Using snippets

Snippets are prewritten chunks of code that can be inserted into your .cfm files to save time. You can find snippets on the web or you can even create your own. The difference between these snippets and the snippets used in other programs is that CFEclipse snippets have contextual dialog boxes that enable you to specify attributes. Effectively, you can create custom wizards that are great productivity tools.

To view your snippets, Select Window > Snip Tree View. Your Snip Tree opens next to your Navigator panel. By default there will be no snippets, but you can easily add them.

To add snippets into CFEclipse, you must find (or build) snippets and then place them in the appropriate location of the CFEclipse plug-ins folder. This should be located within the workspace folder of your C: drive under the .plug-ins\org.cfeclipse.cfml\snippets folder (see Figure 8). This workspace folder is created when you run the Eclipse installer. If you put these snippets in the wrong location, they won't work.

Figure 8. Placing your Snippets in the workspace folder

I have added "snippets_aaron" from a number of snippets that I found at Aaron West's blog site. Simply download the snippets and place them in this folder.

Return to CFEclipse and refresh your Snip Tree View. If you still cannot see the new snippets, you may have to restart Eclipse.

To test your snippets, return to the test.cfm page. Double-click the HTML tree snippet (see Figure 9). You will see that a chunk of code was inserted onto your page. As you peruse the other snippets that came in this folder, you'll see that selecting some cause dialog boxes to appear, asking you to specify values for different variables.

Figure 9. Inserting an HTML Skeleton snippet

Using a SnipEx server

If you would like to have the ability to share snippets across your team, you may consider using a SnipEx server. You can specify the location of a SnipEx server by clicking the options menu of the Snip Tree View and selecting SnipEx Server (see Figure 10).

Figure 10. Editing SnipEx Servers

A SnipEx server is a MySQL database and application for storing snippets that can be shared either locally among developers or even over the web for developers that reside in different locations. This is a great way to standardize code practices and improve productivity within an organization.

You can download this application and documentation from the SnipEx site.

Creating Tasks list with the TODO snippet

Another handy feature of CFEclipse is that it offers a shortcut for creating to-do lists by simply prefixing a comment with "TODO." Adding this code to your CFML template will populate a Task tab next to your Browser View.

To add a to-do item, you can use your new snippets again. Select an insertion point at the top of your test.cfm page. From your Snip Tree View, double-click the TODO snippet and you will see some commented code added to your CFML template. Add some text, such as "Clean up page" next to the "TODO:" text so that your comment appears as follows:

<!--- TODO : Clean up page 1/7/2008  --->

To view this task, click Window > Show View > Tasks.

Your TODO task now appears in the Task panel with a check box (see Figure 11). This is an elegant way to keep track of the tasks you need to complete to finish developing your app.

Figure 11. Viewing your Tasks

Editing preferences

Changing the default features of the CFEclipse plug-in is a snap. Select Window > Preferences to open a Preferences window (see Figure 12). Select the CFEclipse menu item and expand the tree to view and optionally change different preference settings.

Figure 12. Editing preferences

Adding plug-ins

Besides the CFEclipse plug-in, you can also find additional plug-ins for web and application development such as CSS and JavaScript tools as well as plug-ins that augment the CFEclipse perspective. You can find some other CFEclipse related plug-ins here: http://trac.cfeclipse.org/cfeclipse/

To install additional plug-ins, you can run a Software Update and download from the plug-in site, just as you did when you installed the CFEclipse plug-in. Other plug-ins require that you place the necessary files into the plug-ins folder of Eclipse. Most plug-ins usually come with some documentation and installation instructions.

Now you can build a robust ColdFusion IDE by installing the ColdFusion 8 Extensions for Eclipse. These extensions and CFEclipse can be used independently or in tandem. When you use them together, you incorporate two great tool sets that speak the same language.

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