Charlie Arehart's Blog - resource lists

Struggling with using the XML features of CFML? Here's where to learn more

Tue, 10 May 2011 14:51:00 -0400

Are you struggling with using the XML features in CFML? Or do you help people who are? It's not something most people use often, and there is far more to the feature set than meets the eye. If you don't use the right resources to help you, you could waste time trying to piece together a solution using only scant examples you may find. In this entry, I'll point to several resources you should consider to help get you quickly up to speed in using--and appreciating--the power of the XML features in CFML. Even if you don't need them today, you (or someone you know) may need them some day, so keep this in mind. (Or if you find this page doing a google search some years down the road, drop a note to let me know if it helped then!)

Background

I just offered this info on a mailing list, but thought I'd repeat it here for readers and so that more people might find it more easily when searching. Every once in a while someone will learn about, or need, or struggle with the XML features within CFML, which were introduced in ColdFusion MX (6). Sadly, many never notice them, or rarely use them so when folks struggle, there may not be too many people who can step up to help. Often, people find only scant examples written by others and figure they have no choice but to try to piece together a solution, and they go through fits and starts, sometimes doing (or reading someone else doing) things in a more complicated way than is needed.

CFML's XML support is powerful, if you know where to look

The thing is, there are far more capabilities in ColdFusion's XML handling than may be obvious, even from many examples.

First, see the CFML docs--but not the CFML reference

So note first that there is significant documentation in the CFML Developer's Guide (NOT the CFML Reference). I make that distinction often, because some people seem only ever to notice the reference manual. As is often the case, and especially for this topic, some features aren't reflected solely by specific tags or functions, but instead in ways to refer to objects as structures and arrays. The Developer's guide also is more of a user guide, walking you through "how" things work and why, rather than just showing syntax. For CF8, that manual is here: CF 8 Developer's Guide and the XML chapter is: Using XML and WDDX For CF9, the manual is here: Developing Adobe ColdFusion 9 Applications and the XML chapter (by the same name as before): Using XML and WDDX

Another great resource: Nate Weiss's mini book

While those may seem definitive, there was also an awesome extended article (about 30 pages, so more a mini book) written by Nate Weiss written back in 2002 on the then-new XML features of CFMX (6). It still is the best intro to the topic I've ever seen and one I still often recommend. Sadly, it's gotten harder and harder to find online anymore. It used to be offered on the Adobe site, but the link no longer works. Fortunately, it's still available via the good 'ol "wayback machine". This link just worked for me. But I've also now just gone and posted it my site instead, so that folks might find it more easily in the future: Utilizing XML and XSLT in ColdFusion MX, by Nate Weiss (2002)

Final Resource: The CFWACK chapters

Finally, there are also chapters on XML processing in the Web Application Construction Kit books, for those who may have them. See Chapters 45 and 46 in the second volume of the CF8 books, and chapters 41 and 42 in the second volume of the CF 9 books. (I was responsible for updating those chapters in the CF8 and 9 editions of the books, but they were written originally by Adam Churvis). There may well be other great resources to commend, but these are are more than enough to get most people a lot further in their appreciation and understanding of using XML within CFML. (Still, see a couple of "related entries" as linked to right at the bottom of this entry.) Hope all that helps someone.

Ultimate list of CF debugging output template alternatives

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:18:00 -0400

Following on the heels of my "Ultimate Var Scope Resource list" last week, here now I present what I think is the ultimate list of CF debugging output template alternatives.

Yes, you CAN modify the debugging output. Some have even done it for you

Many may not realize that the CF debugging output (optionally displayed at the bottom of the page, as enabled in the CF Admin) is actually created by a CFML template that can be modified ([cf]\wwwroot\WEB-INF\debug\classic.cfm). Fortunately, several people have offered various resources that explain how to work with this file and offer packaged alternatives with specific features to resolve particular problems (where people wish the debugging output did more, or could be seen differently than at the bottom of the page).

Just drop and reload

You can just drop any of these files into the debug file directory to add to or replace the default file. If it's a new file you then need to select it as an alternative in the CF Admin Debugging Output page which offers a choice for "Select Debugging Output Format", which points to the classic.cfm by default. Of course, since it's CFML source code, all the options mentioned here are free and open source.

The alternatives, discussed and downloadable

The alternatives include:

"Another hack job", from Ray Camden, adding total query time, improved number formatting for individual query times, and highlighting queries that a given duration
ColdFire, open source from Nathan Mische et al, a Firefox/Firebug extension to aid in viewing CFML debugging output by way of a new alternative debugging output template, coldfire.cfm
ColdFusion Debug Templates, "in case you want to try something different than the default template", from Josh Knutson
Debug2FusionReactor, from Intergral, for showing CF debugging output in FR Marker tab
Improved Classic CF debugging template, from Aaron Longnion. Changes list of templates executed to show in order executed, rather than by order of duration. Also adds cfqueryparam variable values for queries shown.
StarFish, from Ray Camden, a profiling tool built on the CF debugger. Stores debugging output in server scope, and adds an Admin customization interface to view reports based on gathered information.
Stiletto, from John Mason, for logging CF debugging output to a file (inspired by a blog entry by Bilal Soylu
Zoid, from Ray Camden. Changes the table of templates executed from a summary for each (even if called multiple times) to in individual display of each, in order.
Note as well that another alternative to showing debugging output at the bottom of the page is a built-in option in CF. Note the available "dockable" option in the choice for "Select Debugging Output Format". While the aforementioned classic.cfm is the default, the dockable.cfm instead shows the debugging output as dockable/movable/floatable pane instead.

Also listed on my CF411 site

Note as well that I have just created a section in my CF411 site, called "CFML Debugging Output Template Alternatives/Mods". If anyone offers me additions or corrections as a comment below, I'll be sure to update the list in the CF411 page as well. Finally, as I mention at the bottom of the list on that page, note that I have yet another section (following that one) on the site, called CFML Debugging Tools, which lists still other kinds of CFML debugging tools.

The Ultimate Var Scope Resource list? Understanding/resolving problems with the var scope in CFML

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:06:00 -0400

If you or anyone you know ever wants to get up to speed on the "var scope problem" in CF, you may be challenged by the fact that there are many discussions of the topic, spread across many blogs. I've accumulated here a starting list of several of the key ones I know of. I certainly may have missed some, so I welcome suggestions of more. I think it's helpful to have all the resources in one place. Indeed, ultimately I'll move this to my "resource lists" page where I keep similar "compendia". I created the list of VAR scope resources today after helping a client with a problem which seemed related to this classic problem: the need to remember to var scope your variables in CFCs. It's often the cause of subtle bugs. Like many, they still hadn't heard about the problem (or had seen mention of it but didn't really understand it). So if you're in that place, or know someone who may be, here are resources to help get started on understanding the topic and related issues. As always, the CF community has rallied the troops on the matter, and several folks have blogged in various detail or on various related aspects.

About the resources

The first few elaborate on the problem, and the first one even includes a live running example to demonstrate the point. Then a couple explain some related issues. I also then list resources on the related new "local" scope in CF 9, and some more that discuss compatibility issues with that. Note that these may have been written any time in the past couple/few years, so keep that in mind and be sure to check the comments as well.

The resources

First, some general resources introducing the var scoping issue/feature:

Thread safety and the var scope - live example, by Mike Schierberl
Memory Leaks: Part III - sessions and cfcs, Mike's previous blog entry discussing a memory leak he'd found related to CFCs (and perhaps the var scope) back in 2006
Why precisely is it important to var-scope your variables?, by Nathan Strutz
Thread safety example: Var scope your loop index in ColdFusion CFCs!, by Dave Shuck
Object Oriented Coldfusion : 4 : The var scope, by Adrian Moreno

And some that address various issues related to using the VAR scope:

Always var scope! Always!! Except..., by Ray Camden
Var Scoping Queries, by Gary Gilbert
VAR scoping using structures, by Dave Shuck
The VAR keyword is idiotic, by Steve Nelson
The REAL reason you need to var-scope your local CFC function variables, by Tyson Vanek

And some on the change in CF9, for the local scope:

The New ColdFusion LOCAL Scope, by Ben Forta
Deciphering the new Local Scope, by Adam Tuttle
Repeat - ColdFusion 9 does NOT remove the need to var scope!, by Ray Camden

And some tangential discussions of that, including some compatibility issues with the new scope:

Be careful with the 'local' scope when migrating from CF8 to CF9, by Dan Skaggs
CHF Warning - Impacts MXUnit, by Ray Camden (important impact of CF 9 CHF 1, even if not using MXUnit)
LOCAL Variables Scope Conflicts With ColdFusion Query of Queries, by Ben Nadel
Is this an issue with the local scope in ColdFusion 9?, by Paul Kukiel
ColdFusion 9 and the local scope continued, by Paul Kukiel
ColdFusion 9 and the LOCAL Scope, by Joseph Lamoree
Major Flaw in CF9 - May Break Code! and part 2/part 3, by Sami Hoda

The VarScope tool

Finally, of course, as most of these resources point out, be sure to use Mike Schierberl's wonderful varscoper tool to help find whether you have instances of this problem. It tells you literally what to change, where, to don't let concern of this problem overwhelm you.

Conclusion

Hope those are helpful. Again, it's just a starting list. I welcome additions, and I look forward to your comments. In time, I'll move this (and any suggested additions) to my "resource lists" page. Check that out for similar lists of resources on various subjects.

ColdFusion 8 migration resources (from 6, 7, or even earlier)

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 08:18:00 -0400

Someone asked me about migrating from CF 6 to 8, lamenting that he couldn't find any migration resources. Sadly, there are no official Adobe resources for upgrading to CF8, but I will mention a guide to upgrading to CF 7 from CF 6 (or even 5) that Macromedia offered, which many may have missed. I'll also point out a couple other things and blog entries of others that do focus more on moving to CF 8 specifically (and perhaps others will comment with still more.)

Who's only now moving to CF 8, you ask?

Some may ask, "why would someone be moving to CF 8 now, which CF9 on the horizon?". Well, a lot of shops don't upgrade immediately, so the question didn't surprise me. So some may only now be moving to 8, and they may not be interested in moving to CF9 for a while. Heck, some (like him) are running only on CF 6, or earlier! Let's just be glad when they people do finally migrate. :-) And who knows, there may be some who move to CF 9 from 6 or 7, and this info may help them down the road, too. So, as Casey Kasem used to say, "on with the countdown". :-)

60 page "Migrating Applications to ColdFusion MX 7"

I first pointed out to him that there *was* in fact available in the past an official Macromedia CF document (in the CF7 docs):

Migrating Applications to ColdFusion MX 7 (PDF)

At 60 pages, this is quite a good resource to consider. It "describes migration and known compatibility issues between ColdFusion Server 5 and later versions, including ColdFusion MX 6.1 and ColdFusion MX 7." Sadly, it was not updated for CF 8, but really, the bigger differences in things were between 6 (being the first release after the rewrite of CF on java) and higher. Of course, those moving from 5 (when CF was written in C++) to higher face far more differences. Again, the guide even covers that. So even those skipping 7 to go to 8 should at least look at the guide. Never heard of the guide? I'm not surprised. I'll take that up at the end of this entry.

Jim Priest Sought CF8 Migration Stories

Now, he did ask about migration to CF8 specifically. There was at least one blog entry, from Jim Priest, that sought such CF 8 migration stories. In the comments, someone commented about "CF8 performance on our CFC-driven apps" after the upgrade to 8. As many now know, that was likely due to a bug in the JVM, rather than CF. CF 8 came running on on JVM 1.6.0_04. Early in the CF8 lifetime, people suggested dropping back to JVM 1.5, but by late 2008 Sun had fixed the problem in 1.6.0_10, and that became the recommendation. Many blogged about it, including Sean Corfield and Ryan Stille who also walks you through making the upgrade. Someone also commented (in Jim's CF8 Migration Stories entry) about losing their CFIDE directory after the upgrade. I don't know if this is the exact problem, but there was a similar issue documented in the CF 7 timeframe: "CFIDE and cfdocs folders removed after migrating from ColdFusion MX 6.1 to ColdFusion MX 7". Jim's entry has comments closed for now, so I can only offer these thoughts here. I just asked him by email if he may reopen it to let people post observations like these, to help people who may yet find it and the older comments. We shall see.

Josh Adams offers still more resources

I just found also that Josh Adams (of Adobe) also blogged about Migrating from ColdFusion 5 or older to ColdFusion 8. He shares some other interesting resources, though not that CF7 migration guide. I'll drop him a note and I suspect he'll get that added ASAP. :-)

Steven Erat's discussion of migration from 4.5 to 7

Again, while not specifically about moving to CF 8, Steven Erat did blog some resources to help someone making the move from 4.5 to 7, in his entry, Migrating applications across a six year gap in ColdFusion server implementation. That offers a link to the Migration Guide above but also release notes for each release between 4.5 and 7.02, which is a nice touch.

Don't forget to apply hotfixes

Besides looking at the release notes for each release (something I also highly recommend), I'll also remind folks to also always check for updates, hotfixes, and cumulative hotfixes for any release you may install. What you download (even today from Adobe) may not be the absolute latest version of whatever release you get. I'll do a blog entry about that with more details in the future. (I did discuss it in my CFMythbusters talk, and the PDF there has some good pointers to get you started on this topic, among others.)

No surprise if you never noticed that CF7 Migration Guide

Sadly, you won't find that CF7 Migration Guide I mentioned on the CF7 livedocs page, since it's a PDF (never made as an HTML file, which the livedocs are). Instead, it's listed on a different CF7 documentation page, that can itself be easily missed. (It is linked to from the CF product and support pages.) And again the Migration Guide wasn't updated for CF8, so of course it's not mentioned on either the CF8 equivalent of that page or the CF8 livedocs page. Still, since the "changes" from 7 to 8 weren't substantial (new features, not many--if any--breaking changes), the guide helps those moving from CF 5 or 6 to 8, too.

Some won't want to miss the substantial Getting Started Guide

Finally, while we're mentioning CF7 docs that people may have missed, check out also "Getting Started Building ColdFusion MX Applications". That is/was at least listed in the CF7 livedocs (and the other doc link), above. Still, it seems many missed it. It's over 150 pages of great introduction to CF application development (and yes, it shows use of CFCs not just tired old CFQUERY/CFOUTPUT development). Sadly, it too was not upgraded for CF 8 (or 9). It was a great resource for those getting started with CF. I still recommend it all the time.

What other CF 8 Migration resources exist?

So that's my "quick" answer to the person asking for CF8 migration resources. Anyone have more? Whether moving to 8 from 7, or 6, or earlier? :-) Comment here. Readers will be grateful. I'll prime the pump with a couple more, where people described challenges they faces:

My ColdFusion 8 Upgrade, by Barney Boisvert
Upgrading To ColdFusion 8 From ColdFusion MX 7, by Marcelo Lewin

Hope that's helpful. And since I give a nod to Casey Kasem at the opening, I suppose some will think I should mimic his successor, Ryan Seacrest, in closing here. This is "Arehart, out". :-)

Several useful web dev topics, "Better Explained"

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:24:00 -0400

I happened upon a site today with many quick, to the point, highly graphical articles introducing web app development topics that may interest some of my readers. Wanted to pass them along:

A few focus on Javascript and/or site building:

Still others aren't specific to web development, but can be valuable to all kinds of developers, and it was one of these that led me to the site in the first place:

The site is Better Explained, whose tag line is "Explanations for everyone". The author does a pretty good job of that. Some of the topics are a little too one-sided (the discussion of HTTP compression does only show setting it up in Apache, not IIS), and of course there's no mention of CF anywhere. :-) But we can't expect that from everyone. There are lots of positive comments and linkbacks on on many of the entries, so he'd done a good job in the eyes of most. Indeed, if you may be hearing the siren call of Ruby on Rails, they have an article on that: Starting Ruby on Rails: What I Wish I Knew. There's also an intro to MVC, but again it's from a Rails perspective: Intermediate Rails: Understanding Models, Views and Controllers. If there's something you'd like to see the author address on the site, he has a post for that, too: What do you want Better Explained?.

Categorizing the 30-some CF frameworks: how did I do?

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 17:01:00 -0400

Some may know that among my CF411.com site's list of 700+ tools/resources for CFers in 125 categories, I have long listed the 30+ CF frameworks. (Yes, there really are that many.) But until now, I just listed them all together, without any subcategory. Today I took a shot to categorize them and saw 3 categories:

CFML Application Frameworks/Methodologies
CFML Injection Frameworks/Methodologies
CFML ORM Frameworks/Methodologies

How did I do? Are these good categories? Most of them fit in the first category (about 25) are in the first category. I didn't want to break them down into which were MVC, etc. Should I bother? Two are in the injection frameworks category (ColdSpring and Lightwire). How's that for a category name? And there are four in the ORM category. Are things in the right place? Any needed additions/subtractions? As with all the categories in the CF411 list, I welcome suggestions, corrections, etc. And if you didn't know there were 30-some CF frameworks, check out the list: CFML Frameworks/Methodologies One last request: before you comment, please check the other comments and see if I may have already changed/corrected something.

Learning resource for beginning web developers

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 18:51:00 -0400

If you know anyone needing to learn the fundamentals of web application development--not CFML, but things like HTML, CSS, Javascript, and so on--here's an interesting resource: Beginner Developer Center, Tier 1

Yes, it's a MS resource: don't let that keep you away

Now, some will see this is from Microsoft and flinch, but don't let that scare you away. It's a set of introductory resources that could help any beginning web developer, and while the first 2 and last 2 of the 14 sections are MS-specific, the rest are not. And besides the web-oriented topics above (HTML, CSS, Javascript, and more), there are also sections introducing basic programming concepts like problem solving, processing and storing data, even introducing OO (again, with no reference to C# or anything .NET), and more. For each of the 14 topics, there is both an article-level discussion and either an audio or video version.

Yes, it's in a resource center about VWD. Don't let that scare you away, either

I'll note that beyond being "from MS", it's also indeed specifically part of a resource center for their Visual Web Developer IDE. Again, most of the content offered in this beginner resource is not really specific to that editor or to .NET. And frankly, I wouldn't hold it against a CF developer to consider using the editor. Hey, it's free, and consider also that sometimes you may have to do some editing on a server with nothing but Notepad available. Perhaps you're not a fan of Eclipse, don't have an available license for DW/HS, and you want more than just Notepad. (Yes, I do also know about the many other available free (and some commercial) editor alternatives. I list them in my CF411 site category of Editors/IDEs.) (And if you're ever stuck in a situation where you're unwilling or not allowed to install any new editor on your server, just last week I wrote about a tip for using Notepad if you ever find that you can't use the Goto Line feature.) Anyway, the point is I'm not making a pitch here for VWD nor any statement against CFE. Let's not go there. :-) Indeed, to any who may want to take the chance to comment here in scorn or to deride the VWD editor or MS, or to point out some other editor alternative, let's not go there, either. The point of this entry is the free learning resources for beginning web developers that I found on the MS site. I hope it may help some people.

Got problems with SQL Server tempdb? Here are some resources

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 22:59:00 -0400

I was working with a client the other day where it turned out they had a HUGE SQL Server tempdb. I shared with them some pretty substantial and informative MS resources. In case this may ever happen to my readers, I wanted to pass them along:

Working with tempdb in SQL Server 2005 - a 21-page Microsoft TechNet article, with lots of info on understanding, configuring, maintaining, and troubleshooting problems with tempdb. While written for SQL Server 2005, it could be useful for those on 2000 or 2008 as well. (Should that link ever fail, here's another.)
Troubleshooting Insufficient Disk Space in tempdb
For more on how its usage has increased for SQL Server 2005, see Capacity Planning for tempdb
Finally, for more on managing its growth, see Optimizing tempdb Performanc

You may want to check out several other equally useful TechNet articles on SQL Server (like the first one above, but available on a wide range of issues). Hope that's helpful to someone.

Have there been any updates to the CF Report Builder feature? Yes, in fact

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 17:44:00 -0400

I wanted to share here some info I shared on a mailing list. Someone asserted that "there's been little to no attention given by Adobe towards fixing bugs in the Report Builder feature". Well, no doubt many have long ago dismissed it if they used it when it first came out in CF7 and hit some snags. But to be clear, there have been many improvements made to it in each release/point release and CHFs since then (whether bug fixes, minor improvements, or even some modest ones). For those interested, just search for "report" in the following documents (to find references to cfreport and report builder):

I do realize that many may think there's still plenty more to be updated, but at least it shows it's not really been "little to no attention". :-) Not picking a fight with anyone. I really think most just haven't noticed, so thought this may be helpful.

Announcing CF411.com: your place to find the 411 on things related to CF

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 10:23:00 -0400

Next time you have (or see someone ask) a question about finding some resource or tool related to CF, first check out CF411.com. :-) It's a list of more than 700 tools and resources in over 100 categories. You might find not just one but many alternatives. I hope this will help folks who might otherwise ask or answer questions on mailing lists, forums, and blog comments where such requests frequently appear.

So what's in it?

It's not a FAQ. Rather, some will recognize this as my long-existing list of tools and resources, which this weekend I decided to rechristen it as CF411. The domain name above simple redirects to that part of my site, now also called: CF411. Far more than just tools, it also has dozens of categories of resources: CF job resources, self-help resources, professional assistance resources, tutorial sites, conferences, hosting alternatives, certification prep resources, other sites listing CF resources, and much more. And the tools list has several dozen categories, both those written in CFML (like caching, debugging, file uploading, and code generating tools, as well as CMSs, all the frameworks, and all the CFML engines, to name just a few), and just as many tools not written in CFML but useful for us (including database tools, editors, http debugging, log analysis, load testing, monitoring, and source code tools, to name a few), whether free or commercial. Like my UGTV, I offer CF411 as a contribution to the community, to save people spending a lot of time looking/asking around for stuff. I hope it becomes another one-stop shop for people to find what they need (well, I use the term "shop" loosely. As always, it's all free).

What's in a name?

I hope the new name will just be easier for people to remember/think of the next time they see a question asked that they know is (or think may be) answered on my list, telling folks: "You should check out CF411." I was torn about bothering with a new domain name. I didn't need to bother with my UGTV site: you can google that phrase and my site comes up first (even with Microsoft having launched their own UGTV), but I just figured it might be easier for people to reference in conversation, and some might naturally look for a domain name. As always, I welcome contributions if you think of something (a category or a tool/resource) that I've not listed. I'll begin blogging again soon to highlight more of the many categories.

Resources for getting into cloud computing

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:51:00 -0400

Interested in getting into cloud computing? Check out this blog entry with a compendium of links to other resources on the topic: http://highscalability.com/useful-cloud-computing-blogs By cloud computing, most think of Amazon EC2 and S3, but there really are more options, as shown in one resource listed on that entry. I should note I didn't create that list. Someone else did. I don't generally do an entry just pointing to that of another (we often see way too many dupes in the CF blogosphere that way), but in this case it's a non-CF blog and therefore many readers here may not see it otherwise. Also, some will know that I do like to do such resource lists myself, whether as blog entries of that sort, or as resources lists offered on my site, so I really appreciate this blogger's efforts here. Hope that may help someone interested in the topic of cloud computing. (And yes, if someone would ask if this might be a good topic for the Online ColdFusion Meetup, it would be, and we've had a few sessions on the topic. You can find them either by doing a search for "amazon" on the UGTV site (which has more than just Meetup recordings, of course) or by scanning the list of all previous CF meetup recordings.

Beware: you could be missing news of some CF technotes

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:24:00 -0400

I thought some others might be concerned about something odd I just noticed, regarding the "recent CF technote" feed I just blogged about. I'm noticing that several of these "recent" technotes (even a couple months old) don't show up on the pages that purport to list all the CF technotes! Yikes. That means that if you're not following the feed, you may not otherwise have any way to know that there are new tech notes. And sadly, the feed lists only the 10 latest, so there may be others you could have missed out on if you've not been getting the feed. What's up with that? Perhaps the HTML page is just out of synch with the feed but then I'd wonder where the feed is getting its source information? and why isn't the technote page updated immediately with that same info? Here are a couple of examples that show up (as of today at least) on the recent CF technote feed list but do not show up on the page listing technotes (more on this below):

I couldn't find any HTML page that listed those (and links to them) on any of the following expected pages.

Not on the Hot Fixes page

Curiously, all three offered a link back to the CF 8 Hotfixes page, but they're not technically hotfixes. Anyway, to my point, they're not listed on the hot fixes page. (I'll say, for those worried most about hot fixes, that all the technotes I saw listed in the "recent feed" that really were hotfixes are indeed listed on the hotfixes page, so it seems that's kept udpated.)

Not on the Tech Notes page(s)

But the above are indeed technotes, and could be important to some, yet they are not listed on the pages that purport to list CF technotes: the CF Support page and the CF Technote Index page have no mention of these. (Indeed, that 2nd technote index page seems quite old, mentioning nothing of CF8 on it.) These are where I'd expect they should be listed, so it seems that these pages are not being kept updated. And it's not like the technotes above from the recent feeds are really that new. The one on the ServerMonitorUI.swf, for example, is from May. It should be listed on the technotes page by now, shouldn't it? Or if it's that these pages aren't meant to be the one all-encompassing list of all CF technotes, then what is?

Not found via searching

Just to make sure I wasn't missing some other meta-list of CF technotes, I used the Adobe site search, and even Google and Yahoo, to search for pages referring to the page titles above. I couldn't find any pages that had these listed. I could only find the individual pages themselves (in other words, short of the feed, I'd only find them by searching for them directly).

The problem restated: any solution?

So again my point is: the recent feeds page has technotes that are not offered in any list anywhere else on the Adobe site. Shouldn't a feed supplement a page that otherwise has the info? Does it make sense that if you don't follow the feed, you have no other way of knowing that the page exists (short of lucking out on finding it via a search on the topic)? Some of us would like very much to be able to always find and review a list of all known tech notes. The pages referred to above would seem by most to be expected to do that, but clearly they don't. And given that the feed only shows 10 entries, the problem gets worse as new entries are added to the feed. What about those who have only just learned of it? How are they to know of items that are just old enough to no longer be listed on the feed? Maybe someone needs to set up a page that saves the feed data. (There are other pages that show what's coming from the feed, but when the feed changes, they do too.) I'm talking about something that captures the feed output and keeps old entries while adding any that are new. But should we have to do that?

Any way to get the feed to list more than 10?

Finally, in the meantime, since the "recent feed" stops at listing 10 items, does anyone know a way to get it to list more? That would help us to find more that we might otherwise have missed (and would certainly aid in a tool to capture as many as we can). I tried adding "?entries=20", as a guess, but to no avail.

Get your fill/feeds of Adobe ColdFusion Technotes, Hotfixes, Security Bulletins, and articles

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:36:00 -0400

Ever wish you could be notified when there's a new CF technote, hotfix, security bulletin, or DevCenter CF article? You can be, whether via your favorite RSS reader or by email (more below). There are feeds for each of the following:

CF Technotes and Hotfixes:A feed of recent ColdFusion tech notes and hot fixes is offered here:
http://rss.adobe.com/www/support/recent/recent_cf.xml
There is also a top issues feed. (FWIW, the recent_cf.xml page seems identical to the info offered via this URL.)
DevCenter CF articles: A feed of recent ColdFusion Dev Center articles is offered here:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/developer_center_coldfusion_tutorials
CF Security Bulletins: While you can't get a feed of recent ColdFusion security bulletins, you can at least sign up to receive notification of new bulletins by email. Just note that the email will be for all Adobe products which have bulletins, not just for CF.

Don't have an RSS feed reader? Get them by email

If you don't have an RSS feed reader, or you simply prefer to receive such things by email, you can. Check out the various RSS-to-Email tools (all free) which I list in my category, "RSS to Email Tools", in my list of over 100 tools and resources for CFers.

Adobe Feeds for Other Products

If you're interested, you can find many other feeds across all Adobe products at http://www.adobe.com/support/rss/.

Beware of older CF feeds

One last FYI: you may find reference on the web to the following old technote URLs, which do still work but have not been updated since CF 7, such as http://weblogs.macromedia.com/product_feeds/archives/coldfusion/index.rdf and this "ColdFusion news" feed.

Tools and Resources for CFers, Part 8: CFML Documentation/Help Tools and Resources

Wed, 07 May 2008 15:02:00 -0400

Today's first category from my Tools and Resources to Consider for CF developers is from the Resources section, and it's "CFML Documentation/Help Tools and Resources".

CFML Documentation/Help Tools and Resources

While the Adobe docs are the best source for CFML documentation, there are online versions of that both from Adobe and others, providing access to the docs in various ways. Please note, though, that while most of the other resources show only the CFML reference, the actual Adobe docs contain more than just the CFML Reference, including a Developer's Guide, Installation Guide, Administration Guide, and more. See the Livedocs for more on those.

Adobe Livedocs, for CF7
Adobe Livedocs, for CF8
CFQuickDocs, by Jacob Munson
CF Docs on Air, by Brian Love (If not working, try google cache version)
CFML Docs for IPod, by Randy Nielsen of the Adobe docs team
CF8 Help files for Eclipse, from Adobe
ColdFusionDocs, by Anuj Gakhar
Complete List of CF tags, for 7 and 8, by Andy Jarrett
Pete Frietag's ColdFusion Cheat Sheet
I welcome additions/corrections/feedback.

About this series

This entry is part of an ongoing series, sharing each of the 100+ categories and the tools and resources I (and others) have identified. They're designed to answer the questions we hear, like , "does anyone know of tools or resources to help with ...?" I've decided to start offering each category here as a blog entry, to give the list more exposure and to make sure I'm not missing anything. For now I'm offering each day one list from the resources and then another from the tools categories. To see the list of all categories, see Part 1 of this series. I may in the future offer an RSS feed of any updates made to the list. I hope people will get great value out of the lists, here or on the tools and resources page. Please try to remember to point the list out to people you see asking for these kind of tools and resources. Thanks.

Additions/Corrections

The tools/resources list is a perpetual work in progress. I definitely welcome additions or corrections to it. If you have any to offer, you can leave them here as a comment on this blog entry and I'll move them to the list on my site. BTW, before you offer an update here, please do check the category on the real list. I won't be coming back here to update these blog entries to sync them if I add new items to the real list. Next up later today will be CFML Caching Tools.

Tools and Resources for CFers, Part 6: CFML Conferences

Tue, 06 May 2008 13:29:00 -0400

The following conferences have some, if not an entire, focus on ColdFusion and CFML.

Adobe Max, organized by Adobe (location varies)
cf.objective(), organized by Jared Rypka-Hauer, et al (Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN, USA)
CFDevCon, organized by Russ Michaels (London, England)
CFUnited, organized by Michael Smith et al (Washington, DC, USA)
Scotch on the Rocks, organized by Andy Allan, et al (Edinburgh, Scotland)
Spring
, organized by Dave Hannum, et al (Athens, OH, USA)
WebDU, organized by Geoff Bowers, et al (Sydney, Australia)
WebManiacs, organized by Steve Drucker et al (Washington, DC, USA)
See also Teratech's list of Upcoming CFML conferences