Replacement For ADDT Dynamic List / Form

Now that ADDT (Adobe Dreamweaver Developers Toolbox) is officially gone, I would like to find an alternative to ADDT's Dynamic List / Forms. These tools made building and managing custom CMS's so easy, and I currently do not know of another existing dreamweaver extension that allows you to build the same kind of CMS. If you've used them, you know what i mean. Features that I am looking for in a replacement extension are:

Dynamic List that can:
1. Multiple add / edit / delete records
2. Sort and filter.
3. Be able to "reorder" records or move certain records "up/down" in sequence while in the dynamic list page, essentially editing the order column of the database.
4. A filter that is persistent. By this I mean, it remembers your filter setting so after you add/delete/edit records, the list returns back to the same filtered list you were working with before. It will remember the filter until you reset it by clicking "reset filter".

Dynamic Form that can:
1. Same form used to Add New Record or Edit Existing Record. So you only have to build 1 form.
2. Same form used to Multiple Edits, Multiple Additions, Multiple Deletions.

Can one accomplish the above with DataAssist?

Thanks.

As someone with both tools (and the complete set of both), I can offer a few words and opinions.

I think the ADDT suite was easier out of the box, but I feel the WebAssist products allow me to do much much more as the code is far easier to modify/enhance/add to. But I do several complex projects that require me to do a great deal of hand coding, so ADDT - at times - was not nearly as flexible.

I have found WA to be able to do everything that ADDT could do and more with two exceptions. One is the "reorder" that you mention. While, yes, you could create an order-weight column and modify a few things, it's not as easy as ADDT's AJAX order arrows were where you could move things up and down and then click "save" on the top of the column to have the database save the new order.

I, however, have begun playing with a few AJAX scripts to see if I can modify it myself to easily be able to add that functionality to data tables created using WA's DataAssist. Of course, I will post it here if I get the time to complete it.

The other thing I thought ADDT was very good at was the Multiple Image Uploader that invoked the flash object to quickly upload and resize up to 200+ photos really quick. I found this to be great when creating photo galleries. The good news is that ADDT multiple image uploader still works OK on the latest PHP servers that I am using, so I use it in conjunction with DataAssist when creating photo galleries.

In fact, I still use several ADDT behaviors (such as "show if condition is met", etc.) alongside WebAssist with no problem at all. But I would recommend staying away from ADDT behaviors that require several includes and email transactions as I have found that much of the code used in those "heavier" behaviors fails in PHP 5.2.10 and up (such as user registration with email confirmation).

The last thing that I really like about WebAssist is the user community is far larger here than that of ADDT. And even better, when you have an issue here, the WA staff will actually respond to you on these boards to help you with solutions (something Adobe never did with ADDT).

Even better is the fact that the WA staff is reading these forums and taking notes and using information based on user needs to add functionality to their existing products and to create and release new products.

Best regards,

Brian

Brian,

Thanks for the reply. I guess its time for me to leases these extensions and phase out ADDT.

Man, I really wish DataAssist would allow "reorder" in a list like ADDT did since that is such a timesaver for my clients who manager their content inside ADDT Dynamic Lists. I have a feeling that is going to be a tough one to code by hand. Keep me posted if you make any progress coding that, and I will do the same.

I am currently using PHP5 Servers and have not had any issues with any ADDT extensions failing. According to forums at Adobe, ADDT should continue to work through all releases of PHP5. Can you confirm what failed?

Good to hear that the community has a lot of support. I agree that was lacking in ADDT, with the exception of Gunter - that guy was always helpful.

If the WebAssist Staff is reading this, please take a look at the "reorder" feature that was built into ADDT's Dynamic Lists and see if you guys can incorporate it into the next release. It really is an excellent feature.

Thanks again.

As far as what I have confirmed not to work in new iterations of PHP, the ADDT registration no longer works (nor does anything that sends an automated email because of deprecated functions) in 5.2.10 and higher.

Gunter (who is tremendous) and I discussed several other functions in the ADDT library (on one of the ADDT boards a while back) which would not work once 5.3 becomes the standard (not to mention what will happen when PHP 6 gets released). So I use what I can (like I said before a number of the light functions such as conditional regions work great and they are still huge time savers).

You could add the request for "reorder" functionality to the wishlist thread... they are pretty responsive to it. I know that a number of people, recently, have posed the very same question and WA's response has been that if enough people want it, they will seriously consider it for a future release.

Best regards,

Brian

Thanks Brian. Wow, things are already starting to fail with ADDT. I am using PHP5 servers and my sites are operating fine - mine must be running 5.1.

For anyone else interested, here is the adobe forum thread:
2291293

Yep... that was the thread where Gunter, myself, and others started talking about what could be done.

Everything, on the latest release of ADDT, worked until 5.2.10 (which really was the release candidate for PHP 5.3). So, if your server runs 5.2.9 or less, you will be fine.

Not sure what your hosting situation is but if they do regular updates like my hosting company does (Little Oak), then I would start making plans to get your stuff converted right away.

It took me over a day to figure out what went wrong on a client site when the switch to 5.2.10 happened and then after testing and testing, I had to recreate the registration system using my WebAssist tools (thankfully, I had them). So, I recycled what I could from the ADDT stuff but really had to write a new reg system using Data Assist to input the data, Security Assist to authenticate users, and Universal Email to send confirmation emails. It also forced me to learn a lot as I ended up creating my own random key generator for added security amongst other things.

I actually ended up writing a set of functions to handle things like date reformatting for databases, another function that would analyze a birth date and test it to see if the person was at least 13 (for legal reasons), and an encryption function (I needed this because I started with ADDT which uses MD5 and WebAssist uses SHA1). But the end, I now have a far more comprehensive set of functions that I can use on any site... so the end was good but finding and fixing the problems was quite difficult (especially when the client's users couldn't register or login for over a day).

Brian.

I checked with the shared hosting servers I am on, and the PHP5 servers are running 5.2.8. Everything works as of now, but the upgrade from 5.2.8 to 5.3 will be unannounced, and could happen any day according to my hosting company.

I have leased the WebAssist Package and installed it this morning. The install went well, but the multiple serial numbers is kinda a pain.

If I cannot get up to speed by the time my hosting company upgrades to PHP 5.3, I have the option to transfer my sites back to a PHP4 server to avoid the PHP5.3.

Thanks again. I appreciate the advice.

Good luck! At least you're still on 5.2.8 and have an option if things go crazy... I got zero notice when my hosting company went from 5.2.9 to 5.2.10... so I imagine the 5.3 will happen the same way.

Cheers,

Brian

Brian,

Came across this thread in the WA Forums regarding moving from ADDT Encryption (MD5) to WA Encryption (SHA1).

showthread.php?t=4857

Haven't tried it yet, but will report back as I make progress.

That is actually the method I use when I have a database that i originally created back in the ADDT days. The great thing about PHP is that it has the MD5 command built in.

Best regards,

Brian