In my current project I’m overhauling a lot of old spaghetti code. The code is a mix of camelCase (more recent) and under_score variables (the old stuff). We’re currently favoring camelCase but changing the old under_score variables can be a chore. That is until I noticed AnyEdit tools has a camelCase to under_score!

Select your variable, hit CTRL+ALT+K and voila, it will switch between thisIsMyFieldName and this_is_my_field_name.

AnyEdit tools includes a host of other useful utilities and makes a great addition to your standard Eclipse install.

We’re using Project Tracker a ColdFusion based application written by Joe Danziger.

I don’t have the time or talent to write a native Mylyn connector but I did remember hearing about a ‘generic’ web connector. For reference it’s now in the ‘incubator‘

Installing that gives you several preconfigured example repositories to choose from:

Preconfigured examples

I didn’t expect to see Project Tracker in the list but what did catch my eye was the listing for Eclipse Plugin Central which had (RSS) next to it. I knew Project Tracker supported RSS…

Configuration

Please note this is still a work in progress… the steps outlined below ‘work’ but may not be the best way to do this. As I tinker more I’ll update this post.

• Open the Planning perspective and the Task Repositories view.
• Right click in the view and select “Add Task Repository…”
• Select Web Template (Advanced) and click Next
• Server: the base URL to your Project Tracker
• Label: Whatever you want to call it
• UserID: Depending on how you have your authentication setup Mylyn can store your credentials – enter the username and password you use to access Project Tracker here…

Initial configuration

• Expand “Additional Settings” at the bottom
• Then expand “Advanced Configuration”

Here you can enter several URLs. Remember we’re using RSS again so:

• Query Request URL: https://my.project.com/project/rss.cfm
• Login Form URL: https://my.project.com/project/index.cfm?username=${userId}&password=${password}

Here we’re passing the username and password we entered earlier.

Click finish to save your repository. Next we need to write a ‘query’ to pull tickets. But first we have to generate our RSS feed.

RSS Feed

I opened up Project Tracker, navigated to one of my projects and selected the “Issues” tab. At the top there is an RSS feed button. Copy that URL.

You should get something like so:

https://my.project.com/project/rss.cfm?&p=4BA4E-9B9-DFG00-6F4702A9FB4A5&type=issues&assignedto=&severity=&milestone=&issuetype=

Note: Your URL may vary depending on how you have things setup!

Empty items we can ignore so we can trim down our query string:

https://my.project.com/project/rss.cfm?&p=4B814A4E-19B9-DA00-6F4C76706A9FB3A5&type=issues

Now the important part! Run this URL through your browser and verify the results are correct.

Mylyn Meets RSS

With a working URL:

• In Eclipse open the Task List view, right click inside it and select “New > Query”
• Select your newly added task repository we just created
• Click next
• On the “Create web query” window – select “Advanced Configuration”

Enter the RSS URL in the Query URL field:

RSS configuration

You can click the “Open” button to verify Mylyn is also reading the URL correctly. If you get an error continue to tweak and test your URL.

Once it’s working in Eclipse – click Finish.

Your Task List should refresh and you will see a list of your items!

It works!

Note: I modified the Project Tracker rss.cfm file and added the Ticket # to the title.

Next

Looking at the Mylyn examples online there are ways I can streamline some of the URLs like we did with the authentication URL to assign and use variables. I’ll be looking into that next. I don’t think opening and modifying tickets via this interface is doable but this functionality gives me 90% of what I use Mylyn for. I can see my tasks, I can activate them and use contexts. I’m happy.

Followup

One thing that was bugging me was the dates showing up in the issue list (see the last screenshot above). Turns out this is due to the type of RSS feed, and this is easily changed in ProjectTracker. I’m using v.2.6.2. Open rss.cfm and around line 117 you will need to tweak:

<cfset rssXML = rss.generateRSS("RSS092",data,meta)>

I changed it from RSS1 to RSS092. Your mileage may vary. I now get a nicely formatted list with no weird dates.

I was tinkering with Notepad++ ( a great text editor ) and noticed it had a plugin to sort text…

TextFX > TextFX Tools > Sort lines case sensitive (at column)

This will turn

<cfproperty name="submitURL" ...
<cfproperty name="date_applicant_signed" ...
<cfproperty name="special_conditions_limitations"  ...
<cfproperty name="chair_signature" ...
<cfproperty name="special_privileges" ...
<cfproperty name="applicant_signature_confirm" ...

Into an much easier to scan:

<cfproperty name="applicant_signature_confirm" ...
<cfproperty name="chair_signature" ...
<cfproperty name="date_applicant_signed" ...
<cfproperty name="special_conditions_limitations"  ...
<cfproperty name="special_privileges" ...
<cfproperty name="submitURL" ...

But going back and forth from CFEclipse to Notepad++ was a pain. A quick search turned up the Sort-It plugin for Eclipse.  After installing it you should have a new menu item on the Edit menu > Sort.

I’ve found this is really handy for sorting properties, variable declarations, CSS, etc.

OpenCF Summit is a community gathering focused exclusively on advancing free and open source software in the CFML community.

If you’re interested in diving into the free software CFML engines,  learning more about the free software movement, and interacting with the most progressive thinkers in the CFML community, OpenCF Summit is for you!

When I saw this I immediately thought CFEclipse should have a presence there and who better but Denny (our main developer) to represent CFEclipse?  Denny has posted a blog entry on the CFEclipse sit. You can read it here: Want to see Den at a conference? Donate!

The event is only $199 ( a bargain!)  but factor in travel and lodging and it adds up.

We have a donate button on the site for WePay (see Denny’s post above) and for those of you outside the US Denny has posted his PayPal information on the CFEclipse mailing list.

If you are using CFEclipse please consider making  donation.  I think the OpenCF Summit will be a great event for the CFML community and I would love for Denny to be able to attend and talk to others about contributing to open-source projects.

If you are done with your turkey I’d encourage you to go read that, I’ll wait.

I’d like to clarify a few things about my post from yesterday:

1. My blog post was meant to reflect my opinion. I was not speaking for CFEclipse or I’d have blogged about it there (did you know we now have a blog?)  And I wasn’t attacking or slamming anyone. I apologize if it came across that way.
2. I do diddly squat on the CFEclipse project compared to the hard work folks like Denny do under the hood.  When I feel that work is being belittled  I’m going to speak up about it. More on that below.
3. I never mentioned anything about price. I have no problems with Adobe charging for CFBuilder.  We’ve already had that discussion.

After re-reading Adam’s blog post and the white paper my only real gripe is with some of the wording and tone in the blog post.  What irked me (again this is my opinion) were statements like:

In just one version, ColdFusion Builder didn’t just catch up to CFEclipse, it took many steps beyond it.

That is to be expected with a large team of developers and a budget. :)

Professionals who make their living writing code … will also prefer ColdFusion Builder.

I think the paper could have focused more on the positives – CFBuilder is a great tool that should sell itself:  CFBuilder extension (which was a brilliant idea), RDS support, debugging, etc.

There was a lot of discussion which cropped up yesterday. Some of it was negative but overall there was some great insight which I’m going to be thinking about moving forward (and before  I blog again) :)

Today’s a day of thanks and I’d like to thank anyone who uses, or contributes to CFEclipse!

I’d also like to thank Adobe for supporting our beloved CFML language. Everyday I’m thankful I go to work and write ColdFusion instead of .NET.

And next time I see Adam I’ll buy him a beer. No wait – we’re the open source project – he can buy me a beer! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Think ColdFusion Builder v.1 and CFEclipse are the same? Think again. Adobe just published a new whitepaper comparing the two CFML development tools to set the record straight. In just one version, ColdFusion Builder didn’t just catch up to CFEclipse, it took many steps beyond it.

I’ve been a avid supporter of CFEclipse for awhile and when Adobe announced they were developing their own IDE – I never saw them as a competitor. There are only two of us – why fight?  But apparently Adobe needs to bash someone and have set their sites on the geeky kid on the playground.

A whitepaper? Really? You could have donated the money you spent on creating that to the CFEclipse project! :)

But clearly we are talking about a two different endeavors here and for Adobe to whip out white papers and comparison charts is a little unfair I think.

CFBuilder is built by a large team of developers.  Their full time job is to develop CFBuilder.  I met several of them at CFUnited and they are a great group who I have no doubt are passionate about their product.  But at the end of the day they are developing a commercial product for Adobe.

CFEclipse on the other hand is a free, open source tool that has been developed over the years by a small, passionate group of people. Many people have worked on CFEclipse over the years but over the years there is usually only one or two people actually cranking out code.

Currently Denny is our main programmer and he has done a tremendous job fixing bugs and adding features.  He’s done that while supporting his family, working a regular job, contributing to other projects and dealing with all the other ‘distractions’ of every day life.  He does that for free.

So why does Adobe feel the need to pick on CFEclipse?

Is ColdFusion Builder a better product?

I don’t think a white paper is going to answer that question. CFEclipse is available to download and install for free. CFBuilder also has a 30 60 day trial version.

Download them both. Try them. Write code. Then make your decision.

And if you like CFEclipse please consider joining our community and help us make it better.

But please don’t take our lunch money.

The community weighs in:

• Charlie Griefer – “On ColdFusion Builder vs CFEclipse and the Sky Falling“
• Nicholas Tunney “Adobe can have my lunch money”
• Stephen Moretti  “ColdFusion Community Rumbles in the Jungle”
• Lola J. Lee Beno  “A Comment on the Recent Controversy” (this is a good one)
  

Turns out it was easy.

Crank up the Ant view and right click on your build file:

Run As

Click Run As and select External Tools Configuration

External Tool Dialog

Click the Main tab and enter your Ant arguments in the arguments dialog. What is neat is you can create multiple configurations so you can run your build easily with different arguments.  Enter a friendly name and notice it show up on the file list on the left.

You can then right click on that name and duplicate it and then modify the arguments in the new config.

Duplicate

Now if you return to the Ant view, right click and select Run As… you will get a dialog with the configurations you defined…

Options

My Ant target looks like:

And we’ll replace ${myValue} with an argument I defined in my configuration above (-DmyValue=”Jim Likes Ant”). Running my two options I defined will output

Buildfile: D:\workspace\ant\helloworld-1.xml
helloworld:
[echo] Hello World Jim Likes Ant
BUILD SUCCESSFUL
Total time: 122 milliseconds

Buildfile: D:\workspace\ant\helloworld-1.xml
helloworld:
[echo] Hello World Jim Hates Ant
BUILD SUCCESSFUL
Total time: 122 milliseconds

At work we have a LOT of spaghetti code…  weird indenting, mixed case tags, etc.  With the new code formatter in CFEclipse getting this cleaned up is a matter of a few keystrokes!

Format Source - New in CFEclipse 1.3.5

The mixed case tags really drive me nuts as well and I’ve kept Homesite installed because it can easily swap case on tags.  I asked Denny about this (Denny is one of our awesome CFEclipse developers) and he added an experimental ‘change case’ feature!  Woot!

Change Case Option - New in CFEclipse 1.3.5

It doesn’t work with cfscript but most of the older code I work with was probably written before the cfscript was introduced so it isn’t a huge deal.

See this list for more new features in the CFEclipse 1.3.5 release.

I’m using CFEclipse and editing the XML files using Aptana’s XML editor.

My first thought was I could use the Outline view but that didn’t give me anything useful:

Aptana XML Editor - Default Outline View

Digging in the Aptana preferences however turned up this GEM:

Aptana > Editors > XML

“Tag attributes to show in outline view”

By default this is set to ‘id’.  I added ‘name’ (it accepts a comma delimited list) and viola! It now shows my fuseactions in the Outline view:

Outline View Showing Name Attribute

I think CFBuilder is using Aptana under the hood so I would imagine this may work there as well.

Recently on the CFEclipse mailing list we were discussing the ColdFusion 9 dictionary file and someone mentioned it would be nice if we could simply use the one from ColdFusion Builder. I shot off an email to Adam Lehman from Adobe and honestly expected either a) no reply or b) a firm ‘No’.

But instead Adam did reply and indicated he’d “look into it”.

So I waited a few weeks knowing Adam is a busy person and emailed him again. And again he replied! He said it seemed like sharing the dictionary file was possible but he still had to ‘run it by legal’.

OK. Now we’re doomed I thought.

So I waited another week or so and bugged him again. And low and behold this comes across Twitter:

@thecrumb btw. I got Adobe VP approval to share the #ColdFusion Builder dictionary w/ CFEclipse!

So I’d just like to publicly thank Adam for following through on my inquiry, and thanks to Adobe for sharing their toys with the other kids!

Now about that Linux version of ColdFusion Builder…