Asp4Hs: HomeSite/ASP/PHP Wishlist

Here are some of the improvements that have been frequently requested for HomeSite's ASP, ASP.Net and PHP support. To submit your own ideas, email me if you like, though the best way to be heard by Macromedia is to start an ASP thread in the HomeSite support forum  -AND-  to submit a note via the Macromedia Software Feature Request and Bug Report Form. These messages go directly to the development teams. ... better yet, fulfill some of these yourself and send me the info.

• Suggestions and Ideas
  I've had a fair number of people offer to help with the site or with building add-ons, but they need some useful ideas to get them going. Tell me what would help you and I'll see if someone else will pick up the task of putting it together... or email me if you'd like to be a helper too...

• An Allaire/MM dedicated ASP-issues point-of-contact person
  ...and it had come to pass... need a new one though since Dan N. left.

• More HomeSite-installable Help/Doc Sets
  • Microsoft ADO Programmer's Reference
  • Client Document Object Model, the Scripting Object Model and the Server Object Model (any idea where to get these?)
  • PerlScript
  • Better vbscript and jscript docs sets (decompiled?)
  • Reference material for WSH in general

• A complete article on using Microsoft's Script Debugger with HomeSite
  Darren Forcier at allaire posted a short write-up on it and mentioned that he might get to write this once things settle there a bit. This free debugger is good for developing and debugging ASP scripts and also VTOM/WSH scripts. See also DevGuru's A Beginner's Guide to Using Microsoft Script Debugger

• More Custom Dialogs
  Keith Collison's ASP Database dialog proves that we can build VTM dialogs that can generate code based upon easy user inputs for a variety of circumstances. We could use more of these tools to generate generic or customized-generic code to do common useful tasks in ASP.

• Useful function snippets
  There have got to be lots of small, generic, useful functions that could be put in snippet sets. Perhaps some from the tutorial examples at LearnASP.Com.

• Does anyone have a good ASP button gif? There used to be a neat animated one around, but I can't find it now.

• Frontpage Extensions Upload capability (web folders)
  Frontpage extensions provide a way other than FTP to upload web files. Some servers are set to reject ftp and only use this upload method. Users have requested that HomeSite be able to directly upload or deploy using this method. (threads (1) (2)) (MS FP98 Server Extensions ResKit Overview)

• Forum threads
  Here are a few forum threads with a number of HS/ASP requests.
  • ASP requests
  • ASP Support Wish List
    • Code completion for intrinsic objects and user created objects
    • Stronger ASP recognition/color coding
    • Database connection wizard
    • COM object wizard/browser
    • Support (i.e wizards) for Remote Scripting

• An add-on that would DIM all the variables on a page for you. --Tom King (Note: this is probably not feasible without creating a full vbscript parser. Easier to put Option Explicit in the code and see what error messages you get to find any vars you forgot to Dim. -jeff)

• Make it easier to add toolbar buttons for VTM scripts and Apps
  It would make it far easier to add add-ins (vtom scripts, etc) if HS could work such that dragging-n-dropping a vtm file over a toolbar would open up the add custom button dialog, already filled in to add it as a button to that toolbar. It would sure be easier than the current many-step method of creating buttons.

  This should also work for dropping other executable files over a toolbar. If I drop PSP.EXE, it should help me set up a button to launch it as an application with paths already filled in, and even suggest using %CURRENT% in the command line. (thread)

  Related to this is John's suggesion: "It would be useful to be able to edit HS extensions directly from the HS editor. IE I could write a JS or VBS file and have access to the HS application DOM via insight and I could also have a "Test" option to execute it directly and options to add it straight away to toolbars, menus etc. Right clicking a custom button already in a toolbar would also give me the option to edit it straight away." (thread)