Resources for Getting Started with CFEclipse

Note: This blog post is from 2006. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.

I think most developers will find that it does what they want (tag insight, tag help, code snippets, and more), and it will do still more than they may expect. Still, it may trip some up at first as they make a transition. Changing editors is always a challenging proposition, just because we become so used to our current editor. Still, more and more developers are making the switch, and you may want to learn more about it.

Challenges Getting Started

A challenge is that there's not too much in the way of getting started docs at the CFEclipse site, http://www.cfeclipse.org/. But there are ample other resources out there to help with that.

Another challenge is that one has to get into using Eclipse itself. That can be a little daunting, but it need not be a show-stopper for you. The truth is that you really can ignore a lot of what other developers (like Java developers) would do with Eclipse, and you can focus on it just being a CFML editor. There are some quirks and differences.

Finally, the tool itself has evolved, so some of the things that may have annoyed early adopters have indeed been fixed, and more and more features have been added, thanks to Mark Drew, the project lead.

So with that introduction, I want to point out that there have been various resources (articles, resource pages, and more) put together on getting into CFEclipse, and I'd like to point to some of them here, as I've found no single page yet that does that.

CFEclipse Articles in the CFDJ

First, there have been some articles in the ColdFusion Developer's Journal:

CFEclipse: The Developer's IDE, Eclipse For ColdFusion, Aug 2005, by Simeon Bateman and Spike Milligan
http://coldfusion.sys-con.com/read/48235.htm

CFEclipse for ColdFusion Developers, Jan 2006, Rob Rohan
http://coldfusion.sys-con.com/read/167971.htm

Making the Switch to CFEclipse to Write ColdFusion Code, April 2006, by Jeff Houser
http://coldfusion.sys-con.com/read/206261.htm

Robert Blackburn's CFEclipse Article Series at FusionAuthority

Next, Robert Blackburn has done a series of articles on the FusionAuthority site:

Introducing: CFEclipse Features
http://www.fusionauthority.com/News/4610-Introducing-CFEclipse-Features.htm

CFEclipse CFExplained Part I
http://www.fusionauthority.com/Techniques/4599-CFEclipse-CFExplained-Part-I.htm

CFEclipse CFExplained Part II
http://www.fusionauthority.com/Techniques/4607-CFEclipse-CFExplained-Part-II.htm

Introducing: CFEclipse Features
http://www.fusionauthority.com/News/4610-Introducing-CFEclipse-Features.htm

CFEclipse Features: Task List
http://www.fusionauthority.com/Reviews/4619-CFEclipse-Features-Task-List.htm

CFEclipse Features: Code Folding
http://www.fusionauthority.com/Reviews/4631-CFEclipse-Features-Code-Folding.htm

CFEclipse Features: Tag Insight
http://www.fusionauthority.com/Reviews/4633-CFEclipse-Features-Tag-Insight.htm

CFEclipse Features: Local History
http://www.fusionauthority.com/Reviews/4648-CFEclipse-Features-Local-History.htm

I couldn't find any one page on the FA site (or on the web) with a link to all of Robert's articles, though some of them do show a progressively building list of links at the bottom pointing to the previous articles. I do think the list above is all that there have been so far, but I welcome hearing from anyone who knows otherwise.

I'll also point out some other CFEclipse articles that are on the FA site (thanks, Judith, for pointing them out in comments below):

CFEclipse: A Community Affair: An Interview with Simeon Bateman, Project Manager by Judith Dinowitz
http://www.fusionauthority.com/Community/4534-CFEclipse-A-Community-Affair.htm

Test-Driven Development with ColdFusion Part III: Integrate Your Tests into CFEclipse Using CFUnit-Ant by Robert Blackburn
http://www.fusionauthority.com/Techniques/4583-Test-Driven-Development-with-ColdFusion-Part-III.htm

Nathan Strutz CFEclipse Resource Page

Nathan Strutz has also created a CFEclipse Intro and Resource page (FAQ) at:

http://www.dopefly.com/projects/cfeclipse.cfm

Mark Drew's CFEclipse Videos

Finally, Mark Drew, who is leading the CFEclipse project now, has done a set of videos available as podcasts:

http://www.markdrew.co.uk/blog/index.cfm/2006/8/12/CFEclipse-Podcasts

Still more?

I'm sure there are still more resources, and perhaps some are better suited to helping folks get started with just understanding CFEclipse and Eclipse from the perspective of a CFML developer making the move from, say, Dreamweaver, CF Studio, HomeSite/HomeSite+, or something else.

I really look forward to hearing from others with more/better resources.

PS I should also point out that another motivation for getting into Eclipse as a CFML developer, if not also CFElipse itself, is that the FusionDebug CFML Interactive Debugger is built atop Eclipse. I've done a series of entries on the topic:

http://carehart.org/blog/client/index.cfm/fusiondebug/

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