Ram Kulkarni (Adobe) just presented on ColdFusion Builder 2 ("Storm") at the ColdFusion Unconference. I tweeted quite a bit about it but I thought I'd wrap it up. Please do not ask me for details. If you don't see it listed here, I can't say anything more about it. Ok, here we go:
- Code folding will now be remembered when you close and reopen the file.
- You can customize code folding (ie, close some random blocks of code, as long as it doesn't already have a fold).
- Support for tags, like TODO and FIXME added, and you can customize the recognized tags and their priority.
- You can jump through files, ie method to method or argument to argument. You can also quickly select blocks (like a function at a time).
- Code assist can now cycle through different groups of stuff - so it may begin by assisting you the names of the local variables, and then switch to ColdFusion functions.
- Code assist will now be very intelligent - as in if you type in a collection based loop, it knows to assist you with item. It can also auto insert required attributes and is smart enough to know what is required for what.
- If you do something like: x = new foo, you can right click and it will offer to create a CFC for you if it doesn't exist. Ditto for UDFs and cfincludes. This was very slick. In fact, if you do foo(a,b,c) when it generates the method it will create those three arguments.
- Code assist is smart enough to suggest variables of the right type. So if you are in a cfexchange tag then it can suggest variables of a persisted exchange object.
- Code assist will bold the current argument, by that I mean, given a function that requires A, B, and C, when you are on the second argument, B is bolded in the help.
- A code formatter is built in and it is hella cool. Numerous options for stuff like, brackets on the same line or next, white space, etc.
- Find and replace is now enhanced. You can search for CF tags with or without attributes and values, like cfinput tags where name="foo". You can also search and replace over FTP or RDS.
- Extensions now have access to a lot of data about the server - like datasources, tables, servers defined in CFBuilder, etc.
- Extensions can now create views and toolbars. So varScoper can run as a view. They show up in Show/Views/Other. (This is my favorite!)
- You can now do custom code assistance. Like when in an event.linkto you can write an extension to read the Model-Glue XML and provide values from that as assistance.
- You can define custom key commands. You can also define where the cursor is applied. So if you build something to output a script block, you can put the cursor in the middle.
- You can right click on any file and make it the start file for a project.
- Refactoring (which seemed to surprise a lot of people - it exists right now!) has bug fixes to improve it's reliability.
- No word on release.
- Want it on Linux? Keep making requests on the public bug tracker!
That's it - folks - I'll be giving my borrowed laptop back after my next session so I may be even slower to respond till Friday. Hope this helps! I am very excited about ColdFusion Builder 2.
Archived Comments
Thanks for the notes and the tweet updates Ray!
Have a safe trip home.
Very nice writeup on what was shown Ray. I am glad someone was taking notes.
Sounds like it has really improved. I haven't made the jump yet. Maybe 2 will do it. Too bad no release date.
Don't encourage desktop Linux people!
Yes encourage desktop Linux people!
Thanks! I missed the session -- and I really, really, really wanted to see it. I appreciate your notes!
Can you link to the public bug tracker? I can never remember where that thing is ...
i'd be happy if builder search just remembered the last thing i looked for.
You can find the ColdFusion Builder bug tracker here: http://cfbugs.adobe.com/bug...
No word on if it can cope with CFCs accessed via ColdSpring then...
Until/unless it's that awesome, it's not got much over CFEclipse unless you feel some of the extensions are 'killer'...
Oh, the bug for voting for Linux support seems to be http://cfbugs.adobe.com/bug...
WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT MOST OF THE THINGS RAY JUST LISTED ARE KILLER.
ColdSpring is for newbs.
</cfslam>
Believe me, I would absolutely love to switch to CFB (especially for coding in cfscript), but I'm still convinced CFB is no better than Dreamweaver in its current state. In the two months I tried the product daily, I in fact found CFB to be counterproductive... from the extra xml settings files it creates for each site (this REALLY aggravates me), to literally spending days trying to setup a development server on a local network (not on the same machine) and a live server via FTP (The servers never did get setup. CFB always errored out). I'm not unhappy with the features so much as I'm dissatisfied with the foundation. These look like good upcoming features, but I really hope some more thought goes behind what seemed to be ColdFusion support slapped into Eclipse (which CFEclipse already was [and still is] a better option).
Awesome list - can't wait, some great FE's there!
suweet!
Thanks a lot for posting this, Ray. I missed this session... looks like some fantastic additions to CFB.
Lots of notes - sorry I didn't respond earlier.
Thank you Andreas for posting the link. I didn't have it available.
@Tom: I disagree that extensions are the only thing CFB has over CFE. Code introspection is much stronger in CFB. SQL coloring coding and editing. Debugging.
@David: Hopefully you were joking about the ColdSpring. ;)
@Tom 2 - well, I can't speak to working on remote dev machines. I use CFB to edit local files primarily, which I believe to be the best setup. I'd call that best practice too. I'd also recommend you try CFB again if you tried it _before_ the update.
Thanks for the summary.
I hope the code formatting will extend to some basic SQL options inside <cfquery> as well.
For example, break up "SELECT column1 AS foo, column2 AS bar, ..." into several lines and optionally align the table columns and their names. This usually makes it easier to get a quick overview, even if you're scanning through a query that will contain more than a dozen different columns (e.g., reporting).
I took a HD Video of the CFBuilder Preso which is up on my blog if you want to watch the whole thing, or just check out what an "unconference" looks like. (Hint: looks like a $1000.00 savings)
http://cfmumbojumbo.com/cf/...
Can you please log an enhancement on public bugtracker for code formatting with SQL inside cfquery?
@Hemant: I've submitted an enhancement, just in case it's not already part of their roadmap anyway.
When you fold a block of code arbitrarily is it possible to remove the folding if you decide you don't want the folding point anymore? I messed around with it and googled for it but didn't find an answer.
Can't you just... unfold?
@Ray: Yes, I was just being OCD about all the little folding icons I created when I was just testing out folding random things. It's no biggie. I just thought maybe there was something simple to turn them off like when you double click in the margin to toggle breakpoints on and off.
Good point. If you figure it out - let us know. I almost never use code folding.
@Ray I'm embarrassed to say I figured it out. I thought I had tried this. You just put the cursor on the line with the fold icon and do the code fold command (CMD+ALT+F or CTRL+ALT_F). If the code is unfolded it will only remove the fold if the cursor is on the line where the icon is; you can't just be inside the block.