Beginning Adobe® AIR™: Building Applications for the Adobe Integrated Runtime

4.3. Introducing Dreamweaver CS3

Dreamweaver CS3 is the latest update to the Dreamweaver product family and has many new features that are pertinent to AIR applications. The most important of these is the inclusion of the Spry framework tools. The Spry framework is an Ajax library that allows for the development of dynamic user interfaces. Spry effects add visual transitions like grow, shrink, fade, and highlight. Spry widgets are a set of tools like menus, lists, tables, and repeaters. Spry data allow for easy integration of XML data or mash-ups with RSS data. These Spry features, along with full control over layouts via CSS, make it very easy to create rich user interfaces using only HTML/JavaScript. These applications can then be easily compiled to desktop applications using the Dreamweaver AIR extension.

Since Dreamweaver is also a CS3 product, the Dreamweaver interface shares some commonality with the Flash CS3 interface that was demonstrated above in this chapter. The following are some of the more commonly used windows and components that make up the Dreamweaver development environment.

4.3.1. Code/Design View

Dreamweaver CS3's main workspace includes three different views of the content being developed. First, there is a Code view, which shows the full source code of the document being edited, with full code highlighting and code hinting for HTML and JavaScript that are used in AIR applications as well as many other languages. There is also a Design view, which shows ...