Dreamweaver CS6: The Missing Manual

Spry Data Sets

Dreamweaver lets you display data more dynamically than a plain-vanilla HTML table can. Spry data sets provide several ways to present data from a variety of sources, including basic HTML tables or XML files. With a Spry data set, you can create an interactive table that visitors can sort just by clicking the header of a table column.

Say a page has a table that lists all the employees in a company. The table includes each employee’s name, the region of the country where he or she works, his or her phone number, and other important information. Sometimes you might want to see the list alphabetized by last name; other times you may want to sort the list by the regions in which they work (northeast, southeast, and so on). Normally, you’d have to create two web pages: one with a table of employees listed by last name, and another with employees listed by region.

With a Spry data set, you need only one page and one table, no matter how many columns you have. That’s because a Spry table is interactive, just like a regular old Excel spreadsheet. Want to see employees organized by last name? Click the “Name” column. To group employees by region, click the “Region” column. A Spry table is interactive, instantaneous, and doesn’t require loading another web page.

In addition, Spry data sets let you display detailed data on a single item in the table. Suppose you have a simple table that lists just employees’ names and the regions in which they work. With Spry, you can add an “Up ...