Looks like Todd Sharp beat me to the punch on Twitter (that's ok, I'm just going to bring the misery hammer into effect on him!) but for folks who aren't on I thought I'd share some exciting news. Adobe will be releasing ColdFusion Builder 2 soon, and one of the new features is an "Express" edition. After your 60 day trial ends (which you have to admit is a good long trial!), CFBuilder2 will revert to an Express Edition. Under this mode the following features will be disabled:
- code assist for extensions (powerful feature, but no one is using it yet afaik)
- code insight (this is NOT syntax helping)
- extension callbacks (a good extension will note this during startup and try to handle it)
RDSNo registration of remote servers- quick fix
- debugging... but just of remote projects (so you can still use the debugger locally which makes more sense imo)
- refactoring
- ColdFusion search...but you can still use the built in search and some folks prefer that anyway
- code formatting (never used it)
- FTP support (ditto)
- log viewer - you can add this from other sources, or even just simply run tail from the command line
- local file support (ditto)
- code hyperlinks (no idea what this is)
- hover help
So - a few things are painful here, but for a free edition, I think it's pretty darn awesome. Thank you Adobe!
Archived Comments
I dunno, maybe I should give CF Builder another try. Still a diehard fan of Homesite + 5.5.
I think code hyperlinks is using hovering over an function call or createobject location and pressing CTRL will hyper link to the file / function/
@Doug: Lord yes. Give up the ghost, man. ;)
@BigMadKev: Ah. Shows how much I use that feature. ;)
Heh. Well, we're still on CF8 here, and it's last update does provide tag support for it. It's just a nice, fast editor.
CFBuilder has support for 7 and 8 as well as 9. :)
@Ray it sooooooo helps when you work with a legacy application :)
It's a shame that the express edition disables RDS. I wonder if you could manually add that back in.
My Adobe source actually said:
" connection to remote server"
which I read as RDS. I wonder if that's the right translation though. I'll try to find out.
@Simon, what features are you using in RDS that could not be replaced with extensions? (Meaning we could replace those for some as libraries, community contributions. Note: I prefer RDS also.)
RDS covers 2 main features:
1) Ability to browse tables and write queries.
You can the query part by right clicking on a cfquery tag now and using the newer SQL editor.
You could do a new view for that with an extension like John suggested. (Damn good idea John.)
2) Browse remote files
a) In theory you could use CFFTP with an extension. Unfortunately you couldn't open a file in the editor and support saving it back remotely. If you just wanted a read only view though it's possible.
FYI, I may be wrong. This is not 10)% yet, but it could be that the "connection to remote server" meant in the Servers panel only.
Once I've 100% confirmed, I'll update the blog psot.
Wow, sorry for all the typos there. I _do_ know how to type. Honest.
Don't feel bad Ray, typing is overrated, I expect my IDE to do most of that for me ;)
My servers sit in a data center and my primary means of managing my CF files is with RDS. It seems like there could be a work around to get RDS back on the express edition. However, if FTP & local file support are also removed it just seems like Adobe is making it more difficult to use for simple file access. I would totally pay for CF Builder if connecting to a remote server (for debugging) was possible without a VPN.
With RDS, FTP and local file support disabled after 60 days, how do you open & save files? (or does "local file support" mean something else?)
FIles in Eclipse products are opened via projects. CFB has a view that lets you browse the file system and open random files. I'm assuming that view would be disabled. I never use it myself.
Bummer (re: Local files). This is a show stopper for me as a Free edition for even casual use.
Doug, I'm still using HomeSite 5.5+ too. I tried DreamWeaver CS5, but didn't like the "end-of-line" function kicking me to the end of the entire block, some other navigation inconsistencies & the local/remote copying/confirmations. Too bad Adobe hasn't made any updates available for Homesite for CF9. I know it was discontinued in 2009 so that they could focus on CFBuilder. Maybe they can sell it off. It's still better than many of the editors available.
James - why wouldn't you just have a project for your local files? I do all of my work locally and all within projects.
Because the local files I'm accessing are on multiple servers located on the same network and accessible via UNC path.
I've been using an awesome file manager called Total Commander since '96 (Ghisler.com). It's still better than any of the native Window's "file open" or CFBuilder's project management dialogs IMHO. I can double click or select any file(s) that I want to open, and they are opened in the assigned programs. I have lots of helper apps added to the menu/toolbar that further simplify working with XML, CSV and comparing files. I have "2 keystroke" bookmarks to all accessible servers and sub-directories. Forcing me to use the CFBuilder project management windows locally severely impacts my ability to navigate & manage files efficiently. I know that using a "project" will identify all included and related files, but I don't need or miss this feature.
Then I'd respectfully say that Eclipse's main model of work is perhaps not appropriate for you. ;) The project directed view was a bit of a change for me as well (I was a HomeSite++ user), but now it just seems natural for me.
Awesome. I'm a "CFEclipse guy"... but I will surely give this a look. :-)
Got confirmation from Adobe - RDS does work.
This is pretty exciting! Even with some disabled features, I think having a free AND robust editor supported by Adobe is going to be a huge benefit to ColdFusion.
@James - in an Eclipse project you can add a Folder that's a "Link Folder" to another folder on your file system (it's part of the dialog when you create a folder), this would let you create a project that's a collection of links to other folders that aren't stored within your workspace.
When is this bad boy coming out? I'm excited to check out the free because if it's solid I'll be buying it in no time.
Folks should give IntelliJ IDEA a try. Love it. Has warts, what doesn't, but it's pretty great. (If you're on a mac, make sure to check out the appearance options; I hear it's dead ugly by default.)
@Dave - I don't see anything stating support for Coldfusion on the IntelliJ site. Am I missing something?
Well dang, I don't see anything saying that either, maybe we're both blind. But I assure you, it's in there. There was a free plugin for a long time, then it was rolled into the shipping version, I think the paid version only. I'll ping them about why no mention on the site.
Supports tons of languages, and it's just really smart.
@CJ MacCarey:
I've been told CFB2 will come out #REDACTED#.
http://www.adobe.com/produc... already show cfb2, still links to 1 though for a download. A bit misleading.
This is great news, and long overdue. A proper free well-supported editor will help the language. I've been disappointed with CF Builder in the past (and I stick with CFEclipse) but I'll try it again when this Express edition comes out.
@Ben Nadel:
I think having a free AND robust editor
--------------
*Cough* *Cough* CFEclipse *Cough* *Cough*
That said the upgrade price (CFBuilder 1 to CFBuilder2) is very reasonable - $109. When I did my preorder yesterday, the email said my download would be available on Monday May 2.
@Marcin I don't know if your tip about "Link Folders" helped James, but it did help me (thanks!).
I pre-ordered Flash Builder Premium upgrade (from 4 Premium - $50) and it also said May 2. I don't know if has been mentioned in many places, but the Adobe Creative Suites that include Flash Builder will have the Premium version of Flash Builder in CS5.5 - this means they will also include CF Builder 2! Pretty cool if you already have one of the suites (Web Premium or Master Collection). It could make the price of the upgrade more reasonable if you do not have CFB yet.
@Jeremy - Premium version of Flash Builder in CS5.5 - this means they will also include CF Builder 2!
Doesn't look like it according to their website. It would be very good if they included CFB2 as part of the "WEB" Premium edition - after all, it's used to create web applications!
As long as ColdFusion Builder doesn't support HTML5 and throws errors all around the place if you dare to use it, the whole product is pretty damn useless I'm afraid, free or otherwise. How can you write CFML without HTML? Shape up, Adobe!
Odd - I do HTML all day with CFB and have no problems. Are you saying you can't write <header>? The editor prevents you? It doesn't do that for me.
CFBuilder 2 is throwing errors for article, header, nav and time in an html5 document. Any idea why or how to fix??
No idea unfortunately. Right now the HTML5 support isn't really an option. You can - of course - ignore them.
CFBuilder 2.0.0's simple find/replace on a single file will not work for me via a ColdFusion RDS connection. Actually the problem only shows up for file types other than .cfm.
For example, I cannot do a simple find/replace on a .css file in builder across RDS. Have you come across this before at all Ray? It's keeping me from being able to use the product.
I never use RDS for editing. Sorry, can't help you there. I'd just search your local copy of the files, which should be the same as production (one would hope).
Well, I wish I did have a local copy of the files, but development is being done on a remote development server... hence the issue. It would be nice if the feature worked, but oh well, Dreamweaver still does so I'll just use that and uninstall CFBuilder - no worries.
Anyhoo, thanks for the article.