Macromedia dreamweaver 8-extending dreamweaver User Manual

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Floating Panels

How floating panel files work

Custom floating panels can be moved, resized, and tabbed together the same way as the 
floating panels that are built in to Dreamweaver. Custom floating panels differ from built-in 
floating panels in the following ways:

■

Custom floating panels display in the default gray. Setting the 

BGCOLOR

 attribute in the 

BODY

 tag has no effect.

■

All custom floating panels either appear always in front of the Document window or float 
behind it when inactive, depending on the setting for All Other Floaters in the 
Panels preferences. 

Floating panel files also differ somewhat from other extensions. Unlike other extension files, 
Dreamweaver does not load floating panel files into memory at startup unless the floating 
panels were visible when Dreamweaver last shut down. If the floating panels were not visible 
when Dreamweaver shut down, the files that define them are loaded only when referenced 
from one of the following functions: 

dreamweaver.getFloaterVisibility()

, 

dreamweaver.setFloaterVisibility()

, or 

dreamweaver.toggleFloater()

. For more 

information on these functions, see the Dreamweaver API Reference.

When one of the files inside the Configuration folder calls the 

dw.getFloaterVisibility(floaterName)

, 

dw.setFloaterVisibility(floaterName)

, 

or 

dw.toggleFloater(floaterName)

 functions, the following events occur:

1.

If 

 is not one of the reserved floating panel names, Dreamweaver searches the 

Configuration/Floaters folder for a file called 

.htm. (For a complete list of 

reserved floating panel names, see the 

dreamweaver.getFloaterVisibility()

 function 

in the Dreamweaver API Reference. If 

.htm is not found, Dreamweaver 

searches for 

.html. If no file is found, nothing happens.

2.

If the floating panel file is being loaded for the first time, the 

initialPosition()

 function 

is called, if it is defined, to determine the floating panel’s default position on the screen, 
and the 

initialTabs()

 function is called, if it is defined, to determine the floating panel’s 

default tab grouping.

3.

The 

selectionChanged()

 and 

documentEdited()

 functions are called on the 

assumption that changes probably occurred while the floating panel was hidden.