Specifications

Chapter 230
Opening a document in Dreamweaver
When a user opens a file, Dreamweaver MX follows a series of steps to identify the document
type based on the file’s extension.
If Dreamweaver successfully finds a unique document type, Dreamweaver uses that type and
loads the associated server model (if any) for the document that the user is opening. If the user has
selected to use Dreamweaver UltraDev 4 server behaviors, Dreamweaver MX loads the
appropriate UltraDev 4 server model.
If the file extension maps to more than one document type, Dreamweaver performs the
following actions:
• If a static document type is among the list of document types, it gets preference.
• If all the document types are dynamic, Dreamweaver MX creates an alphabetical list of the
server models that are associated with these document types and then calls the
canRecognizeDocument() function in each server model (see “canRecognizeDocument()” on
page 217). Dreamweaver collects the return values and determines which server model
returned the highest valued positive integer. The document type whose server model returns
the highest integer is the document type that Dreamweaver assigns to the document being
opened. If, however, more than one server model returns the same integer, Dreamweaver goes
through the alphabetical list of those server models, picks the first in the list, and uses that
document type. For example, if both ASP-JS and ASP-VB claim an .asp document and if their
respective
canRecognizeDocument() functions return equal values, Dreamweaver assigns the
document to ASP-JS (because, alphabetically, ASP-JS is first).
If Dreamweaver MX cannot map the file extension to a document type, Dreamweaver opens the
document as a text file.