Hello.  I’ve started to develop in EE again.  I still think its one of the best open-architecture/open-source CMS out there.  However, I’m having issues with workflow.

I prefer to work on the templates in Dreamweaver, but that tool is not EE-aware.

I started looking at what is required to make a custom EE tag library for Dreamweaver.  I couldn’t figure it out without some more digging.

Would someone in the EE community be interested in tackling an EE tag library for Dreamweaver, complete with code hinting?

I will start by pledging $25 for a well-developed tag library that works in Dreamweaver CS3 without issue, and does code hinting and tag auto-complete, just like with HTML.

Will another fifty people each pledge $10 or more?  Someone who knows what they’re doing could build this pretty easily, no?

I looked in to doing this myself, but the problem I faced is that Dreamweaver only recognizes the “< >” code brackets and not the curly “{ }” brackets.

Have you seen otherwise?

This is an interesting idea but if this is of any use, here is what I do with my students:

1. Start with a standard template out of EE.
2. Post an entry or 2.
3. View a page in browser (home page or entry page or comments page)
4. View source and select all / copy
5. Go to Dreamweaver
6. Make new HTML
7. Source view / delete all
8. Paste in source from clipboard
9. Design view should show you the page correctly

Back to templates
10. Grab the CSS (usually site_css)
11. Back to Dreamweaver make new CSS | Paste in from the clipboard
12. Save this CSS and link to the HTML page made above (instead of the original link which will be a full URL to your EE installation)
13. Now edit the CSS until you get what you want

14. When you have a CSS file that seems to do the trick, paste it back to the template that represents your stylesheet.

Of course this may only be a starting point because you are also likely to want to change the structure of your HTML, but with a good amount of commenting in the Dreamweaver HTML, you should be able to see what you have to do in the templates.

I suggest that you break up the main templates into smaller chunks and use the embed= syntax to bring the templates together. This certainly makes it easier to ‘include’ consistent menus, headers, banners, footers etc. Once you start doing that, it is very easy to put those chunks of code in different places.

I only use Dreamweaver to get the site looking right and then I break the code down into these small templates by pasting them into ExpressionEngine.

You can find an upcoming session on this here with a screencast that walks you through the workflow

Thanks Chris, but I don’t think that is what 4midiori or I were asking.  In Dreamweaver, under EDIT, there lies the Tag Library Editor.  In this editor you can add new tag libraries that will allow you to use the quick tag hint in code view to code various pages, thus bettering workflow. 

Here is an example DW tag library for Xaraya - another CMS system.

However the issue I’ve faced trying to create a library is that DW doesn’t support the “{ }” curly brackets.

Does DW still have that “edit in external editor” possibility? If so, why not get Textmate and download the excellent EE-bundle that Chris Ruzin did. Just a thought!

I think like most fools who forked over $399 for DW, we’re still trying to make the most of it.

LOL!

I think Dreamweaver is the best WYSIWYG editor, even though I use code view a lot.  Textmate is great, but I’m on a PC.

I’m not sure the about the curly braces thing.  I would think it would be possible if the XML is correct.

Does anyone know?

Ben

When I tried it with the curly brackets I got an error that said:

“The name of the tag can only contain letters, numbers, colons, periods, dashes, and underscores.”

4midori - 03 October 2007 07:50 PM

I think Dreamweaver is the best WYSIWYG editor, even though I use code view a lot.  Textmate is great, but I’m on a PC.

I’m not sure the about the curly braces thing.  I would think it would be possible if the XML is correct.

Does anyone know?

Ben

Can’t offer anything about the DW stuff but if you’re looking for a TextMate solution for Windows, I’d definitely give E-TextEditor a look. The bundle support alone makes it a decent investment.

Dreamweaver being expression aware would be great. The blown up poster on the wall works well enough for now, and I’ll let you know if I get anywhere messing around with Dreamweaver code library.

I was looking for a Dreamweaver plist plugin/extension to Dreamweaver but found nothing, as that seemed to be the “common language” of EE tags for the mac app.

anyone thought of building a snippet library of expression engine tags?

Any updates on a possible Dreamweaver plugin? I finished my first EE site and have to admit that I was able to get something up almost 4 times as fast than if I had coded from scratch.

Like many of you, I did all the HTML in Dreamweaver, pasted code to EE, and retrofitted EE tags. Although I love the results, I dread the prospect of using Dreamweaver to update code strewn with EE tags that it doesn’t recognize.

Just wondering if there have any developments (other than what is mentioned in this thread) that I may have missed.

Thx.

Hmm...this is an interesting prospect.

Back in my pre-EE, pre-Mac days, Dreamweaver days when I was using a different CMS, I created a custom tag library to use with that CMS.  It wasn’t too difficult...though time consuming.

I wouldn’t be adverse to doing the same for EE & Dreamweaver if there is some definite interest here.  I have some free time coming up in a few weeks.  Again, it is time consuming so I’d need to know that people would want/use it for it to be worthwhile.

Hey, just like the person who started this thread, I’m willing to pay!

Visual Binary:

Take a look at the second post; I don’t know if DW will recognize curly braces.

I’m since switched to using a Firefox plugin called “It’s all text” along with e-text editor for most things.

Ben

Hello, Anyone come up with an easy solution for this?  Using DW CS3.

Another vote here for someone to take this on. (Nice how I’m volunteering someone else’s time.) I use DW as my code editor (I spend more time there than in the design view) and am using it with It’s All Text to edit my templates. Being able to autocomplete EE tags would finish the package.

Nathan

Now I am sure I talk in my sleep

food for thought from mambo guys:
http://www.mambosolutions.com/dw_tutorial/
not an auto-compleate but an insert.

Here is also how CDML(filemaker) tags were handled: http://www.lorenzcom.com/LCLDesigns/infocdmltags.htm
for Design View.

I am willing to contribute and could focus on this after the project in about a 2-3 weeks. Anyone interested in colab?

Does EE have enough “marketshare” to interest Adobe? I mean I know there is demand for this here, but in general do people need support of curly brackets in DW? Maybe dropping someone at Adobe a line would be more productive. Even if a vocal minority started asking for this it would be something they might add.

But I’ve already written my letter to Adobe:

Dear Adobe,

I think you guys pretty much do everything better than anyone else. You have the best web design applications, the best image editing applications, etc. But what you don’t have is games. You should come out with some games. This would rule!

I’d even volunteer to be a beta tester if you did. I could see my way to playing Adobe Pacman, or Adobe Donkey Kong, or even Adobe Battle Zone! Screw the first person shooter games. Everybody else is doing that. Maybe if you didn’t want to release classic arcade games you could come up with something new.

Oh, if it matters I use a mac, so any beta testing I do will have to be on a mac.

Let me know.

Thanks,

Christopher L. Jorgensen

So I think I’ve pretty much shot my credibility with them. If I asked them to support EE it would probably set the idea back a decade, but that doesn’t mean it would be a bad idea for others to write them (and for the record, they never replied, so don’t expect Adobe Donkey Kong any time soon).