This post is in two parts as I realised it's probably not good to bombard you with one longgggg post. The second part (which is the reason this post even exists) is about a new zip file that I have put together so you can download CFEclipse and Adobe CF Extensions in one go. This post first off covers the difference between them so you know what you are getting and why you want it;Incase you don't know the CF Extensions are very different to the CFEclipse plugin for Eclipse but both are essential for your CF development environment. The Adobe CF Extensions is essentially an updated version of the old RDS functionality found in the old CFStudio and Homesite 5+ but also includes a host of new code generation features to make development quicker:
Eclipse RDS Support plug-in, which lets you access files and data sources on a ColdFusion server.
ColdFusion/Flex Application wizard, which lets you create master and detail pages in an application to create, read, update, and delete records in a database.
ColdFusion/Ajax Application wizard, which lets you create master and detail pages that use Ajax elements in an application to create, read, update, and delete records in a database.
RDS CRUD wizard, which lets you dynamically create a ColdFusion component (CFC) based on a table that is registered in the ColdFusion Administrator on a ColdFusion server
ActionScript to CFC wizard, which lets you create a CFC based on an ActionScript class file.
CFC to ActionScript wizard, which lets you create an ActionScript file based on a CFC Value Object
Services Browser, which lets you browse CFCs, manage a list of web services, and generate the CFML code to invoke a web service.
Log Viewer, it works like the Unix tail function (thanks, hit tip to Ray)
CFEclipse is your ColdFusion IDE for writing your CF markup, it supports
Wizard's for common tasks such as creating a CFC
Code Insight
Code Folding
Task List
Tag Completion
Syntax Highlighting
CFComponent, a collapsable tree format of methods and properties in your CFC's
Methods View, an overview of the methods in your current CFC
Dictionary, get quick access and look-up features to CF[8|7|6|5], Railo, and BlueDragon[7|6] documentation
Snippets, create pre-defined code blocks which can be accessed via key triggers
CFUnit for unit testing you CFC'c without leaving your development IDE
Frameworks Explorer to access and view your xml configurations files
Really you need both together for the complete dev environment. In my next post I have put together both downloads into one zip file to make setting yourself up even easier.For now checkout the following references: