I am very happy with Eclipse and don't want to change my IDE, but find the pre-bundled Eclipse plugin for JavaScript too difficult to work with.
Too many of the features that I got used to developing Java (not JavaScript) in Eclipse seem to be missing or incomplete, such as an intelligent code analysis, smart refactorings, a truly language-related (not full-text) reference search, class inheritance trees, etc.
Any suggestions for alternative Eclipse plugins for JavaScript development?
Admittedly, it is a lot more difficult to analyze JavaScript code (compared to Java) not only for a plugin but also for any human programmer, because JavaScript comes with fewer structural elements, and because there are so many different ways to do common things like inheritance or modularization. But there's got to be something, right?
As Nodeclipse lead, I am always looking for what is available in Eclipse ecosystem.
JavaScript support is Eclipse JSDT project.
It gives Editor, and JSDoc support.
For ES5 support, JSDT validation is to be disabled and JSHint-Eclipse used.
Also there is new Tern-IDE plugins, that gives hints and go to definition by using Tern.js.
The same author leads AngularJS plugin
All mention plugins can be got via Enide Studio 2014 (installed as plugins or downloaded as stand-alone product).
Nodeclipse site has even more links,
and I am inviting to collaborate on the JavaScript tools on GitHub
There are also JSON Editor and Json Tools.
Unfortunately VJET is no longer continued as there is no backing company now.
All effort are community driven. The simplest contribution is reporting bug or taking own issue to research and share.
Any suggestions for alternative Eclipse plugins for JavaScript development?
No alternative plugins, just get more of them.
The VJET plugin seems to provide better JavaScript support, although I haven't tested it very extensively.
http://eclipse.org/vjet/
For necessary code hygiene I recommend to use JSHint (a sane version of JSLint).
http://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/jshint-eclipse
Both are installable through the built-in Eclipse Marketplace.
The popular Aptana IDE, which is based on Eclipse, is also available as plugin, but I haven't tested it as plugin.
http://www.aptana.com/products/studio3/download
My personal opinion: Eclipse has outdated syntax validators (no ECMAScript 5 support) and non of the plugins can fix that. The problem is known for years (Bug Report), but nothing is done about it. Code completion seems to be a lot better in the WebStorm IDE or Sublime Text with certain plugins. Right now, I'm quite happy using Eclipse for my backend Java stuff and WebStorm for the frontend code for the same project.
A. In the Eclipse world...in my opinion... the best JavaScript support is currently given by Eclipse Orion, a web based variant of Eclipse:
https://orionhub.org
Orion applies tern.js to get JavaScript features like highlighting and completion:
Eclipse orion code completion
The JavaScript library tern.js seems to be up to date:
https://github.com/ternjs/tern
And it is applied by several Source Code Editor plugins:
https://ternjs.net/#plugins
B. On the other hand, all JavaScript plugins for Eclipse seem to be outdated.
See for example
http://www.eclipse.org/webtools/development/news/main.php (last updated 2016)
The Eclipse Plugin for tern.js seems to be out of date, too:
https://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/tern-eclipse-ide
I was not able to install it on the current Eclipse version Photon.
Also see https://github.com/angelozerr/tern.java/issues/463
C. If you are open for a commercial JavaScript editor, try to use WebStorm, als already suggested by Tilman.
If there is a good Eclipse based JavaScript solution, that I am not aware of and that is able to compete with the features of WebStorm, please let me know.
Related
Recently I've needed to write a small utility for Acrobat in its JavaScript.
Because the editor in Acrobat is pretty limited, I've installed the latest release of Eclipse IDE for JavaScript and Web Developers (Neon). It should already include the latest JSDT 2.0.
However, I've been surprised, that Eclipse's JavaScript editor does not correctly parse even simple common JavaScript patterns, like namespaces, modules, single global variable, etc. Also code folding is missing, except the very first function.
I do not expect to debug Acrobat's JavaScript code in Eclipse, but I wanted to have a smart JavaScript editor and also projects, where I could gather a few non-JavaScript resources. Some automation possibilities would be also nice, of course.
I've played with Eclipse preferences a lot and I've also searched on Internet, but I was not able to find anything really helpful.
Have I missed something in Eclipse configuration or is it really wasting of time and I should use something else?
For small projects a free IDE would be preferable, but also reasonably priced commercial products would be acceptable.
A configuration solution in Eclipse would be the most welcome, of course.
Thanks a lot for your help.
The support for newer Javascript Syntax is very bad in Eclipse (Bug).
You can use Tern.js it has a good ES5 and ES6 support.
But for Javascript development there are a lot of much better editors like Webstorm, VisualStudio, Sublime out there. You'll like more!
From my experience with Acrobat JavaScript, and the Acroforms technology (which you use when you work in PDF), there are not that many advantages you get from an IDE.
In fact, for my work (which IS extensive), a good text editor, with quote and parentheses balancing, maybe even auto-indent, and basic JavaScript code coloring is pretty much sufficient. I personally do write the scripts in BBEdit, and then copy/paste them into the Acrobat JavaScript editor window.
Keep in mind that JavaScripts in Acrobat/PDF are generally quite short, because they do not have to deal with DOM overhead, and because the field event sequence is quite structured (and it is really important to understand this sequence… more important than fancy JavaScript constructs). You also have to be aware that the JavaScript core implementation in Acrobat is relatively old (recently, they did upgrade it, but if your forms/applications are for the general public, you can't rely on them having the very newest version of Acrobat/Reader).
Are there any known Plugins or ways to properly autoformat Javascript in Netbeans IDE?
EDIT 9/15/2012
After looking into this further, I have found that the javascript module is being rewritten already(much needed). You can finally find formatting options for javascript. It's available in the netbeans nightly builds. Good luck all.
http://bits.netbeans.org/download/trunk/nightly/
I have released a pretty simple JS formatter that uses JSBeautify and runs in Rhino.
http://plugins.netbeans.org/plugin/43263/jsbeautify
You have to use an alternate key for now. I'm working on modifying the Javascript language in Netbeans to possibly release something better, later on(either as a plugin or patch). I'm still familiarizing myself with the way things are happening in Netbeans.
There have been talks for years to add more formatting options for Javascript in Netbeans. Nothing has surfaced. I'm going to propose that the Javascript language leverage JSBeautify(running in Rhino) to provide formatting, rather then implementing new features in Java. This simplifies the formatting process, plus the JSBeautify community is very large and it's actively developed.
Preferably an IDE. Integrated support for Subversion/Git is a big plus as we are a group of 6 people working.
Vim/Emacs is not that popular with the other as it is very awkward and hard to get started and it requires alot of effort to learn which takes the focus away from our project.
We're all used to/familiar with Eclipse, so an IDE that resembles Eclipse would be a big plus as well.
Thanks :D
I think Sublime 2 should be the answer to all your troubles
http://www.sublimetext.com/2
but if you like eclipse, aptana should be nice to
http://aptana.com/
You should try Aptana or WebStorm, the second one is not free, but worth the required value. WebStorm has a default Node.JS and Express project available. If you select to a new project you can start one with these options as well. The IDE has some nice code completion, good highlighting and a large group of addons to enhance your experience with a lot of new technology.
You should get any Eclipse (or Aptana) and install Nodeclipse. That will add Node.js support.
And Express wizard.
Eclipse for JavaEE developers goes with EGit.
Alternatily you can get full Eclipse with everything above pre-installed as Nodeclipse NTS
There is Coffee Editor, but no running, debugging support currently.
Nodeclipse.org. Current version is 0.3.1
Features
Creating default structure for New Node Project and New Node Source File
JavaScript Syntax highlighting
Content Assistant
NPM support
Debugging - Breakpoint, Trace, etc... via Eclipse debugger plugin for V8
Installing
Update Site : http://www.nodeclipse.org/updates
Usage
Check http://www.tomotaro1065.com/nodeclipse/
For debugging check
Using-Eclipse-as-Node-Applications-Debugger
Seems there's at least limited support for Cloud9 (IDE in the browser): http://cloud9ide.zendesk.com/entries/20559696-create-a-coffeescript-node-js-project
Here's a live compilation extension project:
https://github.com/tanepiper/cloud9-livecoffee-ext
Discussion: http://groups.google.com/group/cloud9-ide/browse_thread/thread/0ae17400825d01f9?pli=1
This ide https://atom.io/ from github supports CoffeeScript pretty well. Works fast I particularly like the coloring. I peronally don't like Eclipse, Aptana or similar options, they are so heavy in my computer.
RubyMine 4.0 (Early Access, US$59 w/free upgrade to 4.0 release) has VCS support (git et al.), debugging, node support, like a full-blown IDE. It also has CoffeeScript support, though it falls down (as I recall) on debugging --- you end up back in JavaScript land --- which is where I'm doing most of my work now.
I'm using it right now with node, express, and JavaScript (mostly) and CoffeeScript (little experiments).
I assume RubyMine is a superset of WebStorm (same company). However, for $20 extra, you get ruby + JavaScript IDE, so I would suggest going with RubyMine if you have any inkling of doing ruby or rails in the near future.
The development experience for the Palm Pre sucks, to say the least. At best you are working on JavaScript in Eclipse with the Aptana plugin. The intellisense you get is really, really dismal. You have to be looking at the documentation every 5 seconds.
I was thinking, Visual Studio really excels at JavaScript and intellisense. Has anyone succeeded at writing Palm Pre code in VS2008 with intellisense, which would require hooking in Palm's Mojo Library?
Is there a known way to hook in 3rd party non-source libraries to JavaScript in Vs2008?
I've been looking for alternatives to Eclipse, too, but so far it does not appear that anyone has done it. For myself it felt like too much work, so I just switched to working with several terminal windows open and a browser window to the documentation.
I'm a long time eclipse user but was disappointed in the eclipse environment for Pre - especially after using the Android SDK which hooks nicely into eclipse (then again the dev environment is Java there).
Have you tried Komodo? I switched over to it and the autocompletion is nice and the webos addon does a decent job. I don't have the professional version so I can't comment on the debugging capability which I'd love to have.
If you can tell VS08 you want to load the Mojo.js stuff, then it should work. I think you should be able to configure any custom tools you need for building etc. as well.
Personally I'd recommend you check out JetBrains' IntelliJ IDEA. They have really good JavaScript support and I've used it with some Pre-stuff as well.
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What do you suggest for JS development IDE. Is there something similar to VisualStudio IDE, so I can run/debug my application in it?
At JetBrains we've just developed lightweight HTML/Javascript/CSS IDE WebStorm that includes very smart JavaScript Editor with DOM-based autocompletion and HTML5 API support.
It allows you to debug(breakpoints supported) and run your scripts directly from IDE.
A few options:
Visual Studio 2008 (including VWD Express, http://blog.berniesumption.com/software/how-to-debug-javascript-in-internet-explorer/)
Adobe Dreamweaver CS4
Notepad++ (or any other text editor), Firefox and Firebug
I think IntellJ's JavaScript support is excellent, just like everything else that they do.
Netbeans 6.x and Firefox+Firebug
In the past I used Aptana Standalone or as a Eclipse plugin. The Pro version has some nice addons like the embedded IE (to the always embedded Firefox) and debugging support for both browsers.
I found after hours of testing, that Suns Netbeans is the best PHP and Python IDE for Windows and Linux. I was surprised that also Javascript support can hold the candle to Aptana.
So Netbeans is my recommendation (not only for Javascript).
Give it a try, its free!
I've found Aptana Studio to be good.
I tend to recommend more and more Netbeans that has not been proposed yet (I am blind sometimes). Netbeans is developed by Sun and support not only Java but also a few other languages (PHP,Ruby,Python, Javascript).
I use it for a while now and I am very satisfied. It is fast, provides code completion and integrates easily major JS libraries (Prototype, YUI). It has also a debugger that you can tied to FF or IE.
Try it you won't be disappointed!
Here's a good list of IDEs you can use for writing JavaScript:
http://www.programmerfish.com/top-8-ide-integrated-development-environment-for-java-script-html5-ajax/
Nowadays I am using JetBrains' PHPStorm and I can easily say, this is the best editor I've ever tried. Comes with lots of features that I have not seen at other editors like,
find a word in a directory (grep equivalent)
extended and useful intellisense feature with multiple files and parent classes
internal GIT support
a tree view for application structure
an awesome version history support that works with GIT and your local history. This is very useful when you want to take a look at a GIT untracked file, you can see all history details of the file for weeks.
with a great addon named CSSXFire that works with Firebug and tracks the CSS changes and import them to editor and allows you easily reproduce the same changes that you've done in Firebug CSS Console. This is really awesome
another useful feature is, when you want to delete or rename a file, editor searches the file has been used in this directory and notifies you. This is called safe-refactor
intellisense for files, while you typing a css background-image, a src or an href attribute
Sometimes I deal with PHP so I prefer PHPStorm, so Front End Developers should prefer WebStrorm that is specialized for us.
I think, every FE Developer should try PHPStorm or WebStorm with Firefox and Firebug.
Komodo IDE (or the free Komodo Edit if you can live without an integrated debugger) are pretty nice.
I tried few IDE last week and NetBeans is my winner. It got silent upload option for file upload in background. And very good code completion, folding, etc.
Here is my experience with the applications based on Extjs in UI with Java as server side language. I am a big supporter of open source technologies/products.
I so far I have used Eclipse, Netbeans, Webstorm and notepad++ with some added plugins.
And I feel Netbeans is best in terms of Syntax highlighting and formating. It recognizes missing commas, global variables, duplicate keys for object literals in a very impressive way.
Almost similar things can be achieved by adding some pligins like Spket in eclipse too, but it asks for licence when you go for advance level of settings.
If you are not so much concern about an integrated environment with web server then Web storm is best in all the aspects, but the biggest drawback of it is, "Its paid". ( Even if it asks for 1000 Rs ).
Firebug and a good syntax highlighting text editor is about the best combo. It's not necessary to add in much else. With just this combo you get:
Ability to set breakpoints
Inspect objects
Traverse the DOM
Alter CSS rules on the fly
See network traffic/responses
Evaluate and substitute code on the fly in production
And there are tools which add on to Firebug:
YSlow - Determine "why" your page is slow
Fireunit - Run unit tests
One of the advantage of Javascript development is that it's flexible and you can get instantaneous feedback while developing. I see no reason to get in the way of that by adding an IDE which includes a "deployment" step.
Notepad++ comes with built-in javascript syntax highlighting and JSlint plugin is very handy. IMHO for debugging there is nothing better than Chrome developer tools or Firebug.
This page reviews the most advanced Javascript IDEs (in terms of refactoring and intellisense anyway) :
http://blue-walrus.com/2013/08/review-javascript-ides/
Eclipse and JSEclipse plugin and of course Firefox + Firebug the ultimate duo. You'll find this development setup satisfactory.
Aptana is a great IDE as it will provide intelli-sense for CSS, javascript, html, java, etc. The debugger gives you the choice to run in FF or IE and is a full featured debugger. The community edition allows you to run a server side javascript as well. A very solid and feature rich platform for free.