In which tool do you spend the most development time when creating WebFOCUS applications?

You poll did not ask the most obvious editor.. The Mainframe. I develop all my webfocus code on the mainframe. MVS os/390.. Using the SPF editor.

I can beat handdown anyone using Power Reporter, Dev Studio etc. All of my applications are Self Service. Until Power Reporter and Dev Studio grow up, I will stay on host. We are running 4.3.6 of the desk top tools

quote:

Originally posted by Rich:
[qb] You poll did not ask the most obvious editor.. The Mainframe. I develop all my webfocus code on the mainframe. MVS os/390.. Using the SPF editor.[/qb]

SPF edit rocks... and I believe this would fall under "Third party text editor."

Personally I use textpad for my html editing - http://www.textpad.com . It's a great little text editor that includes powerful features for string search and replacement across multiple documents. Not available for the mainframe though - only Windows.

GUI tools have their place of course, but there's nothing like hacking the code.

-Chris

For those of you who answered "other", what other tools do you use?

Hi, I use UltraEdit.
for me it's a great text editor.

Editplus (http://www.editplus.com)

Someone wrote a syntax sheet for use with the editor that understands FOCUS, MFD, AFD and DM syntax.

ISPF (IBM Mainframe) and

TextPad. Powerful text editor. All I expect about text editors.

I used 'Editplus' on my last job and I liked it a lot for HTML and javascript, but it took a bit of configuring to get it to work OK with Focexecs. very powerful tool if you're willing to put up with a bit of a learning curve.

Of course SPF required a bit of learning too.

I haven't kept up with SPF/PC, as the upgrade got to expensive.

But Notepad is usually what I use, cause it's always there and does the job !

Dave

quote:

Originally posted by Ildave:
[qb] Hi, I use UltraEdit.
for me it's a great text editor. [/qb]

I use UltraEdit also. I have created a word file for WebFOCUS that hilights WebFOCUS syntax. I also created a web page you can place on your hard drive that can be executed from UltraEdit advanced menu which will prompt you for any amper variables you need and then execute your focexec against your WebFOCUS server. It rocks! Let me know and I'll send you the code.....Kelly

totally TEXTPAD

quote:

Originally posted by monte2000:
[qb] For those of you who answered "other", what other tools do you use? [/qb]

I had to select "other" just to see the results. I manage the use of the tools at our site and don't develop. THANKS

I also use Ultra-Edit. I also use the Syntax Highlighting feature of Utlra-Edit and configured it for Focus.

What editor do unix users use now that TED is unavailable?

vi? emacs? pico? directly on unix?

Is there an editor on Windows that can access files on unix (which is where we store them)?

I can use BBedit on Mac OS X to open/save files from FTP server. Is there something comparable for Windows?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Suzy

Does anyone know how I can change the default text editor for WebFOCUS? It seems to only launch the Java applet, and it's really annoying to go back and forth from my text editor when making really complicated adjustments (like find and replaces or mass tabbing).

Thanks!

Another 3rd party Text-Editor: SciTE
I've worked with TextPad and UltraEdit as well, but SciTE does the trick. I like it because it's light-weight.

Btw, I find it somewhat surprising noone answered with "Developer Studio"

I use EditPlus. It's my favourite WIndows program.

I have it configured to syntax-colour WebFOCUS fex, mas and acx files.

It has auto-completion - when you type the name of the function, it inserts the the parameters and all you have to do is change the values - you do not have to check the manual for the syntax of the function.

You can search for a text value in multiple folders and then open all the files where the value was found. Then you can make a global change to all the open files with one command and save them all with one command.

You can group related files into Projects and then have them all open with a simple command.

Keyboard mapping... US and UK spell-checking... FTP... Sorting... Case Change... HTML code stripping...

Oh yeah, it has line numbers, something the text editor in Dev. Studio doesn't have - at least until version 5.3.4.

The only learning curve is learning all you can do with it.

I wish there was something like this on the Mac OS - BBEdit pales in comparison.

Thank you for your responses, I guess what I meant was how can I integrate it in to WebFOCUS so that when I rightclick on the report icon the "other" text editor opens the script rather than having to copy and paste back and forth from text editor back to the web file?

Thanks!

I don't think that you can actually integrate it into WebFOCUS, but you can add it to the menu options so that you can call it from within Dev Studio.

Go to Window/Options and click on the External Tools tab. Enter the title text and the location of the program file. No helpful file tool on this one, you have to enter the path and filename yourself (in 7.1.3 anyway).

Now click on the first of the three icons and the tool will be added.

To access it you go to the Command menu and it should appear at the bottom of the list.

It doesn't get launched in Dev Studio and is akin to clicking on an icon in the quick launch bar (if you use it).

Tim,

If you have a decent properties file for .fex, .mas etc then I would appreciate a copy

T

A zip file containing six EditPlus config files is available here.

Contents:

focus.acp - WebFOCUS function (subroutine) auto-completion
FocusEXEC.ctl - WebFOCUS clip-text
FocusUWS.ctl - WebFOCUS function (subroutine) clip-text
FocACX.stx - WebFOCUS meta-data Access (acx) syntax colouring
FocMFD.stx - WebFOCUS meta-data Master (mas) syntax colouring
Focus.stx - WebFOCUS Program (fex) syntax colouring

I took a fairly old WebFOCUS Program (fex) syntax colouring file and updated it, but it's definitely not complete, and is not updated for v7.6.

Cheers.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Francis Mariani,

Eclipse for me!

Testpad or the Text Editor if I'm in Dev Studio. I never use the GUI!

I use Crimson Editor. It's FREE and colorful. It's not perfect for color coding keywords but it's FREE. Did I mention it's FREE? Does anyone else use this?

From the manual... Developing Reporting Applications With Graphical Tools
Version 7 Release 1.3
Chapter 9



You can access any text editor that is registered with your operating system based on the program that is set up to be the default program that opens the selected file type. For
example, in Windows Explorer, select a .fex file, then right-click and select Properties from the context menu. Click Change and select Notepad as the default program to open this
file type if it is not already associated with an application. The option to open procedures
(.fex files) with Notepad will now be available through Developer Studio.

This option is valuable for developers who want to take advantage of the WebFOCUS language and use the editor of their choice.

Accessing Text Editors
You can access any text editor by right-clicking a file within the Developer Studio Explorer. A context menu for the file appears with the following default options:
❏ Open in (Task Viewer/Text Editor/Registered Program) to edit the procedure’s
components. Depending on this setting, the following options order will change.
❏ Open in (Task Viewer). Depending on the product settings, this option may show
Open in (Text Editor) or Open in (Registered Program), for example, Notepad.
❏ Open in Text Editor to edit the procedure’s code using the Developer Studio text
editor.
❏ Open in (Registered Program) to edit the procedure’s code using an external editor,
such as Notepad.
❏ Open in auto detected tool to open the procedure in the tool used to create it (for
example, the Report Painter, HTML Layout Painter, etc.). You must use this option
if you need to open the file in the HTML Layout Painter or Compound Report
Constructor because it is the only way to open procedures created in the tool used
to create them. You cannot open procedures created with those tools from the
Task Viewer.

Procedure: How to Set Up the Default Action for the Open Option
1. In the Explorer window, select Options from the Window menu. The Developer Studio
Options dialog box opens at the General tab.
2. From the Default file editor drop-down list, select one of the following:
❏ Edit in DevStudio tool to edit a procedure in the Developer Studio Task Viewer.
❏ Edit in Text Editor to edit a procedure in Developer Studio’ s text editor.
❏ Edit in Windows registered tool to edit a procedure in Notepad, Wordpad, or other
program as registered with the operating system.



...Then again if you use the Developer Studio supplied text editor, you can launch the gui tools, like the DEFINE tool, from within the text editor.

Thanks for that last reply, really helps! Any text editor out there that recognizes focus language?

READ ABOVE.

Francis,

My company's corporate policy WebSenses out this type of sites.

quote:

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=CE523D8D6D8572EC

Is there anyway you can email me these files?

I am new to WEBFocus, but I like Crimson Editor because it works for PHP, T-SQL, and many others. AND IT'S FREE!

What I wonder if anyone has a sytax file already developed.

Thanks....Russell
russell_wright@tamko.com