Linked Up Design

On several occasions I have tried to set up to a database via Dreamweaver and I would get an error saying that Dreamweaver could not find a proper Testing Server. I have run in to this problem a few times now while working with Dreamweaver CS4 because I keep forgetting to write up what to do to handle it.

I went on to the Dreamweaver help page and the only thing I can say is that engineers should not write instructions, bahh, if I was smart enough to understand what is said, I could write my own programs like Dreamweaver! I will take this up another day.

Finally I remembered what I did in the past so here it is:

This is what you would you would do only after you have set up the site and remote server:

• SERVER MODEL: PHP MySQL
• ACCESS: FTP
• FTP HOST: ftp.site.com
• HOST DIRECTOR: (leave blank)
• LOGIN: login
• PASSWORD: password
• URL PREFIX: (this usually defaults to “http://ftp.site.com) change to “http://www.site.com”

This last line is where I usually screw up by keeping the default setting where I then spend the next 100 hours trying to figure this out.

Do take the note from Dreamweaver’s help page:

Note: As of Dreamweaver CS4, Dreamweaver no longer installs ASP.NET or JSP server behaviors. If you’re working on ASP.NET or JSP pages, however, Dreamweaver will still support Live Mode, code coloring, and code hinting for those pages. You do not need to select ASP.NET or JSP in the Site Definition dialog box for any of these features to work.