Note: This blog post is from 2006. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily.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.

Are you getting the error, "Connection refused" or "Error establishing socket to host and port", trying to connect to a SQL Server database implemented on your own machine, when trying to call to it from an application (such as ColdFusion), using localhost and port 1433? There may be a simple explanation and solution, as I show here.

(And the issue discussed here could affect calls to SQL Server if implemented on a machine separate from your app like ColdFusion. Then again, THAT problem may just be about a need to open a hole in your firewall to allow the SQL Server port to be accessible from the CF server. Still, make sure the problem and solution below isn't the originating problem.)

The short answer is that you may need to simply enable tcp/ip as a supported protocol in your SQL Server, or tweak an aspect of it:

Open the "SQL Server Configuration Manager" in SQL Server, then choose "SQL Server Network Configuration", and its "Protocols For [yourserver]" option. Open it and ensure that TCP/IP is enabled as a protocol. If not, enable it, and restart SQL Server. For the official MS docs on this, see it discussed in this related topic.

(In some versions, where you don't readily find that Configuration Manager, see my discussion below under "The solution" for other ways to get to that feature.)

And if that TCP/IP protocol IS enabled, then right-click on that TCP/IP option, choose "properties", then its "IP Addresses" tab, and among the listed features, check if "ipall" (among the last in the list) has the port set to 1433 (or whatever is your SQL Server port), then restart SQL Server. More detail below. If you don't want to enable the "ipall" option, check the other entries to find the IP you're using (which may be 127.0.0.1 or ::1, if using "localhost" for the "server" you're telling CF to connect to), and ensure both that it's "enabled" and that its "tcp port" option is set to 1433. Then restart SQL Server and verify the DSN again.

Note that if it's still "not working" after you make these changes, do make sure you don't see a different error, like "Cannot open database "yourdbname" requested by the login. The login failed." :-) That just means you have a new and different problem to solve, now that this one is resolved. More on that below.

The rest of this entry explains additional details, such as how to find and make that change, what specific errors you get, and how I found the information, in case any of it helps others.

[....Continue Reading....]

Note: This blog post is from 2006. 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 mag was offered to all attendees at the conference and is also available as a subscription (paper only) at http://www.fusionauthority.com/quarterly/.

Note: This blog post is from 2006. 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.

IBATIS, at http://ibatis.apache.org/ is an alternative ORM approach based on a concept of SQL Maps, which in essence are simply SQL statements stored in XML files with a well-defined API for mapping and manipulating those in your app. The approach does not generate SQL for you, but rather is intended to serve as a means to segregate to XML files--and manage via an API--the SQL that may already exist substantially for existing apps or for new apps that may simply require some hand-coding of SQL. (The last sentence added after some comments suggest that this point made later in the post was missed.)

The benefit is that since CFML folks are already knee deep in SQL, it brings a measure of architecture without completely detaching them from the SQL they know and love (or at least tolerate).

If that sounds counter to other ORM approaches, which often generate the SQL automatically and/or intentionally hide it from you, that's because it is quite different. I'll grant that there are many who would benefit from having an architecture remove SQL from their control. It's just that this seems an alternative worth considering.

I certainly don't mean to knock at all the other CFML-based ORM implementations that exist already (such as Arf, ObjectBreeze, Transfer, and Reactor). Each approach has its place and pros/cons. As the other CFML-based ORM frameworks tend to be based on existing approaches from other platforms, I'm merely pointing out this alternative as a possibly useful model.

I'm also not offering here my own new CFML-based implementation based on IBATIS. But note that there are currently implementations for Java and .NET at the Apache site, so it shouldn't be tough for someone to leverage the Java implementation in CFML.

It strikes me that the IBATIS approach may be closer to the way fuseboxers and others segregate their queries into their own CFML file. Perhaps this approach of storing them in an XML file instead and using an API to access the results would offer a better though still somewhat familiar approach to abstracting queries.

I was sharing the idea with Sean Corfield at CFUnited last night, and he was intrigued. After I sat in on his excellent presentation on objects and persistence, we discussed it again and he had started looking into it overnight. Perhaps it could make it into FB 6? :-)

I'm hoping someone may want to take the ball and run with it. If you're intrigued, considering discussing it with Sean or take it on yourself, or just continue the conversation. Hope it proves helpful.

Note: This blog post is from 2006. 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.

That reminiscing got me thinking some thoughts that others might enjoy on the eve of CFUnited.

First, I'll say that I used to buy burgers at the "Gino's" that was near the spot where the conference hotel now stands. Here's a trivia question for my fellow long-time DC folks: do you know where Gino's (a burger chain now long gone) got it's name? I'm told it was Gino Marchetti from the Baltimore Colts. Wikipedia backs me up. :-)

Here's another: the large open air shopping center behind the hotel on Rockville Pike used to house a large Korvette's department store. Ever wonder about that name? I was told it was formed by some former KORean VETerans. :-)

I grew up skating at Congressional Roller Rink, which was also just up the road a mile (now long gone) in Rockville. It was the center of our lives for many of us, and a great, safe place to grow up. Well, we'd hop the train back and forth to either Rockville Mall or White Flint (which had just opened in the 70's), and I suppose that wasn't too safe. But we could find great old beer cans on the tracks--anyone else ever get into that collecting? Still have mine. I recently started a site to connect with others who may have skated/grown up at the rink, http://congressionalrollerrink.com. :-)

Moving forward a couple decades, those who have attended the Maryland CFUGs, where I used to speak often before moving to Atlanta, will know I've told the story that my ancestors farmed property just a mile away from the conference facility, across the street from where we used to hold the Maryland CFUGs on Parklawn Drive. In the 50's they sold the land and soon thereafter arose the big black Parklawn building.

One last bit of trivia, that few could answer: where and when was the first place I spoke to a CFUG audience? It wasn't the DC CFUG, run by FigLeaf, where I spoke often while I worked there in 1999-2000. It was the Maryland CFUG, back in Feb 1998. Sadly, the records of those early meetings are missing from the archives, but I have it at my old Systemanage site list of past presentations.

OK: one more piece of personal CFUnited trivia. Last year it was determined that only one person (other than Michael) had attended all the CFUnited events, back to when they were first called CFUN and held at the NIH facility. Um, guess who? :-)

If you have other fun CFUN/CFUnited memories or trivia, please do share.

/charlie

Note: This blog post is from 2006. 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.

As such, I'll point out that I'm speaking 3 times regarding 2 topics at CFUnited. That will be a great time to know you can find me, if you want to say hello. :-) Both talks are on web services, one beginner and one intermediate, and the beginner has been chosen by popular demand to be repeated on Saturday.

I'll welcome your feedback as well if you attend. Last year I was voted one of the top speakers, along with Glenda Vigoreaux and, I believe, someone else--I can't recall. We're supposed to get some form of recognition at this year's event, perhaps a special hotel room or something, so that will be fun. They think of such clever things, that Michael and Liz. :-)

I should note I'm also speaking at the CFUG Manager's event the day before, and I really look forward to saying hello to other CFUG Managers (I'm now presiding over the team who run the Atlanta CFUG).

Note: This blog post is from 2006. 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.

Have you ever assumed that for a file to be uploaded to CF, in a post to a CFM page, that that page needs a CFFILE Action="upload" in order to "receive" the file? It does NOT. Now, I'm being a bit technical here, but to be clear, the uploaded file will be "received" by CF, if posted to ANY CFM page whether that tag is there or not to "receive it". The point is that this uploaded file will be put in a temp directory, with a temp file name and extension, at least until the end of the request.

What the CFFILE Action="upload" does is just move the uploaded file from a temp directory to your named DESTINATION (as well as validate its type, report the file name, protect against or allow overwrites, and more, if you use the attributes on the tag for those features).

And if you do NOT process it, then that temp file will be removed at the end of the request (unless perhaps the request terminates unexpectedly).

Need proof? Want to learn more? Read on.

[....Continue Reading....]