Extending Adobe Dreamweaver

Typically, you create a Adobe Dreamweaver extension to perform one of the following types of tasks:

  • Automating changes to the user's current document, such as inserting HTML, CFML, or JavaScript; changing text or image properties; or sorting tables
  • Interacting with the application to automatically open or close windows, open or close documents, change keyboard shortcuts, and more
  • Connecting to data sources, which lets Adobe Dreamweaver users create dynamic, data-driven pages
  • Inserting and managing blocks of server code in the current document

You might want to write an extension to handle a commonly used, and therefore repetitive, task. Or you might have a unique requirement that you can satisfy only by writing an extension for that specific situation. In both cases, Adobe Dreamweaver provides an extensive set of tools that you can use to add to or customize its functionality.

When you create a Adobe Dreamweaver extension, you should follow the steps outlined in .

The following features of Adobe Dreamweaver let you create extensions:

  • An HTML parser (also called a renderer), which makes it possible to design user interfaces (UIs) for extensions using form fields, layers, images, and other HTML elements. Adobe Dreamweaver has its own HTML parser.
  • A tree of folders that organize and store the files that implement and configure Adobe Dreamweaver elements and extensions.
  • A series of application programming interfaces (APIs) that provide access to Adobe Dreamweaver functionality through JavaScript.
  • A JavaScript interpreter, which executes the JavaScript code in extension files. Adobe Dreamweaver uses the Netscape JavaScript version 1.5 interpreter. For more information about changes between this version of the interpreter and previous versions, see .