Making Form Objects Dynamic

This tutorial will illustrates making form objects dynamic with Dreamweaver CS5.

We are setting up the objects on this form as static objects. This means that we are specifying things like how wide a box is, the list of contents for a menu, etc.

However, it's possible to set form options dynamically so that your web server assigns values and properties.

Using the example of our flower form, we could make the list of available flowers dynamic, so that as the page is showed to each visitor the list is populated with the flowers that are actually available now. This could take into account of both seasonality and stock levels.

When we do this, the Web server takes charge of setting up specified attributes of all of the form objects that we have declared to be dynamic.

This also helps with maintenance. Referring to our list of flowers again, we don't need somebody to manually update the list/menu contents every day (say). Provided that we keep our database up to date, the form can be kept in line with much less effort, and much less scope for error.

Look again at the list of available flowers.

Provided that my site has been setup correctly to access dynamic sources there will be an additional button labelled Dynamic... like the one shown here.

If I press the button, I see the Dynamic List/Menu dialog.

This is used to define the links to the database and records that are needed to load the list of available flowers.

The setup of these dynamic sources is outside the scope of this tutorial, but it is well worth being aware of this as you develop your Dreamweaver CS5 skills and knowledge.

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