How can I get Dashcode to open JSP files?

Question

A simple tools question but it's driving me nuts.

I have some .jsp files on my computer that I associated with Dashcode, figuring it would be a suitable editor. But when I try to open the files, all I get is a dialog box that says, "Dashcode cannot open files of this type".

I thought there'd be an easy way to fix this but I can't find it. Nowhere in Dashcode's preferences can I find any list of valid file extensions. I poked around its resources folder for a while and couldn't find it there either.

The Dashcode menubar is visible when the error is up, so I'm guessing that this is Dashcode itself complaining that it cannot open this file rather than the OS preventing it from trying.

How exactly does this work? Is Dashcode really just hard-coded to recognize only files of certain types by their file extension? Isn't there a way to change it?

Thanks, Frank

Answer 1

Dashcode uses html, javascript and css to write either dashboard widgets or web applications that will run on an http server. JSP files are for running on a Java server such as Tomcat and so Dashcode will not open them because a dashcode project is not targeted for an environment where they will be supported so there would be no point putting the file into the project.

In a similar way you cannot use PHP files as the target environment cannot guarantee to have a PHP interpreter installed.