Dreamweaver

Set up a testing server

If you plan to develop dynamic pages, Dreamweaver needs the services of a testing server to generate and display dynamic content while you work. The testing server can be your local computer, a development server, a staging server, or a production server.

Before you set up a testing server folder, you must define a local and remote folder. You can often use the settings of your remote folder for your testing server because dynamic pages placed in the remote folder can normally be processed by an application server.

  1. Select one of the following:

    • To set up a new site, Select Site > New Site.

    • To edit the setup of an existing site on your local disk or a remote site (or a branch of a remote site), whether it was created in Dreamweaver or not, select Site > Manage Sites, select your site from the list, and click Edit.

    Note: If you haven’t defined any Dreamweaver sites, the Site Definition dialog box appears and you don’t need to click New.
  2. Select Testing Server in the Advanced tab of the Site Definition dialog box.
  3. Select the server technology you want to use for your web application.
  4. Accept the default Testing Server settings or enter different settings.

    By default, Dreamweaver assumes an application server is running on the same system as your web server. If you defined a remote folder in the Remote Info category in the Site Definition dialog box, and if an application server runs on the same system as the remote folder (including your local computer), accept the default settings in the Testing Server category.

    If you did not define a remote folder in the Remote Info category, the Testing Server category defaults to the local folder you defined in the Local Info category. You can leave this setting alone only if you meet the following two conditions:

    Your web server and application server both run on your local computer. For example, if you’re a ColdFusion developer running both IIS and ColdFusion on your local Windows XP system.

    Your local root folder is a subfolder of your website’s home directory. For example, if you’re using IIS, your local root folder is a subfolder of the c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\ folder, or the folder itself.

    If your local root folder is not a subfolder of your home directory, you must define the local root folder as a virtual directory in your web server.

    Note: The application server can run on a different system than your remote site. For example, if the Access option you selected in the Remote Info category is Microsoft Visual SourceSafe, then you must specify a different server in the Testing Server category.
  5. In the URL Prefix text box, enter the URL that users type in their browsers to open your web application, but do not include any filename.

    The URL prefix comprises the domain name and any of your website’s home directory’s subdirectories or virtual directories, but not a filename. For example, if your application’s URL is www.adobe.com/mycoolapp/start.jsp, you would enter the following URL prefix: www.adobe.com/mycoolapp/.

    If Dreamweaver runs on the same system as your web server, you can use one of the localhost options as a placeholder for your domain name. For example, if you run IIS and your application’s URL is http://buttercup_pc/mycoolapp/start.jsp, enter the following URL prefix:

    http://localhost/mycoolapp/

    For a list of localhost options that pertain to different web servers, see the next section.

  6. Click OK, and then click Done to add the new site to your list of sites.