How Behaviors work

When a user selects an HTML element in a Adobe Dreamweaver document and clicks the Plus (+) button on the Behaviors panel, the following events occur:

  1. Adobe Dreamweaver calls the canAcceptBehavior() function in each Action file to see whether this action is appropriate for the document or the selected element.

    If the return value of this function is false, Adobe Dreamweaver dims the action in the Actions pop-up menu. (For example, the Control Shockwave action is dimmed when the user's document has no SWF files.) If the return value is a list of events, Adobe Dreamweaver compares each event with the valid events for the currently selected HTML element and target browser until it finds a match. Adobe Dreamweaver populates the Events pop-up menu with the matched event from the canAcceptBehavior() function at the top of the list. If no match exists, the default event for the HTML element (marked in the Event file with an asterisk [*]) becomes the top item. The remaining events in the menu are assembled from the Event file.

  2. The user selects an action from the Actions pop-up menu.
  3. Adobe Dreamweaver calls the windowDimensions() function to determine the size of the Parameters dialog box. If the windowDimensions() function is not defined, the size is determined automatically.

    A dialog box always appears, with OK and Cancel buttons at the right edge, regardless of the contents of the BODY element.

  4. Adobe Dreamweaver displays a dialog box that contains the BODY elements of the Action file. If the Action file's BODY tag contains an onLoad handler, Adobe Dreamweaver executes it.
  5. The user fills in the parameters for the action. Adobe Dreamweaver executes event handlers that are associated with the form fields as the user encounters them.
  6. The user clicks OK.
  7. Adobe Dreamweaver calls the behaviorFunction() and applyBehavior() functions in the selected Action file. These functions return strings that are inserted into the user's document.
  8. If the user later double-clicks the action in the Actions column, Adobe Dreamweaver reopens the Parameters dialog box and executes the onLoad handler. Adobe Dreamweaver then calls the inspectBehavior() function in the selected Action file, which fills in the fields with the data that the user previously entered.