Pete Freitag Pete Freitag

New Poll: Do you use RDS?

Published on July 21, 2005
By Pete Freitag
coldfusion

I have added a new blog poll titled Do You Use RDS? I'm just curious how many people use it. There are lots of reasons not to use it, but I think its still pretty popular.

Here's why some people might use it:

  • Easy way to edit files on a remote server. Yes even though making changes to a live web site is generally bad idea, there are times when it comes in really handy. Suppose one of your old clients needs you to update one line of code. You can do this really fast with RDS.
  • View database structure. Maybe your developer doesn't have access to the db server, they can use RDS to check out the schema. Yes this can also be a security problem.
  • Secure File Editing - Did I just say secure? well yes, if your using it over HTTPS/SSL port 443 then it is secure. Most people use it over port 80 which is not secure. If your using RDS, but not over HTTPS then I suggest you change the port to 443 in your settings.

Please vote on the bottom left of my site. And if you want to leave a comment about why you do or do not use it feel free.



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New Poll: Do you use RDS? was first published on July 21, 2005.

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Comments

i dont/have never used it as ive never been able to get it to work :)

not too sure what it REALLY does?

tony
by tony of the weeg clan on 07/22/2005 at 12:50:55 AM UTC
i used to use RDS all the time in homesite for database browsing and inserting table & field names into my code.

i found the implementation in dreamweaver very slow so i stopped using it.

and now ive lost it all together in cfeclipse...but bring it back i say!
by pat branley on 07/22/2005 at 1:06:35 AM UTC
I used to use it a lot, especially when the only way I could test my code was on a remote dev server (before the days of free developer edition of CF). Eventually, I was able to install CF and my database locally without any real issues and RDS was pretty much irrelevant. Yes, it does allow access to the files over HTTP, but I have found nowadays that all my files are local and I use source control to save files remotely... no real need for RDS for these things.

The one area that RDS is handy for nowadays is its interaction with the CFAdmin API through DWMX.
by Paul Kenney on 07/22/2005 at 3:01:18 AM UTC
Love it. can't live without RDS.
by Jusuf Darmawan on 07/22/2005 at 7:49:52 AM UTC
We have it disabled here at work, so I've never used it. I have it enabled on my laptop with the development version of CFMX, but I haven't really had the chance to really get into it, since I don't like Dreamweaver and have installed CFEclipse, which I'm exploring these days.
by Lola on 07/22/2005 at 8:49:55 AM UTC
Nope, don't use it. I never really saw the point of it. For DB browsing, I just use the likes of Navicat, Enterprise Manager, or whatever. And SFTP and SCP are what I use for file transfer.
by Keith Gaughan on 07/22/2005 at 10:20:06 AM UTC
I think it would be very useful to poll, for those who do not use it, why not. we see from comments above that some don't because they work on a shared server and are concerned about security. But if they work on their own machine, that should be less an issue. And some of those would argue they don't because they use alternatives for DB browsing, or perhaps they say "no" because they use an editor that doesn't support it (but they would if it did), or some don't even know how to use the features in the editor that rely on it (something I often find with both Studio, HomeSite+, and DWMX users). Or it could be that they couldn't get it to work for them (just failure to configure things properly, an understandable challenge). Without knowing why folks say "no", it's hard for editor creators (MM, open source, or others) to properly evaluate what it means when a majority say "no" they don't use RDS). As a long-time fan and evangelist for it, I'd like to see it in all editors (and indeed documented as a protocol so any editor creator could implement its support).
by charlie arehart on 07/23/2005 at 8:03:59 PM UTC
We just started using Eclipse and CFEclipse in the last few months, and file access through RDS is one of the major aspects that we miss. Many of our servers are locked down to SSH and HTTP only, so RDS really helped allow us file access without having to configure a new protocol or service.

I'm sure there's a good alternative, we just haven't found it yet. *grin*
by Tony on 07/25/2005 at 11:53:20 AM UTC
No. We do not use.

When a developer have bad habits, than it would be a big problem.

RDS would be good for a developer but when you think a team enviroment, it is against standards.

If you have ability to change something easily, you can forget RULES that is really important for a team work. I personally used RDS for years but I have seen that after editing a file I just forgotten to update my local ones etc. This is a trouble for a team enviroment.
by Ouz Demirkap1 on 07/25/2005 at 5:40:54 PM UTC