The 3rd public beta of ColdFusion Builder has been released to the Labs. Go grab it now. ColdFusion Builder has been my primary IDE for a few months now and I've been very happy with its progress. Some darn nifty things are in this new beta, including ORM hinting, a SQL editor(*), extensions updates, and support for building AIR applications. Check the release notes for more information.
For those who have suffered with performance issues with CFB - definitely give this one a try. It's performing a heck of a lot better than earlier editions and even includes a way to turn on additional performance optimizations with one click.
* So the SQL editor is a nice update, but it only applies to editing SQL from within a document. If you use the "old" way of writing/testing SQL via the RDS panel, you get the old editor. No color coding and no hinting.
Comment 1 written by Ben Riordan on 17 December 2009, at 7:39 AM
I guess it will end up being like operating systems - best to know a few. I do kinda see ColdFusion as the OS X of development languages. Not as many people use it right now but it is awesome to use. Maybe it will be like OS X and if it stays on it's current track with Adobe start to build a sizable user base again. Hope so.
- The random brain dump of a new developer. (sorry) :)
Comment 2 written by Ben Riordan on 17 December 2009, at 7:55 AM
P.S.S. The performance is much faster for CFB3. I don't get "rebuilding workspace" every time I switch back to it from another app. Can't wait to try the built in air functionality.
Comment 3 written by Steve Caldwell on 17 December 2009, at 8:12 AM
Comment 4 written by Raymond Camden on 17 December 2009, at 8:16 AM
Comment 5 written by Steve Caldwell on 17 December 2009, at 8:16 AM
When you install ColdFusion Builder beta 3, the software will remain active through March 2010. Once the commercial version of ColdFusion Builder has shipped, you will need to uninstall the public beta and install the final version.
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Are CF9 owners going to be licensed a copy, or will we have to buy a license in March?
Comment 6 written by Raymond Camden on 17 December 2009, at 8:17 AM
As far as I know, licensed CF9 users do NOT get a free copy of CFB.
Comment 7 written by tony petruzzi on 17 December 2009, at 9:24 AM
that's the one thing that has kept me from even trying out cfbuilder, not knowing anything about what my migrations options will be when the beta period ends. it would be nice to know a roundabout price for the product or who will qualify for a free copy if they are going to be doing that.
personally i think that adobe should just give the thing away. now that we're not crippled by an express edition of cf, this could be the jump cf needs to attract more developers.
Comment 8 written by Josh Curtiss on 17 December 2009, at 10:45 AM
Downloading the new beta now.. I'm hoping code assist is a little better.
Comment 9 written by Steve Caldwell on 17 December 2009, at 10:47 AM
Comment 10 written by Josh Curtiss on 17 December 2009, at 11:06 AM
Comment 11 written by Chuck Savage on 17 December 2009, at 11:28 AM
Comment 12 written by Raymond Camden on 17 December 2009, at 11:31 AM
Comment 13 written by Syed on 17 December 2009, at 12:21 PM
What is recommanded, standalone or eclipse builtin cf builder? I tried beta 1 with eclipse plugin, but it had way too many issues to be used as ide. Plus, i wasnt able to remove cf builder from my system.
I'm going to try beta 3 though.
Comment 14 written by Raymond Camden on 17 December 2009, at 1:25 PM
Comment 15 written by Josh Curtiss on 17 December 2009, at 1:35 PM
Of course, things may be better with beta 3.
Comment 16 written by Matthew Zimmer on 17 December 2009, at 2:04 PM
There are many factors that one must consider in order to answer your question definitively. If you can share your environment with us, that will help loads. Or better yet, throw your question in the CFBuilder forum. There are a bunch of people eager to help and share ideas in there (present company included).
It is my personal recommendation that any developers lucky enough to be running on the 64-bit goodness found in OS X or Ubuntu (or Vista...I feel sorry for you but it's okay. There's always Windows 8. ;-) that you install CFBuilder as a plugin on a 64-bit version of Eclipse (3.5.1 or higher). The performance is remarkable and with the right jvm settings, this installation screams!
CFBuilder Beta 3 now supports the 3.5.1 version of Eclipse, however, I am not sure yet whether Adobe will be shipping a 64-bit version of Standalone. There are a couple of threads out on this topic and I opened up a thread in the CFBuilder forums to find this out myself. If anyone knows, please share your comments in those threads.
Matt
Comment 17 written by Syed on 17 December 2009, at 2:37 PM
That might be so. I'll surely try standalone beta 3.
Matthew,
BTW, my computer environment is: win7 (ofcourse 64bit), JVM V 6 Update 17 (I always have my jvm updated), and eclipse 3.5. I've have pretty much everything up to date. Plus, there is no performance issue here with any other application because i've like 8gb memory and soforth.
Comment 18 written by Matthew Zimmer on 17 December 2009, at 2:50 PM
You are definitely in a beautiful position then. All you have to do then is download a 64-bit version of Eclipse 3.5+ for Windows and then install CFBuilder as a plugin pointing to the directory where your 64-bit Eclipse installation is located. If performance is not sufficient with default eclipse.ini jvm settings, you can really geek out and tweak them to your hearts content. Just make sure you know what you are doing before touching them. ;-)
My $0.02 worth
Comment 19 written by Nathan Kondra on 17 December 2009, at 3:47 PM
P.S. I love the CFBuilder even the beta 1 moved beyond CFEclipse and DW as the top tool in my kit, whenever they are ready for release they have a guaranteed customer.
Comment 20 written by Syed on 17 December 2009, at 7:49 PM
Do they have eclipse 64bit for windows os? I thought it was only for linux/unix. Also, do you have it setup as a plugin?
I wonder if we can keep eclipse and cfbuilder (standalone) on the same machine. That would be neater. I might try this on my vmware.
Comment 21 written by Matthew Zimmer on 17 December 2009, at 8:22 PM
At first glance of the eclipse.org download site it is not apparent but a 64-bit version of Eclipse does indeed exist. There are some prerequisites as you will learn (mainly, you must be running a 64-bit JVM) but it is not too difficult from what I gather. With that said, please take a look at this link as I found the instruction straightforward and accurate:
http://lingpipe-blog.com/2009/03/05/eclipse-ide-fo...
If you need any further assistance, please post your question in the Adobe CFBuilder forum section and I, and many others, will be more than happy to help you out (Though it is on my to-do list for 2010, I do not have a blog or anything of the sort at this time so this is the best I can offer right now :-). I have Windows 7 64-bit running as a Boot Camp partition on top of my MacBook Pro so I am able to use VMWare Fusion to do it myself in order to help you out.
Oh, and ask Santa for a Mac for Christmas. Your life will be much easier and you'll have more free time on your hands to do other things, like test Adobe Beta software, lol. ;-)
Comment 22 written by ziggy on 17 December 2009, at 11:28 PM
It will certainly be a cruel joke if they want to charge a fortune for cf and this.
Have they really not said anything yet???
Comment 23 written by ziggy on 17 December 2009, at 11:32 PM
Comment 24 written by Joshua Curtiss on 17 December 2009, at 11:33 PM
Comment 25 written by ziggy on 18 December 2009, at 1:38 AM
>>Displays a drop-down list of all built-in and user-defined functions.
Anyone know how to bring this up outside of tags? Doesn't seem to work in cfscript or anywhere except tags. Surely I can pop up the functions menu somehow to speed up entry?
Comment 26 written by Kumar on 18 December 2009, at 2:00 AM
Comment 27 written by Raymond Camden on 18 December 2009, at 6:08 AM
Comment 28 written by ziggy on 18 December 2009, at 11:43 PM
Only 26mb of memory use currently, some neat functionality, and nice css/js/xml/whatever support.
(Unfortunately you need a huge cygwin extra download to get mac textmate compatibility for bundles, oh well.)
Anyway, another good option out there for people who don't need the extras and want something nimbler. I've been looking to move off homsite+ for ages.
Comment 29 written by Joshua Curtiss on 18 December 2009, at 11:51 PM
Comment 30 written by Matthew Zimmer on 19 December 2009, at 12:40 AM
Resource hog or not, I welcome the ColdFusion Builder IDE. I will happily pay the $100 or $200 because it truly allows me to live up to the RAD concept of ColdFusion application development. It just makes my job easier and over time, if you give it the chance it deserves, I am confident you will, too.
If you have a minute, check out this link where it shows Macromedia ColdFusion 5 Studio being sold for $100 for Windows only and all of the features it had that we once had.
http://www.webhostingedge.com/software/index.cfm/s...
Maybe ColdFusion Builder is geared more towards old timer ColdFusion developers. But I am 26 and if that makes me an old timer, it would be an honor to be a part of that demographic. The one thing that can't be taken away from the ColdFusion community is that we are always willing to help out anyone that is interested in learning ColdFusion and what it takes to become a ColdFusion developer. If you want to use Notepad, Notepad+, TextMate, et cetera, more power to you. We're always here to help you when you need it.
:-)
Comment 31 written by Brian H. on 20 December 2009, at 1:26 PM
Being able to bind <cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_integer" value="#...#"> To a key (CTRL+ALT+i for me), and then having the cursor sit between the two pound characters waiting for text, is insanely useful for me. I can actually type "contact.first_name", highlight it, press my shortcut and get <cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_integer" value="#contact.first_name#">.
The best solution thus far for eplipse in general has been using "autohotkey" with the trigger text (http://domoconnor.com/2009/03/31/cfeclipse-keyboar...) but that just seems sloppy and doesn't handle the "surround this selection" method of snippets.
I'd buy CFB in a heartbeat if I could transition my snippet workflow over to it by using proper key bindings.
-Brian
Comment 32 written by Matthew Zimmer on 20 December 2009, at 3:45 PM
Have you submitted a Feature Request? It's definitely got my vote.
Comment 33 written by Brian H. on 20 December 2009, at 8:21 PM
-Brian
Comment 34 written by scott conklin on 3 February 2010, at 4:37 PM
I have a .cfm page that looses all of it's color coding on the line where it thinks a syntax error is occurring, but for our application it is not. we use mnemonics in cf templates that get replaced by an application builder that writes out (publishes) the file to the client directory with the mennomic (~~) replaced by read settings.
one example is like so
<cfif chkEmail.PVTID EQ ~~002>
<cfset priorVenue="here">
etc..
cfbuilder (not sure about cfeclipse) does not like the "~~"
and every line of code after the ~~ appears in black- no color coding.
i have unchecked "enable syntax checking" under Syntax checking in preferences , but that did not help.
i have this same question in the cfbuilder blog, but noone has responded.
Comment 35 written by Marko Simic on 22 March 2010, at 7:35 AM
=(.*?),
--->
=<cfqueryparam value="$1" cfsqltype="cf_sql_varchar">,
Still creating a snippet that can wrap up selction would be awesome.
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