RDS support in Eclipse

coldfusion (This post is more than 2 years old.)

Just in case you missed it, there is now RDS support in Eclipse. This was the last nail in the coffin for HomeSite+ for me. I've actually been using it for a while now and it works great. It was especially useful in updating the trackback spam list for my blog remotely. (Which I've now just turned off. Thanks spammers.) The dataview is also really darn handy. I tend to easily forget column names and stuff like that, so having it available in Eclipse has been extremely helpful.

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Archived Comments

Comment 1 by Phillip Senn posted on 3/21/2006 at 6:18 PM

Is Dreamweaver so inadequate that people have to go to an alternative?
Are the features in Eclipse so much better that they justify migrating from Dreamweaver?

Comment 2 by Critter posted on 3/21/2006 at 6:28 PM

Dreamweaver = many much money
Eclipse + Cfeclipse = bit of bandwidth...

Comment 3 by Critter posted on 3/21/2006 at 6:29 PM

Plus there are a ton of plugins for eclipse..

Comment 4 by Raymond Camden posted on 3/21/2006 at 6:30 PM

Who says Dreamweaver is inadequate? It's just different. Personally, I have never cared much for Dreamweaver. I don't think I match it's target audience. Eclipse is much more a "coders" IDE then DWMX, in my hot-so-humble opinion.

Critter made some points about price, and I agree for sure, but at the end of the day, I don't think it's "DW sucks, Eclipse rocks", but more that one IDE is suited for some types of people than another IDE.

Comment 5 by Brian Rinaldi posted on 3/21/2006 at 6:47 PM

Am I the only one having trouble installing this? I follow the instructions on the link but I get a "No features found on the selected site(s). Choose a different site or site category"

Comment 6 by Scott Stroz posted on 3/21/2006 at 6:48 PM

I have used DW for several years. One big stumblign bock for me (being an incredibel creature of habit) is that I have been unable to get CFE code hints to function like I am used to.

I know that when typing some tags or attributes (in DW), I know I can hit enter and teh tag/attribute will be completed. With CFE, sometimes the code hints don't work. I have had instances where on one line of a page they don't work, but in the next line, they do.

Anyway, I seem to spend more time fixing inadvertant line breaks or half compelted tags/attributes.

Comment 7 by Critter posted on 3/21/2006 at 6:50 PM

@Brian, no. I have not been able to access the files, either.

If you browse to: http://cfeclipse.org/update/ it doesn't look, by the timestamps, that any of the files are new...

Comment 8 by Brian Rinaldi posted on 3/21/2006 at 6:54 PM

Someone mentioned a zip file download, but I am not able to locate that either.

Comment 9 by Teddy Payne posted on 3/21/2006 at 7:03 PM

Ray,
I left a comment on Mark Drew's website as well. The initial instructions from the Adobe labs seems incomplete. The CFEclipse update sections instructs users to get the latest stable build of 1.2. The instructions that follow after that assume that the RDS plugin is apart of the 1.2 CFE version.

Am I missing an option here? Adobe refers to Windows > Preferences > RDS Connections, which after the update is not present.

What's up?!

Comment 10 by Raymond Camden posted on 3/21/2006 at 7:09 PM

The RDS support is a plugin you download from labs. Go to the labs, go to the download for FLEX BUILDER 2, and it's the second link, "Download ColdFUsion Extensions to Flex Builder 2". Even though it says it is for FB, it works in vanilla CFE as well.

Comment 11 by Oliver Merk posted on 3/21/2006 at 7:09 PM

Same deal here. Tried under Eclipse 3.1 and 3.12. Tried CFeclipse stable and bleeding edge.

Anyone from Adobe going to pipe up on this?

Comment 12 by Brian Rinaldi posted on 3/21/2006 at 7:18 PM

Thanks for instructions on how to find the download Ray, I was finally able to get it, and I now see the RDS configuration.

Comment 13 by Teddy Payne posted on 3/21/2006 at 7:29 PM

Ok, the web site for the Eclipse plugin is not intuitive to find or at least it was not for me.

http://www.macromedia.com/c...

You will have to login or register into Adobe labs.

Under the section "Flex Builder 2.0," there is a link that says "Download ColdFusion Extensions to Flex Builder 2.0."

This is what you want as it unzips into the plugins folder of eclipse.

Comment 14 by Justin Cataldo posted on 3/21/2006 at 8:00 PM

Is anyone else having trouble to trying to connect to a remote server off their network with the RDS plugin? I can connect fine to any server on my network but when I try to connect to a test server I have on another network I can't seem to connect. It works fine in Dreamweaver though.

Comment 15 by Teddy Payne posted on 3/21/2006 at 8:28 PM

I am having problems connecting to a local web server and also to an intranet web server that is confirmed to have RDS enabled.

My initial suspiscion is proxy settings support. Even though I use the following switches when I load eclipse:

-vmargs
-DproxySet=true
-DproxyHost=address
-DproxyPort=port

Comment 16 by Terry Schmitt posted on 3/21/2006 at 9:11 PM

Oops... It looks like the plugin doesn't work with CF5? I get a security credentials error.
Scary, but my work environment is still CF5! I guess this is motivation to get all my stuff converted to CF7.

Comment 17 by Raymond Camden posted on 3/21/2006 at 9:33 PM

According to the doc I linked to above, CF5 is supported. I'd file a bug.

Comment 18 by Matt Williams posted on 3/21/2006 at 9:44 PM

I am having the opposite problem of Justin. I can connect to my server that is at my web hosting company, but not to my development server that is on my network. I can connect to my localhost, though. Wierd. I tried via IP address and the host name.

Comment 19 by Jeffrey Smallwood posted on 3/21/2006 at 11:37 PM

Ok, this really would be the nail in the coffin IF IT SUPPORTS HTTPS/SSL connections. That is something that still pisses me off about DWMX. We self-sign our certs in development to keep all the information secure, but CFStudio5 was the last product that worked properly with RDS and HTTPS.

Anyone know if this works now in CFE? If so, it's worth setting up. If not, I still have a reason to keep CFStudio 5 installed :(

Comment 20 by Jason Holden posted on 3/22/2006 at 3:30 AM

I can't add files to a site like I can in Homesite. When I need to upload a new image I usually just drag and drop it. How do I add files to a website that exist on my local system?

Comment 21 by Raymond Camden posted on 3/22/2006 at 3:41 AM

At the top of the RDS pane there is an icon for both making a new file and a new folder.

Comment 22 by PaulC posted on 3/22/2006 at 4:01 AM

As far as the DW/CFEclipse debate goes, I tried CFEclipse and found that I'm just too used to DW, and too efficient with it to switch development tools. Starting with a new tool feels like crawling all over again.

Rule of thumb: Use whatever you work best in, not what claims to have the most features.

Comment 23 by Raymond Camden posted on 3/22/2006 at 4:05 AM

I will say one thing about CFE compared to HomeSite+. CFE was a lot harder to get into. It took me a while to feel comfortable. I'm very happy with it now and wouldn't return to HomeSite+ (which is what, 3 years old now), but you do need to give it some time to get familiar with CFE.

Comment 24 by Jason Holden posted on 3/22/2006 at 4:10 AM

I'm still missing something. I see where I can create a new file and folder, but neither dialog prompts me for an existing file that I have on my system. How would I add a new image that exists on my local system to a website that I'm accessing via RDS.

Comment 25 by michael traher posted on 3/22/2006 at 2:51 PM

The labs site download is very hard to find and a bit missleading in places, especially if you are new to eclipse and plugins. I have some instructions on my blog if anyone is still having trouble. http://www.socialpoints.com

Comment 26 by Raymond Camden posted on 3/22/2006 at 7:44 PM

Jason, you cann't use RDS to copy binary files. To copy a text file, you would need to make a new file, and then cut and paste.

Comment 27 by Jason Holden posted on 3/23/2006 at 2:54 AM

Do you mean it's not a feature in RDS for CFEclipse? Homesite 5.5 allows me to upload binary files by dragging and dropping via RDS.

Comment 28 by Raymond Camden posted on 3/23/2006 at 3:03 AM

Nope, you can't. Personally I found the Explorer integration VERY buggy, so I don't miss that.

Comment 29 by Ron West posted on 4/12/2006 at 8:49 PM

Ok,

Got it installed, and everything works fine except that when I open a file I can not edit it. I am seeing this on a few different RDS machines so I am sure it has little to do with permissions.

Any thoughts.

Comment 30 by Raymond Camden posted on 4/12/2006 at 10:08 PM

No, sorry. I -believe- there is support for the product at labs, like a forums, maybe try there?

Comment 31 by Matt Nelson posted on 4/24/2006 at 8:20 PM

I've followed all of the instructions and placed the plugin file inside of the plugins folder for eclipse. However, when I try to click on the RDS link in the preferences menu, it comes back with an alert that says: "The currently displayed page contains invalid values." I click 'OK' and try to click the 'New' button to add an RDS server, but clicking the 'New' button doesn't do anything. Does anyone have suggestions of what I should try next?
Thanks.

Comment 32 by Raymond Camden posted on 4/24/2006 at 8:25 PM

Maybe do a clean start of Eclipse? I forget the command, but there is a way to force Eclipse to refresh stuff on startup. I've used this in the past.

Comment 33 by Matt Nelson posted on 4/25/2006 at 2:04 AM

Oops, my mistake. Sorry to trouble you. Looks like my version of Eclipse isn't new enough.

Comment 34 by Wayne Fehres posted on 7/12/2006 at 11:35 PM

I have Colfusion Enterprise 7.02 installed and it's using IIS and it's default website. But my Flex Builder refuses to connect using RDS.

"Unable to contact RDS Server Intranet"

The settings for RDS isn't rocket science but i'm wondering if i have to type in a "context root" because i have CF installed on J2EE.

Does anyone have an example of how to type in the context root?

Thanks,
Wayne

Comment 35 by Raymond Camden posted on 7/12/2006 at 11:40 PM

Just go to the RDS preferences.

Comment 36 by Wayne Fehres posted on 7/13/2006 at 12:30 AM

I'm at the RDS preferences screen and i've filled in all the fields to connect to our Intranet and when i hit "test connection" it won't connect. I'm just wondering if anyone has an example of what i would type into the "Contect Root" feild...i have a feeling that i need to fill that out because I have CF deployed as a J2EE application.

Comment 37 by Raymond Camden posted on 7/13/2006 at 12:36 AM

Your context root shold be evident when you view CF pages. Do you see /cfusion in the URL? If so - it is your context root. I'd try /cfusion. I think that is the default.

Comment 38 by Eric posted on 7/13/2006 at 5:32 PM

I am having trouble connecting to my local RDS server. I am running Apache and Coldfusion on JRun and I get a can't contact the rds server error. Has anybody been able to solve this issue? I even tried specifying the context root of cfusion and that didn;t work either.

Comment 39 by Raymond Camden posted on 7/13/2006 at 5:55 PM

Not sure Eric. You can get support via the forums for them. When you installed CF, you did install RDS right?

Comment 40 by mark posted on 7/28/2006 at 4:33 AM

what a can of worms it seems .. Worked fine for me, i too was using homesite but looking at cfeclipse and figured seeing as i was going to get into flex 2 why not make the switch and plug them both in.

Once i configured the RDS for simple localhost & IIS setup ran like a dream, don't think i will be going back anytime soon.

Comment 41 by Leonard posted on 7/31/2006 at 9:16 PM

Am I the only one who is having trouble actually editing a file? How do you edit a file that already exists on your server? The RDS view lets me creat and delete, but not open/edit. Dreamweaver allows it.

Comment 42 by Raymond Camden posted on 7/31/2006 at 10:47 PM

Do you get any kind of error?

Comment 43 by Ron West posted on 7/31/2006 at 11:10 PM

I actually reported this issue on this post earlier (4/12). I am still receiving this with only certain servers. Some servers are fine, and some are not.

I have not installed the release version (I was using beta 2 previously). It may have been fixed.

Also, is there a list of which packagages in the "/plugins" directory are associated with the Flex package? One thing I am struggling with since I have switched to Eclipse (which I am truly happy with) is how to "remove" a package? There seems to be a ton of different directories installed with each package.

Comment 44 by Steve Durette posted on 2/9/2007 at 9:33 PM

I just figured out something that may help some people. I have a dev server with multiple instances and I couldn't get RDS to work. So I tried something different, I found out what port the coldfusion instance was on (i.e. 8302) and changed the port in RDS from 80 to 8302 and BAM! It works. Maybe multiple instances have to have the instance port number.

Comment 45 by Al K Holden posted on 2/13/2007 at 4:49 AM

What's the command line to (re)start the CF61 RDS server in Linux? I want to play with my new plug-in too!

This dang thing's been humming along for years since I upgraded years ago, with nary a restart. That's a real problem with Linux... there's so little to do for years so you forget how to administer it.

I seem to recall "/opt/coldfusionmx/bin/" but I go blank after that...

Comment 46 by Bill Tindal posted on 2/14/2007 at 10:43 AM

Can someone please explain to me how the RDS plugin architecture works for uploading files?

I cannot see how to open a local project in CFEclipse and then upload a file to a designated RDS server???

I must be blind.

Sure I get file and data views on my RDS server but i want to work locally and then right-click etc to push my files up to the server..

Comment 47 by Raymond Camden posted on 2/14/2007 at 4:53 PM

Bill, it doesn't work that way. You can't use RDS to push the files up. You just use RDS to edit the remote files. You can _make_ new files and folders, but you can't move them from your local machine to the RDS server.

Comment 48 by David Aden posted on 3/17/2007 at 11:32 PM

I can't seem to find the download for the RDS extensions to Eclipse (not FB2). The links described above don't seem to exist any more and on the two machines I have running 7.02 (installed recently), I can't find the zip file.

Does anyone have any updated info on where to download the file?

thanks!

Comment 49 by Raymond Camden posted on 3/18/2007 at 12:36 AM

Just download FB2. They are in there.

Comment 50 by David Aden posted on 3/18/2007 at 12:56 AM

Thanks Ray.

someone else also referred me to:

http://ray.camdenfamily.com...

Part of the problem I was having seems to be related to the version of Aptana I was using -- I was installing it, it did report success but the preference for RDS never showed up.

I switched to my Eclipse 3.2 install and it worked right away. Not sure what the issue was (though it is based on Eclipse 3.1 as opposed to the 3.2 where it worked).

Comment 51 by David Aden posted on 3/18/2007 at 12:58 AM

...btw, I am getting an error on trying to use the RDS Query Viewer -- a "stack overlow error." I doubt I'd use it much anyway, but still frustrating that it isn't working.

Comment 52 by Steve Olson posted on 10/10/2007 at 8:46 PM

I ran into an issue where flex cf RDS was not connecting to my cf production webserver but it would connect to my cf dev server. I noticed that my dev server still had the default website that IIS creates. I had deleted the default IIS site on the production server a few months ago. After creating a default site mapped to c:\inetpub\wwwroot RDS began working. Does anyone know why RDS needs to have a site pointing to the default IIS site?

Comment 53 by Danny posted on 3/31/2009 at 9:46 AM

This annoyance got me running while trying to set up the debugger in CFE: The setup for the plugin under ColdFusion didn't match that shown in every tutorial I saw on the net. There was no way to configure my rds server connection info other than a dropdown with only "localhost" as an option.

Anyway it was tacitly trying to contact port 8500. My apache instance on ubuntu linux is 80. I got the error "unable to contact the rds server"

Solution was to add port 8500 to my /etc/apache2/ports.conf file.