindings and server behaviors from Dreamweaver. This seems like a huge step backward for the product. I am not a serious coder, but a designer who relies heavily on these to help get my work done. And after installing the "Deprecated Server Behaviors Panel Support", and finding out what a poor implementation that is, I am even more frustrated with this decision. Previous behaviors can no longer be edited, although they show up in the panel. And certain behaviors I was using are not even listed.

[Guest]

Is it better to put a fence at the top of a cliff on an Ambulance down in the Valley?

This situation is caused by not having the shop manager down on the shop floor.

The first rule of business is: Know your Customers (like Macromedia did)

Cheers up guys. nothing is so bad that it can't get worse.

[Steve Skinner]

I like your style LorumIpsum. Now, put the doobie away and get back to work.

[Simon_TL]

I agree. What  a cretinous decision. Just leave it in until you have something better. But it does mean that Dreamweaver CC has zilch value for me.

[efficient_Radiance0D4C]

Well, it seems that Steve Jobs was right. Lazyness. Please, bring the panels back and working properly. I don’t want to have to copy and paste MMHTTPDB.php and mysql.php from a folder to another. Give us a decent solution, and respect your customers!

[dynchuck]

Well, I just chatted with DMX Zone.  The HTML5 data extension is just an experiment, and not really a full blown solution (Their own words).

In addition, the current version has a bug that prevents it from working properly, and they cannot provide a timeline for doing it properly.

So Adobe, ball's in your court.  What are YOU doing to make dynamic website development a dreamweaver feature?

The problem with the subscription model you are introducing is that you can remove features and users are screwed.  They can't use the old version (as we can with CS 6).  Thus you can introduce something useful in CC1.1 and we build it into our sites.  Then comes CC 1.2, and you take the feature away, and we can't go back.

[DMXzone.com]

Hi All,

This is George from DMXzone.com

Let me clarify few things about the DMXzone's HTML5 Data Bindings extension.

This extension is definitely not an experiment! It is a full blown production extension that we have released after a long and intensive development & research cycle. The extension is actively being developed based on user feedback and we have already published few updates of it.

The HTML5 Data Bindings extension currently offers possibility to make dynamic Ajax based web sites based on public feeds or custom JSON data feeds. With it we are opening a new world of dynamic web sites and web apps in the new Web 3.0 era. So the HTML5 Data Bindings is our base extension for this.

Database Connectivity is coming up next, so soon you will be able to connect to all your databases and have your own data empower your dynamic web sites build with the same HTML5 Data Bindings extension.

So with the HTML5 Data Bindings and related extensions from DMXzone we will fully offer you an replacement for the deprecated Server Behaviors, Database Connectivity and Data Bindings panels in a whole new modern way.

At last you will be able to cerate your dynamic single page web apps and web sites that get, display and manipulate their data through Ajax, without any page refresh!

So check out all the showcases and videos we have already published about HTML5 Data Bindings at http://www.dmxzone.com/go/21863/html5-data-bindings and also keep an eye on DMXzone's Blog http://www.dmxzone.com/ for further announcements.

Greetings,

   George Petrov

   DMXzone.com

[holymackeral]

A thousand THANK-YOU's for picking up the ball that Adobe has dropped. I (and hundreds of designers like me) am looking forward to your Database Connector!!

[mubrasmi]

Yes, thank you DMXzone! This will work for future projects... however I have years and years of daily developing ASP pages connected to MySql that I will need to maintain for many, many years to come and the new depreciated tools in Dreamweaver CC don't reconize any of my work. Looks like I will have to run both Dreamweaver CC and CS6 for many years to come. New pages I will build in CC and old pages I will open in CS6. I just don't have the time to convert every single page I have built. This will be a royal pain in the rear. Then again we now have to worry about Adobe buying out DMXzone keeping what they want and ditching the DB connectivity again. Adobe has bought others before like Nitobi in which they killed the best datagrid available just to get PhoneGap from Nitobi. Macromedia why did you sell out to Adobe? We need another competitor to keep Adobe in check. Unfortunately there really isn't anything to compare to DW.

[DMXzone.com]

We actually just released our DMXzone Database Connector! Now you can finally access your databases with very powerful new technology combining the easy data binding on your page with the HTML5 Data Binding extension and instant, but sophisticated Database Access!

A great replacement of the old server behaviors technology to create new dynamic web apps built the Ajax way!

The Database Connector features a great Database Connection Wizard, fully visual Query Builder to make your work a breeze.

It is available for PHP as well ASP

For PHP see http://www.dmxzone.com/go/22072/dmxzone-database-connector-php

for ASP : http://www.dmxzone.com/go/22084/dmxzone-database-connector-asp

You will also need the free HTML5 Data Bindings extension:

http://www.dmxzone.com/go/21863/html5-data-bindings

Welcome to the next chapter of Dreamweaver history - building dynamic, data oriented web apps in a new whole new way!

Greetings,

  George Petrov

  DMXzone.com

[nkhm]

The DMX Zone extension is good as far as it goes, but that's another £100 just to restore PART of the removed functionality.  Where is insert/update/delete record?  The basic form creation to work with the data, which is the most used part of server behaviours in previous versions of Dreamweeaver for most developers.

Very disappointed, I really thought this extension was going to replace the server behaviours, but now we have for connecting to the database and performing queries, another extension for displaying the data, but no behavioural way of managing the data itself.

Great.

[jkbdks]

We're still waiting.

There's been no real answer for this issue.

Simply say YES or NO : "will you soon fully restore the whole set of the tools we used in DW CS6 on DW CC ?"

[Preran]

Hi jkbdks,

The product team, after listening to users on various forums, has provided the roadmap for DW in this blog post http://blogs.adobe.com/dreamweaver/2013/06/a-look-at-the-modernized-dreamweaver-cc.html

Thanks,

Preran

[Steve Skinner]

Preran, did you link to the wrong article? Because it's neither a roadmap or anything new. That post is from June, although I can see how it makes you look good to post this, sounding like the product team is reacting to feedback since the launch of DW CC.

That post only provides users who have relied on the features you're phasing out a way to continue using them in Dreamweaver; but with an "at-your-own-risk" notice, saying you will not support any of these features that were previously the main reasons would use Dreamweaver in the first place.

The writing on the wall by Adobe (so far anyway) is that Dreamweaver will no longer be an app featuring capabilities to create dynamic websites based on a database backend, but instead will be something you use to create more basic HTML pages with all the latest CSS goodies - and your simple static (but pretty) websites will be mobile friendly. Adobe is leaving everything else oriented toward actual business oriented websites to extension developers, and so far they are not filling in the gaps that Adobe is creating in Dreamweaver.

I've been running a small web development company since 1997, and while I can't speak for anyone else, it's been years since I did a web site that didn't involve a database backend and some content management tools that my customers use to manage some or all of their own content. Every job I do has some element of dynamic data or custom content management tools which involved a database backend. All our new work is being done in PHP, and I'm a huge fan of changing with the times, but I get new customers all the time who have websites that are not built on static HTML or PHP. To this end, I must continue with Dreamweaver CS6 so I can support all my existing customer websites who aren't ready to overhaul their entire site simply because the latest version of the software used to create it is going in a different direction.

It's sad that Adobe has missed the mark so badly with this direction of Dreamweaver. Perhaps I'm wrong though. Maybe there are scads of web developers who are super happy with Dreamweaver CC and have found a way to easily continue managing older data-driven websites. If they're out there at all, they aren't saying much.

[mubrasmi]

You are spot on Steve. I have been trying to use DW CC but it just doesn't cut it. DW CS6 will be my tool until another company steps up and builds a product to manage custom database driven websites.