Aug 17
2009

Looking for Support For My CF Builder Enhancement Request: WebDAV Support

CFML , ColdFusion , ColdFusion Builder , Miscellaneous Add comments

As a whole, I like the new ColdFusion Builder IDE. I've run into a few quirks and roadblocks while trying to install it and set it up the way I want it on my machines, but I suspect that's more a result of how my machines are set up than a failing of the product, and hopefully I'll get it all straight soon.

But CF Builder is missing one feature that I need to make it my sole, do-it-all IDE: support for the WebDAV file transfer protocol. At the university where I work, WebDAV is THE protocol used to allow developers to upload, download, update, and delete files on the web server because it makes it easy for the web hosting unit to delegate a certain amount of control to departmental representatives in what is essentially a shared webhosting environment.

This isn't exactly a new problem for me: CFEclipse didn't provide any WebDAV support of its own either. While there is an Eclipse plugin in existence that provides both FTP and WebDAV support, it's old, doesn't support the secure WebDAV implementation that we use, and is no longer being worked on/developed further. So while I've been doing my coding and testing locally using CFEclipse, I've had to rely on Dreamweaver or a stand-alone WebDAV desktop client to actually upload my files to the server. It's not the worst process in the world, but it would be nice to be able to handle it all in one program/IDE.

At CFUnited, I asked Adam Lehman (Product Manager for ColdFusion at Adobe) if there were any plans in the works for adding WebDAV support to Builder (seeing as how Dreamweaver supports WebDAV). He indicated that he didn't think so, but suggested that I submit a feature enhancement through the CF Builder bug database.

So I did: it's request #79437.

If you have any interest in seeing WebDAV support added to ColdFusion Builder (whether because you also have a need to upload files via WebDAV, or because you simply feel Builder should be capable of handling any file management protocol), please visit the CF Builder bug database, log in with your Adobe ID and password (if you don't already have an Adobe account, it's easy to sign up for one), go to the request record, and use the "Bug Votes" option to vote for the request and/or the "Comments" option to weigh in on the topic.

6 responses to “Looking for Support For My CF Builder Enhancement Request: WebDAV Support”

  1. Mike Henke Says:
    Aug 17, 2009 at 9:04 AM Not sure if CFBuilder should focus on this since the nice thing about Eclipse is other projects focus specifically on this. See if these links help you.

    http://www.eclipse.org/dsdp/tm/
    http://www.eclipse.org/eclipse/platform-team/target.php
  2. Mike Henke Says:
    Aug 17, 2009 at 9:20 AM Looks like this might give you an option also but not sure about your secure Webdav issue.

    http://www.boyzoid.com/blog/index.cfm/2007/3/21/Using-FTP-from-inside-CFEclipse
  3. Brian Swartzfager Says:
    Aug 17, 2009 at 9:34 AM @Mike: I'm pretty sure the second link in your first comment is to the existing FTP/WebDAV plugin I alluded to in the actual post: it might work on unsecure WebDAV, but it doesn't work in my WebDAV environment. As for the first link, it does sound like they intend to cover a lot of remote access protocols in that plugin project, but I didn't specifically see any mention of WebDAV.

    Believe me, I wouldn't ask Adobe to add this feature if I knew of an existing plugin that would do the trick--I'm perfectly comfortable with adding Eclipse plugins on my own. Matter of fact, in the enhancement request I suggested that they might consider providing WebDAV support as an optional plugin so that the rest of the Eclipse community could make use of it as well.

    Basically, I figured it couldn't hurt to ask. :)
  4. Mike Henke Says:
    Aug 17, 2009 at 9:39 AM Maybe put in a ticket with Aptana also.
  5. Jose Galdamez Says:
    Aug 17, 2009 at 3:14 PM I'd like to see support for secure WebDAV as well. I'm not exactly sure why we decided secure WebDAV as the protocol to send files to remote servers. I understand moving away from non-secure FTP, but why WebDAV over FTPS or SFTP? Speculation isn't going to get me anywhere, so I just have to live with it.

    I currently rely on Transmit for Mac and occasionally Dreamweaver for secure WebDAV file transfers.
  6. Jose Galdamez Says:
    Aug 24, 2009 at 2:31 PM Just added my vote in the bug tracker database. I'm only the third one listed so far. Darn! Let's keep looking.

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