ColdFusion Builder Review (After a long day)
Today was the first chance I got to play around with the new ColdFusion Builder from Adobe. I am a big Dreamweaver fan (don't hate me for that), I have been using Dreamweaver well over 5 years as my main IDE. I have switched to and from Eclipse but the lack of support for multiple FTP and site management has always frustratingly pulled me back to the dark side (Dreamweaver of course!).
As a community it's really cool we have something new dedicated to ColdFusion (yes we had homesite but thats gone), maybe, just maybe I can get rid of Dreamweaver and use a real editor right? Well so far I am impressed, but the same functionality Dreamweaver does so well, I feel still lacks in ColdFusion Builder.
Let me explain. Our development environment is setup like so... We have one local web server which ALL developers HAVE to work from, this is not optional we can only work on local machines in first runs, but eventually we all work from the developer local server centrally using version control systems.
it's far better, trackable and more secure and well supported within the eclipse environment via multiple plugins
I'm certaily not going to tell you how you should be working, but just for the record, subversion can certainly be configured to only allow access to various branches/paths for certain people. I.e. the release manager only has access to the release(production copies) branches.
You can also use ANT and run it manually (or scheduled - if thats appropriate), when your release branch is ready for production to do all the copying / database schema changes etc. As long as your script is correct - it makes a repeatable / human-error free way to get thngs to the production servers.
Both (ANT and Subversion) have quite a few different plug-ins for Eclipse / CFBuilder... so if you don't like the first one you get - try another.
Ultimately my point is, that there most certainly are ways to allow to control your source code and its destinations appropriately within Eclipse/CFBuilder already. (You might just have to download and install a particular plug-in)
Most likely the biggest change wil be shifting from sites to projects.
Initially, I didn't like projects at all. Now, I have come to live with them.
I have to say that I prefer DW sites... but given enough time and perserverence you can migrate to Eclipse projects from DW sites.
it's certainly not everything to everyone, but I do think it is getting there.
And just in case you missed it, there is a DW profile within CFBuilder (color schemes / keyboard shortcuts etc) to lighten the Eclipse/CFBuilder learning curve.
Gavin.
Also the second point is that I used Eclipse for coding but when it comes to front end stuff and design I always fireup DW. CF Builder looks like it maybe addressing this, which is cool.
I would have thought the correct "schedule" would be to determine business requirements / rules / processes and the otain the tools required to support those policies / procedures.
Though - on the flip side - I have found at times that a procedure can get altered as a result of the tool being used.
The other point about sites and projects. Yes I found this the hardest issue with switching. However using Eclipse has little impact on how we do things as our syncs are controlled external from Eclipse and if we were forced to use Eclipse we this would not change.
I am still looking forward to the challenges I could face using CF Builder and may even conclude our current working methodology IS a 'little' outdated, the point the article highlights is will the Director of a company see the same thing when using another IDE, sorta like, if is not broken, why fix it! If I get my job done quicker, then yes, maybe, but if its change, for the sake of change, they may not be so cash friendly.