A few tips and tricks to make development in the Force.com IDE a bit easier:
Tip #1. Disable Automatic Build
If you are going to use the IDE, at least make sure you disable automatic build, since every time you save then a file it will cost you a lot of time. Just deploy using CTRL-B.
from schreurs_jd on the community boards. I also frequently simply right click on a file and choose ‘Save to server’.
Tip #2: Don’t always use the IDE
Although you may have problems with disappearing content in the inline editor, it usually works well, especially when you are making rapid changes and quicksaving (most likely in Visualforce pages). The codecomplete for Visualforce pages (which you don’t get in the IDE) is very useful too and the viewstate inspector will probably be for larger Visualforce pages once it is generally available.
Tip #3: Use SpringSource Tool Suite
Everything in the standard install, plus quick access to Roo, etc. and VMWare news updates which you may need to use later. Might as well get familiar.
Tip #4. Edit single file Static Resources directly.
This is especially useful for CSS or Javascript files. See Edit Static Resources via Force.com Eclipse IDE (TechGerm) for a detailed explanation.
Tip #5. Upload Static Resources from Eclipse
You can mass upload Static Resources which may also save you a lot of time. See this article (d3developer) for more details.
Tip #6. Go crazy with the metadata
Once you know what you are doing, it is much quicker and easier to add fields to Salesforce Objects and make many other simple updates through the metadata. Often it is as simple as copy and paste.
Tip #7. Use the ant tool.
Unmanaged packages don’t allow updates. Managed packages (released) are for people whose code always works and never needs to be debugged. Managed packages (beta) appear to be pointless. Ant, conversely, allows you to fairly easily deploy changes across orgs.
Not enough? Add your favorite tips in the comments, explain how you use Textmate instead, and/or vote to open source the Force.com IDE so that the community can make more improvements.
3 comments
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August 6, 2010 at 6:17 am
Abhinav
Awesome coverage on tricks Joel !
I really liked the “Disable Automatic Build” trick, I used to do that with Java projects, but was don’t know if it works well with Force.com projects too. I am too much habitual of pressing “CTRL + S” during coding. Spring stuff is in todo list, have to spare time
August 8, 2010 at 2:23 am
d3developer
I’m also a compulsive CTRL + S pusher but that leads to so much wasted time in Eclipse, esp. since you can’t us. update your files while it is building the workspace. I still push it now that I have auto build disabled and find that it is pretty easy to hit CTRL+S CTRL+B when I want to actually deploy a change (or changes).
August 27, 2010 at 3:27 pm
Advantages and Disadvantages of the Force.com Platform « d3developer
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