Charlie Arehart

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. These could each present very different dat... (more)

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.). For instance, if you wanted to test whether a form variable called "answer" was either 1 or 0, how would you code th... (more)

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: CFIF FORM.STATE IS "MA" OR FORM.STATE IS "VT" FORM.STATE IS "AK" ... This quickly becomes unwieldy. There is an alternative approach. Simply use the LIST... (more)

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 e... (more)

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. To find the tool, us... (more)

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. First, in 4.01, Allaire split the Studio documentation from the Developi... (more)

Did you know that you can have Studio automatically close quotes, pounds, and comments when you enter an opening one? Some folks find this fabulous, some can't stand it. That's why Allaire makes it an option, and one that's turned off by default. To turn it on, in 4.01, see Opti... (more)

You've probably noticed that CF leaves white space in HTML pages where CF tags existed before the page was processed. You may have wondered, therefore, if you need to have similar concerns if you're using tags within the body of a CFMAIL. The good news is that it's not a problem... (more)

This Issue: Dynamic SQL Queries By Mike Chorost Listing Session and Application Variables by Tad Murphy Using Structures to Delete a Session Variable by Charles Arehart Joining Multiple Tables: The Correct Syntax by Charles Arehart Emulating a "Words" Function by Charles Arehart Dyna... (more)

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? This would be the same help shown in the help window, but you need not drill down to find the reference. And in 4.01, this functionality has been extended to support CF... (more)

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. It's very tempting to simply place it in the same directory as the application's CF templates, but thi... (more)

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. Case sensitivity is a common issue in Unix environments, but there is an issue that can arise une... (more)

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 option to copy to the clipboard is easily missed. It's represented by two icons listed at th... (more)

Cold Fusion provides us with an incredible wealth of functions for performing everything from string and date manipulation to array and list processing. Learning about them, let alone figuring out how to use them, can be a challenge. There are just so many to choose from. And reme... (more)

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? Even more challenging, have you wanted to change occurrences of a string in such a large numbe... (more)

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 thes... (more)

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,... (more)

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 wha... (more)

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. ... (more)

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? In this month's Journeyman... (more)