MM DevNet User-supplied Tip Library

One of the new aspects of the new MM DevNet is a new location for user-supplied tips, with categories for all the MM products. Pretty nifty. I don't recall seeing this on the old DesDev site, so if it's not really new, let me just point it out for those to whom it IS new. :-) It's at http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/tipsubmission/main.cfm. There are links there for all the products, a highlight of both the "highest rated" tips and the newest tips, and of course a place to enter your own tips. As for that "rating" feature, you can rate a tip when you view it. It may not be obvious, but you mouse over the stars that show the "average rating" and on clicking a star, you're giving it at that rating.

While you're on that page, take note of the separate "tip of the week" link, which takes you to a page with a large number of video tips. These quicktime videos walk through using various features in a variety of MM products. These have been around for a while, though many may have never seen them. Check 'em out!

Multiple independent CFMX Instances--how to support them on CFMX for JRun

If you've wondered about setting up multiple independent CFMX instances on a single server, which isn't currently possible with the base CFMX product, there is a MM technote about doing it on CFMX for JRun that's detailed and interesting. You might want to check it out.

Installing HomeSite+: The Equivalent to Studio 5, and then some

You may know that Macromedia has provided us HomeSite+, which is a near equivalent to most CFers favorite editor, CF Studio 5. The thing is, it's not available for sale or for trial download. It's only on the Dreamweaver MX CD (or in the download if you buy DWMX at the MM store online). I've spoken about HS+ in a couple of past blog entries:
- Obtaining updates for CF and CF Studio 4 and 5 releases on 8/1/02
- Getting into Dreamweaver for Studio users on 9/27/02
- Get CFMX Version of the CFML Reference to Studio and HomeSite+ Help Tab on 10/4/02
- Update to HomeSite+ available on 1/10/03

Something new I wanted to add was that when you install it, it will prompt for a serial number. While it doesn't make it clear, I found that it took the DreamweaverMX serial number.

I also found that, on this fresh installation (versus an upgrade) it prompted to walk through creation of an RDS connection and Development Mappings for internal browsing. If you're new to RDS and development mappings, the password being requested is that defined in the CF Admin for the RDS password. (If it's creating the RDS server for your own localhost, this is the password you created when you installed CF.) You should NOT enter a value for "username" in that interface prompt. Just leave it empty.

You should only enter a username and password if you're using CF 4-5 and your server is configured to use Advanced Security with the Sandbox feature enabled for "RDS passwords", in which case then you'd enter your own username and password as indicated by how that Advanced Security was configured. This is not likely (it's a very rarely used, though powerful, feature). So just try entering the RDS password from the CF Admin alone (no username).

I discuss RDS configuration in more detail in a new User Group presentation I'm offering, called "RDS: From Stress to Success". For more information, including the presentation slides, see the SysteManage presentations area.

One last comment: if you're of the opinion that HS+ isn't really like CF Studio because you can't modify the toolbars, that feature was returned in the "updater" mentioned in the 3rd link in the list above.