How to implement an alternative to Wiris MathType for TinyMCE on a running application, preferably free? - tinymce

I am working on a Question Bank solution with over 5 hundred thousand questions in it's SQL Server database. The application runs on .Net MVC Framework. It uses TinyMCE as it's editor with Wiris MathType plugin.
The task at hand is to replace Wiris with a free solution keeping editing and rendering of the current questions in the DB with mathematical formulae intact.
What would be the best approach to problem?
All the solutions I have come up with either revolve around converting the existing data into latex style code and use an opensource latex plugin (which seems to be hugely cumbersome) or or develop custom plugin (which seems to be a project in itself).
I was wondering that since Wiris claims to use standard MathML, if there's a quicker solution.
Any thoughts and suggestions, please?

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How well does the current DreamWeaver work with complex PHP frameworks?

I've always been intrigued by DreamWeaver, particularly the ability to click on something and edit its CSS right there so I don't have to find it in my huge list of CSS. However, I use a pretty complex home-made MVC framework for my coding that loads and creates pages through a series of includes, classes, function calls, etc. Quite a while ago, I tried a little to get Dreamweaver to even load a page but gave up pretty quickly. It wouldn't even display a single thing. I didn't try anything special though to get it to work like messing in the settings though.
I was wondering if DreamWeaver can handle something like this at this point and if so, what version would I need and how can I find out how to do it? If not, does anyone know of a good visual IDE where I can edit CSS just by clicking on something that would also support a complex PHP MVC framework page loading process?
You have to know how to develop a Dreamweaver extensions. The following resource, official Adobe website, offers a manual to do that:
http://www.adobe.com/support/dreamweaver/extend.html#dw8

ckeditor plugin for custom links / tags

I'm using CKeditor 3.6 and find myself in need of writing a simple plugin. What I need is a button that works much like the format buttons (bold, italic, etc.) except that it will turn this:
SelectedWord
not into, say,
<b>SelectedWord</b>
but into:
SelectedWord
I've tried looking into the various plugins that come with CKeditor, but quite frankly, they are more confusing then helpful. I've read the tutorials, I know the basics of writing a plugin, but what eludes me is the functionality itself.
You are going to have to hack the CKEditor code base, but let me tell you that hacking around ckeditor is not so difficult. Also, there are versions of the older fckeditor floating around. Compare the two and see which one would be easier to hack for your mod. I have had to use the older version specifically for creating pinholes against Coldfusion so I could use the file upload segment of the tool. And in another case to function against domain cookies, because of security issues with regular cookies. FCKEditor and CKEditor has never been a clear install for me with the base product. I hope this is somewhat helpful.

GUI Platform choice: Google GWT, SmartGWT, ExtGWT and SmartClient

We are in the process choosing a new GUI platform. Ive been looking at subj. but are a bit confused. Could someone please refer to at tutorial or blog that makes a qualified comparison.
Thanks.
Nikolaj G.
We've used SmartGWT for a couple of projects and it's ok but there are tradeoffs:
PRO:
Makes it easy to write a web app that looks and works like a rich client GUI.
Don't have to know any Javascript. SmartGWT coding is pretty similar to Swing coding, which is good if you already know how to do that.
CON:
Unless you do a lot of work tinkering with the look and feel, your app won't look very web-like, it will look like a rich client app running in a browser. You may not care about this.
It's a pretty heavyweight library which has to download large .js files to get going.
We found it difficult to control the layout of form controls precisely, but that might just be our inexperience.
I think you should fully understand what GWT does and what your projects needs are first and foremost. There wont be a source that will adequately compare them for your specific needs.
Start with the wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Web_Toolkit
Here is a comparison of SmartGWT vs GWT
http://www.theserverside.com/discussions/thread.tss?thread_id=60186
If interested in AJAX RIA Frameworts, below analysis is for you
Before starting new GUI for our new project arrival, I made some research.
Here are my findings (remove spaces from "http: // "; bcoz stackoverflow is preventing me to do so :)):
Prototype framework favorable links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ajax_frameworks
http://www.javabeat.net/articles/12-comparison-of-ajax-frameworks-prototype-gwt-dwr-and-1.html
http://www.devx.com/AJAXRoundup/Article/33209
Dojo framework favorable links:
http://blog.creonfx.com/javascript/dojo-vs-jquery-vs-mootools-vs-prototype-performance-comparison
jQuery framework favorable links:
http://blog.creonfx.com/javascript/mootools-vs-jquery-vs-prototype-vs-yui-vs-dojo-comparison-revised
Test speed of different RIA frameworks:
http://mootools.net/slickspeed/#
More comparasions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_JavaScript_frameworks
http://jqueryvsmootools.com/#conclusion
Out of all these findings I started using SmartClient 5. Initially we faced some issues but as SmartClient matures I find it interesting in many terms:
1. APIs doc help and examples
2. Flexible controls
3. Forum
Today I am working on SmartClient 8 and few on my GUIs are in production running successfully. Actually the great help with SmartClient is that you find every thing at one place. No need to dug many other sites that is hard to do for any other open source RIA framework.
So my choice is no doubt SmartClient.
Thanks
Shailendra (shaILU)

Netbeans - How to extend HTML vocabulary

I've been using netbeans for a couple of years now, mainly on PHP / CakePHP projects.
Recently I've started using Coldfusion, which isn't directly supported. I've found, however, that if I use PHP as a project type, I can load the files and the HTML Renderer does an admirable job with the Coldfusion tags.
I want to make it better and help the renderer to understand some of the tags and, hopefully, thereby improve code indentation and syntax highlighting.
My question, then, is how can I access the HTML dictionary to extend the vocabulary?
NB: This isn't a 'which IDE' question so don't recommend them. I want to know if and how I can achieve this in NetBeans and only Netbeans.
Here are a few ideas. If you render it in HTML, you could probably add a custom name space to the HTML. If setup correctly it can help NetBeans realize that the tags are valid and shouldn't show as an error. It might not give you all the preview and WYSIWYG functionality, but it may be better than what you are getting now. I have only done this on other platforms, but I'm pretty sure NetBeans supports it.
Also I think that NetBeans will let you add CustomTags doing something like this:
http://wiki.netbeans.org/CustomTagActions
Just to note, in terms of ColdFusion the other alternatives are NotePad++ with the CF plugin and IntelliJ now supports CF.
I really like Eclipse - the number of plugins available (SVN, Javascript, CSS, CodCollab, Flashbuilder etc.) is what makes it indispensable IMHO.
I am, however, looking forward to the new version of CFBuilder.
This answer on the same/similar question suggests that there is nothing out there for ColdFusion on netbeans : NetBeans as an editor for ColdFusion scripts?
If you want to build your own ColdFusion plugin for netbeans you need to look at plugin development; http://platform.netbeans.org/tutorials/60/nbm-google.html You could use the Dictionary project from cfeclipse as a basis for your plugin. See this Google Group thread for a bit more information

Should DreamWeaver be in my front-end workflow?

I am looking to speed up time to develop website layouts. So I am wondering if using DreamWeaver for layouts is useful - efficient. I am looking at purchasing this software, so, I had a few questions.
I am very comfortable coding HTML, CSS and JavaScript(jQuery) by hand in either PHPDesigner or Notepad++. Most of the time for layouts I use FireFox and Firebug to see results in real time, and then check if it works across different browsers.
I want to know the opinion of people who have worked on the front-end:
I feel code validation is important but not the end of the world(as my priorities) - I do however like to change my code often by hand. Does the output from this software let you do this?(compare to the html/css that micorsoft word vomits - Does this software do a similar thing?)
Is this software used as a primary design tool by people who can code by hand and does it actually improve efficiency? or is it just for newbies?
I understand the Adobe family of products work really well with each other but I am trying to understand is if DreamWeaver really deserves to be in the front-end workflow(if you are proficient coding by hand).
Once you work with HTML/CSS/Javascript enough, it isn't difficult to "code by hand" but it is important to remember that front-end developers also code with their eyes, as well. There is a lot going on up front that depends entirely on the code that runs on the client and you want to use an editor that helps you organize your code and, more importantly, gives you visibility into the challenges presented by complicated CSS and adhering to web standards.
If front-end coding was nothing more than pushing around angle brackets then notepad and repeatedly pressing F5 would be enough. A great web editor will present the structure of your code in a meaningful way and all of your HTML, CSS, and Javascript takes on a complete feel.
You want a professional editor that will allow you to:
Understand CSS inheritance
Run visual diagnostics
Debug across different browsers
Create modern layouts/designs that are faithfully represented
I haven't used Dreamweaver in a few years but, these days, I'm really enjoying Microsoft Expression Web. It is not the FrontPage mess of yesteryears - it is a serious tool for web design and I urge you to take a close look. The code is clean and smart and it certainly gives you the option of using its tools to build a site or you can code everything 100% by hand. Don't forget, the key is not deciding which editor is best for coding by hand. The thing you should be looking for is which editor makes you a better developer.
Regardless of whether or not you're a Microsoft, LAMP, or other platform person, Expression Web is a great tool for front-end developers.
I've been using Dreamweaver for a few years now. While I initially used some of it's code generators, these days I pretty much spend my time in the code widow coding by hand and viewing the output in the browser. The design window is nice for simple coding as it will build the html for you. However, I did have problems getting the right insertion point to edit it. For example, it might place my update before and end tag when I wanted it to be after it. That led my to switch to the coding window to be sure.
I do like the fact that it opens all included files specified in the file you originally opened. I also use it's site views to synchronize my changes to the production server. I'm sure I could take advantage of other features if I bother to learn them. I haven't used any tools besides FrontPage so I can't compare.
Best thing that happened to me was learing about Eclipse and then after about Aptana. I was using notepad++ for everything, but now im doing everything with eclipse and aptana as plugin for eclipse. Just my 2 cents. Oh and its free.
Primarily I do use Adobe Dreamweaver when working on websites. It is a pretty nice tool to use along with Adobe Photoshop for any graphic designs that I create.
Also, I use Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 for Web Application Development (i.e Console apps, Web Apps, Silverlight, etc.). VS is a little different from DW but its still a nice tool for development projects.
Alison, I looked a preview of Expression Web and may check it out. It may aid as an impressive tool for my front-end dvelopment work. I also tried Microsoft Expression Blend when designing Silverlight applications. It does remind you of how Expression Web looks and feels