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Macromedia Dreamweaver UltraDev is a great tool for creating ASP
pages. Combine it with Microsoft Personal Web Server (PWS) and
you can check that the VB and SQL elements of your ASP work fine
while the pages are still in progress. Here are some practical
tips to help you get the combination up and running.
Macromedia Dreamweaver UltraDev is a great tool for HTML
coders who want to spread their wings and begin creating
ASP pages.
It allows you to create simple ASP pages without any knowledge of
VB or SQL and only a basic grasp of databases. Once you've
created a few pages you can look at the code that UltraDev has
created and begin to adapt it for more sophisticated uses, giving
you a welcome boost along the learning curve as you move from
very basic ASP to something more valuable in the commercial
world.
In this article we'll look at the basics of setting up UltraDev
on a PC, along with Microsoft Personal Web Server (PWS) for
testing the ASP pages you create. Rather than repeat all the
information in the fine UltraDev tutorials that come with the
software, and in the help systems of both UltraDev and PWS, we'll
home in on some of the missing bits - tips that will help you get
to grips with the combination in the minimum amount of time.
The first item to look at is PWS. It's essential to have some
kind of server software on your machine for live testing. If
you're running Windows 2000 then you'll find Microsoft IIS
(Internet Information Server) on your OS disk and this will
almost certainly be your server software of choice. But for this
example we're going to look at PWS, because it's free and also
because it's a little quirky. It's highly likely you'll use PWS
if you're running Win95 or Win98.
You can
download PWS direct from Microsoft, where it's included as
part of the fairly large NT Option Pack of December 1997. You may
also come across this as a CD, which will save you a lot of
downloading. It doesn't matter that this is an NT pack - the
program can still be transferred to a Win95 or Win98 machine. But
the best place to get hold of the program is from the Windows 98
OS disk, where it can be found in the directory Add-Ons/PWS.
The version on the Win98 disk gives you a better chance of a
successful install than the version in the NT pack.
One big tip is to make sure you install PWS before you
install Dreamweaver UltraDev. I tried it the other way round and
no matter what I did I couldn't get the combination to work. But
by simply uninstalling both programs and reinstalling with PWS
first, I was able to get everything functioning without any need
for tweaks.
The second tip is to make sure your back-ups are in order and
you've been nice to all your heavy-duty computing friends in the
run-up to installation. The first time I installed PWS it crashed
my machine so badly I couldn't even get Windows to work in safe
mode, and had to revert to an old version of the registry using
Regedit in DOS. The stress reduced my lifespan by a couple of
days, but hey ho, it's free software.
Getting PWS Up and Running
Once you've successfully installed PWS you need to get it fully
active as a server. Frankly, the documentation that comes with
the program isn't wonderful and is more likely to send you off on
a wild goose chase than take you where you want to go. Most of
the menu icons are fairly useless too. Probably the only one
you'll ever use is Advanced, down at the bottom. This is
the one that allows you to identify directories you'd like to
make available through your server.
You'll need to create a virtual directory for your ASP
files, and this can be slightly confusing if you're not used to
servers. It's the place where the server holds the files that it
publishes, and it will refer to these locations by shortcut names
that aren't the same as normal computer drive filepaths.
There are many alternative ways to set up your files for
publishing. In my case I used Windows Explorer to create a new
folder called Inetfolders. This has the filepath C:\Inetfolders
and is where I place all published files. Then I created a
subdirectory within this directory called Trial, and placed a
very simple Web page in the subdirectory, called index.html.
To make PWS aware that I wanted to publish the contents of the
Trial subdirectory, I went in through the Advanced menu and chose
Add. I could then identify the subdirectory by entering its
regular filepath, and give it a shortcut (virtual) name. I
called it TrialOne.
Now I could access the file through my Web browser on the local
Intranet that PWS creates on my machine. To access this Intranet
I need to start my URL with http://OEMComputer, then add on the
virtual name. So if I enter
http://OEMComputer/TrialOne/index.html, I get my browser to show
the simple Web page I put in the subdirectory. Best of all, this
tells me that PWS is functioning properly.
Note that the expression OEMComputer varies according to
your PC. It's the name the PC calls itself. You can find this
under Start > Settings > Control Panel > Network >
Identification. Other popular names are MyMachine and
localhost.
Here are a couple more items on PWS. When you're in the Advanced
area you should see a checked box for "Allow Directory Browsing".
And the individual directories you want to publish should have
"Read" and "Scripts" checked so ASP will work.
PWS and Internet Explorer can get themselves in a real mess with
IE's offline mode. Normally IE will prompt you if it has managed
to get itself into offline mode and you want to view something it
has to go online to see. But if that page is served by PWS it may
just tell you it can't be found. Watch out for this kind of false
error. Generally it's best to avoid offline mode when using PWS.
If you ever get the prompt Work Offline or Try
Again, opt for Try Again, which will lead to a 404
error but stops you going into offline mode.
PWS can also significantly slow down your machine when it's
running. You can switch it off using the Stop button on the main
front page of the program, but you'll need to press Start and
then reboot to get it going again.
Finally, don't forget that PWS isn't a pretend server, it's
publishing your pages for real. If you connect to the Internet
while PWS is running, it's theoretically possible for anybody
with the right skills to find the files you've published and look
at them through your Internet connection. In most cases this is
probably no big deal. But if you're working on confidential
material you'll need to bear it in mind.