Dreamweaver MX: The Missing Manual

Exploring the Databases Panel

The Databases panel (Figure 21-12) lets you do more than just connect databases to your site. It also lets you explore the structure and content of a database. By clicking the + buttons (flippy triangles), you can view any of three lists:

• Tables lists the tables in the database (see page 626); you can further expand this list to view the columns in each table. This is the option you’ll use most often.

• Views. A list of all views stored in the database. A view is a selection of data in the database—a slice of its data. Unless you’ve created views using the database systems tools, this list is empty.

• Stored Procedures. A list of programs, stored in the database, that access and manipulate its information. Since they’re stored within the database, they run faster than similar code stored in a Web page. (Some database systems—Access and MySQL, for example—don’t recognize this feature.)

Note

To get a quick peak at the data in a database table, right-click (Control-click) the table’s name in the Databases panel. From the contextual menu, choose View Data.

In this chapter, you’ve laid the foundation for a dynamic Web site. You’re now ready to start adding data from a database—and building a real, dynamic Web application.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONParenthetical Puzzler

In the Databases panel, I see some weird information in parentheses next to the column names—Integer 4 Required, for example. What’s that about?

You’re right—there is a notation next to each column ...