Advanced Behaviors

Dreamweaver has two advanced behaviors that let you call (invoke) custom Java-Script functions and change the properties of various HTML elements on a page. Both of them require familiarity with JavaScript and HTML. Unlike the other Dreamweaver behaviors, these two can easily generate browser errors if you use them incorrectly.

This box lets you hide or show any element on a page. In fact, you can control multiple elements at once. Here, the “toolTip1” div appears, while the div “toolTip2” disappears, when a visitor triggers the behavior. Other elements—like an HTML form and a form field (both have IDs so they appear here)—are unaffected by this particular action.

Figure 14-17. This box lets you hide or show any element on a page. In fact, you can control multiple elements at once. Here, the “toolTip1” div appears, while the div “toolTip2” disappears, when a visitor triggers the behavior. Other elements—like an HTML form and a form field (both have IDs so they appear here)—are unaffected by this particular action.

Call JavaScript

You can use the Call JavaScript behavior to execute a single line of JavaScript code or to call a JavaScript function that you add to the <head> section of your web page.

When you select a tag and choose this behavior’s name from the Behaviors panel, the Call JavaScript dialog box opens. If you want to execute a single line of Java-Script code, simply type it in. For instance, if you want to make the browser window close, type window.close(). If you want to call a JavaScript function, type the function name, like this: myFunction().

Change Property

The Change Property behavior can dynamically alter the value of a property or change the style of any of the following HTML tags: <div>, ...

Get Dreamweaver CS5: The Missing Manual now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.