Dreamweaver and Domino, so happy together....
Category NoneThis month I wrote an article for Lotus Advisor entitled "Dreamweaver + Domino: Supercharged Web Development", featured on the cover of the November 2003 issue. In it, I describe how teams (or individuals) doing a lot of coding for the web using best-of-breed IDEs, specifically Macromedia Dreamweaver MX, can use Domino as a secure, manageable design repository. Domino 6.x supports the WebDAV protocol, which runs over HTTP and has as its core features:
- Locking, a.k.a. "concurrency control" - in this case hooks into Domino design locking
- Properties - metadata about the design elements, their owners, status, etc.
- Namespace manipulation - refers to the copy and move operations associated with a collection of elements
Combined with Domino security and containership, this creates an environment for third-party products to use Domino as a source control tool. There are a couple drawbacks or caveats to using Domino WebDAV. First, only paths up to 129 characters are supported. Makes for some wrangling if you're developing a WebSphere app and need to use really long paths. Second, you have to use basic authentication. Session authentication is not supported. However this can be remedied (workaround) using a separate host name and having the virtual hosts authenticate differently. Third, you may see some weirdness if you have a template for the design (recommended) and also already have the local file structure set up. "Don't do that."
Overall, the methods described in the article give you a head start to using Domino as a source control mechanism for Dreamweaver. It's how SNAPPS' developers have been working for a year now, and it has increased our productivity a good 25%. Enjoy!
Comments
Posted by Bruce Elgort At 08:24:43 AM On 10/20/2003 | - Website - |
Posted by John Head At 09:15:42 AM On 10/21/2003 | - Website - |