Aug292006Dreamweaver 8 and PHP 5.1.4 Busted
There’s a new set of technical problems with Dreamweaver. It probably only affects a small number of you–those building database-driven sites with PHP/MySQL and only if you’re running PHP 5.1.4 (this is the version you’re most likely running if you’ve recently installed XAMPP or MAMP as a testing server.) So if neither of those apply to you, you can skip the rest of this post.
For those still with me, Dreamweaver has some serious problems with PHP 5.1.4. For example, the XSL transformation server behavior discussed in Chapter 24 of my book, just doesn’t work! So the tutorial for that Chapter may not work for you at all. In addition, in some cases simple recordsets won’t work either. There are a few other problems on top of that which are discussed in a technical note on the Adobe site.
At any rate, there’s a fix for the problem, but Adobe won’t post it on their Web site! You have to contact technical support to get the fix…I’ve been on the phone for about 25 minutes 35 minutes now (I was disconnected twice) waiting to get an answer to this.
<<time passes>>
After talking to 5 different tech support people, I will supposedly get the fix shortly via e-mail…
<<pause while I wait>>
One hour later…
<<pause while I wait>>
Two hours later…
<<pause while I wait>>
Oh well, I’ve got to get going…
9 Responses to “Dreamweaver 8 and PHP 5.1.4 Busted”
Dave McFarland September 7th, 2006 at 9:31 am
Hi Riley,
It does work with PHP 4.3 (and 4.2, but not 4.0) but ONLY if XML support is enabled on your server. In PHP 5, XML support is built-in, but it’s optional with PHP 4. There’s a good artcle on the Adobe site explaining how to setup XML support for PHP: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/config_php_xslt.html. However, you usually don’t have control over your PHP installation at a Web Hosting company. So if XML support isn’t enabled at your Web host (the article mentioned above shows you how to find out), then request your Web host to add it, or find a different hosting company.
Hal Corbould September 21st, 2006 at 5:14 pm
Dave - What about PHP 5.1.6 which was released in August, just before you added your post? Still the same DW problem as with 5.1.4?
I see the Adobe website says DW8 is ok with 5.0.x.
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=98dd5a1#svrmodels
I’ve got a PHP 5.0.0 version so I’ll try that for testing. I have not been able to find a 4.3.x to download - everything now available for download is PHP 5.x.x
Agree - great book!
Dave McFarland September 22nd, 2006 at 9:18 am
Hal,
I’m not sure about 5.1.6–I haven’t tested it out.
Yes DW8 is OK with PHP 5.0–everything related to Dreamewaver’s PHP/MySQL tools works with 5; it’s just that with version 5.1.4 of PHP a few things DON’T work…most notably the XSLT/XML stuff I discuss in Chapter 24 of my book.
Carmine September 28th, 2006 at 9:37 am
Great book thanks! I want just to let you know that the application XAMPP does not seem to work on Mac OS X (I downloaded it, but the application seems to be a Classic Application… (it is actually named “mamppstart.app”).
In any case a similar application named mamppstack 5.5 seems to the same thing. regards.
Dave McFarland September 28th, 2006 at 9:44 am
Carmine,
XAMPP isn’t the best choice for Mac users anymore. When I wrote the PHP/MySQL tutorials for Dreamweaver XAMPP seemed to work fine. However, development of the Mac version seems to have stalled, so I’m recommending Mac users to use MAMP instead. You can download it from the MAMP Website.
J-Girl October 2nd, 2006 at 7:36 pm
Anyway just asking is XAMPP good for Windows XP?
Dave McFarland October 2nd, 2006 at 8:04 pm
J-Girl,
Yes XAMPP is perfect for Windows XP! Go out and buy it…oh, yeah, i forgot…it’s totally FREE: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html
J-Girl October 3rd, 2006 at 2:25 am
okay thanks! =) I’m already using it. Just checking on it.
Riley-Huff September 6th, 2006 at 9:45 pm
Adobe claims it will work in earlier versions but I tried PHP 4 and 4.3 to no avail. They claim to have an extension but it is not on the site…hence likely that is a bogus statement. I’ll try emailing them but I guess I’ll need to do this on IIS. Great book thanks!