For the last few weekends I've been attempting to create a replacement
file picker for Dreamweaver, as the file picker implementation is my #1
problem with DW, and one of the main areas where Homesite clearly
better than DW in my view.
I've succeeded to a certain degree, in that I was able to get a dual
pane Homesite style file picker working, but ran into some performance
problems, and a few other issues that I'm still trying to figure out.
The DW API for all of it's awesomeness, it's a bit of a black art,
very much like the Homesite API.
So, while I am continuing my efforts, I've decided a better route
would be to try and suggest to MM exactly what us CFer's want in
a file picker. My goal in posting this is to get some comments on
what I have, do any modifications that are necessary to the proposal,
and submit it to MM (via the wishform I guess). Then get as many
people as possible to hit the wishform requesting these features be
implemented.
Here are the features I'd like to see added:
- Homesite style, directories and sites up top, files below style, for
more efficient browsing.
- Metafiles, each file should be a tree in and of itself with
referenced includes, imports, cfc's, scripts, stylesheets, etc.,
openable without navigating to their physical locations. Manually
editing to the metafiles data should be allowed.
- Multiple file picker windows ala Homesite.
- Filepicker scroll wheel speed should use windows scroll wheel speed
settings to allow x number of lines to be scrolled per notch. The
main editor window in DW does this currently, but the file picker
does not.
- Filepicker window (actually any floater, docked or not) should focus
onmouseover, allowing scroll wheel use without clicking to set focus
first.
- Ability to dock multiple file panes within the file picker via
right-click on the directory. This gives the advantage of the
multiple file picker windows without having to actually navigate to
a seconds tab. This is illustrated by the lowest pane in the
screenshot.
I've also put together a demo of basically these features might look like.
http://216.136.31.190/filepicker1.png (Forgive the image size...)
The demo floater from the screenshot is available for anyone who wants
to take a look or extend it at http://216.136.31.190/files2.htm
It should work in previous versions of DW to 2004 as well.
- Copy the source of files2.htm to:
\Program Files\Macromedia\Dreamweaver MX 2004\Configuration\Floaters\files2.htm
- Open up
\Documents and Settings\~user\Application Data\Macromedia\Dreamweaver MX 2004\Configuration\Menus\Menus.xml
and find this line:
<menuitem name="files" enabled="True" command="dw.toggleFloater('files')" checked="dw.getFloaterVisibility('files')" />
and add this line below it.
<menuitem name="files2" enabled="True" command="dw.toggleFloater('files2')" checked="dw.getFloaterVisibility('files2')" />
Launch DW and the files2 floater should be available in the Window
Menu.
Creating suggestions, comments, criticisms is the entire point of this
post, so let me know what you think. I'm going to eventually post
this to cf-talk, but before I get torn to shreds over there, I wanted
to get some preliminary feedback.
p.s. If you got this far, thank you for reading this entire thing :)
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