Improving Productivity with CF Studio/HomeSite+: Browsing Within and CFML Development

1. Browsing Within CF Studio/HomeSite+ Improving Productivity Vastly for All CFML Developers Charlie Arehart, CTOcharlie@newatlanta.com

2. Goals • How and why to use “internal browse” feature • Why you don’t need RDS setup to do so • And just what is RDS anyway? • Using browse feature for CF, BlueDragon, JSP/ASP/PHP • How and why to use “external browse” feature • Keyboard shortcuts for invoking both browse methods • Solving common problems, explaining frequent confusion New Atlanta Communications, LLC

3. Resources • Presentation based on my August 2003 article of same name in ColdFusion Developers Journal • Provided in print form here for attendees • Available online at http://sys-con.com/coldfusion/article.cfm?id=638 • Features also discussed in Macromedia docs • Using ColdFusion Studio • Using HomeSite+ for Dreamweaver MX • Both available online at livedocs.macromedia.com • And in Studio/HomeSite+ help window (help>open help references window) • For those not familiar with HomeSite+ • Is simply latest revision of CF Studio, essentially identical • Available only on DWMX/Studio MX CD • See my June 2003 CFDJ article, "Getting into HomeSite+" New Atlanta Communications, LLC

4. About Your Speaker • CTO of New Atlanta Communications since April ‘03 • 6 yrs CF experience (20 yrs Enterprise IT) • Co-author of ColdFusion MX Bible • Frequent contributor to ColdFusion Dev Journal • Past accomplishments of note • Tech Editor, CFDJ • Team Macromedia Member • Allaire/Macromedia Certified Instructor • Allaire/Macromedia Certified Adv CF Developer (4, 5, MX) • Macromedia Customer Advisory Board Member • Contributor to Macromedia Devnet, Dev Exchange • Frequent speaker to user groups, conferences worldwide New Atlanta Communications, LLC

5. Challenges Getting Setup • Have you ever tried to use internal “browse” tab or F12? • Probably got an error message • Not too helpful, and not clear what you need to do • What’s a “server development mapping” anyway? Where doc’d? • Development Mapping • Simply this: the URL to use when browsing files in a given directory • Can have many mappings, or let one control all under given dir • Key point • When you use browse in Studio, it looks in mappings for URL to use for directory (or ancestor, if none) of currently edited file • Kind of like process of looking for application.cfm (but not quite) • Let’s see an example • Can create mapping for any web server-enabled directory • Even works for mapped drives or UNC paths (and RDS paths, if used) • Also now see why it applies to any web page extension such as ASP/JSP/PHP • Studio doesn’t care as it’s just mapping a directory to a URL New Atlanta Communications, LLC

6. Mappings Editor • So, how to define mappings? Several ways… • Options>Settings>Browse>Development Mappings • Alt-M keyboard shortcut • Debug>Development Mappings (or corresponding button) • These all open the mappings editor window • May be blank first time you open it • Let’s see it • Understanding “RDS Server” dropdown list • Used to distinguish mappings for multiple servers hosting code • May be populated with localhost by default depending on install choices • Could easily choose “Add RDS Server” to define one for localhost • See manual for more details on creating RDS Server definition • See article’s “sidebar” on handling when multiple servers are listed • It’s NOT important to have RDS support enabled to do browsing • Again, concept of RDS would of course not apply for browsing PHP/JSP/ASP New Atlanta Communications, LLC

7. Adding a Development Mapping • Select Add button • Prompted with 3 empty fields, only first and last important for browsing • Let’s see it • Studio Path is NOT the path to locate CF Studio! • Is the path for the directory of files you may want to browse • Could use c:\inetpub\wwwroot\somedir\, for example • But remember concept of ancestor search mechanism • Better to create single mapping for all in c:\inetpub\wwwroot\ • Note available folder icon for selecting directory in file system • CF Server Path can be ignored for browsing • Used only for internal debugger (supported only in CF 5 and earlier) • Can leave it blank. See Manual for more info • Browser Path is URL needed to browse the directory in Studio Path • For example above, could use http://localhost or http://127.0.0.1 • Note available prompt for port, as needed for CFMX internal browser (8500) or BlueDragon Server internal browser (8080) New Atlanta Communications, LLC

8. Browsing Your Goods • Open a file in your webroot, press F12 or Browse tab • If all goes well, should now see edited page in internal browser • Life as a developer should be much more productive now! • Hit F12 again (or Edit tab) to return to editor • No more need to flip back and forth to external browser, entering URLs • What if you prefer to use external browser? • Such as to launch IE, Netscape, Opera, etc. • Can indeed use the development mappings to launch external browser, as we’ll see later • Can also make life easier for editing form action pages or passing in URL query string data. See article for more info. New Atlanta Communications, LLC

9. Browsing Challenges • What if you get an error using browsing feature? • Return to mappings editor and correct your settings • What if browsed page does not reflect latest edits? • May just be a browser caching issue. Right-click browsed page and choose “refresh”, or use available icon at top of browsed page • See article for more on IE browser caching settings • Also, be aware of options for browsing unsaved files • See end of article for more details New Atlanta Communications, LLC

10. Browsing Challenges • Can you browse files opened on an RDS connection? • Yes, just create a mapping pointing to the filepath Studio shows at the top of the editor window when opening a file via RDS • How about files opened via an FTP connection? • Background: you can create an FTP connection to a remote server (in the “Macromedia FTP&RDS Servers” option in Windows Explorer/My Computer) • In doing so, you indicate what the “root URL” to be used if you were to browse files on that FTP site • Great news: if you browse a file opened via FTP in Studio, it will just automatically detect it’s opened via FTP and will prepend that root URL to the path/filename of the file being edited • No need to create a “development mapping” for such FTP connection New Atlanta Communications, LLC

11. Browsing Externally • Can be more useful and powerful than internal browsing • If you have IE, Netscape, Opera, etc. installed when Studio/HomeSite+ is installed, it detects them • Then you can browse page externally using F11 (versus F12) • or available “magnifying glass” icon when in browse mode • Opens edited page in “default” external browser • Can choose which is default, or add newly installed browsers, using Options>Configure External Browsers • Can reorder them, since first in list is what’s launched by F11 • Let’s see it • Can also now choose which browser to use with “View external browser list” icon at top right of toolbar New Atlanta Communications, LLC

12. Summary • That’s a whirlwind tour of internal/external browsing • Powerful feature, misunderstood by many • Hope these tips save you lots of time • You can comment on the article at bottom of online sys-con article page • Or drop me an email: charlie@newatlanta.com New Atlanta Communications, LLC

13. New Atlanta Communications, LLC