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Introduction Not too long ago, professional web developers didn't have much to turn to when creating dynamic web sites. There were lots of great text based editors, but very few visual editors that actually produced clean and useable code. Things seem to be changing for the better. In recent memory, several design tools, including Dreamweaver have been released and are slowly breaking down the bad reputation that visual HTML editors were given by the likes of Microsoft FrontPage. In fact, many people have recognized Dreamweaver 3 as one of the easiest and most powerful editors available while still creating fairly clean code (defined as pages that generate properly on most browsers, don't use proprietary tags, and don't contain any useless lines of HTML). Well, Macromedia has decided to take that a step forward with Dreamweaver UltraDev. Dreamweaver UltraDev is designed for the professional web developer who not only needs a powerful web design tool, but the ability to access databases and create full web applications. UltraDev is really a hybrid application created from the combination of Dreamweaver and another Macromedia product, Drumbeat. Dreamweaver UltraDev contains the intuitive interface and HTML tools from Dreamweaver with the web application/database manipulation qualities of Drumbeat.
The Interface For those familiar with Dreamweaver 3, UltraDev looks much the same and you should be able to make a quick transition. You have several floating palates to choose from for making quick work of your design. There is the main window, in which the "rendered" page is shown. 90% of your work can be done easily from there. Floating windows for working directly on the source code, adding links and images, and formatting text are all easily accessible -- or use hot key/menu options to get the same effect.
The Features UltraDev supports just about every current HTML feature: Cascading Style Sheets, Server Side Includes, layers, Java, JavaScript, VBScript, frames, forms, has built in tools for creating navigation bars with rollover ability, and inserting Flash and Shockwave files. It also has strong template support, allowing you to create a general design, set the areas that can be edited, and save so that all pages can be based on that single design. Also, if you make a change to your template, Dreamweaver gives you the option to make the modification to all existing pages based on the template... cool!
Now on to the UltraDev-specific features. It seems like Macromedia wanted to include just about everyone with their back-end support. UltraDev supports Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) for ASP applications, Allaire ColdFusion for CFML applications, and IBM WebSphere and iPlanet Web Server, Enterprise Edition 4.1 for JSP applications. Additionally, Dreamweaver UltraDev can link to any ODBC, ADO, or JDBC database source or to legacy data systems through COM objects, and JavaBeans. What does all of this mean? Full integration with existing database systems, and ease in creating data driven sites for both application developers and web designers. Part of this process is Live Data Preview. According to Macromedia, designers are able to "inspect databases, build queries, create application logic, and then view dynamic content..." But what does this mean? Developers can create and test their pages using Dreamweaver UltraDev. There is less dependence on using other testing tools or a web browser. So they've taken Dreamweaver's exceptional previewing ability and extended it to Drumbeat. Anyone who has fought with a database site trying to get everything to sync properly will love this feature.
Inclusion is the Key! UltraDev seems to pride itself on supporting a plethora of different technologies, from the back-end to the front-end. Since this is a Macromedia product, you may be expecting that it throw some support at it's own products... and you'd be right. It includes strong support for Flash and Shockwave files as well as for importing graphics and HTML code from Fireworks. UltraDev also includes a separate text browser for you hardcore coders out there. Mac users receive a demo copy of Bare Bones BBEdit, one of the best web tools on the market. Homesite (another powerful text editor) is included with the Windows version. While it seems that inclusion is the key here, I found the absence of Filemaker Pro support a little disappointing. While UltraDev supports ODBC databases, which is fully supported in Filemaker Pro 5, there doesn't seem to be any direct support for it, nor is there any support of third party objects like lasso (that's not to say that you can't use UltraDev in conjunction with Filemaker Pro), so you don't get and great advantages by using UltraDev like Live Data Previews when using a Filemaker Pro server.
Upgrades and Pricing... Macromedia is trying to make sure that everyone gets into this party. While the standard retail price of $599 may be a bit much for some developers, Macromedia is offering deals to existing customers so that they may upgrade. For instance, Drumbeat 2000 is no longer being sold (support is still being offered until January 1st, 2001), but existing Drumbeat users may upgrade to UltraDev for $99 (If they purchased Drumbeat after April 5th, they are entitled to a free upgrade). Registered Dreamweaver 3 customers can move on up for $299. I think it's great that Macromedia has been able to release a new product without leaving any existing users in the cold.
Manual and Help Thoughts Well, in an age where getting a paper manual from anything other than a game is rare, Macromedia is trying to take down a forest or two in rebellion. I received not one, but two manuals with UltraDev! Since it's based on Dreamweaver 3, they've included the full manual for that application as well as a separate UltraDev specific book to bridge the gap - my bookshelf runneth over. And as it seems to be the norm these days, Macromedia has included a local HTML help site in place of an in-application help file that many of us are most comfortable with. This is good because it's nice and cross platform, and it also makes sense for a web design tool to use HTML help (and it's easy to "upgrade" in the event that Macromedia expands or fixes it), but odd because it seems a bit slow (with the built in Java search client). I was also a bit disturbed because the help didn't seem too helpful at times. You'd be best off keeping the paper manuals at your side if you plan on asking "how to do" anything.
Miscellaneous UltraDev is a resource hog! I'm used to having high memory consumption from a graphics program or game, but not from a web design tool. If you expect to have everything open for testing, make sure that you have plenty of RAM. I was using Dreamweaver UltraDev, BBEdit, Photoshop, Netscape, IE, and iCab concurrently on my testing machine and couldnŐt do much more than run an email client and stickies on my test machine (192 MB RAM G4). So keep that in mind if you've got the "minimum." Also, expect Sherlock to have a heart attack when next indexing your machine. My installation of UltraDev placed 3,734 files on my machine... that's a lot of tutorials.
Final Thoughts There is no doubt in my mind that Dreamweaver is one of the best web development tools on the market, and Macromedia has taken it to a new level with UltraDev. Is it right for you? Many designers out there will never need to touch on the database support that UltraDev comes with. For those of you out there, Dreamweaver 3 ($299 retail) may be a better choice. But if you need a powerful web design tool and need to develop data-driven sites, UltraDev could be your best all inclusive option... if only it had support for Filemaker Pro. Macromedia has posted a page full of Dreamweaver UltraDev's features and a demo is available here. All in all, UltraDev is a near perfect web application tool in my mind and has earned 4.5 Smileys.
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Another
strong feature that really comes in handy when working on full web application
design and dynamic pages is the "Define Site" option (see screenshot to
the right). This allows you to define a folder on your computer, or a
remote machine as the "site." UltraDev will make sure that your local
site works once it's made live on the server, with root and relative linking,
and actually rendering pages completely (even those that use includes).
Also, the site window allows you to search for broken links and orphaned
files on your site. 
