Working with Studio Editor

Studio contains a full featured editor that helps in developing applications. Some of the important features of Editor are:

Editing Code All the basic editor features like cut, copy, paste, undo, redo, change case can be used

Syntax Coloring The editor supports colour coding for Java, JSP, HTML and XML files.

Abbreviations The Editor provides abbreviations and allows the user to set new abbreviations for commonly used commands.

The Edit Menu

Undo

Undo the last action. All actions performed since the file was opened can be undone.

Redo

Cut

Copy

Paste

Change Case

Converts the selected text to upper case, lower case or inverted case respectively. Inverted case is when the upper case characters get converted to lower case, and the lower case characters get converted to upper case.

Delete

Select All

Selects all the text at once in the File. The selected text can then be cut, copied or deleted.

The Search Menu

Find...

Searches for the keyword and its near matches, make search case sensitive and finds in files. Find dialog box provides four options for advanced search:

Match Whole Word Searches for the word as a whole word and not as a part of any other word.

Match Case Makes the search case-sensitive and displays only those words that are written using the same cases as mentioned in the Find field.

Regular Expression Regular Expressions are used to find generic information while searching using selected patterns. To know about all the syntaxes that are supported in Studio, read the section "How to use Regular Expressions".

Find Backwards Searches for the word from the position of the cursor to the beginning of the file, instead of the default way of searching for the word from the position of the cursor to the end of the file.

Find Next searches for the next occurrence of the word, and Cancel cancels the command

Find Next

Clicking on this searches for the next occurrence of the text found in a previous search. The keyboard shortcut F3 can also be used. The pattern for searching is taken from the following in order of preference:

Selected Text

Last Searched Pattern

Pops up the dialog

Find Previous

Clicking on this searches for the previous occurrence of the text found in a previous search. The keyboard shortcut Shift + F3 can also be used. The pattern for searching is taken from the following in order of preference:

Selected Text

Last Searched Pattern

Pops up the dialog

Find Next Word At Caret

Place the caret anywhere inside a word, and either click on Search > Find Word at Caret from the main menu, or press Ctrl + F3 on the keyboard. This searches for the next occurrence of the word and highlights it.

Find Previous Word At Caret

Place the caret anywhere inside a word, and press Ctrl + Shift + F3 on the keyboard. This searches for the previous occurrence of the word and highlights it.

Highlight All Occurrences

Clicking on this from the main menu or pressing Ctrl + Shift + F7 on the keyboard highlights all occurrences of the selected text or the word where the caret is positioned.

Incremental Search

You begin an incremental search by either clicking on Search > Incremental Search from the main menu or by pressing Ctrl + F on the keyboard. This brings up the Search pane, where you begin typing the string to be searched. As each character is typed, the search proceeds to the next occurrence in the window of the string as specified so far. Typing a word which has no match makes the text red in color.

Find in Files...

Clicking on this searches for a word in all the files of the specified type in the specified folder, and displays the results in the Output Panel. The results are displayed in a tree format. Enter the following information in the Find In Files dialog, and search for the word:

In the Find field, enter the text to be searched for. In File Types, the type of file that is being searched for is written. For example, *.java.

In the InFolder section, the folders where the files are available are written. It also provides you with six options for advanced search.

Match Whole Word Searches for the word as a whole word only, and not as a part of any other word.

Match Case Makes the search case-sensitive and displays only those words that are written using the same cases as mentioned in the Find field.

Look In Subfolders Searches for the word in the sub-folders also.

Regular Expression Regular Expressions are used to find generic information while searching, using selected patterns. To know about all the syntaxes that are supported in Studio, read the section "How to use Regular Expressions".

Open In New Tab Check this option when the find in files option is being used multiple number of times, and each time the result is to be displayed in a new tab in the Output Panel.

Search In Desk Check this option if the search for files is to be restricted to those in the active Desk.

Find searches for all occurrences of the word, while Cancel cancels the Find in Files command.

Viewing Search Results for "Find In Files" in Ouput Panel

Using the Find In Files option displays the search results in the Output Panel. Different operations can be performed to view these results. To delete a result from being excluded, select the result in the Output Panel and use the Delete button on the keyboard. This excludes the result, and also displays the row in grey color.

In the results that are displayed in the Output Panel, you can delete a few of the results, and then press Ctrl + Shift + A. T his searches for the next non excluded result. The icon,

can also be used to do the same operation.

Pressing Ctrl + Shift + Z on the keyboard or the icon,

searches for the previous non excluded result. Use the icon,

to stop the search process.

Press Ctrl + Shift + Q, or click on the icon,

to close the tab in the Output Panel. To re-run the search, press Ctrl + Alt + R, or use the icon,

available in the tab.

Replace...

Replace replaces a text with another. Clicking on Replace pops up a dialog box. In the dialog box, write the text to search for in the Find section. The word that it has to be replaced with is written in the Replace With section. To cancel the replace function in between, just press the Esc Key on the keyboard. The Replace function in Studio also provides the following options for advanced replace:

Match Whole word Searches for the word as a whole word only, and not as a part of any other word.

Replace In selection Replaces with the given word only in the selected area.

Match Case Makes the search case-sensitive and displays only those words that are written using the same cases as mentioned in the Find field.

Find Next Finds the next occurrence of the text

Replace Replaces the next occurrence of the text with the new text

Replace All Replaces all the occurrences of the text with the new text

Cancel Deactivates the Replace command.

How to use Regular Expressions

Regular expressions are powerful and specialized sets of patterns available to specify a set of possible strings that are to be matched. Studio Editor provides the following characters to be used in the Regular Expression field that are used in pattern matching.


Positional Operators
^	Matches at the beginning of a line
$	Matches at the end of a line
\A	Matches at the beginning of an entire String
\Z	Matches at the end of an entire String
\b	Matches at a word break
\B	Matches at a non-word break


One Character Operators
.	Matches any single character
\d	Matches any decimal digit
\D	Matches any non-digit
\n	Matches a new-line character
\r	Matches a return character
\s	Matches any white-space character
\S	Matches any non-white-space character
\t	Matches a horizontal tab character
\w	Matches any word (alphanumeric) character
\W	Matches any non-word (alphanumeric) character
\x	Matches the character x, if x is not one of the above listed escape sequences


	Character Class Operator
[abc]	Matches any character in the set a, b or c
[^abc]	Matches any character not in the set a, b or c
[a-z]	Matches any character in the range a to z, inclusive
A leading or trailing dash is interpreted literally


Repeating Operators
?	Matches the preceding expression or the null string
*	Matches the null string or any number of repetitions of the preceding expression
+	Matches one or more repetitions of the preceding expression
{m}	Matches exactly m repetitions of the one-character expression
{m,n}	Matches between m and n repetitions of the preceding expression, inclusive
{m,}	Matches m or more repetitions of the preceding expression
These special characters are used to operate on the previous atomic expression

Go to Line..

Placing Bookmarks

Bookmarks are placed on lines for easy manoeuvrability between lines. Using this option adds/removes the bookmark to/from the respective line.

Takes the control to the next bookmark in the file and positions the cursor at the beginning of the line.

Takes the control to the previous bookmark and positions the cursor at the beginning of the line.

Setting Editor Preferences

Clicking on this brings up a dialog box with three tabs: General, Editor and Abbreviations.

General Preferences

Clicking on this brings up a dialog box with three tabs: General, Editor and Abbreviations. Click on the General tab to set the general properties.

Reopen last used Desk at startup Checking this option reopens the last active Desk in the Explore panel when Studio is restarted. This option by default is un-checked.

Recent Desks count Edit the number of recently opened Desks that should be displayed in the Desk main menu. The number of Desks that can be viewed range from 0 to 10.

Recent File count Edit the number of recently opened files that should be displayed in the File main menu. The number of files that can be viewed range from 0 to 10.

Auto Interface Code Generation Checking/un-checking this option generates/does not generate the home and remote interfaces for the bean each time the bean is generated. This option is checked by default.

Java Settings This section in the panel is used for setting the Java home and Java compiler.

Java Home Enter the URL of the Java Home. This is then used by Studio for debugging and running application programs.

Java Compiler Entering the Java Home automatically fills the Java Compiler field. Example, if the Java Home is d:\jdk1.3.1, then the Java Compiler is d:\jdk1.3.1\bin\javac. This can be used to configure an external compiler like Jikes, JVC which will then be used by Studio to compile all the Java files.

Note: Sometimes compilers do not contain any bootstrap classpath. In such cases, add all the required bootstrap classes/JARs to the classpath of the Desk in the Build tab of the Properties Panel.

When the compiler is selected as Jikes, add the JAR, rt.jar from under the jdk\jre\lib directory to the Desk's classpath.

Browser Command Enter the complete path of where the browser is installed. The browser entered here is then used for previewing all JSP and HTML files from Studio.

Editor Properties

Auto indent Checking this uses automatic indentation provided in Studio. This is checked by default.

Use Spaces for tab character Checking this option inserts spaces (equivalent to the tab size) every time a tab is used. This option is by default un-checked.

Bracket Highlighting Checking this option highlights the corresponding brace in the program. This option is by default un-checked.

Blinking Caret Checking this option makes the caret blink. This option is by default checked.

Column Line Checking this option and entering the column number displays a line in the file at the specified column number. The column numbers can be set between 1 and 998.

Tab Size Set the tab size from 2 to 8.

Font Set the font from one of the fonts available in the system.

Font Size Set the font size anywhere from 6 to 32.

Abbreviations

Here, a list of abbreviations is provided that help you capture commonly used code snippets. The user can add new abbreviations. Type the abbreviation name in the Name field and the entire complete text to be replaced in the Value field.

Always place your cursor in the position where it should appear after the abbreviation has been expanded.

Click on Add to add the abbreviation to the list. To remove the abbreviations from the list, use the Remove button.

Typing SOP and entering the space bar key in a file automatically converts it to System.out.println(" ");

Abbreviations can be switched on and off by checking and un-checking the checkbox Abbreviations from Edit in the main menu. This is by default checked.

Word Completion

Enter the first character(s) of the word to be completed and press Ctrl + Enter keys on the keyboard. This displays all the words beginning with the character(s) in the file, one after the other. On reaching the right word, leave the keys and the word is completed automatically. The cursor is automatically placed at the end of the word.

Sentence Completion

Enter the first character(s) of the sentence to be completed and press Ctrl + K on the keyboard. This displays all the sentences typed in the file, one after the other. On reaching the right sentence to be completed, leave the keys and the sentence is completed automatically. The cursor is automatically placed at the end of the sentence. This is very useful for completing long import statements in files and also for multiple variable declarations.

Comment/Uncomment Lines

Select the lines of code in the files to be line-commented and press Ctrl + T keys on the keyboard. To un-comment the line(s), which have been line-commented, use the , Shift + T keys on the keyboard.

To wing-comment selected lines of code in Studio, press Ctrl + M keys on the keyboard. To uncomment the line(s), which have been wing-commented, press Ctrl + Shift + M on the keyboard.

On Linux, press the above-mentioned keys, release them and then press Ctrl key again to comment or un-comment the selected lines of code.

Viewing Open Files

Clicking on this pops up a floating panel that displays all the names of the open files in the Display Panel. Single Click on the name of the file makes that file active and displays the file in the Display Panel. Another alternative to move between open files is to press Ctrl + Tab keys on the keyboard.

On Linux, to move between open files press Ctrl + Tab and release them and then press Ctrl key again.