TSW Blog

An area that has been much improved in WebCoder 2010, is the SQL support. In this post, I will show you the first step, which is syntax highlighting of SQL code inside your PHP files. Since SQL in PHP is really just text strings, this is a bit tricky to get right all the time, but I think that it's better to have it working 95% of the time than to miss out on a really cool feature. So without further ado, here it is:

In this color theme, the SQL colors are pretty similar to the PHP colors, but as you can see, the actual SQL keywords and function names are highlighted. Since WebCoder can now identify SQL in your code, it offers some cool possibilities, most of which we will look into in the next blog post, but here is one of them:

This function will execute the SQL statement against your currently active database connection. If you have inline PHP variables, WebCoder will try to detect them and then prompt you for their value, allowing you to test your SQL queries in various situations. In the next post, I will show you something even more awesome from the SQL world of WebCoder 2010. Stay tuned and let me know what you think :)

One of the things that I find my self trying to improve all the time, is the IntelliSense in WebCoder. As you will see in future posts, WebCoder 2010 will come with a bunch of very cool IntelliSense additions, and the PHP IntelliSense is of course one of them. Here's a couple of examples on what I've done:

Support for nested objects, where you can access members of members of an object. The screenshot should tell it all :)

PHP's own classes have been added to the IntelliSense along with all the usual stuff like functions and reserved words, and of course, you can even see members of the built-in PHP classes, like on the screenshot where we use the DOMDocument class.

Now imagine a situation like on this next screenshot: You get something that you know is an object of a specific class, but since PHP is so dynamic, there is really no way for WebCoder to know which class it is. That will leave you without IntelliSense, which is always a shame. However, in WebCoder 2010, I've added some cool intelligence, allowing WebCoder to try to guess which class you're using. It looks at the members you have already used on a variable, and if it can find one single class with these members, it offers you the IntelliSense we all know and love. Have a look at the next screenshot, where I've helped WebCoder by using a member only found on ClassOne, allowing WebCoder to guess the class:

Pretty cool, right? These are all somewhat small features, but I feel that they make a big difference, and coding with them through the last couple of months has been great! I hope you like it all, and stay tuned for the next time, where I bring you yet another cool feature of WebCoder 2010. In the meantime, let me know what you think of the features presented in this post :)

In phpCoder 2008, the dropdown list in the top, listing classes, functions and variables, was introduced. In WebCoder 2009, the tag chain was introduced. In WebCoder 2010, the two functions have been combined and made context sensitive, so that they always show you relevant information, depending on which type of code you're editing. It works for PHP:

For JavaScript:

For HTML, where you get the tag chain:

And even for CSS, where selectors are divided up into elements, classes and ID's:

It only takes up ~24 pixels of your screen height, but can help you overlook and navigate your documents much faster, and if you don't agree, it can obviously be turned off.

Hope you like it :)

The first new feature that I want to show you, is one that has been requested quite a bit in the last couple of versions. In WebCoder 2010, you will be able to create color themes, for syntax coloring, but also for other colors used in the editing area. They will be included in the same configuration file, giving you total customization of the editor and the ability to change between different color themes with a couple of clicks. The settings dialog has been modified to reflect this - the syntax coloring tab is now called "Editor colors", and has been divided into two areas: One for language specific colors and one for editor specific colors, e.g. background color, color for line highlighting, indentation guides, line numbers and so on. It's all working pretty well by now, and I hope that you will like it enough to create your own cool themes and hopefully even share them as well. In the spirit of that, I've made it easier to get a good overview of the various settings for each language, by changing the interface where you set colors and styles for the language. At the same time, I replaced the very simple preview control with a real editor, so that you can see exactly how your theme looks like. I think it turned out pretty well:

I know that a lot of you prefer editing code on a dark background, so I have included a Dark theme in the package. Here's WebCoder with a whole other set of colors than you might be used to:

The colors are just a suggestion, and hopefully you guys will improve it and share it with the rest of the users!

Please let me know what you think! See you in part 3 :)

When I started the work on xCoder 2010 back in August 2009, I had no idea what the name would be. I didn't exactly call my project "xCoder" internally, but I did have another codename for it. I wasn't really sure what direction I should go, but I already had some ideas that I knew I wanted to do no matter what, so I started with those. The big question, put in my mind by several customers, was whether to combine phpCoder and WebCoder or keep them as separate products, and if they should be combined, which name should be used? With the feedback from the xCoder 2010 forum, as well as feedback obtained from a range of trusted customers, I slowly made the decision: I wanted one application with the best from both worlds, mainly because people seemed to be bothered by the fact that they had to choose between two applications. My initial idea was to use a brand new name for this merged application, but I'm simply to fond of the WebCoder name to let it go. In other words, xCoder 2010 will be TSW WebCoder 2010, with the very best from phpCoder 2008 and WebCoder 2009 and a range of new stuff as well! I think this is what people want, and the more I think of it, it's what I want as a webdeveloper too.

This has all been very theoretic, but I promise that in my next post, I will start to show you some of the new goodies from WebCoder 2010. Stay tuned :)

The xCoder process has already been long. I asked for your input a couple of months ago, but I had actually done quite a bit of work before that as well. Instead of doing long stretches of work on the application and then releasing it as beta, I have done it differently this time. I have spent shorter periods of time developing the application, and in between those, I have used it extensively for various web projects and written down all the bugs I found and the ideas I came up with. This led to a pretty big TODO list of both small and bigger items, and each time I implemented a bunch of the changes, I came up with even more stuff that I wanted to do. This has been going on since August 2009 where I first stated the xCoder project, and since the new version is built on top of WebCoder 2009 code, the entire time has been used to add new features and perhaps more importantly: improve the old ones. Today, my TODO list has surpassed 200 changes, and most of them has already been implemented! Hopefully this will bring you the best web editor ever, and I'm already very excited to show it to you.

In the following weeks, I will tell you much more about this new application, which brings lots of positive changes to the world. In the meantime, while we wait for the beta, I urge you to participate in the xCoder 2010 forum. Let me know what you would like to see improved or added, so we can get it in there before the first beta version. As you can see, lots of users have already provided their feedback, and several requests have already been fulfilled. Thank you and stay tuned! :)

Dear all,

It's that time of year again, and therefore, I would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas! The year of 2009 has almost passed now, and while I know that the last part of the year has been a bit quiet around here, I promise that next year will bring you all a new and exciting piece of software. As mentioned in a previous blog post, the name is xCoder, and you can help make it the best possible application, by participating in the xCoder feedback forum. I'm eager to show you what we have accomplished so far, but you will have to wait just a little bit longer. It will be great though!

Stay tuned, and have a very merry Christmas and an excellent New Year!

Hello everyone,

Every year, people here in Denmark complaint that Christmas starts even earlier than last year. We've had Christmas inspired commercials, beer and city decorations for weeks now, but for me, Christmas starts on the first of December. Last year, I offered a special Christmas discount for all you blog readers, but perhaps it was a bit late, so this year, we're going to start early - I hope you don't mind :). From today, and right up until Christmas eve/day, you can enjoy a nice 25% discount on all TSW products! For instance, you can get a WebCoder 2009 personal license for only $44.99 or a commercial license for only $67.49. Of course, with such a big discount, I hope that you might feel compelled to go for one of the bundles - you can get a fine combination of WebCoder 2009 and SiteSync for only $63.74 ($97.49 for commercial use). It's a great package for all web developers, a combination I use myself every day. I highly recommend it :)

All you have to do, is to use this special ordering page and pick your desired product before people are dancing around the Christmas tree (at least that's what we do here in Denmark) and you're good to go :)

Buy your favorite TSW application with a special 25% christmas discount now ^[1]

Also, be sure to have a look at this blog post, about the future of WebCoder and phpCoder. Your opinion really matters!

[1] A special message to the Danish readers: Som dansker kan det bedst betale sig at bestille via en bankoverførsel. Brug denne specielle ordre side for at få jule-rabatten!

Hello all,

As this blog clearly shows, things have been a bit quiet here at TSW. Not the company in general, I have been as busy as usual, but for several months after the release of WebCoder 2009, I was occupied by other projects than the software. Finishing up WebCoder 2009 and releasing it took a lot of effort, and I really needed some time away from it afterwards. During that time, I thought a lot about the future of both WebCoder and phpCoder though, and wrote down every idea I got.

By now, I have a huge list of small and big ideas that I want to do for the next version, but the really big question is: What will the next version be? phpCoder 2010? WebCoder 2010? CombinedCoder 2010? I have thought a lot about this, after receiving much feedback from you, dear users, but now I think it's time that we take a discussion together, all of us. To separate it from previous discussions, I have created a brand new forum for this single purpose, with the mysterious name xCoder 2010.

What I really want is all of your opinions on where we should take these pieces of software and how we will make them even better. I would like to know which version you currently use, which version you prefer, what your favorite features are, and what you currently long for. In other words: Throw in all your thoughts and ideas, as structured as possible, and I will try to combine them and integrate it all into my current TODO list. I want everything, from minor annoyances to big feature requests. Obviously, I can't fulfill all of your wishes, but this is your best bet to influence the next version, so start posting! I will take part in the discussions, but I may hold back in the beginning, to make sure that as many people as possible have a chance to be heard, before I meddle :). I'm looking forward to hearing all of your opinions, so be sure to post in the xCoder 2010 forum now! Thank you :)

I'm pleased to announced the second maintenance release of TSW SiteSync 2. It comes with the following changes:

• An exclusion rule could in very specific conditions be ignored.
• Accelerator keys were added to toolbar buttons with text in the application.
• Enter and Backspace were added as shortcuts in the FTP Client. Enter will open a folder or edit a file, and backspace will go one level up, just like in Windows Explorer.
• In Watch mode, a timeout was not always detected, resulting in SiteSync trying to transfer the files with a broken connection.
• The Passive mode setting were sometimes not saved for a site.

To upgrade, simply go to the SiteSync product page and download the application. Install it on top of the previous version, that should cause no problems. If you have any questions or comments, please contact us.