ColdFusion in Dreamweaver Depending on the server technology you decide to use, features exposed in Dreamweaver's interface change. For the most part, however, you can bank on the fact that the following features are always available when working with any server-side technology, including ColdFusion: The Insert Bar: A visual representation of objects available in the Insert menu, the Application category in the Insert bar, allows you to visually insert various types of dynamic objects onto your page. The Insert menu: Use the Application Objects and ColdFusion Objects submenus in the Insert menu to insert both generic application objects as well as ColdFusion-specific objects. The Application Panel: Divided into four tabs (Databases, Bindings, Server Behaviors, and Components), the Application panel provides the means for connecting to and accessing database data, binding that data to elements on the page, accessing various application objects, and consuming Web services or ColdFusion Components (CFC). When working with dynamic pages in Dreamweaver, you should always have this panel open. The Tag Chooser: If you want to make fine-tuned changes in your ColdFusion markup, choose specific elements from the Tag Chooser. Available by choosing the Tag option from the Insert menu, you can choose an option from the Tag Chooser to open the Properties dialog for the particular tag, allowing you to further customize attributes of the tag. The Reference Panel: If you ever need help regarding the various ColdFusion objects, application objects, or tags, you can reference them from the Reference panel available, by choosing the Reference option from the Window menu. Earlier, I mentioned that most of the dynamic functionality built into Dreamweaver is the same regardless of the server-side technology you decide to use. This becomes obvious with the Application Objects submenu in the Insert menu and the Application category in the Insert bar. The objects listed in these menus expose generic functionality that remains consistent regardless of server-side technology. What does change is the option below the Application Objects option in the Insert menu. This option (which varies from ASP Object, ASP.NET Objects, ColdFusion Objects, and PHP Objects, depending on which server-side technology you decide to use), displays specific content accordingly.           Introduction to PHP It's hard to argue that PHP Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) has taken the web development world by storm. PHP is a lightweight, easy-to-learn, and quickly deployed open-source scripting language with a number of convenient features. The language's lineage is Perl, C, and Java, so many developers familiar with those languages will find making the switch very easy. PHP works very well with many database solutions, but it is almost always mentioned in the same breath as the open source MySQL database (discussed with greater detail in the next chapter). PHP can run on Windows, Unix, and Mac servers; it supports IIS, Apache, and other Web servers. As for functionality, PHP 5 has limited support for object-oriented programming, nesting of modules, and custom functions. It has a rich set of built-in tools that let you access