What's the most user friendly API for CFML?

[josel]

Howdy!

What can you guys/gals suggest to use as an API for CFML?
I am looking for something extremely friendly, flexible and
yet powerful.

Thanks;


Jose Lerebours

KNOWLEDGE: Something you can give away endlessly and gain more of it in the process! - Jose Lerebours

 

[csteinhilber]

Can you explain what you mean, and your need?

Are you looking for a customer-facing interface that uses CFMAIL to send an email? Or something that your developers would use to code mailing routines?

I guess I'm not quite sure why you can't write it yourself. Interacting with CFMAIL is generally only a couple of lines of code. And it would provide the maximum flexibility.


But, of course, you realize that "extremely friendly", "flexible" and "powerful" are generally thought of as counter to each other. ;-)



-Carl

 

[CFMSACCESS]

Ya, CFMAIL can be as simple as this:

<CFMAIL
From=&quot;test@cfhub.com&quot;
Server=&quot;cfhub.com&quot;
Subject=&quot;Testing the CFMAIL Tag&quot;
TO=&quot;webmaster@cfhub.com&quot;
>

Test Message

</CFMAIL>

http://www.GracefulWebDevelopment.com

 

[josel]

Hey guys!

I'm sorry but, I did not mean CFMAIL but CFML
(short for ColdFusion Markup Language). I am
looking for an editor or API other than
Dreamweaver MX.

I do not want the visual design, I am OK with
the source code editor but one that allows me
to check data sources, validate syntax, quick
help, etc.

Thanks;


Jose Lerebours



KNOWLEDGE: Something you can give away endlessly and gain more of it in the process! - Jose Lerebours

 

[csteinhilber]

Ahhhh ... duh... my eyes must've been wiggin'! Could'a sworn you were talking about CFMAIL.

I think what you're after is an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) rather than an API. An API is generally a layer in the server code that allows hooks to perform custom code directly on the system at a lower level than can usually be accomplished by the interpreted language.

If that's what you're after, there really isn't one. CFX tags come the closest, in that you can run you're own low level code, but the extent of the actually ColdFusion integration is simply CFML calling that tag.


If you're looking for an IDE, there are a limitted number of tools that are specifically designed for ColdFusion. Dreamweaver is certainly one. Several of the guys on my team who swore they'd never use Dreamweaver are now working with it. From what I've seen, Dreamweaver MX allows you to strip out all the WYSIWYG and visual design stuff from the interface and present more of a source level editor. Kind of like Dreamweaver's &quot;Edit source&quot; window, but it's the default interface and can apparently be extended to be a much more robust code editing tool.

I've been contemplating making the switch myself... because even when you're running in this source editing model, you still have access to Dreamweaver's libraries of elements, etc.

Allaire's ColdFusion Studio was the defacto standard tool for editing CFML in CF 4.5. It was essentially the same engine as HomeSite (Allaire's popular HTML editor), but with an extra component palette or two. When Macromedia bought Allaire, and CF 5.0 was released, Macromedia unexplicably didn't release a 5.0 version of Studio (at least not on a wide scale... there are apparently a few builds that were available to special folks). So a lot of people moved to HomeSite 5 (which was released), and borrowed the CFML-specific palettes from Studio. You can usually still find HomeSite around. This is what I use now. It has pop-up tooltips and context-sensitive help, autocompletion of tags, attribute prompting for both HTML and CFML tags (when the CFML help files are installed), color coding of source code, and an integrated Tidy code sweeper to validate your code. It doesn't really provide for database or DSN management/validation and doesn't integrate directly with CF Administrator.

Other than Dreamweaver and HomeSite/Studio, you can certainly use any text editor or HTML editor you find. Most HTML editors allow you to define new tags yourself... so, with a little time, you could set them up with a library of CFML tags.

Or just use Notepad or Textpad.



-Carl

 

[webmigit]

Though do be careful about one thing..

Most html editors screw with cold fusion code, they don't get the pound signs and such... they don't respect that sometimes you don't want to close a quote or other such things..

Generally the situations that trip these programs is on the part of a programmer doing things the cheap way but the cheap way works just as well or is the only available option.

Also so many editors screw with <cfif> <cfquery> and <Cfoutput> you'll need counseling just to survive.

ALFII.com

http://www.alfii.com

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[CFDude]

Dreamweaver MX comes with Homesite + which is what ColdFusion Studio was. It has debugging features for CF, browse datasources, RDS, etc.

Macromedia doesn't sell Homesite+ by itself -- you have to purchase Dreamweaver to get it. Homesite is available, but not with the built in CF debugger, datasources, etc. FWIW,Dreamweaver MX with Homesite + costs the same as CF Studio did. So you are getting more for the same price.

 

[csteinhilber]

You're also getting more bloat, however, in both diskspace and resources.

130MB on the disk, vs. 30 for HomeSite. Plus DM is a memory hog.

If you're not going to use the visual stuff, why have it eat up your system.



-Carl

 

[josel]

Thank you all for your response and
attention.

csteinhilber, yes, I meant IDE.

Regards;


Jose Lerebours

PS: Dreamweaver MX it is!

KNOWLEDGE: Something you can give away endlessly and gain more of it in the process! - Jose Lerebours