In eclipse I had all of my projects located in the sidebar by default.
Here's what I have:
Here's what I would like:
I find it hard to believe that you can't have more than one project in your sidebar but I can't find away to add multiple projects.
Try this
https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/7897
a plugin for intellij idea which will allow you to work on multiple projects.
#sai rao gutta has a neat suggestion here, I'll have to look at that plugin.
I recently made the switch from Eclipse to Idea and this was a stumbling block for me as well. The way I came to understand the Idea paradigm was to consider an Idea Project similar to a Workspace in Eclipse, and a Module in Idea similar to a Project in Eclipse.
Some of the projects I work on are libraries (usually sandbox type projects) where I want to see instant use of Project A as a dependency on Project B without having to run builds and whatnot. Or, sometime I just want to use Idea as I did Eclipse and just keep a few random projects available. I created an Empty Project in Idea, then added Modules within. The end result gave me the ability to sandbox a library project and a consuming project in one space in a simple way, as well as give me a space to work with whatever random projects I had in Eclipse.
Related
I have a library that I created which I would like to use the included classes across a few different projects while maintaining the library code independently. I would also like to be able to easily share it with other developers and have them easily implement it. At this point it doesn't need to be a static library.
What is the best method to do this? I have seen other devs put their classes in a brand new XCode project then import that, but what is best practice?
I think the best practice is to create a project with a static library target. Other developers can include it as a subproject in their projects.
Second best would be to simply make a directory of source files that can be included in a project on an as-needed basis. This is useful for general purpose utility code where a particular project may not want all of it.
In both cases, the library code should belong to its own git repository and included in a project as a git submodule.
If it will ever become a static library, it's best to make it one now, rather than waiting until it is "ready"; by the time you decide to switch it over, a few projects will already be using it, and converting each of them to use it will be a pain. Just do it the right way from the beginning.
If you want to distribute the library without source, you will want to use lipo to build a universal library that contains both ARM and x86 code. Unfortunately, Xcode doesn't make this as easy as it could be, but it's not too difficult with some light shell scripting.
As far as I know you should create a new project and that project to any other project you want use library in. Then link the projects and you can access it. The other way which I have done also, copy the library classes directly to the new project and access the library through importing the needed classes. In my case i found creating a project and linking it with the new project is the easiest. although copying the classes isnwhat we all do when using external libraries such as cocos2d. As far as sharing it with others, just upload it to github another place of your choice so it can be used by other dev's. I hope this helps you.t
I don't know how mature the code is, but since you specifically mention wanting to share it with other developers, you may want to investigate CocoaPods.
I am a javascript/html developer that hasn't ventured into visual studio much, so this might be a trivial question.
I am currently developing a Windows Store app (winJS), that will likely turn into several apps. And it would be highly likely that I will be reusing code, so I have made a js library with the common code.
The question is, how can I develop on this lib in visual studio, so that the apps that I am developing will use the latest version of it (i.e without me having to copy the files in again manually).
Best thing I can think of is, create a new project for the lib, and include it in the applications solutions, but what type of project would it have to be, and how to you expose the files?
Hope that makes sense!
Thanks!
I usually solve this by having the project copy the JS files I want to a common location, and add that file to the target project using a LINK to the file I want to include, rather than just adding it -- this is on the "Add Existing File" dialog, under the little arrow on the "Add" button.
VS 2012 doesn't have a JavaScript library project type. You'll have to manage your library as loose files.
The easiest thing would probably be to create a nuget package. That way it would be easy to pull into other projects and have the tool help keep you up to date. It does have the downside of needing to put your stuff into a nuget feed, which is not something you want for private stuff.
I have two projects which share quite a portion of logic, localizations, properties and even views (Logindialog, Popovers etc.). I now want to put the intersecting set into a new project, which should be used as some sort of common library.
I want to keep the common project as a git submodule in my other projects:
Project A
- Classes
- Resources
- CommonLibrary (git submodule)
Project B
- Classes
- Resources
- SomeBSpecificFolder
- CommonLibrary (git submodule)
The CommonLibrary would now probably also be it's own Xcode project. I am not sure now how I should tackle this problem. I know of the following options:
Use a library (.a-file and .h file)
TestFlight e.g. does it like this. I quite like the fact that I can just compile against a binary and don't "see" the source. So just a clean API for doing things.
Include the whole project (Project dependency)
Three20 does it like this and I find it quite annoying to have some 6 subprojects in my project. However in my case it would only be one project, so this might be an option too.
Just have loose source files without a project inside the CommonLibrary folder and manually add them to both of the projects. The project would then compile the sources along with any project-specific sources. This looks a big like a workaround to me and I guess I would prefer to somehow bundle the common sources. Also if there are new files, I always have to add them to the other projects.
Can you guys give me some advice and tell me if there is another option or what you think are the advantages and disadvantages about these approaches?
Thanks a lot for your help!
From a clean, non-application specific perspective, you should be looking to create a library/ framework. This provides:
the reusability you want
without extending build time of dependent projects,
while maintaining consistency of the code base (maintainability),
keeping your API consistent across using projects and
managing dependencies between layers
In terms of Xcode, if I remember correctly from my OpenStep days, you should be looking to create a new Framework project which will provide the relevant makefiles for that type of project. A cursory surf produced:
http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/BPFrameworks/Tasks/CreatingFrameworks.html
and the slightly more friendly:
http://atastypixel.com/blog/creating-applications-in-xcode-using-frameworks/
Furthermore, you might actually want to layer your frameworks to further improve reusability. That is, don't just create one framework, create one per tier: put common code in a Foundation framework, UI/ AppKit-based classes in a UI framework, etc. This way, your frameworks are relevant to whatever tier your using classes and projects live.
For instance, if you have a category on some foundation class, put it in a common/ foundation framework that can be reused by any other common/ foundation classes and projects you build. If you were to put it in a UI-tier framework with UI libraries and dependencies then it couldn't be reused by your foundation level projects (as these can't have UI-level dependencies).
Hope this helps...
I found a project called RestKit on github which seems to be a good example for a third-party framework, which can be included in an existing project.
The readme and the wiki describe nicely which steps need to be done in order to include the project. I guess this is a good starting point for someone who want to create a framework himself.
I am rather new to Sitecore and would like to know a bit more about the regular approach to a new project. I'm therefore willing to listen and try out some of the experienced Sitecore developers solutions. I have alot of questions, i won't ask them all. I am just very curious to the approach other people have.
What would be the best approach to start a Sitecore project?
How would you set your project up?
What will be your approach looking at the recycling of code in future projects?
In short: What experiences do YOU have (if you have worked with or are working on Sitecore projects) and how would you recommend other people to work with Sitecore.
Right now we are busy on building Sitecore blocks that we can just recycle in other projects but i know for sure there are 1001 handy tips and tricks out there. I hope we have some Sitecore pro's # stackoverflow that could help a bit.
Here is some general setup info, based on how we do things.
Subversion
This is not Sitecore specific but we set up our repository like this
branches - This is used for working on big updates to the site that may take a while. Say for example I wanted to update how all of the sidebars on the site worked, and this was going to take a few weeks to complete. What we do is create a new branch, and set up another sitecore instance for this dev branch and do what we need to do. When it is complete we merge it back into the trunk for testing and deployment.
tags - This is used for keeping a copy of code that will never be merged back into the trunk (that is the difference between this and branches), so for example when we deploy an update to a site we can create a tag of said code so we can go back to it if necessary.
trunk - The active code, anything checked in here should always be deployable.
The Trunk
This is where we are actively developing/fixing bugs, depending on which part of the project that we are on. We set it up something like this (as an example the project is called TheProject)
We keep our solution file at the root of this folder, this will reference the various libraries in the src folder as well as the web project in the website folder.
docs - A place to put documentation about the site. I strongly suggest that as you complete features/sections you write up a little guide about any special knowledge needed for it to work. So say I am working on a featured content box on a landing page. This box will automatically pull some content unless it is explicitly overridden. What I do when I complete something like this is I write a guide for the customer, using a lot of screenshots. I send the guide to the customer as well as put it in the docs folder. This both helps the customer train their staff, as well as helps new developers come up to speed with how things are done.
lib - This is where we keep any DLLs we are going to need to reference in our projects.
test - A place to put unit tests.
src - This is where we keep our project specific library code. So in here we would have a folder called TheProject.Library, and in there would be the visual studio project for said
web/Website - This is where we have Sitecore installed and is the root of the site. In here we have a project called something along the lines of TheProject.Web. In the project we add all of the general stuff like the web.config/layouts folder and so on.
General Sitecore Code Library
One the best things you can do is from the start setup a general Sitecore library that can be added onto over time. Then when you write any code for a project that is not only applicable to the project, you can add it there. It may seem obvious, but this will really help in the long term. You will end up with much more solid code, see link text .
So when we are done with all this we have something like this as a solution/project structure
TheProject (The solution)
TheProject.Library
TheProject.Web
MyCompany.SitecoreLibrary (our general sitecore library)
Tools
This is another general thing, but I find it can really help speed up Sitecore development. If you find yourself doing something over and over in Sitecore, using API write a tool to do it for you. This not only helps with solving whatever problem you are tackling, but also helps to get you more familiar with the API.
Resharper
This is more of a general .NET development suggestion, use Resharper(http://www.jetbrains.com/resharper/index.html). I am sort of a a Resharper fan boy, it makes so many things with development easier and quicker. In my mind the biggest advantage though is how easy it makes refactoring code, which is really important to do over time to keep things clean and understandable.
I hope some of this helps.
Gabe
This is, as you said, quite a big question. Here are some of my thoughts:
Developing Environment
First of all when I start a new project I install Sitecore on my developing environment and I make sure everything works. Either during installation or after I place the databases on a separate SQL-server and change the connectionstring accordingly.
I open up Visual Studio and create a solution and include the files needed. I create some kind of HelloWorld rendering and try building the solution so that I can verify that everything is working as it should.
When everything is up and running I create a zip-file of the whole solution, including the data-folder. Now it is time to add this to some kind of version control system, in my case Subversion.
I add the zip-file to subversion and also add all files that I think will be changed during the project, usually I tell subversion to ignore the sitecore folder, this speeds up performance drastically when checking in files.
After I perform a commit-action the other team members of my project can check out the code and start developing (after unzipping the zip-file, off-course)
We all work towards the same database although this goes against Sitecore recommendations, we havent had any problems with this approach however items in GUI created/changed by one developer take some time before it is created/changed for all the others.
We could off-course develop several different projects using the same Sitecore installation but since almost all customers use different versions of Sitecore we have found this approach a bit cumbersome.
Often we set up an automated build-server but this is a whole other issue.
Reusable code and renderings
I would like to say that we create neat packages based on the same codebase that gets reused between projects but unfortunately we are not there yet. Today it is a lot of cut and pasting between solutions.
Uploading code to customer
This is done via sitecore packages, normally with some kind of dynamic selection for what files to include, say all ascx-files in a specific folder changed the last 5 days.
There you have it.
Take a look at this series.
Especially the component architecture part have increased our level of reusability.
When you create your Visual Studio's project in Sitecore's web root folder and you will keep all Sitecore's dlls files inside bin directory, don't forget to add to project's references all these files:
bin\ComponentArt.Web.UI.dll
bin\HtmlAgilityPack.dll
bin\ITHit.WebDAV.Server.dll
bin\Lucene.Net.dll
bin\Mvp.Xml.dll
bin\Newtonsoft.Json.dll
bin\RadEditor.Net2.dll
bin\Sitecore.Kernel.dll
bin\Sitecore.Logging.dll
bin\Sitecore.NVelocity.dll
bin\Sitecore.Zip.dll
Because when you CLEAN your project and you will have reference only Sitecore.Kernel.dll (in most of cases), you will lost most of dlls from bin directory!!
Does anyone know of shared TODO list plugin for Eclipse that allows users in a a development team to all view and edit the same list of tasks?
Mylyn can be used to integrate issue tracking systems into the IDE.
It does this by making tasks a first class part of Eclipse, and integrating rich and offline editing for repositories such as Bugzilla, Trac, and JIRA.
If you are not looking for a lightweight solution, then you might give it a try.
Other than the already built-in "Tasks"? It works by adding TODO, XXX or FIXME (in caps) in comments in the source code. I think this works pretty good and we use it at work all the time.
I don't know about such particular plug-in, but maybe that you could take a look to what the Communication framework or the Mylin feature offer you in term of collaborative work.
If you want to track a TODO-list among a couple of developer, you really want to use a issue-tracking system such as Bugzilla, Trac, or Jira. As soon as you've started to add tasks to it, you'll want features such as sorting on different fields, different kinds of views, etc.
That said, Mylyn is the best way to integrate it into Eclipse.
Ive just installed a plugin called fasttrack which is just the kind of thing I was looking for. Works best with SVN, but you can also use it with CVS.