Recently, a commenter on another blog mentioned that one of the things they missed from Dreamweaver is the ability to do a search and then export the results. I didn't even know DW had this and it does sound rather useful!
In case you're curious, here is an example. I searched my test directory for cfqueryparam. In the results panel is a simple button you can click to export the results.
The export goes to an XML file. It is a bit verbose, but you could probably import this into an Excel file. (Although I just tried and Excel on the Mac doesn't seem to have the ability to do it. Maybe I'm just missing it.) Any way - as the user no longer wants to use DW since he is a ColdFusion developer, he wasn't happy with this particular feature not being in ColdFusion Builder.
I did a quick search and was able to find an Eclipse plugin that has similar functionality: Search CSV Export. As the name says, it lets you export search results into CSV content. (Which, by the way, should be easier to work with in Excel than that XML data from DW.) I quickly added the plugin and confirmed it works great. Here is an example:
The change wasn't immediately obvious (hence me adding a big arrow to the screen shot), but once clicked, you get the ability to save it as a new CSV file.
I apologize if that screen shot is a bit too hard to read. Basically the report includes the project, path (based on Project name), location (real file path), line number, the text before and after, and the match.
Archived Comments
Ray - I have ColdFusion Builder 2 and went to Help --> Install New Software --> Selected All Available Sites and was not able to find the "Search CSV Export." Are there instructions anywhere on installing this plugin? I've been able to do it fine with the subversive / svn plugins in the past, but this one is coming up null for me.
On the plugin site, click the downward facing green button. This gives you the site to use. You paste that site in the install new software area and it should show up. Let me know if not.
Thanks Ray, this will come in handy for sure.
Hi Ray,
I have enjoyed reading all about what is going on with adobe technology from http://adobeevangelists.com.... But for the last 2 or 3 weeks, I haven't been able to access the site. I was just wondering if it will be back up in the future?
Aubrey
The person who ran it isn't an Adobe evangelist anymore (much like me) - and doesn't work for Adobe even. I'll check with him though.
I checked with the site owner. It is not coming back. Sorry.
Thanks for checking, Darn, it was one of my favorite sites. Can you recommend any tech blogging sites, where people like yourself and others with their finger on the pulse of technology, can be found?
Um, well, there are fewer Adobe evangelists now. The ones that are left are focused on CC (Creative Cloud). I blog about CC, but not very often. My focus in on web standards and mobile. I assume you mean that, and not CC. I would suggest some of the weekly email newsletters: http://www.raymondcamden.co...
I like a utility called Grepwin for this string searching against large numbers of files (http://stefanstools.sourcef.... Its quite fast, and you can easily export results by selecting the items in the results list you want, right clicking, and selecting options to copy to clipboard. Its shell integrated too, so just a right click on any folder and you can launch a grepwin window at that folder location.
It does mean getting away from your IDE, so in that way maybe not as slick. But still, I find it to be an indispensable tool for dealing with large legacy codebases.