CFMXPLUS

CFMXPlus fans: I'm now blogging at carehart.org

2006-07-08T12:27:00.000-04:00

For those reading my cfmxplus.blogspot.com blog, I should update you that I have news since my previous post below, written nearly 3 years ago exactly. :-) At that time, I was announcing that I'd joined New Atlanta.But this April (2006) I announced that I had left that role but forgot to indicate that here on cfmxplus.I've also created a new site, called carehart.org, and I'll be blogging there.

Check out my new blog, bluedragon.blog-city.com

2003-07-11T11:21:00.000-04:00

Folks, after posting here at cfmxplus.blogspot.com for over a year, I've now created a new blog, http://bluedragon.blog-city.com. While it's focused primarily on BlueDragon (given my role as CTO of New Atlanta and chief evangelist for BlueDragon), it will of course offer tips of value to all CFML developers. As such, I'll not likely be updating this blog too often anymore. But I will leave it

Having problems with CFMX not starting on reboot?

2003-06-06T22:46:00.000-04:00

Lots of folks (myself included) have reported problems with CFMX not starting when we reboot our machines. Indeed, there has been a vigorous discussion of the issue on CF-Talk June 6 (tried to publish this blog item then but for some reason it didn't take). Anyway, Dan Switzer offered a solution that has worked (most of the time) for me. See his blog entry of 4/17/03. Great stuff, Dan.

Various caching articles at MM CF support site

2003-05-21T20:49:00.000-04:00

I also just happened along a page at the MM CF support site that lists several articles focusing on various ways of doing caching in CFML. Check it out.

Supporting Trusted Connections for SQL Server in CFMX

2003-05-21T20:46:00.000-04:00

Someone asked me at the MXOnTheRocks event last week how to support use of trusted connections in SQL Server. I'm sorry I can't recall who it was, and at the time I was not aware of a solution, but I happened upon a technote on the very subject today. In case it interests him or others, see Enabling Microsoft SQL Server trusted connections.

"ColdFusion MX Bible" getting great early reviews

2003-05-13T14:51:00.000-04:00

Folks, some of you know that I was a co-author of the new ColdFusion MX Bible, from Wiley (the same folks and in the same style as the JavaScript, Flash, and other Bibles), along with my esteemed colleagues Adam and David Churvis and Hal Helms. There have been some very good early reviews at the Amazon site for the book. I'll admit I've been reluctant to say much about it since (like a movie)

How to enable secure FTP login from Dreamweaver MX

2003-05-03T11:06:00.000-04:00

Need to support SSH enabled secure FTP access from Dreamweaver MX? You can, integrating either MacSSH or PuTTY for Windows, to allow for SSH enabled secure transfer of login information. To learn more, see the Macromedia TechNotes on secure FTP for Mac users and for Windows users.

I've accepted a new position as CTO of New Atlanta, to Evangelize BlueDragon

2003-04-14T06:01:00.000-04:00

By now you may have heard that I've accepted an offer to take on the role of CTO for New Atlanta, the folks who make Blue Dragon, an alternative for running CFML on J2EE and .NET platforms. I know that this news will shock many, but after watching the company for a year+ and seeing the great strides they've made, it was hard to ignore them. If you're not familiar with BlueDragon, I'll point you

Have you got the google toolbar?

2003-04-10T11:57:00.000-04:00

This is indeed off the subject of CF, but since we so often are doing searching on google to help us in our day to day work, I thought you may appreciate this info. Are you using the Google toolbar yet? It's at (http://toolbar.google.com/). It's really nifty and offers several benefits. First, and most straightforward, is that it adds a google search prompt to your browser toolbar. Sure, you can

Resolving the change in Updater 3 that disables web services from Flash Remoting

2003-04-07T18:41:00.000-04:00

In my article (and in the release notes) about Updater 3 you'll find that one of the big changes is the disabling by default of support for calling web services from Flash Remoting by way of your CFMX Updater 3 server. This is not about calling web services on that server itself from Flash (because you'll typically call the CFCs directly instead), but more about the fact that you could call any

Highlights of what's new and different in the CFMX Updater 3

2003-04-07T18:38:00.000-04:00

Folks, for those interested in an overview of what's new and different in the new CFMX updater 3 (discussed in a few recent entries here), I've put together an article for the May CFDJ. Until that comes out, you can read a preview of it at my "previews" site. There's really quite a lot to this updater and some changes that may surprise you. Indeed, even the previous two updaters may have made

New resources for learning about XML processing in CFMX and CFMx error handling

2003-04-04T10:56:00.000-05:00

Interested in learning more about XML processing and error handling in CFMX? Simon Horwith has posted a chapter on each of these subjects from a book that didn't get published. See http://www.how2cf.com/.

Some big announcements from MM in the flash world toda

2003-03-27T11:52:00.000-05:00

There were some big announcements from Macromedia in the Flash world today: Flash Comm 1.5 is available: many improvements, biggest news may be free developer edition (finally) and http tunneling (ability to communicate over port 80 to get around firewall issues) - http://www.macromedia.com/go/commserver/ Flash on Pocket PC 2002 - http://www.macromedia.com/go/fp6_ppc/ New Product/Service/

Want to access your PC remotely (or from another machine in your firewall)? Free?

2003-03-25T22:17:00.000-05:00

You may have heard about tools like GoToMyPC, or PCAnywhere, or LapLink to be able to access one PC from another, but I just learned of a free tool that's cross-platform. You may want to access a machine remotely (like your home machine when you're on the road or in your office) or even just within your network (such as to access a Linux box from your Windows workstation, or vice-versa), or as in

Updater 3 requires recompilation of all templates: be aware of a few things, and here's a better compiler

2003-03-19T21:46:00.000-05:00

One of the things updater 3 does is change the underlying compiler in CFMX. As such, the installer needs to clear out all the existing compiled class files in the cfusionmx\wwwroot\WEB-INF\cfclasses directory (note that's cfclasses, not classes). The good news is that the installer is supposed to solve that problem by simply renaming your current cfclasses directory to cfclasses_backup. There

Installing the Updater: One caution about CFIDE location

2003-03-19T20:45:00.000-05:00

This isn't really new for the CFMX updater, but it's something worth paying attention: when installing the CFMX updater, pay attention to the step where you indicate the location of the CFIDE directory. This is where the administrator is located, as well as the RDS and CFC exploring features and the javascript and java files for CFFILE and more. Anyway, the point is that if you install CFMX with

Updated version of CFMX Version Checker

2003-03-19T19:36:00.000-05:00

Folks, I've got an updated version of my CFMX version checker that I'd last offered on 1/29. This one accounts for the new Updater 3. Save it as getCFMXVersion.cfm and run it in your environment. Enjoy.

CF Version Analysis:

versinfo = arraynew(1); versinfo[1] =

Updater 3 for CFMX is Out

2003-03-19T19:00:00.000-05:00

Updater 3 for CFMX is out. I'll have more news to share soon on some surprising hidden gems in the updater. CFMX Updater 3 Released March 20, 2003 http://www.macromedia.com/software/coldfusion/special/updater/faq/ CFMX Updater3 Release Notes http://www.macromedia.com/support/coldfusion/releasenotes/mx/releasenotes_mx_updater.html

MM DevNet User-supplied Tip Library

2003-03-08T17:11:00.000-05:00

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

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

2003-03-06T03:25:00.000-05:00

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

2003-03-05T23:25:00.000-05:00

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

Flash to be integrated into Japan's i-mode

2003-03-01T00:50:00.000-05:00

This news may not make much noise among those not into wireless/mobile development, but I think it could be more imporant than many will realize. Macromedia announced this week that they had reached an agreement with NTT DoCoMo, Japan's dominant player in mobile/wireless, to have Flash embedded on their "i-mode" phones. Who cares? Well, Japan has led the way in mobile development, in particular

Could not update; currently locked by user 'admin' on machine...

2003-02-28T00:59:00.001-05:00

Folks, have you ever run into this error: Could not update; currently locked by user 'admin' on machine 'machinename'It occasionally happens with an Access database, in my case when someone's trying to do an insert. I may have found an explanation. Now please, keep the suggestions about moving off of Access to yourselves. I KNOW that it's not intended for production use, yadda, yadda. There are

Impact of mappings on use of CFCs in CF, web services, and Flash remoting

2003-02-24T13:24:00.000-05:00

If you've got code running outside the regular web root on your server, you may know that there are a couple of mechanisms in CF that allow you to create "mappings" to point to those. But what about when you're trying to invoke a CFC, whether with CFINVOKE/CFOBJECT/CreateObject, as a web service, or via Flash Remoting? The two mapping approaches have different fundamental purposes, and also they

How to Stop Requiring the RDS Password for CFC Exploring

2003-02-24T00:00:00.000-05:00

Would you be interested in enabling folks to browse your CFCs documentation without needing to know the RDS or Admin password for your server in order to do so? You can.It just takes either of a couple of undocumented steps. You may know that you can view the documentation for a CFC by browsing it, but Macromedia designed that feature to require you to provide the server's RDS or Administrator

My Recorded 55 minute Presentation, " Flash for CFers: Getting Over the Hump"

2003-02-21T18:47:00.000-05:00

I've recorded my user group presentation, "Flash for CFers: Getting Over the Hump" which is an hour-long introduction to CF and Flash integration for folks who have no prior Flash experience. I address why it's a great challenge for folks to get into it on their own if they don't find just the right resources, and I point you to those as well as show some simple demonstration apps folks have done

When remoting seems to fail...could be conflict of URL for page loading movie versus that for remoting server

2003-02-09T00:03:00.000-05:00

Have you ever had a Flash Remoting movie that seems to fail, in that some expected communications from the server never is returned? And worse, that even the NetConnection Debugger shows it opening a connection and calling the service but just then getting no further response? The problem may be caused by a conflict between the URL you're using to loading the movie and that which is being used

Debugging Flash Remoting Interfaces without Opening Flash

2003-02-08T19:41:00.000-05:00

Did you know that you can run the Flash Remoting NetConnection Debugger without opening Flash? You can. And you may want to reconsider your use of the Flash Trace() statement, using NetServices.Trace instead. This tip will explain both points. A little background first: If you're exploring Flash and Flash remoting, you'll soon get familiar with the NetConnection Debugger (more at macromedia).

Tapping into Vern's Old Blog

2003-02-03T10:35:00.000-05:00

Most of you know that Vernon Viehe was Macromedia's Community Manager for ColdFusion throughout most of 2002, and he had a blog at http://vvmx.blogspot.com/. Sadly, the blog is closed. While the old blogspot archives are there if you know how to find them, you have to know how to find the archive links, and even then they're weekly. You could also do a Google search for the cached pages, but all

Determining which CFMX Updater your server is running

2003-01-29T11:28:00.000-05:00

Have you wondered which version of CFMX your server is running? meaning it's the base version or one of the updaters (1 or 2 available currently)? You can find out what internal version numbers relate to what updater. See technote 23692 for that mapping of version numbers to updaters. One strange thing: the technote currently doesn't tell you how to get the current version for your server using

Great 2nd step to getting started with CF/Flash integration

2003-01-22T23:28:00.000-05:00

What's the second step to getting started with CF/Flash integration, for those with no prior Flash experience? Check out chapter 23 of the latest CFWACK. Nate Weiss has done a fabulous job, explaining much more in 30-some pages than many articles combined. Of course, that's the advantage of having a whole chapter. Like my recommendation earlier today in my previous posting, where I commended a

Great first article for folks considering Flash/CF Integration

2003-01-22T23:14:00.000-05:00

If you've been annoyed by Flash Remoting articles that presume you already understand Flash, there's a great article that quickly walks you through the basics without expecting any prior experience with the Flash interface. A hearty congrats to good ole' Ben Forta for his November CFDJ article, Data Entry ReFORMed. In my mind these are the best 2300 words I can recommend to someone looking to get

Finally, an HTML-only CF PetMarket

2003-01-22T22:19:00.000-05:00

A new article on the Macromedia DesDev center announced that there's an HTML-only version of the demonstration PetMarket application. The Flash one was impressive, but for an apples to apples comparison with the Java PetStore and .NET Pet Shop, this is the one I've longed for. And great news: the CF version takes just 20 templates and about 1500 lines. The J2EE one is a staggering 14,273 lines

Update to HomeSite+ available

2003-01-10T19:42:00.000-05:00

A lot of folks may have heard about the available updater for Dreamweaver MX . But did you know there is an updater for HomeSite+ (from the base 5.1 to a new 5.2 version)? If you' don't know what HomeSite+ is, see Yes there is, and it solves many things including one of the biggest beefs that many have had: you can again customize the toolbars and resource windows! There are still more

CFMX for the Mac--new implementation of CFMX for J2EE on JRun on the mac

2003-01-07T11:19:00.000-05:00

News is traveling fast and furious on some lists about a new announcement of CFMX for J2EE now available to run atop JRun on Mac OS X, at least in a developer (not production) edition. The bottom line is you need to: a) get the "JRun 4 Developer Version for Mac OSX" at http://www.macromedia.com/software/jrun/trial/ b) get the ColdFusion MX for J2EE trial for "JRun - Mac OS X - English (Dev Only)

February CFDJ Preview Article, "Fun with Filters in CFMX"

2003-01-07T00:27:00.000-05:00

If you'd like to get a preview (and offer any feedback) on my planned February CFDJ article, "Fun with Filters in CFMX", check it out at http://www.systemanage.com/previews/. I'll need any feedback in the next couple of days, and will have to pull it soon after that, but until then enjoy.

Getting IE 6 windows to preserve status bar

2003-01-03T22:08:00.000-05:00

This isn't so much a CF tip, but it's one that many CF developers may appreciate. In IE 6 (installed on one of my WinXP machines), I found that when I opened new windows the "status bar" (where we can see the URL of a hyperlink by mousing over it) would not be preserved. I'd have to turn it on with View>Status Bar, but had to always do that. It wouldn't preserve it. I found a solution for it at

Bug in CFHTTP's FirstRowAsHeaders when COLUMNS not used

2002-12-31T15:24:00.000-05:00

There appears to be a bug in the function of the new FirstRowAsHeaders attribute for CFHTTP. It's not working when the COLUMNS attribute is not specified, which is counter to the indication of how it should work in the docs. CFHTTP adds a new firstrowasheaders attribute for working with reading in of text files. This is useful in case the firstrow of a text file (such as a CSV or comma-delimited

New Java Blueprints Application: Adventure Builder

2002-12-31T14:18:00.000-05:00

Some may know that Sun came out some time ago with a "blueprint" application for demonstrating J2EE practices, called the Java PetStore. Many have taken it to be a model J2EE app (perhaps exceeding its real purpose as just an example), and some have even poked at it for not being scalable, etc. (which never really was its intention.) It was just an example app showing several J2EE practices.

$10 computer books from APress (overstock)

2002-12-31T10:59:00.000-05:00

Folks, some of you may know APress as a small but feisty publisher of computer books. I just noticed they're having a $10 overstock sale on 17 items, including some SQL Server, Linux, and other topics that may interest CFers. Check it out. If the link fails and/or the sale is over, still check them out at apress.com. They have some interesting books and often off-beat titles covering topics that

Expecting custom tag queries in the DWMX Bindings tab

2002-12-30T11:20:00.000-05:00

Someone recently asked me: Do you know of any way to make cfquery/recordsets contained in a custom tag show up in the bindings panel on the calling page in DWMX? The bindings tab in DWMX lists any queries on your current page, among other things, because DWMX looks at your CF code and pulls out the CFQUERY tags and contents and renders them in the bindings tab for various purposes. Sadly, though

OK, one more time correcting the precompile.bat. Finally right?

2002-12-10T23:47:00.000-05:00

Folks, I've got some bad/good news. The news I shared here on 12/5 was wrong. Just flat wrong. Here, finally, is the correct code for precompiling code that a) works with the -f directive if you add it and b) works against code in directories outside the default cfusionmx\wwwroot. What a long strange trip it's been. If you're new to the discussion, just know that the ultimate (ok, "ultimate" for

Still want to buy CF 5? You can

2002-12-05T08:32:00.000-05:00

Some have complained that they have clients who wish they could buy CF 5 while they wait to move up to CFMX. You can. Macromedia is currently still selling the professional and enterprise editions. Each is available with a subscription (only $320 more in the Pro edition) giving you upgrades to MX and whatever may come in the next 2 years.

Precompile problem solved

2002-12-05T00:44:00.000-05:00

Folks, some of you may have been following a saga of where I had found that using the -f directive in the precompile.bat was failing as of updater 1. No one could seem to put a finger on it. I did a little poking around and finally uncovered the issue: Update I offered some info here on 12/5 about this being a 1.4 jvm problem, and suggesting you look to the cfusion\runtime\bin to find that

New look for my blog

2002-12-02T01:01:00.000-05:00

After something in the BlogSpot or Blogger software caused my blog to lose its archive links, the search feature, and some other features, I decided to just ditch the old template/look and picked this new one. The new look has a couple of useful features, including the ability for you to choose whether to open links in a new window as well as to increase/decrease the font size. Better still, the

Managing mailing list messages with folders and rules--solving problems that may keep you from trying it

2002-11-26T12:14:00.000-05:00

People often find reading list messages challenging, especially if they've not set up rules and folders for them. Or if they have tried, it's a hassle. In this tip, I'll show how to handle this in Outlook. The steps may reasonably apply to other mail programs. First, let me set the motivation for bothering (again, once you learn the tricks, it's no bother at all). If you just let all the mail

Ever want to open Studio, Notepad, CF Admin or some other program in a single keystroke in Windows

2002-11-25T16:04:00.000-05:00

If you want to open a program like CF Studio or the CF Administrator or just Windows Notepad in a single keystroke, it's remarkably easy. For all my years of experience with Windows I'm surprised I never noticed this before. You just need to edit the properties for the shortcut to the program (a shortcut is simply what you choose to run the program on your Start>Programs menu, or your desktop,

Specifying HTTP headers in CFHTTPPARAM

2002-11-25T00:42:00.002-05:00

If you find yourself needing to "spoof" different headers in a CFHTTP operation, such as to change the referer, accept encoding value, or other header you may know that you need to use CFHTTPPARAM and its available TYPE="CGI" attribute. But you may have challenges using that if you try to simply fill the corresponding NAME Attribute with the name of the equivalent CGI variables that CF

Some interesting Oreilly articles about DW, Flash for developers

2002-11-24T14:36:00.000-05:00

I try to make my blog more about new discoveries rather than simply point to others articles, but I came across a couple at the O'Reilly site that seem pretty interesting reading for CF developers wondering (or having to debate folks) about RIA and Flash's place in the big picture of web app development, and another about DW for developers. The first is a digest of an email conversation between

Alert: when CF will fail to auto-compile--might be big news to some

2002-11-22T13:24:00.002-05:00

Have you heard about people complaining that they find the automatic compile process is sometimes not detecting changed code? Did you wonder how that could ever be? Or had a hard time recreating it?I can now offer a couple of interesting scenarios that are recreatable and do explain it, and seem worthy of further investigation. The problem has to do with copying old code onto a server when

OT: Some ways to avoid abuse via HTML Email in Outlook

2002-11-21T23:27:00.000-05:00

OK, I try to avoid being too off-topic in my blog entries, but this may be helpful info for others. Someone was lamenting how sad it was that Outlook users are so open to abuse via HTML email. I put together this reply and thought that perhaps my blog readers might appreciate some of the ideas: As for outlook being a haven for spammers, well, it can be. But there are steps one can take. It's no

Ratings in from my DevCon 2002 Presentation

2002-11-19T15:18:00.000-05:00

I try not to do too much obvious self-promotion on the blog, but the evaluations are in from the DevCon and of the 71 attendees of my "Incorporating JSP Custom Tags in CFMX" presentation, I received an average overall rating of 4.6 out of 5 and several nice comments. More detail in the associated press release available on my site. Some of the kind comments included: Very well done! Good

Nice, simple, low-cost Version Control for Windows

2002-11-18T23:43:00.000-05:00

Looking to add source code control to your application, but perhaps put off by the high cost of Microsoft Visual SourceSafe (VSS), or the complications of open source tools like CVS? If you're in a windows environment (only), take a look at QumaSoft's QVCS. It's quite easy to set up and use (includes a Windows interface for managing revisions), and also integrates with Studio/HomeSite (by way of

Enabling CFMX Metrics Reporting and Service Debugging

2002-11-17T21:12:00.000-05:00

*** Updated 2/28/03 to change filename reference from jrun-web.xml to jrun.xml. Thanks to Rob Rusher for pointing it out. Originally posted 11/17/02 *** Interested in logging how many threads are running within CFMX, or how many sessions, or how much memory (in KBs) is being used? There is a set of logging information that you can enable (it's disabled by default) so that it's written to the

Setting up connections to Access in CFMX

2002-11-17T20:14:00.000-05:00

Folks who are using Microsoft Access with CFMX may find that there are problems when trying to configure the datasource in the administrator, perhaps because the default settings aren't appropriate to the kind of security used with their database (whether that's no security, security by a single password, or by use of usernames/passwords--what Access calls user-level security, by use of an MDW

Problems on Linux? Check out new MM KB article

2002-11-17T19:52:00.000-05:00

Are you having problems running CFMX on Linux? Interested in learning a little more about some undocumented performance tweak possibilities (that it seems may also have value outside of Linux), check out the new Macromedia KB article, "ColdFusion MX support on Linux", at http://www.macromedia.com/v1/Handlers/index.cfm?ID=23524. The coverage of threads and thread configuration is not limited to

Another issue that can challenge DWMX speed for CFers

2002-11-12T22:57:00.000-05:00

Continuing the discussion of DWMX speedup opportunities from earlier today, I've learned something interesting. After looking at a sample from someone reporting sever delays, I observed something that definitely explain things for some people. She had reported that a very large file (approx 1000 lines) was taking a long time to load. But anyone opening such a file of HTML content would say it

More Speedup Tips for DWMX

2002-11-12T01:47:00.000-05:00

In my 10/16 entry, I pointed out one way to speed up DreamWeaver MX. I have a little more detail and a couple more ideas now. I had mentioned how you could see Edit Site, then on the "Advanced" tab, in "Local Info" turn off "Refresh Local File List Automatically". I didn't point out that the same setting exists in the "Testing Server" field there as well. These will be a big help with respect

Date processing with Access in CF

2002-11-12T01:04:00.000-05:00

Some folks have had problems doing date processing within SQL against an Access database. (Let's not get into whether anyone should be choosing Access as a DB. For some low volume sites, it works adequately.) Part of the date handling problem stems from the fact that Access may need help determining that what you're passing it is a date (versus a number). There are two ways to do this. You

Wow. A Contribute DesDev Site Already

2002-11-11T14:24:00.000-05:00

Wow, there's already a DesDev site devoted to Contribute, with 23 articles. Check it out at http://www.macromedia.com/desdev/contribute/.

More Thoughts on Contributor's value for CFers

2002-11-11T11:54:00.000-05:00

There's a lot of talk today in various forums about the value and impact of Contributor for CF (and other web app developers). As I started to say in my previous entry, I think it will take time to sort out the impact not only for the clearly intended audience (folks needing simple content management systems, and developers who previously did updates for that audience), as well as the impact on

Look into Macromedia's new tool announced today, Contributor

2002-11-11T00:31:00.000-05:00

Could I be the first to blog the link to Macromedia's new product announced today, Contributor. Check it out at http://www.macromedia.com/software/contribute/. I'm sure other bloggers will have much more to say. Of course, some will argue that it's not really something related to CF since it's really just a way to facilitate end-user updating of predominantly static sites. But it could be used

Error in precompile.bat printed in my CFDJ article

2002-11-04T17:20:00.000-05:00

Gads! Somehow the version of the precompile.bat file that was printed in my October CFDJ article (http://www.sys-con.com/coldfusion/article.cfm?id=519) is missing some important code! :-( It should be: set MX_INSTALL=d:\cfusionMX %MX_INSTALL%\runtime\jre\bin\java -classpath %MX_INSTALL%\lib\cfusion.jar coldfusion.tools.Compiler -webroot %1 -webinf %MX_INSTALL%\wwwroot\WEB-INF %

Speeding Up Dreamweaver MX: Disable Auto Refresh

2002-10-16T16:40:00.000-04:00

Some have noticed that Dreamweaver can perform sluggishly. One reason is that, by default, it's checking all files in a site (and all subdirectories) to determine if they have changed--and it does this every time you leave and return to DWMX, such as to go read email, edit a word processing document, etc. The thinking is that you may have created or edited a file while outside DWMX.

Running the updater

2002-10-11T02:27:00.000-04:00

Well, I've waited a few weeks to install the updater and while I've heard of some problems none seem so grave so I've installed the updater (http://dynamic.macromedia.com/bin/MM/software/trial/hwswrec.jsp?product=cfmx_updater. It went well, though while it reminds you to stop the CFMX service and the release notes tell you to also stop the CFMX ODBC Services as well as restart all of them after

Looking for Some Verity Docs?

2002-10-10T16:39:00.000-04:00

Are you looking for more info to understand how CF's underlying Verity Search engine works? Whether for creating or searching them, there's lots more to it than is discussed in the CFML Reference or Developing CF Apps books in the CF docs. I've come across some sites with interesting extended documentation. If you've not seen these they may be useful. Before that, though, some may have noticed

New Search Feature for My Blog

2002-10-09T00:00:00.000-04:00

You can now search my blog. Been wondering where I talked about how to edit the web.xml file? Or how to make the most of Studio? Or whatever? Now you can find the topic of interest to you. Notice the available "Search" form on the right above the archive links. Go to town! BTW, I enabled this using Google's feature allowing creation of a search form on my site using their indexed data about my

Get CFMX Version of the CFML Reference to Studio and HomeSite+ Help Tab

2002-10-04T16:23:00.000-04:00

If you're running CF4.5 or 5 of Studio, you may be interested in having the CFMX version of the CFML Reference available in the Help Reference Tab in Studio (Help>Help References Window). Also, folks running HomeSite+ may have noticed that there, too, the help reference doesn't include any CF manuals at all. Grr. (I'm not referring here to the help shown when you press F1 on a tag or function,

How CFMX creates the filename for the compiled version of your CF code

2002-10-04T14:20:00.000-04:00

In previous bog entries I've talked about compilation and precompilation of CFMX code into Java. One thing that's been a mystery to many is how CF decides to name the files it creates. Since all CF templates (from all directories) get compiled into the same [cfusionmx]\wwwroot\WEB-INF\cfclasses directory, without any rendering within subdirectories there, there needs to be a way for CFMX (and us)

Pausing your CFMX code

2002-10-03T22:08:00.000-04:00

Folks have often wanted to pause their CFcode, particularly when wanting to simulate some sort of long-running task. Usually they use a CFLOOP, but now that CMX is built upon Java, there is a better and less resource intensive way. Java has a "sleep" method in the java.lang.Thread object. You can get a wait by doing the equivalent:

Getting into Dreamweaver for Studio users

2002-09-27T11:15:00.000-04:00

I know a lot of Studio uses are unhappy with Dreamweaver and inclined to just stay put, but maybe you're being forced by licensing issues or organization policy to make the move. Or maybe you just realize that the writing is on the wall so you might as well suck it up and make the most of it. I want to offer a couple thoughts that might make things a little more palatable. Perhaps these won't be

Building XML dynamically with CFXML

2002-09-23T12:18:00.000-04:00

Some may know that they can create XML dynamically in CF, just like creating HTML, by outputting the elements such as within query loops, etc. Here's an example: SELECT * FROM Employees #getemps.emp_id#

Resetting the "other" ip address in the Developer Edition of CFMX

2002-09-21T16:31:00.000-04:00

Are you running the developer edition of CFMX? If so, you may know that beyond running code yourself (as localhost or 127.0.0.1) you can also let up to one other IP address connect to the server. This is great for showing the results of some development to a client, etc. But you can't just expect that IP address to be "removed" when the server is restarted. It's stored in a file and will remain

Getting to the Command Line in All Windows OS's

2002-09-20T10:51:00.000-04:00

Do you have to support developers/users running on various Windows platforms? Ever need to tell them how to run some command line command or batch file, such as with the precompile.bat file I mentioned in my 8/24 post (used to compile CF programs without relying on CF to do it when the first user hits a new/changes template). You may know that it's pretty easy to get to the command line in Nt 4,

Creating JSPs and Servlets in CFMX

2002-09-13T23:38:00.000-04:00

Many may have missed that one of the cool new things in CFMX is that it allows integration of JSPs and servlets, meaning (for one thing) that you can actually place them within the CFMX environment and run them, as well as pass control to them, share variables, andmore. For instance, (in the Enterprise Edition only), you can place a JSP page in your CFMX web application directories right

Beware of case in calling Java CFX custom tags

2002-09-13T23:00:00.000-04:00

When calling a Java CFX custom tag in CFMX, it is now critical that the case of the tagname in the call to the tag (as in ) match the actual case of the tag as defined in the CF Administrator. This is a change of behavior from CF5 and is not mentioned in the docs on calling Java CFX custom tags (Chapter 12 of the "Developing ColdFusion MX Applications with CFML" book). While it has indeed always

Updates on problems with J2EE Sessions

2002-09-08T04:45:00.000-04:00

I mentioned recently that I'd done an article in the CFDJ on using J2EE sessions. Since then, I've learned of a few challenges that can make working with them difficult in certain circumstances. First, when you enable J2EE sessions, CFMX no longer creates the variables session.cfid and session.cftoken. If you're using those to attempt to persist sessions when (or in case) cookies aren't

Restarting the CFMX Service

2002-09-08T00:57:00.000-04:00

Many may know that when starting and stopping services in Win2k and WinXP, there are a set of buttons at the top of the Services window similar to stop (square) and play (sideways triangle) buttons on a VCR. Some maybe hadn't noticed that there's also an icon that combines them both, effecting a "restart service" in a single step, with a combination of a square and a triangle as its icon. But as

Wondering about your java configuration running under CFMX?

2002-09-07T20:06:00.000-04:00

If you've wondered about various settings of the Java environment configuration you've got running under CFMX--such as what the classpath is, what version of the JVM is running, you can easily see that using the CF Administrator. No, I don't mean by going to the "Java and JVM" settings page. That's where you can modify these things. I mean the "version information" link that's at the top of the

More details on configuring the built-in web server in CFMX

2002-09-06T15:26:00.000-04:00

In an Aug 15 entry I wrote about how you could configure the built-in web server in CFMX to support your accessing code outside the built-in wwwroot. There's a very interesting article in the MM support center, Configuring the Macromedia ColdFusion MX built-in web server, that goes into much more detail on this and more. Definitely worth checking out. Indeed, note that they show an example of

Understanding and Setting up Resource/Sandbox Security

2002-09-06T13:52:00.000-04:00

If you've wondered about CFMX's new Resource/Sandbox security feature--or especially if you have no idea what it is, or think it doesn't apply to you, you should check out my two articles just posted in the new Macromedia Security Development Center. I think every developer and administrator ought to understand these features, as well as know the difference between Resource Security (in

Fun with Filters and Listeners

2002-09-04T00:55:00.000-04:00

Among the cooler new things in CFMX, which becomes available to us by way of the underlying J2EE engine, may be the concept of filters and listeners. In the JSP/servlet world, these are discussed as a means to provide some sort of global functionality to your applications. Now we can use them with ColdFusion as well. This first discussion will focus on filters. These could allow every request

Using JSP Custom Tags in CFMX: Why You Should Care

2002-09-03T23:06:00.000-04:00

In ColdFusion MX, it's now possible to use JSP custom tags. But what does that mean to you? Well, you don't need to know Java (nor understand JSPs) in order to use tags. They're very easy to use, and libraries with hundreds of them are available to the JSP world. There may be solutions that you could use that have been created as JSP custom tags, and they're very easily made available to you in

When SQL Functions make sense

2002-09-03T21:23:00.000-04:00

Did you know that there are SQL built-in functions, just as we have CF built-in functions? Indeed, have you ever wondered when you should use one or the other? In usin SQL functions, you're saying you wants the SELECT statement that's passed to the DBMS to have the function passed along with it (not the value of the function, but the function itself) so that the function is executed by the DBMS

SQL Function reference

2002-09-03T19:35:00.000-04:00

Ever tried to recall a SQL function? There's a nifty reference to them in the form of Chapter 4 of "SQL in a Nutshell" available at http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/sqlnut/chapter/ch04.html. It covers Microsoft SQL Server 2000, Oracle 8i, MySQL, and PostgreSQL 7.0. Another exists at http://www.datadirect-technologies.com/download/docs/jdbc/jdbcref/scalarfn.htm in the form of an appendix regarding

Notes on the SAP DB installation

2002-09-03T00:24:00.000-04:00

Someone asked me how the installation of SAP DB went, after they read about it in a previous blog entry. That reminded me that I had wanted to add a few more notes to help folks interested in trying it out. Well, the install wasn't too painful, though I guess that's a relative term. I had thought about commenting on it in the previous entry, then I figured that anyone who's worked with other

Looking for a Robust Open Source DBMS? Looked at SAP DB?

2002-09-02T00:03:00.000-04:00

I know a lot of people are looking for low-cost alternatives to the major DBMS's out there (Oracle, SQL Server, DB2, etc.) While some know MySQL, PostgreSQL, Inprise/Firebird, and others to be popular and often adequate options, others point to their challenges in scalability (their threading/connection models won't support very large numbers of concurrent connections). There's another

Unix Variation to the precompile script

2002-08-28T00:28:00.000-04:00

Matt Liotta responded to my request for a unix variant of the precompile script. Here it is: #!/usr/bin/sh MX_INSTALL=/opt/coldfusionmx JAVA=$MX_INSTALL/jre/bin/java $JAVA -classpath $MX_INSTALL/lib/cfusion.jar \ coldfusion.tools.Compiler -webroot $1 \ -webinf $MX_INSTALL/wwwroot/WEB-INF $1 As with the windows version, be sure to change lines 1 and 2 if your location for the CFMX

Updated Precompile.bat file--compiles outside the default webroot

2002-08-24T10:41:00.000-04:00

(After reading this to get the full explanation of things, see a couple of minor further updates above.) I'm very happy to report an upgraded version of the precompile.bat file that I mentioned in a previous June post. This updated version successfully compiles code outside the default webroot, and it doesn't require you to jump through hoops to get that to work--as some other alternatives to

Finding CFMX Admin Configuration Data

2002-08-23T11:42:00.000-04:00

Some may have noticed that the CFMX Administrator no longer stores its configuration info (such as settings, datsources, verity collections) in the registry. If you've got tools that expect to find the info there, you'll run into trouble. The good news is that most of that info is now simply stored as wddx packets in xml files, stored in the cfusionmx\lib directory (such as neo-query.xml and

New Possibilities for Session and Client Variable Handling in CFMX

2002-08-23T10:09:00.000-04:00

Back in late June I wrote a few blog entries about some new features in CFMX for working with session variables. Since then, I've written an article in the August CFDJ, "New Possibilities for Session and Client Variable Handling in CFMX". You can read it, and all my articles, online at http://www.systemanage.com/cff/articles.cfm. Whether you're using CFMX or not, there may be things that you

Server-side redirects in CFMX

2002-08-23T09:48:00.000-04:00

Did you know that CFLOCATION is a client-side redirect? Do you know what that means, and what the cost is? Did you know that CFMX has added a server-side redirect--in getpagecontext().forward()? Do you know that that means, and what the benefit is? Did you know that I've written a custom tag, CF_FORWARD, to encapsulate calling this new function and handling some of the common challenges of

Series of Articles on MVC and CF: and a proposed new design approach, MVCF

2002-08-22T12:17:00.000-04:00

If you're interested in the subject of applying MVC design approaches to CFMX, you should check out http://www.benorama.com/coldfusion/. Even if you're new to the idea, it's worth a read to get you thinking. That's not Ben Forta but Ben(oit) Hediard, of France, who has documented via a series of 10 articles (at that site) his offering of a way to leverage features of CFMX to do MVC-style

Running CFMX code outside the default wwwroot

2002-08-15T10:31:00.000-04:00

You can indicate an alternative directory for templates to be run outside of the normal [cfusionmx_home]\wwwroot. All you need to do is edit [cfusionmx_home]\wwwroot\WEB-INF\jrun-web.xml and add a entry (within the entry) for each directory designation:

/alias/*

C:/realdir/

Where to get a 900 page book on CFMX...free

2002-08-11T09:22:00.000-04:00

People are asking for recommendations of a good CFMX book. I'd like to point out that Macromedia has written an excellent one: "Developing Macromedia ColdFusion MX Applications with ColdFusion Markup Language". It's 900 pages, and guess what? It's free! Seriously. It's just one of 10 books in the CFMX docs (including a "Migrating Macromedia ColdFusion 5 Applications", "Working with Verity Tools",

Time for developers to consider a hardware upgrade?

2002-08-10T18:30:00.000-04:00

I thought I'd share a recent experience. I'd been running a Dell Ispiron 5000 as my development workstation for a year or two, when I decided to upgrade it. Then I upgraded yet again to a new workstation. The differences in the experience of working day to day on the machines has gotten so much better each time. I know it may seem obvious that this would be so, but I wonder how many others have

Locking in CFMX

2002-08-10T13:14:00.000-04:00

Curious about whether you do or don't need to do locking in CFMX? It's not that you no longer need to at all, just that you don't need to as often as you used to. The purposes of CFLOCK are now basically in line with what locking or synchronization are in any multi-threaded language. Check out this KB article at MM: http://www.macromedia.com/v1/Handlers/index.cfm?ID=23021&Method=Full.

Setting up CFMX on Mac OS X

2002-08-10T13:05:00.000-04:00

Many may have heard that CFer Dick Applebaum had been doing a 3 part series on setting up CFMX on a Mac OS X. The third and key part has finally been posted, at http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/javascript/2002/08/08/coldfusion_three.html.

Saving Java code produced by CFMX in source form

2002-08-08T00:37:00.000-04:00

Did you know that you can ask CFMX to save in source form the Java code it creates when compiling CFMX templates? You do so by setting the parameter "coldfusion.compiler.saveJava" to TRUE in /wwwroot/WEB-INF/web.xml. Then restart the server. Files are then saved as .java files in \wwwroot\WEB-INF\cfclasses\ directory. Be warned, though, the file names may not be apparent:

Anyone Else Notice the "Server Reports" Feature Missing in CFMX

2002-08-08T00:09:00.000-04:00

Folks, I was surprised to discover today that the CF5 Enterprise Administrator feature called "Server Reports" is no longer available in CFMX (Enterprise/Trial/Developer editions). It allowed you to monitor the CF performance statistics (those written to the NT Performance Monitor from within CF), providing a web-based interface that had some benefits over CFSTAT in some cases. Fortunately,