By Charlie Arehart 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 pr... Apr. 3, 2003 12:00 AM EST Reads: 20,468 Replies: 2 |
By Charlie Arehart 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? Feb. 28, 2003 12:00 AM EST Reads: 14,135 |
By Charlie Arehart 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. Jan. 31, 2003 12:00 AM EST Reads: 16,489 |
By Charlie Arehart 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. Jan. 7, 2003 12:00 AM EST Reads: 9,909 Replies: 1 |
By Charlie Arehart 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 wan... Oct. 22, 2002 12:00 AM EDT Reads: 14,533 Replies: 1 |
By Charlie Arehart 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. Oct. 4, 2002 12:00 AM EDT Reads: 14,169 Replies: 9 |
By Charlie Arehart 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. Aug. 23, 2002 12:00 AM EDT Reads: 15,271 Replies: 1 |
By Charlie Arehart 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. Jul. 31, 2002 12:00 AM EDT Reads: 22,786 Replies: 3 |
By Charlie Arehart 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.' May. 30, 2002 12:00 AM EDT Reads: 19,333 Replies: 2 |
By Charlie Arehart 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. May. 2, 2002 12:00 AM EDT Reads: 15,890 Replies: 4 |
By Charlie Arehart As an administrator, or a developer interested in how your server is run, are you getting the most out of your CF Server configuration, especially with regard to security-related settings in the Administrator? Are you fully aware of the opportunities and challenges presented by those s... Apr. 8, 2002 12:00 AM EDT Reads: 9,236 |
By Charlie Arehart Many developers know that the CF administrator can restrict your ability to use several tags that not only provide very useful capabilities, but can also be used to provide unauthorized access to server resources. What many don't know is that they can arrange to use those restricted ta... Feb. 5, 2002 12:00 AM EST Reads: 11,701 |
By Charlie Arehart Are you a CF Server administrator? Or a developer with an interest in knowing how your server is configured and managed? Are you aware of all that should be done to keep the server running well - or all that could be done to make the most of it? In this two-part article we'll look at s... Jan. 9, 2002 12:00 AM EST Reads: 10,543 |
By Charlie Arehart Ever wished you had easy access to Help on non-CF topics such as JavaScript, SQL, and DHTML? Did you know you could easily add such new Help topics to Studio? In this month's Journeyman ColdFusion, I'll show you how easy it is. I'll also point out some existing references you can use t... Jan. 9, 2002 12:00 AM EST Reads: 13,771 Replies: 3 |
By Charlie Arehart Many new J2EE developers get caught up in focusing on the details and nuances of servlets and JSPs and, as a result, may not learn how to leverage JavaScript. Some may even dismiss it as too much hassle, given cross-browser compatibility issues. Jan. 1, 2002 12:00 AM EST Reads: 32,026 Replies: 2 |
By Charlie Arehart  Have you ever wished CFINPUT provided a way to validate an e-mail address? Or were you frustrated that its telephone validation didn't allow parentheses around an area code among other such limitations? Well, your wish has been granted in a new, little-known feature of CF5. Dec. 3, 2001 12:00 AM EST Reads: 33,049 Replies: 2 |
By Charlie Arehart There are many facets to J2EE Web application development. It's a powerful platform that offers a variety of possibilities and capabilities, with many different approaches and models of development available. This is both a strength and, for newcomers to the platform, an Achilles' heel... Nov. 1, 2001 12:00 AM EST Reads: 13,988 |
By Charlie Arehart You're nearly finished with the code you've been slaving over for hours (or days or weeks, or maybe it was just a few seconds' effort). You're about to turn it loose for your customers to enjoy. The questions are: Is it ready? Do you know it will work? Have you tested it? If so, how? I... Oct. 4, 2001 12:00 AM EDT Reads: 11,265 Replies: 1 |
By Charlie Arehart Welcome to the first installment of Journeyman J2EE. I'm honored to present this new bi-monthly column of ruminations and reactions as I, like so many of you, make my foray through the vast world of J2EE application development and deployment. But this isn't intended just for newbie J2... Sep. 1, 2001 12:00 AM EDT Reads: 12,976 |
By Charlie Arehart You've probably seen the use of a variable called 'application.dsn' (or 'application.datasource') in code. Perhaps you've even been taught to use the method in a class. Maybe you've even been doing it in your own code. I'm talking about setting this variable in the application.... Jul. 11, 2001 12:00 AM EDT Reads: 18,755 Replies: 3 |
By Charlie Arehart If you've programmed in a modern programming language (Java, C, JavaScript, or even stored procedure languages), you've probably heard of exception handling via try/catch statements. ColdFusion supports the same capability. Jun. 7, 2001 12:00 AM EDT Reads: 17,293 |
By Charlie Arehart Wireless Business & Technology welcomes veteran writer and technologist Charles Arehart as our newly appointed 'Wireless Journeyman' columnist. Serving as 'the developer's developer' he'll be examining wireless technologies and techniques, sometimes praising and sometimes challengi... May. 2, 2001 03:47 PM EDT Reads: 8,008 |
By Charlie Arehart I actually look forward to the question, because I enjoy seeing their surprise when I list some of them. I don't have a definitive list, but it's enough to impress most who ask. Apr. 27, 2001 12:00 AM EDT Reads: 17,431 Replies: 2 |
By Charlie Arehart Have you ever wanted to test if a given array element exists? Or when dealing with arrays of structures, if a given key exists? Mar. 30, 2001 12:00 AM EST Reads: 22,739 Replies: 3 |
By Charlie Arehart What database do you use for your ColdFusion applications? Are you fully satisfied with your choice? Did you even have a choice? Would you be interested in knowing what other alternatives you may have? In this article I present some of the discussions that inevitably arise when conside... Feb. 22, 2001 12:00 AM EST Reads: 7,663 Replies: 1 |
By Charlie Arehart When your users experience a CF error, do they still see the traditional default - a plain black-on-white CF error screen? More important, are you being notified when such errors occur? Would you like to log the errors to a database? If you're not taking advantage of such capabilities... Jan. 27, 2001 12:00 AM EST Reads: 30,425 |
By Charlie Arehart You may have heard that Release 4 of ColdFusion introduced support for nested and paired custom tags. This offers many possibilities for creating more complex custom tags. Dec. 26, 2000 12:00 AM EST Reads: 15,142 Replies: 1 |
By Charlie Arehart Did you know that when a CF error occurs, in many cases not only can you cause something other than the plain, black-on-white default CF error message to appear, but you can also log in a database or e-mail to support staff information about the error, including the error message, date... Nov. 27, 2000 12:00 AM EST Reads: 15,827 |
By Charlie Arehart Late in July ColdFusion developers who simply couldn't wait for the November Allaire Developer conference had the opportunity to gather with compatriots and spend time learning CF tricks and techniques from some of the most popular CF speakers. Oct. 5, 2000 12:00 AM EDT Reads: 8,193 |
By Charlie Arehart We've all seen it: the dreaded 'Error Occurred While Processing Request,' which is the headline above a normal CF error message. As developers, of course, we relish the detail it offers: the CF error message, the line number and actual line of code in error, the name and path of the te... Oct. 5, 2000 12:00 AM EDT Reads: 12,982 |
By Charlie Arehart It's fun developing wireless applications in ColdFusion, but if you don't solve several key challenges it'll be more painful than pleasant. In this second part of a series, I'll focus on some common problems encountered by CF/WML developers. Aug. 23, 2000 12:00 AM EDT Reads: 11,851 |
By Charlie Arehart There's a growing buzz around the world of wireless Web applications, that is, Web sites accessible to phones and other wireless devices. You may have read that in ColdFusion 4.5 Allaire added support for something called WAP (Wireless Access Protocol). Jul. 26, 2000 12:00 AM EDT Reads: 11,712 |
By Charlie Arehart Here's a dilemma faced by nearly every developer of Access databases who's got the database stored on a remote CF server. How do you reconfigure the database if you want to add, change or remove columns, tables or indexes? If it's remote, you can't very well use the Access interface to... Jun. 22, 2000 12:00 AM EDT Reads: 17,353 Replies: 1 |
By Charlie Arehart  You visit a Web site that offers a form inviting you to enter some input. No big deal - we see them all the time, right? But do you move your cursor to that first data entry area using the mouse? Or are you, like me, a keyboard maven - in which case you find that often you have to h... May. 25, 2000 12:00 AM EDT Reads: 19,931 Replies: 2 |
By Charlie Arehart In my Journeyman column last month (CFDJ Vol. 2, issue 4) we began looking at how - and why - to call custom tags in different ways. So far, we've learned that the CF_ approach will look first locally, then in the shared \cfusion\customtags directory, while the CFMODULE NAME= approa... Apr. 26, 2000 12:00 AM EDT Reads: 13,961 |
By Charlie Arehart You probably know about custom tags, but are you aware of all the possibilities for controlling who can access them and how? Perhaps you knew that a custom tag could be placed in the cfusion\customtags directory of the CF server to provide shared access by all users on the server, an... Apr. 3, 2000 12:00 AM EDT Reads: 14,832 |
By Charlie Arehart In my work as an Allaire-certified instructor, students often ask questions, and while the courses address most of them, they sometimes have some really interesting ones that I know have been asked and answered before. Mar. 16, 2000 12:00 AM EST Reads: 12,393 Replies: 4 |
By Charlie Arehart Given that most people are now introducing and installing ColdFusion version 4.5, Allaire's latest release of the server and studio software, it may seem strange to read an article on 4.0.1. Jan. 27, 2000 12:00 AM EST Reads: 11,150 |
By Charlie Arehart  While many experienced CF developers will spurn the notion of creating a production CF application with a back-end database in Access, there are far more developers who for one reason or another proceed to - or simply have to - do so. Oct. 18, 1999 12:00 AM EDT Reads: 17,910 |
By Charlie Arehart In the premier issue of CFDJ, Richard Schulze wrote a fine article on several new features of ColdFusion 4.0, part of Allaire's recent upgrade to their entire product line. In this article I'll highlight some additional features of the new release. I'll also expand on his coverage of l... Mar. 26, 1999 12:00 AM EST Reads: 11,027 |
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A veteran ColdFusion developer since 1997, Charlie Arehart is a long-time contributor to the community and a recognized Adobe Community Expert. He's a certified Advanced CF Developer and Instructor for CF 4/5/6/7 and served as tech editor of CFDJ until 2003. Now an independent contractor (carehart.org) living in Alpharetta, GA, Charlie provides high-level troubleshooting/tuning assistance and training/mentoring for CF teams. He helps run the Online ColdFusion Meetup (coldfusionmeetup.com, an online CF user group), is a contributor to the CF8 WACK books by Ben Forta, and is frequently invited to speak at developer conferences and user groups worldwide.
