HomePHP Page 2 - Building PHP Applications With Macromedia Dreamweaver MX
Hooking Up - PHP
Looking for a RAD tool to help you quickly and efficiently develop PHP-based Web applications? Or just new to PHP and MySQL in general? You might want to spend some time with Dreamweaver MX, Macromedia's latest revision of their venerable HTML editor, which comes with some nifty new ideas designed to minimize hand-coding of PHP scripts.
Our current development environment consists of a Windows/Linux network, with most developers developing code on Windows PCs and deploying to Linux-based servers. This kind of configuration is supported by Dreamweaver MX, as are other permutations and combinations - so matching the tool to your environment should not be a major issue.
The first step, obviously, is to get yourself a copy of the tool. Hook yourself up to a PC with a high-speed connection, log on to http://www.macromedia.com/software/, pick the appropriate version and platform, take Macromedia's user survey (hey, nothing comes free anymore) and get yourself a trial copy. This trial copy works for 30 days, which is more than enough time for you to take the tool through its paces and decide whether it's worth the price tag.
It's a 49-meg download, so don't try this if you're faint of heart or have a s-l-o-w connection - instead, order a copy of the Macromedia evaluation kit on CD-ROM from the Macromedia online store. Sure, it'll take a little longer to get to you, but it beats watching paint dry while the files download.
Installation is a breeze - click, accept the license terms (make sure you read them), click a few more times, and you're done!
In case you're wondering what the MX stands for...hey, join the club, because it seems even Macromedia doesn't know. Here's what their FAQ (http://www.macromedia.com/software/mx/faq/) has to say on the topic: "The MX moniker is not an acronym and doesn't have a literal translation. MX designates products that are major new releases and part of the Macromedia MX product family." Ain't that interesting?
I'm assuming here that the rest of your development box is all set up, with a Web server (I use Apache, http://httpd.apache.org/), PHP (http://www.php.net/) and a database server (MySQL rocks, get it from http://www.mysql.com/). In case you don't have all these, get yourself set up, and then flip the page to take Dreamweaver MX for a test drive.
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