MACROMEDIA DREAMWEAVER 8-EXTENDING DREAMWEAVER Manual page 46

Opening a document in Dreamweaver
When a user opens a file, Dreamweaver follows a series of steps to identify the document type
based on the file's extension.
If Dreamweaver successfully finds a unique document type, Dreamweaver uses that type and
loads the associated server model (if any) for the document that the user is opening. If the user
has selected to use Dreamweaver UltraDev 4 server behaviors, Dreamweaver loads the
appropriate UltraDev 4 server model.
If the file extension maps to more than one document type, Dreamweaver performs the
following actions:
If a static document type is among the list of document types, it gets preference.
If all the document types are dynamic, Dreamweaver creates an alphabetical list of the
server models that are associated with these document types and then calls the
canRecognizeDocument()
"canRecognizeDocument()" on page
determines which server model returned the highest valued positive integer. The
document type whose server model returns the highest integer is the document type that
Dreamweaver assigns to the document being opened. If, however, more than one server
model returns the same integer, Dreamweaver goes through the alphabetical list of those
server models, picks the first in the list, and uses that document type. For example, if both
ASP-JS and ASP-VB claim an ASP document and if their respective
canRecognizeDocument()
document to ASP-JS (because, alphabetically, ASP-JS is first).
If Dreamweaver cannot map the file extension to a document type, Dreamweaver opens the
document as a text file.
Customizing workspace layouts
Dreamweaver lets you customize the workspace layout, including which panels are in the
specified layout, as well as other attributes such as the positions and sizes of the panels, their
collapsed or expanded states, the position and size of the application window, and the position
and size of the Document window.
The workspace layout is specified in XML files stored in the Configuration/Workspace
layouts folder. The following sections describe the syntax of the XML tags. Optional
attributes are marked in the attribute lists with curly braces (
with curly braces are required.
46 Customizing Dreamweaver
function in each server model (see
424). Dreamweaver collects the return values and
functions return equal values, Dreamweaver assigns the
); all attributes not marked
{}