The Aptana Blog

The Aptana team has been hard at work on an update to the Studio 3 Beta which is now available for download. Be sure to read the “Getting Started” notes since some key setup requirements are described there.

We have also redesigned our website which should make it a lot easier to navigate. We have a section that describes the Studio 3 Beta, its capabilities and a set of screencasts as well as links to the download.

For this Studio 3 Beta Update we’ve made a bunch of changes and dozens of improvements but here are some of the main highlights:

Naming

We’ve changed the name to more accurately reflect what Studio is all about. Studio was designed as a multi-platform, multi-language tool for web development professionals. Previously, we had multiple products (Studio 2 and RadRails 2). These have all been improved and merged into the new Studio 3 code base. Studio 3 will include development using client-side technologies such as JavaScript, HTML and CSS as well as server-side technologies Ruby/Rails, Python/Django as well as PHP. Yes, PHP.

PHP Support

We’ve gotten overwhelming freedback (including screams and rants) from our developer community requesting re-introduction of PHP support. (It was deprecated in Studio 2). So, we are bringing it back… in phases. Studio 3 Beta includes basic colorization support but we’ll be adding outlining and content assist as part of an update to Studio very soon.

File Transfer

One extremely popular feature for web developers that we’ve carried forward from Studio 2 is support for various file transfer mechanisms. This include transfer protocols such as FTP, SFTP and FTPS. We’ve also added the file synchronization option which allows you to keep a remote site and your local copy in sync. This is available from the Deploy Wizard or from within the Project Explorer.

Ruby Deployment and Heroku

A new application deployment wizard includes support for the above mentioned file transfer protocols as well as Ruby/Rails application deployment to servers using Capistrano. We’ve also worked with the good folks at Heroku to build deployment capability. So, after setting up a free account at Heroku you are able to quickly deploy your application directly from the wizard or use the built-in Heroku commands from your project’s Gear menu.

Additional Improvements

• Content Assist is now available for PHP and Ruby, and the Content Assist for JavaScript is much improved.
• The Find Bar now supports replacement of text as well as searching. (To use the find bar, type Ctrl-F or Cmd-F with focus on an Aptana editor pane.)
• The Outline view now has a search box
• More eclipse views are now themed
• There is now a Zen Coding ruble. Use Ctrl-E (or Cmd-E on macs) to expand.
• CSS color assist is back
• Improved Content Assist for HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. Many more features are still in progress, so stay tuned.

As always, we welcome your feedback, bugs and reactions to what we’ve built and you can provide that in our Support area. Thank you!

We are pleased to announce the availability of Aptana Studio 3 Rails Public Preview Release. We have worked hard on this release to streamline the interface and create a first-class web development experience primarily for Ruby & Rails web developers. As this is an early beta release, some of the functionality is not complete and there are some known issues. It is being released in order to collect feedback from early adopters and should not be used for production-level development.

Some of the key features include:

• An ‘App Explorer’ that helps you focus on your work
• Seamless integration with git
• Faster and more keyboard-friendly text editing
• Support for HTML5 and CSS3
• Support for Ruby 1.9 and Rails 3
• Rich searching functionality
• A Ruby debugger
• Fully extensible using Ruby with Ruble, our rich plugin API
• A built-in shell window that works with your native OS. Don’t fear the command line!
• Free and open source, as always

Also, in this release we are experimenting with a new area within the product called the Developer’s Toolbox. It includes resources, links as well as promotions for services that we believe are relevant for web development. We welcome feedback about what other types of resources you might find useful in this area. Aptana spends considerable financial resources developing the Studio product line and by enrolling in some of these services you can help defray the product development costs. Generally, we do not send any personally identifiable information to our servers or to our partners. Our privacy policy includes more details.

Note that this preview does not include some of the capabilities currently available in Studio 2. These features will be coming in future beta releases:

• JavaScript Debugging
• Content Assist (code completion, etc.)
• Built-in Documentation
• Built in FTP support and remote file synchronization
• A first-time, guided setup for Ruby, Rails, and Git
• More capabilities specifically of interest to HTML, CSS and JavaScript builders

To start using this release, be sure to read the prerequisite software requirements and startup guide and download the Preview Release. We look forward to your feedback and questions by using the “Help > Aptana” menu directly from Studio.

Our new aptana.org site is now live. The site is dedicated solely to Aptana Studio and the community plugins that extend it. We will be encouraging community contribution and involvement in the product so that it can continue to be one of the best web application IDEs in the world -- thanks to you.

As an open-source company, we want to make sure it's easier than ever for you to not only look through our source code, but better yet, encourage you to 'fork' and contribute changes, fixes, new features, whatever, back to us so that everyone can enjoy.

To that end, we've moved all of our source code over to GitHub. Check it out at http://github.com/aptana

You might have noticed that the Aptana.com home page has changed a little recently. We are featuring the RadRails plugin prominently on the home page to bring more attention to this great product. (The Aptana Studio that you know and love is still there, accessible from the 'Studio' menu item at the top of the page.)

In the spirit of eating [another flavor of] our own dog food, we decided to rebuild our web site completely in Ruby on Rails. Using RadRails, we've got the core architecture done and live, and the rest of the site will continue to transition over the next few weeks. Our web site has been in PHP for a while now, so we only thought it would be fair to give Rails a shake.

Many, many users have begged and pleaded with us to make our Secure FTP (SFTP) feature of Studio Pro available to everyone. I am happy to say, that effective immediately, Aptana Studio "Community Edition" now includes full SFTP support! If you are already using Studio, just Check For Updates from the Help menu and you'll get the latest update. If you are a new user, just download Studio at http://www.aptana.com/studio/download to get started.

We will no longer be offering Studio Pro as a paid option, as all of the features in Pro are now part of the standard Community Edition of Studio. Existing Pro customers will continue to receive premium support, and for those of you who want to buy support, we will be offering support packages for Studio in the near future, just stay tuned to our site.

If you have any questions concerning this change, please contact us at sales at aptana.com.