ZDE tip: ever wanted to add a file type to "Web Documents"

As I work with PEAR and other projects that often mix XML and PHP, I have wanted to add XML files to the default "Web Documents" file type that is available with ZDE. Sure, I could create my own file type, but where is the fun in that

Instead, I took a look at how ZDE stores its configuration, and I must say, it is a dream come true: simple, easy -to-read XML files stored either in C:\Documents and Settings\Username\ZDE\config_X.Y or /home/username/.ZDEConfig/config_X.Y (I'm guessing here - my unix box is still dead in the water, although I got a new hard drive today to fix things up. In any case, ls -l should reveal the correct directory name). X.Y is the ZDE version, so config_4.0 for ZDE 4, and 5.0_BETA for ZDE 5 beta, etc.

The file type information is stored in files located in the fileTypes subdirectory. You'll see a familiar list, Archives.xml, CSS files.xml, Web Documents.xml and so on.

If you open Web Documents.xml in any text editor, you'll see something like:

If you add this line:

You will suddenly find that all XML files are shown along with PHP, html, javascript, and css files. Note that Web Documents is the only file group that cannot be directly edited inside ZDE, so don't do this with the other file formats, you can access them via Preferences. Hope this is useful!