MACROMEDIA DREAMWEAVER 8-EXTENDING DREAMWEAVER Manual page 56

Dreamweaver cannot express some types of Code Hints menus through the XML file or the
JavaScript API. Both the CodeHints.xml file and the JavaScript API expose a useful subset of
the Code Hints engine, but some Dreamweaver functionality is not accessible. For example,
there is no JavaScript hook to open a color picker, so Dreamweaver cannot express the
Attribute Values menu using JavaScript. You can only open a menu of text items from which
you can insert text.
When you insert text, the insertion pointer is placed after the inserted string.
The CodeHints.xml file
The CodeHints.xml file contains the following entities:
A list of all the menu groups
Dreamweaver displays the list of menu groups when you select the Code Hints category
from the Preferences dialog box. You can open the Preferences dialog box by selecting
Edit > Preferences. Dreamweaver MX provides the following menu groups or types of
Code Hints menus: Tag Names, Attribute Names, Attribute Values, Function Arguments,
Object Methods and Variables, and HTML Entities.
The description for each menu group
The description appears in the Preferences dialog box for the Code Hints category when
you select the menu group in the list. The description for the selected entry appears below
the menu group list.
Code Hints menus
A menu consists of a pattern that triggers the Code Hints menu and a list of menu items.
For example, a pattern such as "
The following example shows the format of the CodeHints.xml file:
<codehints>
<menugroup name="HTML Entities" enabled="true"
id="CodeHints_HTML_Entities">
<description>
<![CDATA[ When you type a '&', a drop-down menu shows
a list of HTML entities. The list of HTML entities
is stored in Configuration/CodeHints.xml. ]]>
</description>
<menu pattern="&amp;">
<menuitem value="&amp;amp;" texticon="&amp;"/>
<menuitem value="&amp;lt;" icon="lessThan.gif"/>
</menu>
</menugroup>
56 Customizing Code View
" could trigger a menu such as "
&
", " ", "
&amp; &gt; &lt;
".