What are the optimum settings for Auto complete?

[garethjmsaunders]

One of the features that I really like about Aptana Studio 3 is how quickly and fairly unobtrusively the code auto complete functionality is, not only for standard HTML, JavaScript, PHP and CSS elements but also for class and ID names throughout a project. But then I thought, "Hey! that option is in WeBuilder too." I had switched it off in a previous version (like version 9 or something) and had never switched it back on. I'm using WeBuilder 2011 Version 11.22 (11.2.2.131) on Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.

What are your recommended settings for using auto complete?

I currently have the delay set to 250 ms but I'm having trouble with auto complete working as I expect. The trouble I still have with using auto complete is that it appears to be quite unpredictable. Sometimes it works well and as expected, other times it does nothing.

An example, I can start typing and nothing gets suggested. So just now, for example, I started to type

Code: Select all

<div>

and the auto complete list popped up and suggested div, so I pressed Enter to select it. It gave me

Code: Select all

<div

so I closed it with a

Code: Select all

>

and it auto completed the closing

Code: Select all

</div>

. I then moved my cursor back into the opening div tag and started to type

Code: Select all

 class

but the auto complete didn't start. I completed the

Code: Select all

class=""

attribute, moved my cursor into the quotes and started to type the name of a class that I know is referenced in my CSS framework file... but again nothing was suggested. If I then press Ctrl+Spacebar I get a list with EVERY class name (and they are not arranged alphabetically which makes it less than useful to use, particularly with large CSS files).

What am I doing wrong here? How can I get auto complete to work within code that I've already typed, for example, if I go back to an h3 heading and want to add an attribute for that element?

I look forward to your suggestions. Thank you.

Gareth

[mithcd]

I'm new to this and still starting to look around. Can anyone share their thoughts on this?

[reacher]

Gareth

It can be very quirky. The div example is a good example; you type <d and select div using the mouse (or keyboard) from the suggested list and you get an open tag because WeBuilder thinks you will be adding a class or style or something else. If you have auto-close tags enabled, when you complete the tag with > then it will add the closing tag for you.

If you create a tag and close it with the end > then go back, click inside and try to add a class or style or whatever, autocomplete won't work unless you make a space for it. I do it this way; click directly after the v in div and hit the space bar; go back one step with the left arrow (or click back a space with the mouse cursor) and do the same thing (hit the space bar) and the autocomplete will work fromn that point; in other words, it won't work unless there is a space before and after it.

Not very clear I know and this may not even be what you meant. if not, ignore!

[garethjmsaunders]

Not very clear I know and this may not even be what you meant. if not, ignore!

Hi reacher, on the contrary that is very clear and a good tip there on how to get it to work as expected. An added complication is that I don't have autocomplete enabled for quotes or brackets/braces/parentheses/etc as I'm too used to 'autocompleting' them myself!

What delay in milliseconds do you have set?

Gareth

[reacher]

I have it set to 0 seconds; I am a crap typist so having it pop up right away is fine with me. I don't see any point in waiting around for it to appear as I use it all the time, though with your specific usage a slight delay may work better.