Aptana Studio makes jQuery so much easier
Posted on April 16, 2009 | 3 Comments | No TrackBacks
I use Dreamweaver for XHTML/CSS work and Visual Studio for ASP.NET. You can say what you want about either of them or about the purity of hand-coding in Notepad, but the reason I use programs like that is primarily because of their "intellisense" and code-complete features. I still hand-code all my XHTML & CSS but using Dreamweaver allows me to type the code exponentially faster. I type "m" and it fills in "argin" for me. This might seem trivial but when you spend your life at the computer this adds up to thousands of saved keystrokes a week. Code completion features can also be a great learning tool for junior developers and developers getting used to a new language.
Pretty much every web project I've done recently has involved some sort of jQuery coding. There are some plugins available for Dreamweaver and Visual Studio to add code-complete for jQuery but as of this writing I haven't found any that I love. Enter Aptana Studio.
Aptana Studio is full-featured IDE with a vast array of features for coding in XHTML/CSS, PHP, Ruby on Rails, Python, and more. It also features integrated FTP, JavaScript debugging with Firebug, a DOM navigator, and complete set of database tools. It's a fantastic program, it runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and best of all… it's free. (There is a $99 "Pro" version for hardcore users but the free version has an incredible feature set)
So while there are dozens of reasons to give Aptana a download, the reason I love it right now though is because it has an awesome code assist function for jQuery. For those of you not using jQuery it also supports and/or has plug-ins for Prototype & Script.aculo.us, Dojo, Ext JS, YUI, MooTools, and pretty much anything else you can imagine.
Here's how to enable code assist for jQuery in Aptana Studio
- Open Aptana Studio
- Click Window > Preferences
- Expand the Aptana node, then the Editors node, then the JavaScript node
- Click on Code Assist
- Check the boxes for libraries you wish to use
- Click Okay and restart the program
Overall Aptana Studio is a great program and a viable alternative for other development environments, especially if you don't want to shell out hundreds of dollars to Adobe or Microsoft.
Visual Studio now supports intellisense for jQuery...
See Scott Guthrie's blog: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/11/21/jquery-intellisense-in-vs-2008.aspx
I suggest to try also Codelobster PHP Edition with special JQuery plug-in.
I use Aptana for 3 years in some app. Aptana every day is better and better thank you for this tip.