Extending the Components panel

If you have invented (or simply use) a component strategy that is not represented in Dreamweaver's current Components panel, you can extend the Components panel's logic so the panel can handle new kinds of components.

To add a new kind of component to the Dreamweaver Components panel, you need to locate the available components (in the user's environment) and request descriptions from each component (or parse them if they are written using ASCII files).

The precise way that the location of components and how component details are retrieved varies among technologies. Additionally, it can vary based on the server model (ASP.NET, JSP/J2EE, ColdFusion, or others). So, the JavaScript you write to extend the Components panel depends on the component technology you need to add. The functions described here are meant to assist you in getting information to appear in the Components panel, but you must write much of the logic for locating components and introspecting them (querying the internal structure of the component and making its fields, methods, and properties available through Dreamweaver).

Finally, server models such as ASP.NET, JSP/J2EE, or ColdFusion tend to support some, but not all, component types. For example, ASP.NET supports web services but not JavaBeans. Macromedia ColdFusion also supports web services and CFCs. When you add a new component type to the Components panel, it must be server-model specific. For example, if a Dreamweaver user is working on a ColdFusion site, only Web Services and CF Components should appear in the drop-down list in the Components panel.

The files you need to alter are discussed in this chapter. In some cases, you need to write some JavaScript code that calls certain component-related functions.