Answer: There are two things you need; a local webserver that can execute ASP and HomeSite's server mapping feature.
Most people who need ASP run PWS (personal web server) on Windows 98/95/me or IIS on Windows NT/2k/XP. Here is a link to download PWS though it may already be on your Windows install disk. It's free.
Setting up PWS is fairly easy, but there are good directions in these articles to help you get going.
The second part, HomeSite's server mapping feature, lets you tell homesite to use the path through the local webserver when viewing files, instead of just the local file path. For directions on setting it up, see the Macromedia article; Setting up Server Mappings in HomeSite or Technote: How to setup a server mapping in HomeSite.
Once you get going, you might check out some of the other links here on Asp4Hs. There are a lot of useful things to help you get going.
Note that "local webserver" can be a fairly broad term. For instance, if you have a
drive mapped to an file server where the files in the directory are also viewable via
webserver software on that machine, you can use server-mappings.
They don't have to be strictly local, as "on your machine."
(Example: my N: drive maps to \\myserver\mysite\. The webserver software on myserver
provides http://myserver.mydomain/mysite/)
So, see the FAQ: What do I need to view ASP in HomeSite? Then check out the tutorial links at the bottom of php4hs. There are several excellent write-ups teaching how to set up PHP with HomeSite and various local webservers.
Install HomeSite as Admin user.
Then, you should grant full access to the following keys:
This applies to WinNT, Win2k and WinXP.
See also TechNote 17365:
"Win2000/NT Users get an Error when trying to Launch HomeSite or Studio 4.5.1"
10/2010 Update: Note that in MS Vista, users have had a variety of permissions and installation rights issues. There is a lot of useful information on how they have solved those issues in this thread: Adobe Forums - Thread 185500: HomeSite and Vista.
Yes, HomeSite 5.x will work under Windows Vista, but you need to take some extra steps during install to get it set up correctly and to give it the right permissions. Earlier 4.x versions of HomeSite may or may not work well in Vista, but the setup details should be similar.
See this KB Technote: HomeSite compatibility on Windows Vista.
The HomeSite support forums also have some threads where users have provided excellent info on getting this working. In fact the technote was written based on their findings.
10/2010 Update: Note that in MS Vista, users have had a variety of permissions and installation rights issues. There is a lot of useful information on how they have solved those issues in this thread: Adobe Forums - Thread 185500: HomeSite and Vista.
If you have additional information on this, please email me and/or post it in the forum. Thanks!
HomeSite 5.x will *probably* work under Windows 7, but you may need to take some extra steps during install to get it set up correctly and to give it the right permissions. Earlier 4.x versions of HomeSite may or may not work well in win7, but the setup details should be similar.
See this KB Technote: HomeSite compatibility on Windows Vista.
The HomeSite support forums also have some threads where users have provided excellent info on getting this working. In fact the technote was written based on their findings.
10/2010 Update: Note that in MS Vista, users have had a variety of permissions and installation rights issues. There is a lot of useful information on how they have solved those issues in this thread: Adobe Forums - Thread 185500: HomeSite and Vista.
10/2010 Update: A thread has been started on the topic of HomeSite and win7. It would be a good place to check for what other users are seeing, and what solutions they have found. See Adobe Forums - Thread 504297: Homesite and Windows 7, anyone?.
One HS user reported "I had to go to Microsofts site and download the two files for XP Virtual machine mode. Then run that and Homesite works in the Virtual machine mode."
If you have additional information on this, please email me and/or post it in the forum. Thanks!
12/2007: I don't know.
The most 'Recent' updates was the version 5.5 update release in 9/2003.
Since then, and since Adobe bought Macromedia there haven't been any
releases (yet). That said, they are still selling it.
My personal advice is: If you really want to see HomeSite actively developed and upgraded, tell Adobe. I believe the only way they will decide to devote resources to it is if they hear from enough HomeSite users who are willing to pay for HomeSite upgrades.
Either way, HomeSite was designed originally to be so incredibly extensible and customizable that users have tweaked it and have written add-on's like those on this site to keep it reasonably up-to-date. Even if it isn't upgraded beyond version 5.5, it is *still* a very good tool for website developers. If it doesn't do something you need, check the add-on's here and see if you could use one, modify one or write your own to meet your needs.
FWIW, we have an interesting forum thread discussing what we might want
to improve or add if HomeSite is upgraded beyond v5.5.
Thread: HS General Discussion:
Homesite Future - What would you want changed?
(date written?) There has been a lot of confusion and discussion about the future of HomeSite as a separate product or whether it might be merged completely into Dreamweaver MX by Macromedia. FWIW, the 'official' word on it is at HomeSite - Dreamweaver MX FAQ and the CF Studio FAQ. If this is not satisfying or understandable to you, come join the discussions on the HS forum. Hopefully we won't have to migrate to DWMX.
What exactly is Macromedia HomeSite+?
"Macromedia HomeSite+ is a separate product included with Dreamweaver MX that combines the functionality of Macromedia HomeSite 5 and ColdFusion Studio 5, while adding support for the newest ColdFusion MX tags through new tag editors and tag insight menus. Macromedia HomeSite+ is not sold as a separate product and is only available with Dreamweaver MX."
Basically it is HomeSite with the additional ColdFusion stuff. In other words, it is CF Studio, but sold now only as a part of DW/MX (PC-version only). I am trying to get MM to write up a technote on exact differences between regular HS and HS+.
As Matt Brown of Macromedia says: "Applications are written in different languages like C or Java or whatever. In this case HomeSite is written in Delphi and there is no cross platform compiler that the engineers have come across that will allow them to port the product. It would require a full rewrite from the ground up and there are simply not resources to do that unfortunately. HS is excellent, but it is Windows only. If you want an excellent Mac text editor and Dreamweaver is not your thing then please take a look at BBEdit which is a world class product."
FWIW, the answer has always been about the same to the request for HomeSite for Linux.
And, to answer one other common suggestion, it's very unlikely that Macromedia would make HomeSite open source.
HomeSite uses the TSyntaxMemo editor component. It provides a way to customize or add syntax coloring for all sorts of languages. You write up a parser in a text editor, then HomeSite compiles it when you install it. HomeSite provides a number of parsers but there are times when a user needs something else, often a language or variant that isn't supported yet. This is when you might consider writing your own.
With permission of the author and owner, I have posted copies of the Dbrock software TSyntaxMenu docs and sample scripts. They are no longer available on dbrocksoftware.com and anyone wanting to write syntax coloring parser scripts will need the documents.
One warning: this is generally not a trivial process, though a number of people have picked it up. If you want a particularly complex parser, you might approach B. Collier Jones or someone else who has mastered the process. You might be able to hire them to write custom parsers for your needs.
To install an existing parser, see these installation instructions Script technique to Install or Swap Syntax Coloring Parsers and FAQ: Backing Up Color Coding Schemes.
If you do a help set, please let me know or post the news on the HomeSite/Studio forums. I'd be glad to host or list it from Asp4Hs or Php4Hs. Email me if you need more help.
Note: I haven't tested this yet myself, though I think it is the correct procedure. We've requested a better (less manual) way to do this to be added to the next rev of HomeSite. ~jw
The thread custom context help also has information about adding your own custom functions to the help using 2 different methods.
Look also at the installed help docs for information on the booktree.xml file. This file seems to be used by HomeSite now to organize help docs, so modifying it may be all you need... (I haven't played with it yet and am not sure what versions use this)
See LearnAsp.Com for downloads some of the Microsoft ASP docs that we don't have in the Add-On's List yet.
This would let you make sets of help docs for VBScript, JScript, ADO, etc for installing directly into the HomeSite Help directory, rather than having to use a toolbar button to launch the compiled versions.
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
Additional spell-checker dictionaries are available for download from the DevEx: HomeSite: Language Dictionaries. These will work for HS/CFS/JRS 3.0x, 4.0.x and 4.5.x??? versions.
Note: MS Office versions after MSO97 changed the licensing or mechanism so that now other software cannot use the Office spell-checkers. HS/CFS/JRS v4.0.x and 4.5.x can use it if Office97 is present. See TechNote 17728.
Note: because of the change if MS Office mentioned below, HS v5.0 no longer has the feature to use MS Office spell-checkers.
Just export this key.
Here is how you do that:
Note: this is not saving custom parsers you might have added, just the color selections that you might have chosen to use for particular coloring schemes.
(These instructions were written by Dan Zarella, Allaire Customer Support)
The short method
The longer method
Explorer's ability to associate multiple apps with a file type can be very handy. For instance, you can have the default set to your main editor, but also have options for other editors you use, file checkers, compilers, etc as long as you have the correct command line parameters set up.
See also the MS KB article: Changing Source Code Editor in Internet Explorer.
To change it for MSIE v6 and HomeSite v5 use Regedit to change the following key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlfile\shell\edit\command
and the value for that key should be:
C:\Program Files\Macromedia\Homesite\HomeSite5.Exe "%1"
This assumes that HomeSite v5 is installed in the default location. Change the argument as necessary for other locations. If your install path has a space in the name, you may need to surround the path/filename with double quotes ("c:\some path\homesite.exe" "%1")
Note the quotes around the %1 parameter that makes it work for paths and filenames that might have spaces. Without the quotes, the editor thinks paths with spaces are 2 arguments instead of one and it fails.)
You can add different editors to the click-down "Edit" button list on MSIE by adding the following key:
HKEY_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Default HTML Editor\shell\edit\command
and the value for that key should be the path to the desired editor. For HomeSite v5 with a default install path, you can use:
C:\Program Files\Macromedia\Homesite\HomeSite5.Exe "%1"
12/2003: I'll be writing this up more when I get time to test it, but for now, see Nick Bradbury's discussion of the new installer for the Mozilla 1.5 ActiveX Control, the bit that lets you use Mozilla as internal browser for TopStyle or HomeSite. See also his informative earlier discussion on this topic.
4/2005: Some users in
this thread
mention that they get an error saying, "c is not a registered protocol"
when they use Firefox as HomeSite's internal browser for locally-stored files.
The fix seems to be to make sure that "Use DDE" is un-checked.
Find it under Options | Configure External Browsers | Highlight Browser | Edit.
For Internet Explorer, it should remain checked.
Jens Nilsson writes: ... a useful tool i recently discovered in Homesite when coding ASP is the "Code template" tool. I use it for a lot for the most common asp commands and it works pretty nice because you can choose where the cursor will appear after running the function. I haven't really looked in to it yet but I don't believe that feature is available for snippets is it? (yes, it is ~jw) Anyway I have assigned Shift + Ctrl + Enter to run the code template to speed things up even more which makes it very smooth to use.
As a result of all this it means that you have a very customizable tool that certainly increases your coding speed, lets you choose where the cursor will land, gives you control of what you will call the abbreviation, when to run it and what shortcut to run it with.
You can for instance call the code template when you type resp and it will give you the Response.Write "" with the cursor already inside the quote marks. Or give you an if/else/end statement. You also don't have the bother with suggestions of commands appearing when you don't want to which can be a bit annoying sometimes.
I think the Code template been underestimated and I just wanted you to be aware of it if you weren't already. Regards, Jens Nilsson
That technote shows the Allaire registry keys used in older versions
of HomeSite. HomeSite v5+ will use
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Macromedia\HomeSite5\FileLocations
Note that HomeSite v5 lets you set some of these via the Options | Settings | Locations dialog.
In HomeSite v5, custom templates share locations are set by this dialog, using the "New Files Repository" field. Files at the location specified there will show up in the "Shared Repository" tab when you click File | New.
Edit the definition file:
C:\Program Files\Macromedia\HomeSite 5\Extensions\TagDefs\HTML\Img.vtm
Find this line:
<CONTROL TYPE="FileBrowser" NAME="urlSrc" WIDTH="MAXIMUM"
MAXWIDTHPADDING=10 ANCHOR="lblSource" CORNER="NE" FILTER="*.jpg;*.gif;*.jpeg;*.png"
RELATIVE/>
This is the version I modified. I switched the positions of the *.jpg and the *.gif and now the default I get the jpg files.
As written in this thread
However, it's not clear how to re-dock them, and the HS help doesn't really tell you how either.
To dock them, you'll have to repeat this action for each resource tab.
Right-mouse-click over the area within each tab and select
Move (tab-name) to Left.
Here are some screen shots illustrating this:
Note that the local file tabs may be floating with just the folders list showing. You can't get that "Move to Left" menu option if you click over the folders list, but must drag the bottom down or the folders/files list separator bar up so you can see the files list. Then Right click over the files list and select Move Files 1 (or 2) to Left..
For some reason, you may need to re-dock some of the other tabs like help or snippets before re-docking the Local Files tabs.
See also Ben Forta's tip: Prevent Accidental Resource Tab Moves.
If you are using Apache and PHP, you should read Dave Alders' write-up, Setting up server mappings with HomeSite/Apache/PHP.
The CodeSweeper for ASP is limited again because CodeSweeper relies on valid tags and valid HTML. ASP tags are not valid tags or valid HTML, this tends to confuse the CodeSweeper to no end... I think the CodeSweeper for ASP is very unsafe for beginners. I did have an ASP page someone gave me and I was able to get CodeSweeper to work on it without changing the code. I would NOT list it for amateurs. Only those that know how to config CodeSweeper very well and only on a extra backup copy of code."
To get started scripting HomeSite, see some of these:
Sub Main
'
' Recent Files on the Toolbar
' Author: Christian Swoboda
' Date: 2001-08-23
'
' This tiny little routine uses the SendKeys call,
' to reach the "Recent Files" pulldown with one click.
' Just put a custom button on your toolbar and enjoy
' (You need WSH 2.0 for this to work!)
set WSHShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WSHSHell.SendKeys "%F" ' % for the Alt-Key
WSHSHell.SendKeys "R"
End SubThanks to Christian Swoboda for this solution, posted to the forum.
Question: Can you suggest me what is the command line parameter to pass to an external application (i.e.: windows explorer or a rename utility), so that it opens in the folder containing the file currently opened in HS
Answered by KeithC:
Here's some code that will do just that: (dunno how this message will
be formatted in the forum, but you can copy & paste it into Homesite)
If you are looking for Fusedocs or Fusebox for HomeSite, see Sandra Clark's toolsets and Andy Jarrett's Fusedoc for HomeSite snippets.
Find: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Macromedia\HomeSite5
Add (string value): allowMultipleInstances = -1
Or you may prefer just an icon logo image. Here are 2 from HomeSite version 5, and 2 from version 5.5.
And, from Taylor McKnight's Steal These Buttons (developed category) is this blog-size button.
