How Data Translators Work - Adobe 38040334 - Dreamweaver CS3 User Manual

Chapter 22: Data translators
Data translators translate specialized markup—server-side includes, conditional JavaScript
statements, or other code such as PHP3, JSP, CFML, or ASP—into code that Adobe
Dreamweaver CS3 can read and display. In Dreamweaver, you can translate attributes within tags
as well as entire tags or blocks of code. All data translators—block/tag or attribute—are HTML
files.
Translated tags or blocks of code must be enclosed in locked regions to preserve the original
markup. Translated attributes do not require locks, which makes it simple to inspect the tags that
contain them.
Data translation—especially for entire tags or blocks of code—might involve complex operations
that either cannot be done with JavaScript or that can be done more efficiently using C. If you are
familiar with C or C++, you should also read "C-level extensibility" on page 345.
The following table lists the files you use to create a data translator:
Path
Configuration/ThirdPartyTags/
Configuration/ThirdPartyTags/
Configuration/Translators/

How data translators work

Dreamweaver handles all translator files the same way, regardless of whether they translate entire
tags or only attributes. At startup, Dreamweaver reads all the files in the
Configuration/Translators folder and calls the
mation about the translator. Dreamweaver ignores any file in which the
function does not exist or contains an error that causes it to be undefined.
File Description
language.xml Contains information about tags in the markup
language.
language.gif Icon for tags in the language.
language.htm Contains JavaScript functions for the data translator.
getTranslatorInfo()
function to obtain infor-
getTranslatorInfo()