Functionality questions

Oldiesmann · Sep 23, 2014#12014-09-23T17:23+00:00

I am evaluating UEStudio as a possible replacement for my current editor and have a couple of questions regarding functionality.

Is there a way to have UEStudio parse all project files, such that I can jump to the definition of a function and get code completion suggestions when I start typing the name of a function defined in the project somewhere?

This is one of the features I love with my current editor - hit a couple of keys and start typing and it shows where functions matching that description are defined. It will also show comments and parameter info if I type ( after the function name or move the cursor inside the parentheses:

Second, is there a way to make UEStudio highlight ALL function definitions/calls as functions regardless of whether they're built in? I've never seen an editor treat them as "normal text".

Third, is there support for phpDocumenter at all? I have my current editor set to highlight phpDoc tags in blue, and when I type @ within a comment block it pops up a list of possible tags.

Mofi · Sep 24, 2014#22014-09-24T05:25+00:00

You are talking obviously about PHP projects which I'm not familiar with.

If you configure a project in UEStudio and do not enable legacy Ctags option for using symbol parser of UEStudio, UES parses all files of the project with its integrated parser for symbols like function and variable names. Then intellitips features like function tips, class viewer and find symbol definition in project files can be used during development. Look on configuration dialogs below Advanced - Configuration - IDE for customization of those intellitips features and read help page for each configuration dialog.

There is the IntelliTip toolbar. Read more about this toolbar in help of UltraEdit, see Contents - Menus/Toolbars - IntelliTip Toolbar. Those commands can be invoked also by key. The hotkeys for the commands can be customized at Advanced - Configuration - Key Mapping. Those commands start all with Intellitip in name.

UEStudio applies syntax highlighting based on a wordfile containing mainly words. Those word lists are not automatic updated by symbols found by symbol parser. The syntax highlighting of UES is therefore designed to highlight everything which is defined by the language - keywords of the language, brackets, operators, etc. What remains displayed as normal text are the names of your variables and functions. In PHP it is possible to highlight also all variables with a specific color as it is possible to highlight everything starting with $. If you do not want your functions displayed with color black (light theme used), change the color for normal text for PHP and your functions are displayed with a different color as the function names are the only words not highlighted with a different color if syntax highlighting wordfile for PHP contains all language keywords, names of library functions and variables, brackets, operator characters, ...

I don't know what phpDocumenter is, but take a look on smart templates.

Oldiesmann · Sep 24, 2014#32014-09-24T15:34+00:00

I got Intellitips to work now, but it still doesn't allow me to search for a specific function within the project's files. The function list will only show functions in the file that's being edited, and clicking on a function then going to Search -> Find Symbol results in a box saying "Could not find TAG".

You are right that I can change the color of "normal text" to match what I want, but it's a bit annoying that the syntax highlighting isn't smart enough to handle user-defined functions. Most IDEs handle this just fine.

I will look into Smart Templates as well.

Mofi · Sep 24, 2014#42014-09-24T18:17+00:00

Many commands in UEStudio are available only in a context menu. As a beginner of UEStudio you should right click everywhere to see if there is a context menu with useful commands. For example the function list view. Right click into the function list view and you see in context menu a command List for all Project Files. You can toggle this option at any time. Check also the context menus on tab Project in Workspace Manager. Really right click everywhere to discover all the context menus.

Command Search - Find Symbol is the wrong command on using integrated parser of UEStudio. The command to use is Find symbol definition in project files in IntelliTips toolbar. But I execute this command always by hotkey as I use keyboard as much as possible. See Custom find symbol definition in project files for details about those 2 different commands and the differences on using Ctags or integrated symbol parser.

Oldiesmann · Sep 24, 2014#52014-09-24T20:25+00:00

The function list is indeed helpful - but for some reason it's listing every function, CSS class/id selector, etc. 9 times even though each only appears once in the entire project.

The Tags tab in the workspace manager pane isn't very useful because it only lists classes. The project is mostly procedural code so that excludes most of the functions.

Mofi · Sep 25, 2014#62014-09-25T05:28+00:00

In UEStudio there is at Advanced - Configuration - IDE - IntelliTips - Function Tips the setting Use function tips data (if available) for function list. This setting controls if the function list is filled with the data from integrated symbol parser or from the syntax highlighting wordfiles. The symbol parser is not customizable. The syntax highlighting wordfiles are fully customizable.

By default UEStudio interprets a *.php file as multi-language HTML file with PHP, CSS, JavaScript, ... sections inside for syntax highlighting and the function list filled with strings by the syntax highlighting wordfiles shows therefore all strings found by the regular expressions in html.uew, css.uew, php.uew, javascript.uew.

As I don't have the files of your project, I'm not able to verify what is the reason for displaying everything 9 times.

Is the caret positioned always at same position in same file (full path!) if you double click on a string in function list which is displayed 9 times?

By using Search - Find in Files, selecting Project files and click on button Find with nothing entered as search string, a list of all files of the project is output. You can use this to verify which files are interpreted as project files according to the folders and filters defined in the project settings dialog.

If you cannot find out why strings are listed 9 times in function list view, please do following:

Copy sample files (*.php) into directory C:\Temp\SampleProject.
Create a sample project (*.prj) in C:\Temp and add the folder SampleProject with the filter settings as used in your real project.
Verify if the function list shows strings several times unexpected which on double click set caret to same line in same file.
Exit UEStudio and copy %APPDATA%\IDMComp\UEStudio\uestudio.ini to C:\Temp.
Pack the directory C:\Temp with the subdirectory SampleProject, the *.prj and uestudio.ini files into a ZIP or RAR archive.
Send this archive to IDM support by email (click on email us directly at top) with a small description what is the problem (function list displays same string multiple times). You could add also a screenshot saved in PNG format.

You do not need to have bought already a license for UEStudio to contact IDM support by email. And IDM does not add your email address to a database for making money with it. Let IDM support find out what is the reason for getting strings listed multiple times in function list. It is perhaps really a bug in UEStudio.