ColdFusion Builder Extension: Regular Expression Find And Replace

By Ben Nadel on December 3, 2009

I know that ColdFusion Builder and the Eclipse platform already have regular-expression-based find and replace support; but, coming from the HomeSite world, I know what it's like to have really usable find and replace support (oh snap! buuuuurrrn!). As such, I figured I would try to extend the built-in find and replace functionality with ColdFusion Builder's ColdFusion-based extension mechanism. Working on it last night and this morning, here is what I came up with. It only works with one file at a time (no extended find/replace yet), but the interface is much more reminiscent of HomeSite.

There's too much code involved to show it in this blog post, so I have created a ColdFusion Builder Extension: RegEx Find And Replace project in my projects area. I already have a number of ideas that I want to add to this; but, if you have anything you'd like to see me add, please leave a comment below.

Short link: https://bennadel.com/go/1770

Reader Comments

Dan Vega Dec 3, 2009 at 1:01 PM

52 Comments

Awesome stuff Ben! ColdFusion builder is going to make my favorite IDE event better! I am loving the extensions that have already come out and excited to see what talented people like yourself come up with!

Ben Nadel Dec 3, 2009 at 2:19 PM

15,674 Comments

@Dan,

Yeah, the extension stuff is exciting. I have to admit, this is the first time that I personally felt the real excitement. I played around with some other stuff, but it more just felt like "fun" things; this is the first time I truly felt like I was *extending* the platform itself - I was way pumped up.

Dan Vega Dec 3, 2009 at 2:20 PM

52 Comments

Its no Ben Nadel Code Converter but it will do!

Ben Nadel Dec 3, 2009 at 2:26 PM

15,674 Comments

@Dan,

Ha ha ha ha :)

Gareth Arch Dec 3, 2009 at 11:59 PM

111 Comments

That is *really* cool. I still haven't played around at all with CF Builder, but all of the neat little extras are certainly making me more interested in trying it out.

Jayesh Viradiya Dec 4, 2009 at 12:23 AM

1 Comments

Really cool stuff!!

Budd Wright Dec 4, 2009 at 1:09 AM

2 Comments

Very cool, Ben! Very Homesite+ ish! ;)

Ben Nadel Dec 4, 2009 at 8:04 AM

15,674 Comments

Thanks guys. Some more thoughts I had about adding to this:

* Baked-in "common use" regular expressions like:
-- Find all tags.
-- Find all tags with given name.
-- Find email addresses.

I don't know how useful that would be. BUT, to build on top of that idea, being able to save your regex patterns with names would be badass (so that they can be pulled up quickly later, say from a drop down or a modal window).

* Other non-regex functionality like being able to UPPER or lower case the matched pattern.