Note: This blog post is from 2007. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.

The CF Enterprise Server monitor is more powerful than many may realize, yet naturally some are immediately concerned about its potential overhead, especially if they're considering running it in production. Things aren't quite as obvious as they may seem, or as many may assert.

Update: I've updated this entry now 5 years later, in 2012, to give a bit more context to what I said originally. No change in the message, just a little more info and perspective. (There's also no change in the impact of it, pro or con, in CF 9 or 10.)

First, it's indeed true that depending on what you enable, it *could* be very resource-intensive and could even bring down a server under load. But conversely it also can have ZERO impact--yes, even in production. I'll discuss that in my next entry.

But before that, I just want to take a moment and explain the key 3 features that control what impact, if any, it will have.

Note that there are three buttons at the top of the monitoring page which "start" different monitoring features. (If you don't see these buttons, just refresh the browser again to get them to appear.)

So what are the implications of starting each of the optional monitoring features?

• start memory tracking: this has the highest potential impact for overhead, which can be very substantial, even to the point of crashing your instance. And even on a low-traffic developer machine, you might see a big hit from running this. More on this in a moment.
• start profiling: this has much less overhead. It primarily enables tracking of database activity. The help page for the monitor calls its overhead "minimal", but I will note that on a CF server with tremendous DB activity, its overhead could be more substantial.
• start monitoring: This is the least impactful button. It's needed to at least see running requests, as well as to have Alerts fire. But even on a busy server I've rarely seen it have a negative impact. That said, you don't need ANY of the 3 buttons enabled to see at least some info. More below.

Definitely check out that help page (from the front page of the monitor) or discussions in my 4-part series of articles on the monitor to learn more about what each button does as well as more about the monitor itself and its many features.

About the Memory Tracking feature

You'll note that I hedged above on the impact of the Memory Tracking. Conventional wisdom is that it is indeed a potential server killer, and I can confirm that I've seen it many times in my CF server troubleshooting consulting practice. But I can also report that I've seen it running on production machines and having virtually no seeming impact. I kid you not.

I suspect it has to do with how many objects are in memory, how complex they are, how busy the server is, etc.

Now, some might propose that you use it only for brief periods (minutes, seconds) to gather some info for analysis, perhaps only in emergency. (I even said this in my initial version of this blog entry.) But many have found that things go horribly wrong on some CF instances the moment it's enabled. So it's probably best not to use it at all on live prod server.

You might be able to do it in a test/dev server, and you may get value form that in looking at the impact at least of individual or small numbers of requests. But beware also that some problems simply don't present themselves except under load (and often only in production, not even with load testing), so using it in dev/test may not help spot/understand/resolve all problems.

So does that mean there's no value if you can't use this feature in prod? Well, no. Remember, this is one of 3 buttons. The other two have less overhead (especially "start monitoring"). More than that, you can get value from the monitor with NONE of the buttons turned on.

Any value if none turned on?

Yes, don't miss this vital point: there is value to using the monitor even with none of the start buttons enabled. That is deserves its own entry. Who says there's no such thing as a free lunch? :-)

So if you hear someone say "don't use the monitor in production", please make sure they're clear on all this. There are 3 features you can enable, or none at all, and each provides different info at different costs--some of it zero.

Postscript: The buttons stay enabled after closing the monitor, and even over restart

I know I've discussed this elsewhere, but while I'm updating this entry let me reiterate the point: it's vital that you understand that if you turn on any of these buttons, they STAY TURNED ON, even if you close the monitor. And EVEN IF YOU RESTART CF. In fact, this is important enough to deserve its own entry. I'll post that now (as I update this in 2012), CF911: Using the #ColdFusion Server Monitor? Be aware that the "Start" buttons remain enabled.

Note: This blog post is from 2007. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.

Ever wanted to pause a currently running request? You can now, in CF8, using the new sleep() function. CF8's chock full of hidden gems. Indeed, I make note of nearly 50 of them in a user group talk I've started doing. One of them is this new Sleep() function.

Some will recognize it as an easier way to call the java thread.sleep method (as many have noted, and I wrote about back in 2002). It's been added primarily as part of the multi-threaded processing (CFTHREAD) feature, such as when one thread needs to wait upon another.

But it can be useful sometimes on its own, such as when you want to simulate a long-running request for any reason. (And it's a whole lot more server-friendly than doing a huge cfloop, since a sleep call doesn't really spin the CPU. It literally halts the current request, putting it to "sleep".)

As with the sleep method in java, sleep() takes a number in milliseconds, so for 5 seconds, use 5000. You can use it in CFSCRIPT, or in a simple CFSET:

Why might you want to simulate a long-running request? There are many reasons. Perhaps to test some logic in how CFLOCK failures work, or to cause a page to appear in the new CF8 server monitor--or one of the long-existing monitor tools (to make sure you're seeing what you think you should be seeing).

Still another reason to use it has to do with another hidden gem, this one in CF7. I'll write about that shortly.

Note: This blog post is from 2007. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.

If you're a user group manager who is taking advantage of the free Acrobat Connect account from Adobe for user groups, the next challenge for you may be how to make and use recordings of your meetings. I find that many managers have just never done this, and it can be so valuable, especially since you can then list the recording for your members and indeed for the entire community on my UGTV site. More on this later.

Making a recording of your meeting

Fortunately, it's very easy to record your meeting. It doesn't matter if you'll be having any remote attendees. Indeed, it doesn't matter if you'll be having a remote speaker. As long as you have an internet connection, you can record whatever a speaker says and shows. Everything you see and hear will be captured and can be played back in perfect fidelity.

While you're in a Connect meeting (as a host, discussed in the earlier blog entry), simply hit the Meeting>Record Meeting option in the top menu bar. You'll be prompted for a name and description. Don't worry too much about getting this perfect at that point, since I'll show how you can easily edit the information later. (You don't even need a description, and since the recording will be timestamped, you don't even need to worry about creating a unique name, if you'll be editing it soon after the meeting--so you don't forget which recording is which.)

Tip: As a word of advice, I'd recommend you be prepared to start your meeting right after you hit the record button. The recording will indeed start immediately, and I've heard too many recordings where the host and/or presenter are fumbling around getting things situated while the "tape" is rolling. Please be considerate of those who will listen to your recording later.

They don't want to have to wait--and there's no easy means to know how long such preliminaries will go on. Advancing the playhead in the playback mechanism isn't as precise as it could be, either, so the listener won't be able to easily skip ahead. This is an easy mistake in the moment. You figure everyone else in the room is waiting patiently while you get started. But it's quite annoyance at the start of a recording.

An update: Yes, as I'll discuss later, you can now with later versions of Connect go back and edit the recording, but you probably won't bother, so just keep this in mind.

When you're done, you simply hit the Meeting>Record Meeting menu option again, or the red "recording" icon/dot in the top right of the Connect interface (which tells you you're recording).

Note that there is no "pause" feature. If you stop it, you're stopping that recording and would need to start a new one. If you're having multiple talks during a meeting, it may be best anyway to create a separate recording for each.

Here's another tip: you can use the ease of creating recordings to create a quick one before the start of the meeting to test how you and your presenter sound. Sometimes, you can't judge by what you hear, if you've got bad bandwidth temporarily. You can create a quick recording, go listen to it, then delete it. I'll show how to find the recordings next.

Finding the Recording URL

OK, so you've made your recording. Now, how do you find it? I hear this lament from user group managers all the time. In fact, it was 2 such pleas for help that I saw today which sparked me to create this entry (been meaning to for some time).

You get to the recordings not through the Connect interface but instead through the same interface you use to create the meeting. (Each Connect account may have a different URL, and of course you need a valid login/password, so I can't tell you how to get in. If someone else setup the meeting, you need to contact them, or your Connect administrator, to get that info.)

On the Admin page, click the "Meetings" link on the top of the page. That will show all your current meetings. (You can also use "my scheduled meetings", but it's a slightly different presentation of meetings list.) Select your desired meeting (the one where you made the recording--as you may see several listed).

You will then see several links, one of which will be "Recordings". That's where the recordings (if any) for that meeting will be listed. Click that.

Now you can click on a recording (that name you gave when you started the recording). That will show you the URL for the recording ("URL for viewing"). You can click the link right there to have it open and start playing the recording. You'll want to make sure it sounds and looks good. If not, just take notes to do things better next time. You can't edit the recordings in any way. An Update: note that you can now edit your recordings, such as to remove deadspace at the beginning or in the middle, or if a speaker loses connectivity for a time, etc. You do such edits from a button on the same manager pages being discussed here.

Tip: Here's another reason to view the recording while you're at this point. If the recording prompts for a username/password, you can alter it to not require that. Indeed, you can also make a slight modification to be able to track how many times the recording is viewed. I cover both in another blog entry, "Webcast: How to track views of your Breeze/Acrobat Connect recorded presentations".

Finally, while you're viewing the recording information (whether before or after you move it as discussed in the above-named entry), you will also see an option called "Edit", where you can rename it or add/edit the description. You can change this any time, even after people have started viewing the recording. The URL of the recording won't (and can't) be changed if you edit this information.

Tell the world about your recording

Now that you have the recording URL, you'll certainly want to blog it, and tell the presenter also, as s/he may also blog about it. (Again, be sure to have tested it first to make sure users aren't prompted for a username/password.)

Finally, don't forget to post it on the repository of recorded user group presentations, UGTV. Yep, that's a section of my site, but it's for anyone to post recordings to. Indeed, if you find a recording and don't see it listed, you can add it, whether you're the author or not. (If a recording is listed publicly, I can see no reason the author wouldn't want it listed in the UGTV list.) For more on the UGTV, see the UGTV category at right.

Hope that helps. Let me know if I forgot anything, or if it helps you. Feedback is always welcome.

Note: This blog post is from 2007. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.

If you run a ColdFusion user group (or indeed, any Adobe user group), you should know that there are a couple of manager meetings taking place.

The first is a 2-hour meeting, online, during the Adobe Community Summit. I can't share details of that one, but I can say that if you're a UGM and therefore are on the Adobe UGM forum, you can find the details there.

The second is a live, day-long event being held at CFUnited. You can learn more about that at http://ugmm.cfunited.com/2007/. There you'll find the schedule, speakers, topics, and registration. At just $29, it's a bargain for a day-long event, and with the range of speakers and topics, it should be great value.

I spoke at the event last year, but sadly can't attend this year because of my day-long class being held the same day. There is a copy of my presentation, where I pointed to dozens of free resources for UGMS, in the Community Portal (again, UGMs are authorized to access that and can find out more in the UGM forum.)

As for that day-long class, if you're not a UGM and will be at the conference on Tuesday--or want to come early--there are still slots open for my class. I know the topic may surprise some, but there are many who will be shocked to learn of the hundreds of little--and big--changes that were introduced in CF 6, 6.1, 7, and their updaters. It'll take a whole day to cover them--and that's at a rapid pace!)

Note: This blog post is from 2007. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.

I'm delighted to be speaking again (for the 9th year) at CFUnited, and I list below the 7 times I'll be speaking: 1 bootcamp session, 1 Scorpio session (repeated Sat.), 1 vendor session (for Intergral), a daylong class the day before, speaking at the Minimax event Tues. evening, and co-leading a BOF.

A Couple Tidbits of CFUnited History

Before that, though, I thought I'd share a couple points of history about the conference. Did you know it started back in 1999, as the DCCFUC. Back then it was a single day, single-track conference (though still with hundreds in attendance) held at the NIH auditorium in Bethesda--which I remember pointing out happened to be right across the street from the hospital where I was born, and the hall where my parent's had their wedding reception. :-)

You can get a sense of what it was like from reports about the 2000 event. The one by Eva Holtsmark happens to have a photo of the auditorium. Yep, that's me at the front of the room. :-)

It was at the 2000 conference when it was renamed to CFUN, and then in 2005 it became CFUnited. You can read more about the past events (and indeed all past CF-oriented conferences) at the nifty CFCONF site that Teratech has long run.

I'm pretty sure I'm the only person other than Michael Smith (the organizer) who's been at each of the 9 events, and it's been just a delight to watch how it's grown and evolved. Great job, Michael and company.

My Presentation Schedule

Now, as for my presentations, here they are:

1. Tues: Daylong class, "New in CFMX 6/7, what did you miss?" (you may be amazed at what you've missed)
2. Tues eve.: Minimax talk, "Hidden Gems in Scorpio"
3. Wed 8:00p: Birds of a Feather session, "Solo Coding" (co-leading)
4. Thurs 3:15: Bootcamp session, "Introducing the CF Admin"
5. Fri 8:30a: Scorpio session, "Step Debugging in CF 6/7/8 with FusionDebug or the new Scorpio"
6. Fri 12: Vendor presentation, "FusionReactor and FusionDebug - Professional Monitoring and Debugging tools for CF 6,7 and 8!"
7. Sat 8:30a: Repeat, "Step Debugging in CF 6/7/8 with FusionDebug or the new Scorpio"

Who's hat am I wearing?

You may notice that I'm doing one of the Adobe Scorpio slots. I was really tickled by that invitation. Yet I'm also speaking in a vendor slot for Intergral. Who am I working for? I work for myself. I'm an independent consultant now.

I'd like to clarify that the debugging talk was originally on FusionDebug alone, but once the Scorpio debugger was announced, I was asked by Adobe if I'd like to speak on it. I explained I already had the FD talk on the schedule, but I could change it to cover both. That benefits both audiences: those who don't move to CF8 soon can still benefit from learning about FD (since it runs on 6, 7, and 8).

And Intergral had asked if I'd like to speak (along with others from their company) about their coming updates to FusionDebug and FusionReactor. Of course, I'm happy to. They're great guys. And Adobe understands, too. They recognize that there is still a place for third-party tools, even if Scorpio may take some of their market away.

I've talked previously about why I don't think it's a bad thing for the vendors, including Webapper's SeeFusion.

I don't mind playing "Switzerland" among the various tools. Those who know me know that I've always just wanted to help folks learn about all the different tools available to solve a problem--yes, even including my days evangelizing BlueDragon.

And in case you hadn't heard, I left New Atlanta 15 months ago. I'm amazed how many people "didn't get the memo"! I still have some BD clients, but clearly I'm back to supporting the entire CFML community, and indeed I'm doing a lot of work with Adobe (more on that soon).

Finally, on hearing of my 7 sessions, someone quipped that I must be "the hardest working man at CFUnited", but that appellation really much goes instead to Michael, or indeed to Liz Frederick, who coordinates the whole thing. Thanks again to them and all the TeraTech employees and volunteers for their hard work and dedication to this annual event. Hope you'll come on out.

PS If you've not yet started filling out your schedule, note that there is an online scheduler. It's gotten a lot of praises for its usability. Note that some of the sessions (one particular room) will require pre-registration.

Note: This blog post is from 2007. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.

If you're a developer, speaker, or vendor with something you want to share with the CF community, or know someone who does, here's a chance to reach thousands of folks. The Online ColdFusion Meetup wants you!

I explained previously the rekindling of the Meetup, which is an official, online Adobe ColdFusion user group.

The group serves a couple of audiences. Obviously, for those who don't have a local user group, it's a vital link to the community. Beyond that, though, anyone may join and participate, so it really serves the worldwide CF community. The group grew to 900 members during Steven's time, and now it's up to 1,100 over 1,200 members (update as of Oct 2007). We've had several successful meetings the past several weeks.

Meetings are typically 30-60 minutes long, just like a real user group meeting, as driven by the speaker's topic. People join in to listen (voice over IP) and optionally interact with the speaker via a chat window (we use an Acrobat Connect account that Adobe graciously grants to user groups). There are typically about 20-40 folks online during most of our sessions

Better still, we record all the meetings (again, with Adobe's generously hosting the recordings), so your message gets shared potentially to the entire CF community. I list all the recordings, along with over a hundred other user group talks, at my UGTV site. Folks typically blog about the sessions as well, all of which help further spread whatever news or tips you have to share.

Of course, we're not looking for anything exclusive. It can be a talk already given to another CFUG. But certainly if a speaker can't make it to any one group, or can't pick which one to present to virtually (if they use Connect), the speaker can at least present to this group and know that they can reach a wide audience, since all 1,100 members receive a notice by email of each upcoming meeting.

The topics can be anything related to CF, including ancillary tools, frameworks, products, etc. We want to help carry the flag for the CF community and be a resource for everyone. We can't expect that each meeting will interest every person, but we can hope that everyone might find value in one or more talks over time.

For now we're meeting irregularly (we've had 10 17 so far (update as of Oct 2007), sometimes with a week or two between them, but some on the same day). We'll fall into a rhythm of regular scheduling once we have a handle on availability of speakers and interest from the audience. For now, any ideas are welcome, and we already have a few folks lined up having expressed interest.

So again, if you're interested, or know someone who may be, let me know. My contact info is at right. Thanks in advance.

Note: This blog post is from 2007. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.

If you're a fan of the Online ColdFusion Meetup, note that you can now find the URL for the recording of each meeting on one place in the Meetup Message board (this is in addition to it being listed in the UGTV site).

For those who've not heard of it, I've mentioned in the past that I'm hosting the revived Online CF Meetup, which is a virtual (and Adobe-recognized) CF User Group that meets via Acrobat Connect on a regular basis (weekly, recently).

Well, we also record each meeting, and until now, I'd create a new email in the meetup message board, a precedence which Steven Erat had started when he ran the group.

But I just noticed today the option to "pin" a discussion, meaning it remains at the top of the message board all the time. So I've just created a new message listing all the past recordings and pinned it, and will instead just change that after each meeting. Note that you don't need to be a meetup member to see that message.

And in case you may want to share the URL for any reason, here's a TinyURL version of it: http://tinyurl.com/2dbdnk.

Finally, some may ask why I list it in both places (the meetup site, and the UGTV site). I don't know, I just felt that meetup members shouldn't have to look elsewhere for the recordings, or wade through the ever-growing list of all recordings at the UGTV site.

For those not familiar with the UGTV site, it's a subset of my web site (http://www.carehart.org/UGTV/) where you can find now well over a hundred recorded UG presentations from around the world. It's search-able, sortable, has RSS feeds (even for a specific search keyword), and more.

The meetups have been going great. If you'd like to speak at one, or know someone who does, have them drop me an email. My contact info is listed at right.

Note: This blog post is from 2007. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.

So by now most have heard that Adobe announced at cf.Objective() that Scorpio (now CF8) would include an interactive step debugger. And many may know I've long been a fan of FusionDebug, having written quite a bit about it, as well as the monitoring tools, Integral's FusionReactor and Webapper's SeeFusion.

A natural question on the minds of many is whether Adobe's entry into these markets is a death knell for these vendors? I don't think so, at all. Here are just a few reasons why. I'm sure I (and others) will think of more. Comments are indeed welcome.

1. Are you running 6, 7, or 8? - First of all, it's vital to keep in mind that the new CF 8 tools work only with CF 8. If you're still on CFMX 6 or 7, then you can't use the CF 8 debugger or monitor. I've heard some who thought that the new CF 8 Debugger might work worth the earlier releases. It does not. Of course, it's indeed another strong incentive to move up to CF 8, and there are more and more reasons being released all the time. But until you do, you can't benefit from them. Both SeeFusion and FusionReactor/FusionDebug work with CF 6, 7, and 8 (and the monitor tools also work with BlueDragon/J2EE and should work with Railo, Smith, and others.)

2. Do you have more than just CF to monitor? - Indeed, another point in the favor of the third-party monitoring tools is that more than just CFML servers, they indeed work with any Java server. And that's not just tools like Tomcat, JBoss, WebLogic, and WebSphere, but also includes other Adobe-specific tools that are also J2EE server-based, like Flex/LiveCycle Data Services, the older Flex 1.5, and more, and of course the Adobe J2EE server, JRun. FusionReactor's installer and "add server" feature will both recognize any of these automatically so that the one FusionReactor Enterprise Dashboard monitor can watch all such services, while SeeFusion offers a separate SeeJava product for watching such J2EE servers.

3. Does one size really fit all? - Another point to keep in mind is that each of the tools still do something that the other does not. I've said the same when contrasting SeeFusion and FusionReactor, and I can now say the same of them and the new CF 8 tools. Each can have their place in a developer/administrator's toolbelt. I could even argue that one could/should have them all, for whatever benefit each offers. The prices are low enough that it's not much of an issue.

4. CF 8 monitor API is public - With regard to the new monitor in CF8, Adobe has made it clear that it's just a particular (albeit very nice) Flex interface on top of an underlying API of admin CFCs that anyone can call. Naturally, this means that the other monitor tools could easily add whatever feature they (or users) may think must be added. (The FusionReactor folks will announce plans at CFUnited for integrating CF8 monitoring features into FusionReactor, so we should see some benefits and cooperation taking place.) Again, though, perhaps the reasons above may diminish the significance of needing to "keep up". Perhaps they can peacefully coexist.

5. If a tree falls in Times Square, it will make a sound - One can argue that a benefit of the new CF 8 monitor and debugger tools is that they will raise the profile of--and interest in the CF community for--such tools. And of course competition also breeds innovation. I think we already saw that between the two monitor tools themselves (and indeed between CF and BD, and others). In fact, still another outgrowth of this will be an increase in the opportunities for skilled folks (like those at these companies) to help CF developers make the most of the mass of information that these tools all provide. That will serve both companies well, since they each do training and consulting.

6. The past is prologue - Further to the last point, let's keep in mind that we can only compare the new CF 8 tools to the current versions of their third-party counterparts. Both Intergral and Webapper have told me (and others) that they've known these things were coming and have been considering enhancements for quite some time. The companies will be in a great position to watch and see what things people like (or don't like) about the CF 8 tools. I mentioned Intergral's plans above, and the SeeFusion folks are talking about extending their product to provide actual problem-solving intelligence, beyond just exposing metrics. Of course, we can expect Adobe will continue to evolve the tools as well (both before the final release and in later ones).

7. An abundance of riches - Finally, consider how fortunate we are in the ColdFusion community to have third party vendors who take risks to enhance the CF toolset and bring new and exciting professional tools to market--even before Adobe! We should support them if indeed they provide solutions to our problems. To the degree that we do (and they do), they will continue to survive.

Clearly I'm high on the entire CF tools market and think there's a place for all the companies and their tools.

Even so, there are some things that the CF8 monitor and debugger do add that are not currently in the other tools, and there's no doubt that for many, if they're moving to CF8 they may be happy with what they get built into those tools.

But it's not a zero-sum game with only one possible winner. Even if only a small fraction of the market remains interested in and using the 3rd party tools, whether because using the older CF releases, or for the features they offer, that's still a decent market for the toolmakers. And as they (and the market) evolve, the third party tools should continue to gain new fans.

I'll be writing (and speaking) quite a bit about both of the new CF 8 tools, as well as those from the other vendors, and how they all compare now and into the future.

It's just more testimony of why it's now really a great time to be involved in CFML.

Note: This blog post is from 2007. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.

Most know that a form will submit if you press enter while the cursor focus is on a text field (INPUT TYPE="text"|"radio"|"checkbox"). Some have surely noticed that you don't often even need a submit button, which can be nice when creating some simple interfaces.

But did you know that the submit will not happen if you have two input text fields (and no submit button)? I found this when I had a long-working form of this sort, to which I added a second input field. Suddenly, it stopped submitting on pressing enter. I've tested this in either IE 6 or Firefox 2. I explain the scenario and a solution, below.

The problem

I had a small form on my UGTV recordings list page, which let users enter search criteria. Today, someone asked me to let them indicate how many records to show by default, and when I added a second input box for that, suddenly the submit would not work. (If you look, you'll find the 2nd input field at the bottom of the form, but it doesn't matter. It's within the one form, and the problem happened regardless of where the 2nd field was placed.)

Again, the key is that I have no submit button in this scenario (as it would just look clunky, and is otherwise unnecessary).

Some solutions

So I did some digging and found that indeed others have observed this. One suggestion offered was that you provide a submit button but use CSS to make it invisible. You can't really use "display:none" because then, in IE 6 at least, it still thinks it's not there.

But you can set its height and width to 0 and set the border to none, and it solves the problem:

If you'd like some simple code to test with, here you go:

If you're curious about the empty action, that just makes the page self-posting. If you're interested in that, or have any comment on that aspect, please see my other blog entry on the subject.

Note: This blog post is from 2007. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.

Let me join in the chorus of praise for the cf.Objective() conference, which I just got back from last night. I also have a couple of tips for if you attend next year, as well as some news items that may interest some.

Like others, I could go on and on about the great food. Man, that really was awesome. And of course the great people you got to meet. I met a lot of new and old faces who I just hadn't run into before, and of course I reconnected with lots of old friends. Then there are the awesome talks. And Jared and Steven (and Jim and others) all did a great job organizing things.

Some News Items (You Won't Hear Elsewhere)

While you'll find plenty of folks sharing their positive sentiments like the above, let me take the chance to offer a couple of comments that I doubt you'll see elsewhere. :-)

First, I'll say that the only negative of the event was that I still had to explain to some that I no longer work for New Atlanta! It's been over a year now (left at end of March 2006). Oh well, time heals all wounds, right?

Indeed, if my carrying around an Adobe bag and even wearing an "Adobe Community Summit '06" shirt one day wasn't enough to show that I was "back in good graces", I also led a "birds of a feather" session on "hidden gems in Scorpio" (joined by the fearless leader himself, Jared). Of course, I had cleared them all with CF Product Manager Jason Delmore first. Though we often only spoke for a minute on each item, and were just talking (not showing slides or doing demos), we were able to speak for over an hour, and by the time we were done it was about 25 people attending.

I also presented a talk on understanding what happens under the covers in the database when you do or don't use CFQueryParam. Both days it was against other strong presenters, but the second day the room was nearly full, which I can hope was because there was good buzz about the talk. The evals will tell for sure, though your comments here are welcome also.

I want to say, too, that I hope folks took advantage of the chance to talk with the guys from Intergral, makers of FusionDebug and FusionReactor. Darren Pywell, CTO, and John Hawksley, one of several engineers, flew over from Germany for the event. They knew that people would have questions regarding the Scorpio Debugger if it was announced (Darren's on the Scorpio beta so has known about it). Sadly, it wasn't announced till after they left Sunday morning (just bad timing: Ben couldn't get in till then, and Adobe was saving the big announcement for his talk.) Even so, they got to talk about their plans for enhancements and indeed new products. I'll have more to say on my favorable opinion about the future for these tools, and SeeFusion as well, in a later blog entry.

Finally, I want to also put in a plug for the Sofitel itself. My goodness, what great service, on every level.

So now, about those tips I promised.

First, if we are back in the Sofitel next year, or indeed if you have any occasion to visit them in the US or abroad, do be sure to join their "privileges card" program. There's no fee, and from your first signup you get benefits, including a room upgrade and more. See their web site for more details.

Second, if we are back at that hotel next year, and you find the bite of a cab from the airport a bit high ($25-30), check this out: you can take public transport quite easily for just $1.50 ($2 during rush hour). From the airport, you'd take the light rail just 10 minutes to the Mall of America, and from that, just steps away you'd catch the 540b bus (free on a transfer) which terminates (in about 25 minutes) behind the Sofitel, at 78th St W and Picture Dr. Same in the reverse, of course. More at http://www.metrotransit.org/.

Indeed, if you want to visit the Mall while at the hotel, you can catch that bus (again, just $1.50/$2). But note that a transfer permits travel anywhere for 2 hours, including back in the other direction, so you could see a good bit of the mall and hop back on the bus for free (the terminal is in the basement of the mall). Even if you'll be longer, it's cheaper than the $20 cab ride.

Of course, in all these cases, if you can share a cab, it makes the cost less significant.

In that regard, my last tip is that if you do share a ride to the airport, be aware that there are two terminals, and they're not as close to each other as you'd expect. I was invited to join Mark Mandel, Mark Drew, and Derek Perez to share their cab. As we approached, the cabbie asked and the 3 of them were going to Northwest. I was going to Airtran. We dropped them off and it was another 10 minutes (and literally another 10 dollars) to the other terminal. As I always say, "forewarned is forearmed".

Even so, it was a delight to share the cab with those blokes. Like so many at the conference, they were just a great bunch of guys and it was a ball to spend even a few more minutes with them.

So I'm looking forward to next year, but in the meantime, I'll see you at CFUnited, and indeed I hope Max as well. I was there last year--again, fending off the cold stares of some who asked others, "why did Adobe let him come?"

I'll have plenty more announcements of things I'm doing to show the community that I'm back in the saddle and on their side, including being picked to present two Scorpio talks at CFUnited as well as contributing to Ben's upcoming Scorpio rewrite of the Web Application Construction Kit books. I'm not knocking BD or turning my back on it. It's not like I was in a dream or a long sleep.

I'm just glad to be able to as boldly and confidently proclaim the benefits of Scorpio and other Adobe products, like I equally support it and the products from Intergral and WebApper. Like all of you, I'm just a fan of the various technologies we've all come to know and love, and I look forward to sharing that with those who it would help.