I’ve written a first look of the Dreamweaver CS4 Beta for Macworld.com. If you’re interested in what new features the next version of Dreamweaver will have, you can read my impressions of the Beta at the Macworld site.
If you use the “Insert Flash Video” command in either Dreamweaver CS3 or Dreamweaver 8, you should download a security update from the Adobe Web site. Apparently the code inserted by Dreamweaver is open to “cross site scripting attacks.” Adobe doesn’t go into much detail about how these “attacks” might work, but they mention that there is the potential that an “attacker could gain access to the customer’s session by appending a script to the link.” At any rate, you can never be too safe, you should download and install the update.
Click here to download the security update and for instructions on installing it.
You can also learn more about the problem from this security bulletin on Adobe’s site.
Network Solutions, one of the original domain registrars, is apparently playing a nasty trick on people who use their Web site to search for a domain name. According to Domain Tools blog, Network Solutions is temporarily snatching up the names of domains when a visitor searches for that domain’s availability. This means you can’t register the domain with any other registrar (like GoDaddy.com, for instance) until the domain name is released 4 days later by Network Solutions. It’s an attempt to force you to register with Network Solutions. What’s worse, is the domain name is then exposed to the rest of the world, and unscrupulous domain traders can snatch up the domain name when the 4 day grace period passes–meaning you can lose out on your perfect domain name if you use Network Solutions to search for available domain names.
I just tested this out, in fact, and it’s true! I searched for a .com domain at Network Solutions and was informed that it was available. A moment later, I went to godaddy.com and searched for the same domain, and what do you know? It was taken–by Network Solutions!
You can read more about this at: http://blog.domaintools.com/2008/01/network-solutions-steals-domain-ideas-confirmed/.
My advice: AVOID NETWORK SOLUTIONS.
The Dreamweaver team has posted a list of features currently available in Dreamweaver CS3, that they’ll remove in the next version of the program. These features have been around for several versions of the product and are considered not that useful to the vast majority of Dreamweaver users; they also require a lot of work on the part of the Dreamweaver engineers to maintain.
Here’s the list:
In general, this is a great move. Supporting .NET and Java Server Pages just doesn’t make a lot of sense; Microsoft now has its own visual Web authoring program that supports .NET, and JSP is a rather complex technology that most Dreamweaver users don’t need. This also means that the Dreamweaver team can MORE energy into improving the aging server-side tools for PHP, ColdFusion and ASP.
The Site Map is pretty much useless, since it doesn’t provide a real map of your site, just a bunch of lines showing EVERY SINGLE LINK between pages–usually TOO MUCH information to glean an accurate overview of a site.
I’ll also be gald to see Flash elements, Flash buttons and Flash text gone. There are better methods of achieving the same effects: for example, the new Spry framework incorporated into Dreamweaver CS3 for example can create more useful slideshows and navigation buttons, and SIFR (http://novemberborn.net/sifr3) is an easier and more accesible method for creating Flash-based text headlines.
You can read Adobe’s TechNote on the issue at http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb402489&sliceId=1.
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