Using Server Behaviors

Using server behaviors to create master/detail page sets involves the following:

• Building the master page, including defining a recordset and inserting a dynamic table so that you can include multiple records in your master page list

• Adding a link to a dynamic placeholder on the master page, which lets you link from the master page list to a detail page, and then adding a URL parameter to the link to supply the information that identifies the record that displays on the detail page

• Building the detail page, including defining a recordset, adding a filter to the recordset to find the record that's specified in the URL parameter on the master page, and binding recordset fields to the detail page

In all the tasks in this chapter, you'll use the cafetownsend database included with Dreamweaver 8. This database comes in two forms, an Access database (tutorial.mdb) that you can use with ASP or ColdFusion, and a SQL file (insert.sql) that you can use to create a MySQL database to use with PHP. We chose this database so that you could use ASP, ColdFusion, or PHP in the tasks in this chapter. We use ColdFusion in the tasks, but the process is nearly identical for ASP and PHP, and we'll point out the one step where it differs.

To find the sample database file in Windows, from the Start menu choose My Computer > Local Disk (C) > Program Files > Macromedia > Dreamweaver 8 > Tutorial_assets > cafe_townsend > data > tutorial.mdb. You can use this database with ASP or ColdFusion. If you use PHP with Windows or Mac OS X, you can use the MySQL database that you create from the SQL file (insert.sql) included with Dreamweaver 8. For more information, see "Creating the MySQL Database" in Dreamweaver Help (F1). In addition, Chapter 5 in this book contains details on creating a MySQL database.

If you haven't already created a connection to the sample database, you need to do so before you start the tasks in this chapter. See Chapter 4 for more details on creating a database connection.