Adobe Labs has released ColdFusion Builder Public Beta 3.  One of the first things you will notice is they upgraded the code version of Eclipse to 3.5.1 Galileo.  For me this was good news since in my normal Eclipse build I’ve switched from the Subclipse plug-in to Subversive which is now part of the Eclipse project, as my SVN client. All you need to do is add the Galileo Update Site (http://download.eclipse.org/releases/galileo). Then select Collaboration --> Subversive SVN Team Provider.  You can also choose to select the Subversive SVN Integration for the Mylyn Project at the same time.

If you read the docs, and I really suggest you do, you will notice Adobe also added full AIR development support.

I’ve also noticed a fair amount of improvement in the startup time on both my Mac and my pathetic Windows computer at work.

Also new in Beta 3 is the Adobe Community Help AIR application Beta.  Select Help --> ColdFusion Builder Help to launch the AIR application.  In addition to being able to search the local help documents it appears this is an AIR application that is a proxy to Adobe LiveDocs and ColdFusion Blogs that are aggregated via Adobe Feeds (http://feeds.adobe.com/) including my blog.  The search interface automatically brings up related content from the Adobe help docs and blogs. This makes it much easier to search on a general topic rather than just searching for various CF tags or functions.

So far Beta 3 is looking pretty good. There are still bugs and you can report the bugs you find using the public bug tracker http://cfbugs.adobe.com/bugreport/flexbugui/cfbugtracker/main.html.

That's all for now.

Last night I upgraded my MacBook Pro from Leopard to Snow Leopard.  I used the upgrade method instead of the clean install.  So far I cannot tell that anything is different.  This really does look and feel like an under the hood upgrade.  At this point I have not dug into Snow Leopard UI changes, but I have been testing software.

I've had the public beta of ColdFusion Builder installed since it came out and after upgrading to Snow Leopard there seems to be no issues at all with ColdFusion Builder.  Well there is one thing I just notice.  Startup of ColdFusion Builder is lightning fast now.  I also fired up my CFEclipse on Eclipse 3.5 installation to compare.

ColdFusion Builder starts in 5 seconds flat and is ready to use after 7 seconds.  CFEclipse took a full 20 seconds to get up and running on the first start.  After shutting it down and restarting it also started in 5 seconds and ready to go in 7 seconds.  Also note that I have the same extra plugins installed in both IDE's; Subclipse, Mylin Bridge, EPIC Perl and Shell ED.  So it looks like everything for me to do my ColdFusion coding is working on Snow Leopard.

Next is to test my ColdFusion 8 install. It runs, but I have to check to see if it is still connected to Apache and if my Apache and hosts file settings are still in tack.

Then onto my PostgreSQL database installed via Mac Ports.

For reference, my MacBook Pro is a 2.2Ghz Intel Core Duo with 4Gb of ram and a 120Gb hard drive.

 

ColdFusion Builder is here and it's finally shaping up into a great IDE.  However, you need to know a few things before you jump right in if you've never used an Eclipse Platform IDE.  If you have then your way ahead of a lot of people.

ColdFusion Builder is built on the Eclipse Platform (version 3.4 at the time of writing this article) which had it's start internally at IBM. In addition ColdFusion Builder incorporates Aptana which is a full featured IDE that has most everything you need for web programming except a CFML editor and hooks to ColdFusion servers.  Adobe worked with Aptana to use their customized Eclipse based IDE to make ColdFusion Builder.

Getting Installed

New to Eclipse base IDE's? You're not alone. I was new to the Eclipse IDE's a few years ago and found it to be a different way of doing things as compared to my favorite editor, ColdFusion Studio.  There is a big learning curve, but do not let this scare you.  Once you learn the basics of the Eclipse platform you will find there is power under the hood.  In addition you get a universal programming IDE that supports dozens of languages by simply installing a plugin.

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It looks like Adobe has just moved ColdFusion Builder into the realm of Public Beta at 12:01am EST. 

ColdFusion Builder in Adobe Labs

Lets give this a good work over and make it worthy of it's predecessors.

A quick list of features:

• Snippets - fully compatible with those from CFEclipse
• CFML Extensions - extend the IDE using CFML and your local CF Server
• Step Debugging
• Full syntax color coding for HTML, JavaScript, CFML, and more
• Code Refactoring!
• and so much more

All of this built on the Eclipse platform so you can integrate your version control and other code editors such as Flex Builder Eclipse plugin version.

ColdFusion Server 9 was also release to public beta at the same time.  Too many new features to list.

Lets help Adobe decide on pricing and request a Builder Series similar to the Creative Suites.  This would allow us programmers to get Adobe IDE's bundled with other Adobe tools at a great price.  See my previous post on this subject.