- Coda 2 0 13 – One Window Web Development Suite -
- Coda 2 0 13 – One Window Web Development Suite 4
- Coda 2 0 13 – One Window Web Development Suite 8
Coda 2 has recently launched a ton of new features. Now Coda 2 supports touch-bar on MacBook Pros, offers faster syntax highlighting and symbol parsing, indexing of local files, CSS overriding, and more. However, by far my favorite feature of Coda 2 is built-in WebKit Preview which includes a web inspector, debugger, and profiler. Coda by Panic bills itself to be “one-window web development.” I have been a web developer (or at least playing with code) for the past six or seven years, and purchased Coda about a year ago. It took me almost this long to realize the beauty that lies within the code editor when you truly use it as a one-window web development system. Tech support scams are an industry-wide issue where scammers trick you into paying for unnecessary technical support services. You can help protect yourself from scammers by verifying that the contact is a Microsoft Agent or Microsoft Employee and that the phone number is an official Microsoft global customer service number.
Feature | HoloLens (1st gen) | HoloLens 2 |
---|---|---|
Windows Device Portal | ✔️ | ✔️ |
The Windows Device Portal for HoloLens lets you configure and manage your device remotely over Wi-Fi or USB. The Device Portal is a web server on your HoloLens that you can connect to from a web browser on your PC. The Device Portal includes many tools that will help you manage your HoloLens and debug and optimize your apps.
This documentation is specifically about the Windows Device Portal for HoloLens. To use the Windows Device portal for desktop (including for Windows Mixed Reality), see Windows Device Portal overview
Setting up HoloLens to use Windows Device Portal
- Power on your HoloLens and put on the device.
- Perform the Start gesture for HoloLens2 or Bloom on HoloLens (1st Gen) to launch the main menu.
- Gaze at the Settings tile and perform the air-tap gesture on HoloLens (1st Gen) or select it on HoloLens 2 by touching it or using a Hand ray.
- Select the Update menu item.
- Select the For developers menu item.
- Enable Developer Mode.
Important
If you're in multi-user and not an admin, the ability to enter Developer Mode may be grayed out. Please ensure that you are an admin on the device.
- Scroll down and enable Device Portal.
- If you are setting up Windows Device Portal so you can deploy apps to this HoloLens over USB or Wi-Fi, click Pair to generate a pairing PIN. Leave the Settings app at the PIN popup until you enter the PIN into Visual Studio during your first deployment.
Connecting over Wi-Fi
- Connect your HoloLens to Wi-Fi.
- Look up your device's IP address by either:
- Going to Settings > Network & Internet > Wi-Fi > Advanced Options.
- Going to Settings > Network & Internet and selecting Hardware properties.
- From a web browser on your PC, go to https://<YOUR_HOLOLENS_IP_ADDRESS>
- The browser will display the following message: 'There's a problem with this website's security certificate'. This happens because the certificate which is issued to the Device Portal is a test certificate. You can ignore this certificate error for now and proceed.
Connecting over USB
- Install the tools to make sure you have Visual Studio with the Windows 10 developer tools installed on your PC to enable USB connectivity.
Important
If you're having issues with USB connectivity double check that the USB Device Connectivity optional component is installed as part of your Visual Studio tool package.
- Connect your HoloLens to your PC with a micro-USB cable for HoloLens (1st Gen) or USB-C for HoloLens 2.
- From a web browser on your PC, go to https://127.0.0.1:10080.
Moving files over USB
You can move files from your PC to your HoloLens without any additional setup.
- Connect your PC to your HoloLens with a USB cord
- Drag your files into PC[Your_HoloLens_Device_Name]Internal Storage on your desktop
- Open the Start Menu and select All apps > File Explorer on your HoloLens
Note
You may need to select This device on the left side of the panel to navigate away from 'Recently used' to locate your files.
Connecting to an emulator
You can also use the Device Portal with your emulator. To connect to the Device Portal, use the toolbar. Click on this icon: Open Device Portal: Open the Windows Device Portal for the HoloLens OS in the emulator.
Creating a Username and Password
Set up access to Windows Device Portal
The first time you connect to the Device Portal on your HoloLens, you will need to create a username and password.
- In a web browser on your PC, enter the IP address of the HoloLens. The Set up access page opens.
- Click or tap Request pin and look at the HoloLens display to get the generated PIN.
- Enter the PIN in the PIN displayed on your device textbox.
- Enter the user name you will use to connect to the Device Portal. It doesn't need to be a Microsoft Account (MSA) name or a domain name.
- Enter a password and confirm it. The password must be at least seven characters in length. It doesn't need to be an MSA or domain password.
- Click Pair to connect to Windows Device Portal on the HoloLens.
If you wish to change this username or password at any time, you can repeat this process by visiting the device security page by navigating to: https://<YOUR_HOLOLENS_IP_ADDRESS>/devicepair.htm.
Security certificate
If you see a 'certificate error' in your browser, you can fix it by creating a trust relationship with the device.
Each HoloLens generates a unique self-signed certificate for its SSL connection. By default, this certificate is not trusted by your PC's web browser and you may get a 'certificate error'. By downloading this certificate from your HoloLens (over USB or a Wi-Fi network you trust) and trusting it on your PC, you can securely connect to your device.
- Make sure you are on a secure network (USB or a Wi-Fi network you trust).
- Download this device's certificate from the 'Security' page on the Device Portal.
- Navigate to: https://<YOUR_HOLOLENS_IP_ADDRESS>/devicepair.htm
- Open the node for System > Preferences.
- Scroll down to Device Security, click the 'Download this device's certificate' button.
- Install the certificate in the 'Trusted Root Certification Authorities' store on your PC.
- From the Windows menu, type: Manage Computer Certificates and start the applet.
- Expand the Trusted Root Certification Authority folder.
- Click the Certificates folder.
- From the Action menu, select: All Tasks > Import..
- Complete the Certificate Import Wizard, using the certificate file you downloaded from the Device Portal.
- Restart the browser.
Note
This certificate will only be trusted for the device and the user will have to go through the process again if the device is flashed.
Device Portal Pages
Home
Windows Device Portal home page on Microsoft HoloLens
Your Device Portal session starts at the Home page. Access other pages from the navigation bar along the left side of the home page.
The toolbar at the top of the page provides access to commonly used status and features.
- Online: Indicates whether the device is connected to Wi-Fi.
- Shutdown: Turns off the device.
- Restart: Cycles power on the device.
- Security: Opens the Device Security page.
- Cool: Indicates the temperature of the device.
- A/C: Indicates whether the device is plugged in and charging.
- Help: Opens the REST interface documentation page.
The home page shows the following info:
- Device Status: monitors the health of your device and reports critical errors.
- Windows information: shows the name of the HoloLens and the currently installed version of Windows.
- Preferences section contains the following settings:
- IPD: Sets the interpupillary distance (IPD), which is the distance, in millimeters, between the center of the user's pupils when looking straight ahead. The setting takes effect immediately. The default value was calculated automatically when you set up your device.
- Device name: Assign a name to the HoloLens. You must reboot the device after changing this value for it to take effect. After clicking Save, a dialog will ask if you want to reboot the device immediately or reboot later.
- Sleep settings: Sets the length of time to wait before the device goes to sleep when it's plugged in and when it's on battery.
3D View
3D View page in Windows Device Portal on Microsoft HoloLens
Use the 3D View page to see how HoloLens interprets your surroundings. Navigate the view by using the mouse:
- Rotate: left click + mouse;
- Pan: right click + mouse;
- Zoom: mouse scroll.
- Tracking options
- Turn on continuous visual tracking by checking Force visual tracking.
- Pause stops visual tracking.
- View options: Set options on the 3D view:
- Tracking: Indicates whether visual tracking is active.
- Show floor: Displays a checkered floor plane.
- Show frustum: Displays the view frustum.
- Show stabilization plane: Displays the plane that HoloLens uses for stabilizing motion.
- Show mesh: Displays the spatial mapping mesh that represents your surroundings.
- Show spatial anchors: Displays spatial anchors for the active app. You must click the Update button to get and refresh the anchors.
- Show details: Displays hand positions, head rotation quaternions, and the device origin vector as they change in real time.
- Full screen button: Shows the 3D View in full screen mode. Press ESC to exit full screen view.
- Surface reconstruction: Click or tap Update to display the latest spatial mapping mesh from the device. A full pass may take some time to complete (up to a few seconds). The mesh does not update automatically in the 3D view, and you must manually click Update to get the latest mesh from the device. Click Save to save the current spatial mapping mesh as an obj file on your PC.
- Spatial anchors: Click Update to display or update the spatial anchors for the active app.
Map Manager
Map Manager allows you to share maps across devices, which can be used to setup shared experiences for Location Based Entertainment customers. The tool allows you to import and export system maps and anchors.
To access the Map Manager, log into the Device Portal and select Mixed Reality -> Map Manager:
Map Manager page in Windows Device Portal on Microsoft HoloLens
Exporting and importing maps
To export maps, click Export System Map & Anchors. This could take a while so be prepared to wait for 30-60 seconds while the map is exported. Once it’s complete, the file will be downloaded in your browser.
To import maps and anchors, click Upload a map file and Upload an anchor file respectively and select a map or anchor file that you've already exported. The uploaded map or anchor file can come from your or any other HoloLens device.
Note
On HoloLens, it's also possible to import and export the spatial mapping data base. However, this doesn't work on non-HoloLens devices.
Mixed Reality Capture
Mixed Reality Capture page in Windows Device Portal on Microsoft HoloLens
Use the Mixed Reality Capture page to save media streams from the HoloLens.
- Capture Settings: Control the media streams that are captured by checking the following settings:
- Holograms: Captures the holographic content in the video stream. Holograms are rendered in mono, not stereo.
- PV camera: Captures the video stream from the photo/video camera.
- Mic Audio: Captures audio from the microphone array.
- App Audio: Captures audio from the currently running app.
- Render from Camera: Aligns the capture to be from the perspective of the photo/video camera, if supported by the running app (HoloLens 2 only).
- Live preview quality: Select the screen resolution, frame rate, and streaming rate for the live preview.
- Audio Settings (HoloLens 2 only):
- Audio Media Category: Select the category is used when processing the microphone. Default will include some of the environment whereas Communications applies background noise cancellation.
- App Audio Gain: The gain applied to app audio's volume.
- Mic Audio Gain: The gain applied to mic audio's volume.
- Photo and Video Settings (HoloLens 2, version 2004 or later):
- Capture Profile: Select the profile used when taking photos and videos. The profile determines which resolutions and frame-rates are available.
- Photo Resolution: The resolution the photo will be taken with.
- Video Resolution and Frame-rate: The resolution and frame-rate the video will be taken with.
- Video Stabilization Buffer: The buffer size used when taking a video. The higher the value, the better it can compensate for quick movements.
- Click or tap the Live preview button to show the capture stream. Stop live preview stops the capture stream.
- Click or tap Record to start recording the mixed-reality stream, using the specified settings. Stop recording ends the recording and saves it.
- Click or tap Take photo to take a still image from the capture stream.
- Click or tap Restore Default Settings to restore the default settings for audio, photo, and video settings.
- Videos and photos: Shows a list of video and photo captures taken on the device.
All settings on this page apply to captures taken using Windows Device Portal, but some additionally apply to System MRC (start menu, hardware buttons, global voice commands, Miracast) and to custom MRC Recorders.
Setting | Applies to System MRC | Applies to Custom MRC Recorders |
---|---|---|
Holograms | No | No |
PV camera | No | No |
Mic Audio | No | No |
App Audio | No | No |
Render from Camera | Yes | Yes (can be overridden) |
Live preview quality | No | No |
Audio Media Category | Yes | No |
App Audio Gain | Yes | Yes (can be overridden) |
Mic Audio Gain | Yes | Yes (can be overridden) |
Capture Profile | Yes | No |
Photo Resolution | Yes | No |
Video Resolution and Frame-rate | Yes | No |
Video Stabilization Buffer | Yes | Yes (can be overridden) |
Note
There are limitations to simultaneous MRC:
- If an app tries to access the photo/video camera while Windows Device Portal is recording a video, the video recording will stop.
- HoloLens 2 will not stop recording video if the app accesses the photo/video camera with SharedReadOnly mode.
- If an app is actively using the photo/video camera, Windows Device Portal is able to take a photo or record a video.
- Live streaming:
- HoloLens (1st gen) prevents an app from accessing the photo/video camera while live streaming from Windows Device Portal.
- HoloLens (1st gen) will fail to live stream if an app is actively using the photo/video camera.
- HoloLens 2 automatically stops live streaming when an app tries to access the photo/video camera in ExclusiveControl mode.
- HoloLens 2 is able to start a live stream while an app is actively using the PV camera.
Performance Tracing
Performance Tracing page in Windows Device Portal on Microsoft HoloLens
Capture Windows Performance Recorder (WPR) traces from your HoloLens.
- Available profiles: Select the WPR profile from the dropdown, and click or tap Start to start tracing.
- Custom profiles: Click or tap Browse to choose a WPR profile from your PC. Click or tap Upload and start to start tracing.
To stop the trace, click the stop link. Stay on this page until the trace file has completed downloading.
Captured ETL files can be opened for analysis in Windows Performance Analyzer.
Processes
Processes page in Windows Device Portal on Microsoft HoloLens
Shows details about currently running processes. This includes both apps and system processes.
System Performance
System Performance page in Windows Device Portal on Microsoft HoloLens
Shows real-time graphs of system diagnostic info, like power usage, frame rate, and CPU load.
These are the available metrics:
- SoC power: Instantaneous system-on-chip power utilization, averaged over one minute
- System power: Instantaneous system power utilization, averaged over one minute
- Frame rate: Frames per second, missed VBlanks per second, and consecutive missed VBlanks
- GPU: GPU engine utilization, percent of total available
- CPU: percent of total available
- I/O: Reads and writes
- Network: Received and sent
- Memory: Total, in use, committed, paged, and non-paged
Apps
Apps page in Windows Device Portal on Microsoft HoloLens
Manages the apps that are installed on the HoloLens.
- Installed apps: Remove and start apps.
- Running apps: Lists apps that are running currently.
- Install app: Select app packages for installation from a folder on your computer/network.
- Dependency: Add dependencies for the app you are going to install.
- Deploy: Deploy the selected app + dependencies to the HoloLens.
App Crash Dumps
App Crash Dumps page in Windows Device Portal on Microsoft HoloLens
This page allows you to collect crash dumps for your side-loaded apps. Check the Crash Dumps Enabled checkbox for each app for which you want to collect crash dumps. Return to this page to collect crash dumps. Dump files can be opened in Visual Studio for debugging.
File Explorer
File Explorer page in Windows Device Portal on Microsoft HoloLens
Use the file explorer to browse, upload, and download files. You can work with files in the Documents folder, Pictures folder, and in the local storage folders for apps that you deployed from Visual Studio or the Device Portal.
Kiosk Mode
Note
Kiosk mode is only available with the Microsoft HoloLens Commercial Suite.
Check the Set up HoloLens in kiosk mode article in Windows IT Pro Center for up-to-date instructions on enabling kiosk mode via Windows Device Portal.
Logging
Logging page in Windows Device Portal on Microsoft HoloLens
Manages realtime Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) on the HoloLens.
Check Hide providers to show the Events list only.
- Registered providers: Select the ETW provider and the tracing level. Tracing level is one of these values:
- Abnormal exit or termination
- Severe errors
- Warnings
- Non-error warnings
Click or tap Enable to start tracing. The provider is added to the Enabled Providers dropdown.
- Custom providers: Select a custom ETW provider and the tracing level. Identify the provider by its GUID. Don't include brackets in the GUID.
- Enabled providers: Lists the enabled providers. Select a provider from the dropdown and click or tap Disable to stop tracing. Click or tap Stop all to suspend all tracing.
- Providers history: Shows the ETW providers that were enabled during the current session. Click or tap Enable to activate a provider that was disabled. Click or tap Clear to clear the history.
- Events: Lists ETW events from the selected providers in table format. This table is updated in real time. Beneath the table, click the Clear button to delete all ETW events from the table. This does not disable any providers. You can click Save to file to export the currently collected ETW events to a CSV file locally.
- Filters: Allow you to filter the ETW events collected by ID, Keyword, Level, Provider Name, Task Name, or Text. You can combine several criteria together:
- For criteria applying to the same property, events that can satisfy any one of these criteria are shown.
- For criteria applying to a different property, events must satisfy all of the criteria
For example, you can specify the criteria (Task Name contains 'Foo' or 'Bar') AND (Text contains 'error' or 'warning')
Simulation
Simulation page in Windows Device Portal on Microsoft HoloLens
Allows you to record and play back input data for testing.
- Capture room: Used to download a simulated room file that contains the spatial mapping mesh for the user's surroundings. Name the room and then click Capture to save the data as a .xef file on your PC. This room file can be loaded into the HoloLens emulator.
- Recording: Check the streams to record, name the recording, and click or tap Record to start recoding. Perform actions with your HoloLens and then click Stop to save the data as a .xef file on your PC. This file can be loaded on the HoloLens emulator or device.
- Playback: Click or tap Upload recording to select a xef file from your PC and send the data to the HoloLens.
- Control mode: Select Default or Simulation from the dropdown, and click or tap the Set button to select the mode on the HoloLens. Choosing 'Simulation' disables the real sensors on your HoloLens and uses uploaded simulated data instead. If you switch to 'Simulation', your HoloLens will not respond to the real user until you switch back to 'Default'.
Networking
Coda 2 0 13 – One Window Web Development Suite -
Networking page in Windows Device Portal on Microsoft HoloLens
Manages Wi-Fi connections on the HoloLens.
- WiFi adapters: Select a Wi-Fi adapter and profile by using the dropdown controls. Click or tap Connect to use the selected adapter.
- Available networks: Lists the Wi-Fi networks that the HoloLens can connect to. Click or tap Refresh to update the list.
- IP configuration: Shows the IP address and other details of the network connection.
Virtual Input
Virtual Input page in Windows Device Portal on Microsoft HoloLens
Sends keyboard input from the remote machine to the HoloLens.
Click or tap the region under Virtual keyboard to enable sending keystrokes to the HoloLens. Type in the Input text textbox and click or tap Send to send the keystrokes to the active app.
Device Portal REST API's
Everything in the device portal is built on top of REST API's that you can optionally use to access the data and control your device programmatically.
Troubleshooting
How to fix the 'It's lonely here' message
Note
Going from a HoloLens 2 to HoloLens (1st gen) may cause the pages to become lonely if used on the HoloLens 2 prior to use on the HoloLens (1st gen).
- Select Reset layout from the top-left Menu:
- Click Reset layout under the Reset workspace heading. The portal page will automatically refresh and display your content.
Coda is a text-editing, CSS-styling, WebKit previewing, file-managing, FTPing, terminal-accessing, web-site-building and publishing application for the Macintosh.
And, Coda has no duct tape.
All Inclusive Applications
If you are going to write an application that has and does “everything” there are a few key dynamics you have to keep in mind.
First of all you need to make it easy, simple and clear for the user to do all their work in your “one window”. This is where usability and interface make or break the application. And, fortunately for Coda, this is where Panic excels in, and Coda does a superb job as a “one-window application”.
Before Coda I always had at least three windows open at any given time when doing web-design: Transmit, TextWrangler and Safari. And I know that for those who are more web-design and development savvy people than I, only three apps open would be like a vacation.
For the past several weeks as I’ve been writing this article I have used nothing but Coda for web designing, and it has broken my age-old habits of CMD+TABbing between multiple apps.
The hit list 1 1 17 download free. Using Coda’s one-window interface has been especially wonderful when I am away from my home office and thus coding on my 12″ PowerBook’s 1024×768 screen resolution. But even on my 23″ display at home, I prefer to have Coda’s window sized to about 85% of my screen and make use of the Text Editor and the Preview panes rather than have two apps running side-by-side at 45% screen-realestate each.
Another reason Coda has helped break my habit of multiple-app web designing is the way it saves your previous work session, but more on that later.
Coda’s use of tabbed windows plays a critical part in its claim to fame as a one-window tool. Nowadays tabs come standard with good apps. Therefore, just having tabs is not enough. You have to have tabs that are above the norm of other applications and which meet the user’s expectations. Especially when it’s the tabs which are part of the foundation of your “one-window” application.
There seem to be three major ingredients which make up a good tabbed-window interface. First is design. One of the reasons I have never used NetNewsWire’s built in browser is the slighly odd look and feel of the tabs. They just feel clunky to me. Coda’s tabs are clean, subtle and easily identifiable. They are intelligently placed, and don’t go weird places when you have 20 of them open. (Though if you have 20 tabs open, you probably have bigger things to worry about than tab placement.)
The second ingredient is navigation. If you’re working in tabs you must be able to get from one to the other quickly and easily. Coda’s tabs work identical to virtually all other tabbed interface apps in that you can hot-key between them with the standard CMD+SHIFT+[ or CMD+SHIFT+] keys.
Finally, and most important, is user-interface. This seems like a moot issue, but there are still many apps that don’t utilize it. Coda does utilize it, and utilizes it well.
The most important user-interface aspect of tabbed-windows is the ability to re-order the tabs. A simple click and drag does the trick just perfectly. Moreover, Coda has more than just hot-key commands for new tabs. There is a “plus” symbol just under the toolbar, to the right of the file browser that you can click on to create new tabs. And to the far right is the “split window” symbol. A click on that and your current window gets split vertically or horizontally.
So at the end of the day, Coda’s claim to be a one-window app is valid. Coda is a great one-window application.
But there’s more to it than that…
The second challenge for a do-it-all application is to avoid overwhelming the user with too many options; i.e. “bloating” your app.
Coda is most certainly not bloated. If anything it could be argued the opposite – that Coda’s features are too skimpy.
However, put yourself in the developer’s shoes for moment. You’re going to take a Text Editor, CSS Editor, FTP client and a Terminal app. Then bundle them together, add a WebKit based prievewer and debugger, and offer some good documentation of PHP, CSS, Javascript and HTML. And finally: sell it for less than the cost of just a good text editor.
Panic didn’t set out to make the best text editor, CSS editor, etc… They set out to make one single application that contains all you need to build a website. And Panic has done a great job at keeping each of Coda’s components concise, powerful and focused – giving you the features you need while not requiring you to learn 4 or 5 new applications simultaneously to be able to use Coda efficiently. Sometimes good development decisions are about what you don’t put in.
An Aside Regarding Dreamweaver
When talking about one-window website development applications it’s hard not to mention Adobe Dreamweaver. And though Coda may easily be compared to the features Dreamweaver offers, Coda is much less bloated, much more snappy and infinitely more Macintosh-like.
In his Coda review for MacUser, Nik Rawlinson says,
“[Coda] could teach Adobe a thing or two, as it puts Dreamweaver’s multi-paged dialog to shame, and beats its sidebar-based CSS designer hands down. […] If you’re…ready to step up from Dreamweaver’s built-in code-based environment, Coda is an excellent choice.”
![Coda 2 0 13 – one window web development suite 8 Coda 2 0 13 – one window web development suite 8](https://www.macbed.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/24785-2.png)
Coda was developed for people who work at the raw code level to build their websites. In contrast to Dreamweaver there are no pre-fabbed templates or WYSIWYG editors in Coda. Anyone who uses Dreamweaver would do well to look at Coda. Especially those in the market to buy, since Coda’s price tag is 5 times less than Dreamweaver CS3’s.
Starting With 1.0
On Monday, April 23rd, 2007 – exactly 10 years and a day after Panic was born – Coda 1.0 was launched, and it received quite a bit of buzz all about the internets.
- Cabel Sasser –
This was by far the most complicated program we’ve ever built. I realized this when it dawned on me that I had never stopped doing design work for it. With most of our prior applications, I may spend a month or two creating a all-purpose Photoshop layout, cut up any important art, and then hand it over to the guys, possibly coming back to make a tweak every now and then. With Coda, the number of features and the scope of the project meant that even as soon as yesterday I was cranking out some interface pieces as .pdf’s
- John Gruber –
One way to judge the scope of an app is to think about how much time you’re intended to spend using it. There’s plenty of room for apps you use here and there for a few minutes at a time, or which you launch just once or twice a week. There’s hardly any room at all, though, for apps you work in for hours at a time, every day.By this measure, Coda, the new app from Panic, is an epic.
- MacUpdate’s Review Forum is full of ravings –
Wow. Do the folks at Panic ever make a mistake. Everything in Coda is amazing, it’s so intuitive it’s scary. Auto completion works great, the sites page is amazing, inline ftp, preview, all of it amazing. One thing I did notice, doesn’t seem to like flash, but hardly a dealbreaker. Bought and paid for this morning about an hour after release.
Moreover, April 23rd was also the submission deadline for the 2007 Apple Design Awards. And, waddayaknow but a few months later at the WWDC07, Coda won the award for Best Mac OS X User Experience –
Coda is a unique web development environment that offers a complete file browser (both locally and remotely), publishing, full-featured text editor, WebKit-based preview, CSS editor with visual tools, full-featured terminal, built-in reference material, and much more. Coda is the Mac’s first one-window Web development application that integrates numerous modules into one cohesive user experience. Coda is a great Mac OS X citizen…
User experience has always been one of Panic’s fortés, and Coda is no exception. It truly is a beautiful, powerful, intelligently designed, all-in-one website building tool.
However, it’s important to note that there is something interesting I have seen in many of the reviews I’ve read about Coda. There seems to be this relatively universal love/hate relationship with the people who use it.
Even in my own experience with Coda it just doesn’t quite cross over from, “Wow! This is smart, incredible and beautiful!” to, “How will I ever live without this?”.
Joe Kissell says –
…it’s like buying your dream car, only to find out that the seats are kind of uncomfortable and there’s no heater. Coda comes so close to being great that its shortcomings are especially annoying. Having tried this way of working, I’m loath to return to having four applications open all the time – and yet I keep running into issues that irritate me almost enough to give it up.
Yet, let’s not forget Coda is still only a 1.x product, it is extremely affordable for the features it offers and Panic has a fantastic reputation for producing outstanding software for the Mac.
Coda’s components are all masterfully crafted and seamlessly integrated. It has all you need to code, debug, validate, stare at, drool over and then publish your website.
Steven Frank says that when the beta-testers were asked what their favorite feature was they all replied: “The integration. The way it all fits together. How everything’s somehow right where you need it when you need it.“
“Sites”
When you launch Coda this is where you start. Coda uses “Sites” the same way Transmit uses “Favorites”, and when opening Coda for the first time you are given the option to import some or all of your Transmit favorites if you like. You can also import them later.
Each “Site” is basically a collection of info and details about a website you’re working on or maintaining. Tuxera ntfs for mac 2011 4 1 ubserial download free. Your “Sites” are represented by taped-up pieces of paper with a picture of your home-page drawn on the front:
Coda gets the icon images by taking a screenshot of your site’s homepage / root URL, which you can designate in the site’s info pane.
Having the visual icons to represent your sites is a nice touch, but a problem may arise if you have more than one saved site for the same root URL. Such as shawnblanc.net and shawnblanc.net/images. Both of those icons would display the same image on the taped up piece of paper. However, I don’t have my /images/ folder saved as a site, so it’s not a problem for me. And I think it’s clear that Coda wasn’t intended to replace your dedicated FTP client, so I doubt it will be a problem for many others.
But if you do encounter that problem the good news is you can choose custom images for each “Site”. To put your own image onto the taped-up paper, simply control-click on the site and “Change Image” to browse your finder for the image of your choice.
When you double-click on a “Site” the page flips around and expands into the full width of Coda’s window, revealing your previous workspace layout. Files, tabs, splits, everything is just the way you last left it and it is all ready to go. (Unless you left it in a mess. Try not to do that.)
The restored work session is one of my favorite features in Coda. It seems that most of the time I am opening up the same files for a site over and over. I can’t describe how wonderful it is to simply open up a “site” and have my previous session restored right the way I left it.
John Gruber expounds –
In terms of historical user interface traditions and conventions, Unix and the Mac could hardly be more different, but there is one similar philosophy shared by both cultures — a preference for using a collection of smaller, dedicated tools that work well together rather than using monolithic do-it-all apps.Coda seemingly swims in the face of this tradition, in that it ostensibly replaces a slew of dedicated apps. Coda’s premise, though, isn’t so much that it is one app that obviates several others, but rather that web development can and should be treated, conceptually, as a single task. That you don’t think, I need to download, edit, save, upload, and preview a change to the web site; you think, I need to make a change to the web site.
Disk cleaner 1 1 download free. There is something else that has stuck out to me in my use of Coda, which I don’t quite know where to talk about, so I’ll bring it up here: When using Transmit I always disconnect before quitting. I press CMD+D to disconnect and then CMD+Q to quit out. But the same key combo doesn’t disconnect you from your site in Coda. (Pressing CMD+D or CMD+SHIFT+D moves you to the next or previous symbols within a text document.)
If you want to disconnect from your “Site” before quitting not only are there no hot-keys to do so, you have to click the circle-encompassed “x” next to the name of your site up in the top left corner of the application.
And as many of you “don’t use the mouse if you don’t have to” / “I love Quicksilver” nerds will agree: clicking the disconnect button is too much. Therefore, since I can’t disconnect with a hot-key I find myself just quitting out, and it feels a bit like I’m unplugging my computer without powering it down first.
The Text Editor
For most users the text editor will be one of the two most-used features in Coda. (The other obviously being the Transmit turbo-engine-powered file manager / FTP client.)
Coda’s text editor is not a blow-your-brains-out-the-back-of-your-head kind of text editor. It wasn’t meant to be.
Coda’s text editor is its own licensed version of SubEthaEdit, which is one of few text editors which prides itself in being “a high-performance, sleek editor”; i.e. minimalism. To say the least, Coda’s text editor is powerful, clean and smart. It even comes with its own font, “Panic Sans”.
When it comes to text editors there are those who live and breath inside theirs, and everything else is just details. These people know every feature, every bug, every nook and every cranny of their editor and they use it for virtually everything. And these people just may pull their hair out when they try using Coda and discover it doesn’t have the ability to search within all the files on a site –
What Coda majors on is taking the most important features and implementing them in an intuitive, no-nonsense way.
For instance the bracket highlight feature: When your cursor passes through the beginning or end bracket a little blue beacon pops out at the other bracket, letting you know where the current symbol begins or ends. Simple, smart features like this are peppered all throughout Coda.
And not only are Coda’s little features smart, their interface is beautiful.
Compare Coda’s auto-complete pop-up list above to Dreamweaver’s below:
Not only is Dreamweaver’s box clunky and sports a drop shadow straight from 1997, but it brings up the entire code listing with empty brackets next to each tag. There is way too much going on. Notice how Coda only shows the tags that begin with ‘f’?
CSS Editor
CSS editors are becoming more and more popular. And for good reason. If I could remember everything I would much prefer to write my CSS from scratch by hand. But editing and writing CSS that way requires a bit more jujitsu than I have.
Coda’s CSS editor, much like its text editor, is simple and straight forward. You don’t have to examine it for an hour before you can figure out what you’re doing with it and how to work it.
If you already have a style sheet you’re working with you can open it in the CSS editor. It will display all the style elements on the left column with the built-in editor on the right-hand side. Click on an element to edit its type, margins, padding, color, border, etc… All the CSS properties are available for you to use and master.
You can build a style-sheet from the ground up as well; creating each element as you go. Or if you prefer, use the text editor to hand write all the elements you will be using then use the CSS editor to set the styles of those elements.
With Coda there’s no reason you shouldn’t have a fully-functionable and beautiful style sheet.
In addition to tabbed windows, Coda also allows you to split a window vertically or horizontally, and I’ve found that splitting the window vertically is extremely useful when working on a style sheet. I can then see and edit my CSS file’s text by using the text editor on the right, and then on the left split I put the dedicated CSS editor with a list of all my symbols and the visual style-selector; giving me the best of both worlds in one window.
“Preview”
Coda has its own internal browser so you can view the changes you make to your website right within the app.
It is a WebKit based browser, so your site will look virtually identical in Coda as it does in Safari. But nobody does browser testing in only Safari. To preview the same page in other browsers you simply click the icon to the right of the Coda’s Address Bar and highlight the browser you want to launch.
DOM Hierarchy Inspector
While in a Preview window you can activate Coda’s Document Object Model Hierarchy Inspector by clicking the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the screen when in Preview mode. You may then scroll over the various modules in your webpage to see them highlighted in blue with their logical structure outlined below.
Not only is the DOM hierarchy inspector fun to play with as you watch blue boxes pop up here and there while you fling your mouse all over the place, but it is also a great way to get a visual grasp on how your code actually plays itself out, and is especially helpful for debugging and finding goofy errors with Javascript and HTML.
FTP Client and File Manager
Coda has Panic’s new “Transmit Turbo Engine”. (Get it?) For basic file transfers Coda actually claims to be quicker. It’s not a dedicated FTP client, but is certainly does the job it needs to do. The file-browser/Transmit combo works so seamlessly you may forget you’re working on a remote server.
When you click on a file either remote or local, that file opens up in a new tab. You can then tinker away to your heart’s content. If you are working on a file from your server, when you save will automatically upload the updated file.
When working on local files you can keep them local or choose to upload them to the current folder you have open on your server. Control-clicking gives you the option to upload, or to “Mark For Uploading”. When a file has been marked for uploading, Coda puts an up-arrow to the right of the file. Clicking that arrow uploads the file to the current folder you have open on your server.
When working on several files that will incorporate interlinked changes across your whole site, it is usually preferable to upload them all at once. Marking them for uploading helps keep them organized for you. Then you can close out the file, but keep it marked and when you’re done, upload all of them together.
The integration of the file manager and the FTP client is so seamless it is easy to take it for granted. The file manager is out of the way, but ready and available when you need to use it. And that, my friends, is the mark of a well-designed feature.
The Terminal
This is where I confess I am not that hard-core of a nerd. I am not a Terminal junkie, and in-fact, have not once used Coda’s built in terminal. Though if I needed to, Coda has made it as easy as possible by taking my “Site” information and using it to log me in via SSH.
Reference Books
Coda includes two books: A PHP reference guide and the “Web Programmer’s Desk Reference: HTML, CSS and JavaScript“, by Lázaro Issi Cohen and Joseph Issi Cohen –
The Web Programmer’s Desk Reference is the only book to serve as a single point of reference for all three primary web programming languages. Each listing includes the latest syntax and functionality, compatibility with other elements, and cross-browser compatibility issues.
The content in these books is comprehensive, easy to understand and very well laid out.
The biggest complaint is that the books are only available when you’re connected to the internet. Their content is hosted by Panic. This certainly defeats much of the purpose of having built-in reference guide. If I can only access it when I am online I could just as easily use Google to find what I need help with.
I would love to see these books saved locally to make them accessible when the internet is not.
The Little Things
It’s the little things in Coda that you may or may not notice that make it worth owning and using. The way a “Site” fades away if you delete it, or the way each of the primary six components in Coda have a numbered hot-key.
In fact, the little things in Coda matter so much it’s why Brent Simmons recently purchased a copy –
I used [Coda] to update NetNewsWire’s Help book for the latest release, and I liked the flow of it. I liked the easy flip between edit and preview modes. I liked having the list of files on the left. I liked the tabs. I liked the keyboard command for closing a tag. Etc.But, most importantly, I liked the overall feeling of the program, and the sense that it would take care of me — that is, I felt like it probably had features I didn’t know I needed, and anything missing would probably be added in the future (things like multi-file find/replace). Part of this is just judging the app, and part comes from considering Panic’s track record.
Here are a few of the little things that stand out to me:
Symbols Quick Navigator
Clicking the brackets at the bottom toolbar underneath the file-manager brings up the Symbols Quick Navigator. It is a funky little table of contents for all the style-sheet symbols in your current open window.
The 3-Pixel Conundrum
If you’re a fan of the new look for selected icons in Leopard’s toolbars you have Cabel and Panic to thank for it. Cabel was un-satisfied with the default selection state in Apple’s toolbar. To make a long story short, Panic’s development team coded their own toolbar to make up for the trouble Apple’s toolbar gave them when trying to get the look they wanted. But someone at Apple noticed and the design became Leopard’s default. (Read the whole story, here.)
Clips
Michael from WordPress Candy points out how helpful Coda’s “Clips” feature is for doing WordPress theme development.
Coda 2 0 13 – One Window Web Development Suite 4
You can save any text you want as a “Clip”. This is extremely helpful for keeping common tags available at all times. And Clips has a Global database as well as a site-specific database. If you are working on a WordPress based site you can save your WordPress tags for that site, and if you are also working on a Textpattern site your tags for that are saved when that site is open.
Double clicking a specific clip paste that text starting at the cursor’s current location. Or you can click and drag a clip to any location in your file.To open up the Clips use the hot-key CTRL+CMD+C, or navigate to “Window” then select “Clips”.
Miscellaneous
- If you move the location of your local root directory, Coda keeps track of where it goes. Even if it goes to the Trash.
- A dot to the right of the file name inside the file manager, or in the file’s tab tells you the file has had changes since the last save.
- The way the toolbar stays fluid with the file manager’s width. It’s hard to explain, but adjust the width of the file-manager window and watch what happens up by the toolbar. The icons stay fixed above the window, the site name stays centered above the file-manager.
More Reviews
Coda 2 0 13 – One Window Web Development Suite 8
This is just one of a handful of winded and entertaining software reviews.