Latest News from Charlie Arehart

Monitoring Your ColdFusion Environment With the Free Log Parser Toolkit

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 14:30:00 EST

There are many resources we should analyze to ensure optimal ColdFusion operation or to help diagnose problems. Fortunately, there's an awesome free tool that comes to our aid to turn voluminous data into useful information.

FusionDebug Tips, Tricks, and Traps

Sat, 28 Oct 2006 17:00:00 EDT

FusionDebug is an easy straightforward tool, but if you leverage the experience of others, you can be even more productive.

Errors in Your Code

Sun, 08 Oct 2006 12:00:00 EDT

Errors and bugs: they happen in all code, mostly in development but in production too and perhaps more easily in CFML than in compiled languages. There are several features to help better handle, debug, and test for them, and this article will focus on those.

Profiling CFML at the Tag Level, Finally!

Sat, 24 Sep 2005 15:00:00 EDT

The ability to view tag-level execution profiling (the amount of time spent on each tag in a request) is no longer a dream, and it opens up powerful new forms of debugging and performance tuning.

Getting Started Integrating CFML with Java & .NET

Wed, 18 May 2005 13:00:00 EDT

It's great to have a whole issue of CFDJ focused on integrating CFML with Java. The process is a lot easier than many might think, as the articles in this issue will show.

CFML on J2EE: Easy as 1-2-3

Tue, 22 Jun 2004 00:00:00 EDT

Why reinvent the wheel when you can easily run your CFML applications on any J2EE server? If your team is considering or being forced to move to J2EE (WebLogic, WebSphere, JBoss, Tomcat, etc.), it may be helpful to know that you don't have to throw away or even rewrite your CFML applications.

Making the Case for CFML on J2EE

Tue, 13 Apr 2004 00:00:00 EDT

Do you really know what it means to run CFML applications on a J2EE server? How does it work, and why would you bother? There are many benefits you may never have considered. In this article, the first of a series, I'll answer these questions.

CFUN-04: Who, What, When, Why?

Tue, 13 Apr 2004 00:00:00 EDT

There are many excellent conferences and user groups for CFML developers, and one that consistently gets great reviews is Michael Smith's CFUN event, which will be held in the Washington, DC, area June 26-27. This preview gives you the 4-1-1 on the event.

CFDEBUGGER

Tue, 11 Nov 2003 11:13:11 EST

Have you ever wanted to see what lines of code are being executed in your template? If you looked for CFTRACE to do that, you were likely disappointed.

Ready for the Leap Year?

Tue, 23 Sep 2003 00:00:00 EDT

While we all made it through the new year, there is still at least one more date issue to contend with. Many systems may not properly recognize that this year, 2000, is a leap year.

CF Advisor Interviews Allaire's Adam Berrey

Thu, 18 Sep 2003 00:00:00 EDT

CF Advisor learns more about ColdFusion 4.5, in the first installment of a two-part interview with Allaire Corp.'s Product Marketing Director.

DC ColdFusion Conference, 1999

Thu, 18 Sep 2003 00:00:00 EDT

On Saturday, June 26 in Bethesda, Maryland, several hundred CF developers gathered for the first annual DC ColdFusion User Conference. Created and organized by TeraTech, which sponsors the Maryland CFUG, and co-sponsored by several other notable CF firms including Fig Leaf Software, Infusion, CF Advisor, and of course Allaire, the conference brought together folks from as far away as Illinois, New York, and Georgia.

Allaire Developer's Conference

Thu, 18 Sep 2003 00:00:00 EDT

For a first-time event, the 1999 Allaire Developer's Conference provided a jam-packed two days of information and socializing for the more than 1,000 developers in attendance.

New CFERROR Feature Allows Greater Control

Thu, 18 Sep 2003 00:00:00 EDT

One of the great new features in 4.5 is a new form of global exception handling. Whereas 4.0 introduced CFTRY/CFCATCH to wrap around a segment of code to be tested and acted upon in case of error, we were still limited to the aged CFERROR tag to trap general errors.

Free, Limited Functionality Version of ColdFusion

Thu, 18 Sep 2003 00:00:00 EDT

It seems that many, especially newcomers, are not aware that Allaire created a free, limited functionality version of ColdFusion.

CF Advisor Interviews Allaire Corp.'s Jeremy Allaire and Adam Berrey

Thu, 18 Sep 2003 00:00:00 EDT

In the second installment of an exclusive two-part CF Advisor interview, Allaire's Vice President of Technology Strategy, Jeremy Allaire, joined Product Marketing Director Adam Berrey in mapping out Allaire's multiple programming language strategies for ColdFusion, Spectra, WDDX, Java, and XTML.

Considering Advanced Security

Thu, 18 Sep 2003 00:00:00 EDT

Advanced Security is a set of features that came out in 4.0 of ColdFusion Server, and it offers several very interesting improvements on security, both in terms of how authentication is done, and what can be secured.

Using Saved Queries in the Query Builder

Wed, 17 Sep 2003 00:00:00 EDT

If you 'save' the query instead (either by using the left-most icon at the top of the query builder or by simply closing the query builder...

Tips

Wed, 17 Sep 2003 00:00:00 EDT

We've all been taught that, when we have a choice to take all we can of something, we should instead take only what we need.

Handling Errors in Studio Query Building or Debugging Tools

Wed, 17 Sep 2003 00:00:00 EDT

The query building and interactive debugging tools in Studio each work in conjunction with the RDS (remote development services) feature, whether you're working with databases or templates that are stored locally or against a remote server.

Easier Insertion of Dates with CFINSERT/CFUPDATE

Wed, 17 Sep 2003 00:00:00 EDT

When you're inserting date/time values into a database, you want to be careful about deciding whether the date should be hardcoded into the form (perhaps as a hidden field) or whether it should be computed at the time of the data entry.

Be Careful in Multi-conditioned CFIF's

Wed, 17 Sep 2003 00:00:00 EDT

When performing a CFIF testing multiple conditions, be careful when testing against a value that could equate to a Boolean true or false (0 or 1, yes or no, etc.).

Testing Against Many Values in a CFIF

Wed, 17 Sep 2003 00:00:00 EDT

If you have to test a condition against many values in a CFIF, you may be tempted to write out a very long condition, such as:

Saving Files Where Expected in Studio

Wed, 17 Sep 2003 00:00:00 EDT

Studio has an interesting (and to some, annoying) mechanism for determining where to save newly created files. If you're not aware of this approach, you can be left feeling that Studio has made a mistake in deciding where to save a file—if you even notice it's not where you had expected.

Whither The Studio Query Builder

Wed, 17 Sep 2003 00:00:00 EDT

Did you know that Studio has a built-in SQL query builder? It provides a drag-and-drop SQL query building interface (much like that used in MS Access) that can be performed against any of your available datasources, including Access, SQL Server, and the rest.

Updated Studio Documentation

Wed, 17 Sep 2003 00:00:00 EDT

If you've longed for more documentation on how to get the most from the ColdFusion Studio editing tool, Allaire has heard you. There have been two recent updates to the documentation that you may have missed.

Automatically Close Quotes, Pounds, and Comments in Studio

Wed, 17 Sep 2003 00:00:00 EDT

Did you know that you can have Studio automatically close quotes, pounds, and comments when you enter an opening one?

Doing IF Tests Within CFMAIL

Wed, 17 Sep 2003 00:00:00 EDT

You've probably noticed that CF leaves white space in HTML pages where CF tags existed before the page was processed.

TIPS

Wed, 17 Sep 2003 00:00:00 EDT

Let's say you want to create a dynamic SQL query -- that is, a CFQUERY that looks up different fields depending on circumstances. Why would this be useful? Let's say you're creating an employee roster application.

Quick Access to Tag Help

Wed, 17 Sep 2003 00:00:00 EDT

Did you know that in Studio you can place the cursor on a tag and press F1, to view the help file for that tag?

Be Careful in Placement of Database Files

Wed, 17 Sep 2003 00:00:00 EDT

If you're using Microsoft Access as the datasource for a CF application, you should be very careful about the placement of that database file (the .mdb file) on your web server.

Datasource Name Case Sensitivity

Wed, 17 Sep 2003 00:00:00 EDT

It may be hard to believe, but there are times when you should pay careful attention to case (use of upper and lower case letters) when spelling the datasource name in a CFQUERY tag.

Using the SQL Built in the Studio Query Builder

Wed, 17 Sep 2003 00:00:00 EDT

After you've built some SQL in the tool, you have the option of either copying the SQL you build to the clipboard-to paste into your CFML template-or 'saving' the query for later use.

The "Studio" Route to CF's Many Powerful Functions

Tue, 16 Sep 2003 00:00:00 EDT

ColdFusion provides us with an incredible wealth of functions for performing everything from string and date manipulation to array and list processing.

Using Extended Find and Replace in Studio

Tue, 16 Sep 2003 00:00:00 EDT

Ever had to find all the references to a given string among all the files in your application? And how about in all the files in any of several subdirectories, perhaps in your web root?

Setting Up Your Development Server with ColdFusion 5, MX, and BlueDragon

Thu, 11 Sep 2003 00:00:00 EDT

The world of ColdFusion application servers is quite interesting at the moment. Macromedia's recent update to CFMX 6.1 promises to add a lot of stability and speed to the product. BlueDragon, New Atlanta's alternate CFML runtime engine continues to gain momentum. Yet despite these two great products, much of the development out there is still based on ColdFusion 5 (or earlier).

Browsing Within CF Studio/HomeSite+

Tue, 12 Aug 2003 00:00:00 EDT

Do you know how to use the internal browse capability in CF Studio/ HomeSite+? Did you know that you don't need to use the RDS feature to be able to do so? And that you can use it to browse not only CFML templates running on both ColdFusion and BlueDragon, but also JSP, ASP, PHP, and others?

The Secret Powers of Includes

Fri, 11 Jul 2003 00:00:00 EDT

You've probably been told for years that CFINCLUDE is like a compile-time directive that 'pulls code' from another file into your template for reuse. That's wrong. I'll prove it to you. Indeed, have you ever tried to include something other than a CF template? You can. Wonder what including a text or XML file might do?

Getting into HomeSite+

Mon, 16 Jun 2003 00:00:00 EDT

Fans of ColdFusion Studio may lament that Macromedia no longer sells the product, but take heart. It really does continue to exist in the guise of HomeSite+, which is basically the same thing and then some. What's more - if you own Dreamweaver MX, you can install HomeSite+ free. Have you checked it out?

CFMX Updaters 1-2-3

Thu, 01 May 2003 00:00:00 EDT

Is your CFMX server running with the latest set of fixes? Macromedia now uses 'Updaters' as a means to apply patches and extensions. There have been three so far. Are you running the latest, or any at all? How would you know? And why should you bother?

Exploring Amazon Web Services with ColdFusion MX

Thu, 03 Apr 2003 00:00:00 EST

Amazon.com, the 'earth's biggest selection,' has exposed their entire catalog of products, product reviews and ratings, user-created book lists, and more via Web services. Whether you're new to Web services or not, and even if you don't care so much about accessing Amazon's data, it presents an interesting case study of doing Web services in CFMX. You might even be able to turn the opportunity into profit!

Flash for CFers:Getting over the Hump

Fri, 28 Feb 2003 00:00:00 EST

Where do you stand in the march of CF developers moving toward implementing Flash interfaces in your Web apps? Are you gung ho? Still on the fence? Dead set against it? Feeling left out? Left behind?

Fun with Filters in CFMX

Fri, 31 Jan 2003 00:00:00 EST

There are a lot of powerful new integration points between CFMX and Java, but one that might benefit a lot of people - even those who don't know how to program in Java - is the ability to leverage servlet filters in CFMX.

CFDJ: The Fifth Year

Tue, 07 Jan 2003 00:00:00 EST

Four years is a generation in Internet time; in the life of ColdFusion Developer's Journal and ColdFusion itself, it marks an epoch. As we celebrate the new year and the beginning of CFDJ's fifth, here's a look at where we've been and where we may be going.

Compilation and Precompilation in CFMX Templates

Tue, 22 Oct 2002 00:00:00 EDT

Last month I introduced a precompile 'batch' file that allowed you to manually compile CFMX templates, saving the penalty paid by the first user to browse a CFMX template after it was created or edited. But there will be curious folks (and bit-twiddlers) among you who will want to know more - maybe lots more. How much time is this really saving? If it's compiled to disk, how and when does CFMX read it into memory to execute it? What's the cost of that?

Compilation and Precompilation in CFMX Templates Part 1

Fri, 04 Oct 2002 00:00:00 EDT

Most of you have heard by now that ColdFusion MX templates are compiled into Java. Some may wonder what the big deal is. Many more of you may be surprised to learn that you can precompile CFMX templates.

Hidden Gems in CFMX

Fri, 23 Aug 2002 00:00:00 EDT

With each new release of CFMX some features are trumpeted a lot and others seem to fall between the cracks. I call these 'hidden gems,'and in CFMX there are quite a few.

New Possibilities for Session/Client Variable Handling in CFMX

Wed, 31 Jul 2002 00:00:00 EDT

Tucked away among the press and praise about ColdFusion MX are some new options that could benefit every CF developer. If you've seen them mentioned, they may not have seemed important at first glance, but I hope you'll give them consideration.

New Possibility in CFMX: Server-Side Redirects

Thu, 30 May 2002 00:00:00 EDT

Now that we can talk freely about ColdFusion MX, I want to share something new that you likely won't hear much about… but that I think stands to be an important feature: server-side redirects, or 'forwards.'

Using JSP Custom Tags in CFMX

Thu, 02 May 2002 00:00:00 EDT

CFMX, the new release of ColdFusion, will allow us to use JSP custom tags within our ColdFusion programs. Some may say, 'So what?' In this article I hope to show you why it's definitely worth looking into this new possibility.