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EE2 Sugar for Espresso

Announced in a forum post, user “metadaptive” posted an Espresso sugar he created for EE2. But he needs your help testing and improving it.

For now it’s a fairly vanilla port of the ee1 version (with which it ought to play nicely) but I’m planning on adding more features over the next few weeks, along with support for some popular addons.

It’s likely in a somewhat alpha state in terms of the amount of testing it’s had so far, but given that it’s built on a pretty strong foundation it should be pretty usable for most. If you find a bug please report it on github rather than here.

Want to lend a hand and help improve this Sugar? Post to the forum thread or report a problem on Github.

Somewhat related to this: for those people who use Espresso to code EE sites, I’d like to know why you use and what the benefits are. Share in the comments!

Posted on Aug 03, 2011 by Ryan Irelan

Filed Under: Development Tools

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just a quick update for anyone who finds this via google - I've updated the sugar to work with the latest public beta of espresso, but due to syntax changes in the built-in HTML/XML sugar, the new version is not backwards compatible with espresso 1.x - so if you're using the public beta be sure to follow the instructions in the readme about using the correct branch
Posted by Tom Davies (metadaptive) on 2011-08-16 11:47:18 I used TM and Coda both for quite a while but here are the main reasons I now use Espresso exclusively... * All open files are listed in the sidebar instead of in tabs across the top (so the template names are always readable even if you have many files open at the same time) * If you have more than one template of the same name open (ex: index.php), the file list shows the template group name next to the template name. Like so... index.php | products index.php | about index.php | home etc... * You can click on a file/template to see it's contents quick without actually opening the file and adding it to your "Workspace". You can even copy code out of the template without opening it. Only if you double click the file OR start typing inside the file does it get added to your workspace. This is nice for quickly referencing code in another template without cluttering your Workspace. * Works well for my workflow... which involves local development with GIT + auto-publishing to a test server for quick review. With Espresso, each file has an on/off switch for auto publishing to the server on each save. * Allows you to setup multiple FTP servers per project (ex: Dev, Test, Live, etc). So you can browse any of your remote servers, and you can publish any file to any server. * A small but nice thing is the ability to preview images right inside the editor. And it gives you the image dimensions which is handy. * Another small thing is that in the sidebar you can minimize the Project Files and Server List and just leave the Workspace expanded (think Finder.app sidebar) This helps clean up your window and minimize distractions if you want to just focus on the file(s) you're working on. * Espresso can handle very large CSV files (like Coda can, but TM often can't) * For some of the reasons listed above, Espresso is also a great note-taking app. I'm a compulsive note-taker and I like all my notes to be in .txt files. So I set up one Espresso project I use as my notebook... with all my note files are organized into folders in that project.
Posted by Mark Terpstra on 2011-08-05 06:23:29 I've been waiting for something like this EE2 sugar. Thanks, Tom! I've started using Espresso just to see if there are any credible alternatives to Coda. I'm a few weeks in and pretty impressed. Others have mentioned things that I like (easy project management, built-in FTP, sensible code completion). I'll add these: 1) The "workspace" of active documents is brilliant. It's difficult to describe... it's not quite a list of all open documents, and it's not quite tabs, but it's something altogether more user-friendly, I think. 2) It's the first editor I've used where navigating a large document by tags isn't useless. Also, the navigator doesn't seem easily flummoxed by EE tags. And the ability to make folders for your CSS declarations (the @group method that CSSEdit has) is awesome and very easy. 3) The FTP interface is lovely. It defaults to a Publish view that shows you all pending uploads and lets you adjust what happens file-by-file before you send everything over. It's like Transmit 4's "Sync" tool, but it's the default interface for FTP. Useful for making sure you're not overwriting something you didn't mean to. 4) It's pretty. There, I said it. Even simple things like "Jump to Line" and "Find/Replace" have swell little animations and a real sense of polish. Anyway, I don't think it's perfect, but I'm enjoying it so far.
Posted by Lee Reamsnyder on 2011-08-04 15:48:38 Hi Ryan, Thanks for the write up! Like a lot of people I came to use Espresso after a positive experience with CSSEdit (which is getting rolled into Espresso 2). My favourite Espresso features are: the straightforward project management ease of extension/theming, nice attention to design, built in FTP (which Coda/BBEdit have too), and yes, the availability of the original ee(1) bundle! Less favourite features are (hopefully now historical) lack of updates & slightly iffy project-wide search performance... the one thing missing from textmate for me is the ability to open a directory as new project via terminal, which would be kinda handy. @Nicolas if there's anything your sugar did that is missing from mine do let me have a peak at your code and I'll have a crack at rolling it in.
Posted by Tom Davies (metadaptive) on 2011-08-04 05:41:46 Thanks, Christian. :) All fixed.
Posted by Ryan Irelan on 2011-08-03 13:35:42 Hey Ryan, Small type error in the first sentance. It should read, "posted an Espresso sugar. Feel free to delete this comment.
Posted by Christian Hain on 2011-08-03 13:27:49 That's great news! I had my own hand-rolled EE2 sugar based off the original for EE1 myself, but never dared publish it as I thought it was pretty hacky (and only glanced over the sugar development docs). Guess there are a lot of plugins/addon tags that can be added to the sugar from now on! :D I use Espresso because I like how autocomplete works (save a few quirks) and it was one of the few editors that could handle native EE code in addition to all the other languages. Project management is pretty simple, custom snippets/shortcuts for code are easy to add, and the price is lower than some alternatives (you know which one ;) ), especially when it comes in a MacHeist bundle ;) And of course, the very pretty logo is made by none other than "EE2 CP" Veerle Pieters, who does amazing design work.
Posted by Nicolas Bottari on 2011-08-03 10:55:39

Nicolas Bottari — 10:55 on 08.03.2011

That’s great news! I had my own hand-rolled EE2 sugar based off the original for EE1 myself, but never dared publish it as I thought it was pretty hacky (and only glanced over the sugar development docs). Guess there are a lot of plugins/addon tags that can be added to the sugar from now on! :D

I use Espresso because I like how autocomplete works (save a few quirks) and it was one of the few editors that could handle native EE code in addition to all the other languages. Project management is pretty simple, custom snippets/shortcuts for code are easy to add, and the price is lower than some alternatives (you know which one ), especially when it comes in a MacHeist bundle

And of course, the very pretty logo is made by none other than “EE2 CP” Veerle Pieters, who does amazing design work.

Christian Hain — 13:27 on 08.03.2011

Hey Ryan, Small type error in the first sentance. It should read, “posted an Espresso sugar.

Feel free to delete this comment.

Ryan Irelan — 13:35 on 08.03.2011

Thanks, Christian. All fixed.

Tom Davies (metadaptive) — 05:41 on 08.04.2011

Hi Ryan,

Thanks for the write up! Like a lot of people I came to use Espresso after a positive experience with CSSEdit (which is getting rolled into Espresso 2).

My favourite Espresso features are: the straightforward project management ease of extension/theming, nice attention to design, built in FTP (which Coda/BBEdit have too), and yes, the availability of the original ee(1) bundle!

Less favourite features are (hopefully now historical) lack of updates & slightly iffy project-wide search performance… the one thing missing from textmate for me is the ability to open a directory as new project via terminal, which would be kinda handy.

@Nicolas if there’s anything your sugar did that is missing from mine do let me have a peak at your code and I’ll have a crack at rolling it in.

Lee Reamsnyder — 15:48 on 08.04.2011

I’ve been waiting for something like this EE2 sugar. Thanks, Tom!

I’ve started using Espresso just to see if there are any credible alternatives to Coda. I’m a few weeks in and pretty impressed.

Others have mentioned things that I like (easy project management, built-in FTP, sensible code completion). I’ll add these:

1) The “workspace” of active documents is brilliant. It’s difficult to describe… it’s not quite a list of all open documents, and it’s not quite tabs, but it’s something altogether more user-friendly, I think.

2) It’s the first editor I’ve used where navigating a large document by tags isn’t useless. Also, the navigator doesn’t seem easily flummoxed by EE tags. And the ability to make folders for your CSS declarations (the @group method that CSSEdit has) is awesome and very easy.

3) The FTP interface is lovely. It defaults to a Publish view that shows you all pending uploads and lets you adjust what happens file-by-file before you send everything over. It’s like Transmit 4’s “Sync” tool, but it’s the default interface for FTP. Useful for making sure you’re not overwriting something you didn’t mean to.

4) It’s pretty. There, I said it. Even simple things like “Jump to Line” and “Find/Replace” have swell little animations and a real sense of polish.

Anyway, I don’t think it’s perfect, but I’m enjoying it so far.

Mark Terpstra — 06:23 on 08.05.2011

I used TM and Coda both for quite a while but here are the main reasons I now use Espresso exclusively…

* All open files are listed in the sidebar instead of in tabs across the top (so the template names are always readable even if you have many files open at the same time)

* If you have more than one template of the same name open (ex: index.php), the file list shows the template group name next to the template name. Like so…

index.php | products
index.php | about
index.php | home
etc…

* You can click on a file/template to see it’s contents quick without actually opening the file and adding it to your “Workspace”. You can even copy code out of the template without opening it. Only if you double click the file OR start typing inside the file does it get added to your workspace. This is nice for quickly referencing code in another template without cluttering your Workspace.

* Works well for my workflow… which involves local development with GIT + auto-publishing to a test server for quick review. With Espresso, each file has an on/off switch for auto publishing to the server on each save.

* Allows you to setup multiple FTP servers per project (ex: Dev, Test, Live, etc). So you can browse any of your remote servers, and you can publish any file to any server.

* A small but nice thing is the ability to preview images right inside the editor. And it gives you the image dimensions which is handy.

* Another small thing is that in the sidebar you can minimize the Project Files and Server List and just leave the Workspace expanded (think Finder.app sidebar) This helps clean up your window and minimize distractions if you want to just focus on the file(s) you’re working on.

* Espresso can handle very large CSV files (like Coda can, but TM often can’t)

* For some of the reasons listed above, Espresso is also a great note-taking app. I’m a compulsive note-taker and I like all my notes to be in .txt files. So I set up one Espresso project I use as my notebook… with all my note files are organized into folders in that project.

Tom Davies (metadaptive) — 11:47 on 08.16.2011

just a quick update for anyone who finds this via google - I’ve updated the sugar to work with the latest public beta of espresso, but due to syntax changes in the built-in HTML/XML sugar, the new version is not backwards compatible with espresso 1.x - so if you’re using the public beta be sure to follow the instructions in the readme about using the correct branch

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