Specifications
Server Formats 201
The Edit Format List plus (+) menu
If you do not want a file in the ServerFormats folder to appear in the Edit Format List plus (+) 
menu, add the following statement as the first line in the HTML file:
<!-- MENU-LOCATION=NONE --> 
To determine the contents of the menu, Dreamweaver first looks for a ServerFormats.xml file in 
the same folder as the data formats (for example, 
\Configuration\ServerFormats\ASP\ServerFormats.xml). The ServerFormats.xml file describes 
the contents of the Edit Format List plus (+) menu; it contains references to the HTML files that 
it lists in the menu. 
Dreamweaver checks each referenced HTML file for a title tag. If the file contains a title tag, the 
content of the title tag appears in the menu. If the file does not contain a title tag, the filename is 
used in the menu. 
After Dreamweaver finishes, or if this file does not exist, Dreamweaver scans the rest of the folder 
to find other items that should appear in the menu. If Dreamweaver find files in the main folder 
that aren’t already in the menu, it adds them to the menu. If subfolders contain files that aren’t 
already in the menu, Dreamweaver creates a submenu and adds those files to it.
When the data formatting functions are called
The data formatting functions are called in the following scenarios:
• In the Dynamic Data or Dynamic Text dialog box, the user chooses a node from the data 
source tree and a format from the Format menu. When the user selects the format, 
Dreamweaver calls 
generateDynamicDataRef() and passes the return value from 
generateDynamicDataRef() to formatDynamicDataRef(). The return value from 
formatDynamicDataRef() appears in the Code setting of the dialog box. After the user clicks 
OK, the string of code is inserted into the user’s document. Next, Dreamweaver calls the 
applyFormat() function to insert a function declaration. See “generateDynamicDataRef()” 
on page 195 for more information. A similar process occurs when the user works with the 
Bindings panel.
• If the user changes the format or deletes the dynamic data item, the deleteFormat() function 
is called. The 
deleteFormat() function removes the support scripts from the document.
• When the user clicks the plus (+) button in the Edit Format List dialog box, Dreamweaver 
displays a menu that contains all the format types for the given server model. Each format type 
corresponds to a file in the Configuration\ServerFormats\currentServerModel folder. 
If the user chooses a format from the plus (+) menu that requires a user-specified parameter, 
Dreamweaver executes the 
onload handler on the body tag and displays the Parameters dialog 
box, which shows the parameters for the format type. In this dialog box, the user chooses 
parameters for the format and clicks OK, and Dreamweaver calls the 
applyFormatDefinition() function. 
If the selected format does not need to display a dialog box and lets the user choose parameters, 
Dreamweaver calls 
applyFormatDefinition() when the user chooses the format type from 
the plus (+) menu.
• Later, if the user edits the format by selecting it in the Edit Format List dialog box and clicking 
the Edit button, Dreamweaver calls 
inspectFormatDefinition() before displaying the 
Parameters dialog box, so the form controls can be initialized to the correct values. 










