VSCode

I don’t work on a lot of non-CFML development but I had a couple of PHP projects and a JavaScript project I was working on last month. In an effort to tidy up my code in those projects I started using Prettier. I even wrote a post on Prettier and how I would be including it in future projects. Well, this weekend I was working on a CFML project and came across Mark Drew’s incredible CFML formatter extension for Visual Studio Code. Per the documentation:

CFML formatter is a Visual Studio Code extension that provides formatting for CFML files using Lucee Server and CFFormat

CFML formatter and cfformat are two great tools you can use to:

1. Set and implement coding standards for yourself and/or your team.
2. Format code in real time as you work in Visual Studio Code.
3. Scan, review, and even format code issues manually or in an automated manner by watching directories.

Installation

CFML formatter

Install the CFML formatter VSCode extension from the Extensions view in Visual Studio Code.

cfformat

Install the cfformat CommandBox module by launching CommandBox and running the following command.

box install commandbox-cfformat

A few things you can do with CFML formatter

Format code on save

This will format your code using CFML formatter every time you save a file in Visual Studio Code (you can define the rules using a .cfformat.json file which you can also share with your team!).

To configure Format code on save:

• Open Settings by pressing Cmd+, for Mac (or CTRL+, for Windows/Linux).
• Type format in the search box and enable the option Format On Save.

Format code using right click

This will format your code using CFML formatter when you right click in the Visual Studio Code editor and choose Format Document

More info on CFML formatter

You should also check out CFRules.

Read the full CFML formatter documentation at Visual Studio Marketplace.

A few things you can do with cfformat

Run a wizard

cfformat settings wizard

The wizard will:

1. Walk you through all settings.
2. Display the options AND what those options will do to an example of code.
3. Indicate the default setting.
4. Generate a .cfformat.json file for you based on your choices.

This wizard option is incredible!

View existing settings

cfformat settings show

These settings can be stored in a .cfformat.json file in your Visual Studio Code project. They will then govern Format code on save and the Format Document on right click action.

Read the full settings reference at: https://github.com/jcberquist/commandbox-cfformat/blob/master/reference.md.

Learn more about a setting

cfformat settings info tab_indent

Checking Tag structure

This option looks for:

tags that are unbalanced or incorrectly structured

Check a file:

cfformat tag-check about.cfm

Check a directory:

cfformat tag-check

Not only will cfformat tag-check locate cfml tag issues it will also locate html tag issues as shown above!

More info on cfformat

Check out some other really cool stuff like Watching Directories and Ignoring Code Sections.

Read the full cfformat documentation at FORGEBOX.

In Summary

My workflow is going to be:

1. Generate a .cfformat.json file in my CFML project using the cfformat CommandBox module
2. Let CFML formatter format my code on save in Visual Studio Code (governed by the .cfformat.json file)
3. Periodically I will manually run cfformat tag-check on my project using the cfformat CommandBox module.