CF.Objective() Conference in Melbourne, Australia

About 12 months ago Mark Mandel approached me and other ColdFusion User Group Managers to see if we would be interested in helping him bring CF.Objective() to Australia. I thought this was a brilliant idea and was happy to do what I could to make this happen. So very quickly a committee of keen Australians and CF.Objective() owners was formed. Then a stray Kiwi made his way into the group and cf.Objective(ANZ) was off the ground.

Adobe came on board as the main sponsor, and committed to sending some speakers. Then very quickly speakers from all over the world signed up to become speakers.

Lots of activities have been happening to make this conference come to life, and today we released the program for cf.Objective(ANZ). Find out more about cf.bjective(ANZ) here and make sure you follow cf.Objective(ANZ) on Twitter for the latest updates.

Thanks to every one on the committee for making this happen, and thanks to cf.Objective() for bringing the conference to Australia.

So, get out your magic marker and draw a big circle around 12th and 13th of November 2009, and start looking for cheap flights to Melbourne. I have got a flight home already - now to organise getting there.

0 comments - Posted by AJ Mercer at 2:20 PM - Categories: CFML

Time to get serious with frameworks

I have been taking a look at Framework One and it has motivated me again to learn OO development for ColdFusion. A part of this learning is to investigate Transfer ORM as well.

But like all good projects, it starts off with a bit of procrastination. So I have updated Railo to 3.1.0.26 and MangoBlog to 3.1. Now that is out of the way, time to get stuck in.

Hmmm, maybe some lunch first ...

13:37 Transfer tBlog seems to be running fine

0 comments - Posted by AJ Mercer at 1:14 PM - Categories: Railo | CFML

A CFML framework for the rest of us

I have been looking at a number of frameworks for awhile but have found them to be either:

• too complex / hard to get my head around
• seem like overkill for the applications I build
• have too much plumbing for my liking

and on some occasions all of the above.

Sean Corfield (Mr Frameworks) is currently working on something that I think is going to suit me nicely - FW/1. Introducing Framework One will tell you all about it.

It is a conventions based framework, like cfWheels, that does not need a lot of configuration to get started. Something that I really like is you can start your site off with just views (and layouts), and then add controllers and services in later. This means you can have a site up and running very quickly; no messing around with plumbing / listeners / general OO headaches.

Conventions and auto-wiring feels a little like black magic at first, but once you understand the rules (FW/1 documentation is really good and there are plenty of example apps), it is a joy to work with.

And for a single file framework (one CFC of about 400 lines), it is no light-weight in terms of functionality; full MVC and hooks to popular bean factories like ColdSpring. It currently runs on ColdFusion, Railo and soon Open BlueDragon.

3 comments - Posted by AJ Mercer at 5:16 PM - Categories: Railo | ColdFusion | CFML

Population PDF Forms with ColdFusion 8

Now that Adobe owns ColdFusion, a lot of PDF functionality has been added to CF8. Amongst that is the ability to populate PDF Forms. This means you can pre-populate forms for clients / members - how many times have you had to fill out a form and think to yourself, 'they already know this stuff!!'

The client / member can then update any info if required. With the proper licencing, you can save the data in the PDF, or have the PDF submit the data back to the web server.

Recently I was given the job of reproducing Contract Notes for clients. The origion is produced by printing the data onto stationary; but as the client wont have the sationary, this is not going to work. No drama for me, I am a CF developer :-)

The first think I did was to open up the PDF in Adobe Acrobat and add fields to the document to create the PDF form. This document is not to be alter by the client so licencing was not an issue. In fact, I get ColdFusion to flatten the file after it is populated so the client can not modify that data and then print it.

In previous of CF, you would hvae to use CFPDF to read the document, then other CF tags to get the fields and poplaute and bluh bluh bluh - doesn't matter any more cos CF8 simplifies all that with a new tag - CFPDFFORM and it's buddy CFPDFFORMPARAM

<cfpdfform source="#pdfPath##pdfDoc#"
                 destination="#pdfPath##pdfTemp#"
                 action="populate"
                 overwrite="yes" >
    <cfpdfformparam name="Branch" value="#qryCnote.BranchName#" />
    <cfpdfformparam name="Advisor" value="#qryCnote.AdvisorName#" />
</cfpdfform>

Just add a CFPDFFORMPARAM for each form field and give it a value <hand in the air and shout> 'Clear!'

And to get rid of the form fields, just use the flatten attributes.

<cfpdf action="write"
           source="#pdfPath##pdfTemp#"
           destination="#pdfPath##pdfTemp#"
           flatten="yes"
           overwrite="yes" />

And finally, push it back to the browser

<cfheader NAME='Content-Disposition'
               VALUE='attachment;filename=#saveAsName#' />
<cfheader name="cache-control" value="" />
<cfheader name="pragma" value="" />

<cftry>
    <cfcontent type="application/pdf"
                    file="#pdfPath##pdfTemp#"
                    deletefile="yes"

                    reset="yes" />
    <cfcatch>
    <!--- prevent unnecessary log entries when user
           cancels download whilst it is in progress
    --->
    </cfcatch>
</cftry>

Posted by AJ Mercer at 3:48 PM - Categories: ColdFusion | CFML

Railo 3.1 Open Source is here

The beta of Railo 3.1, the Open Source version, was released to day. I will update this blog entry once I have had a little play with this much anticipated release. One of the first things I will be checking out is the Extention Manager - download and install application from the Railo Administrator. Gert has been letting a few sneak peeks slip out that makes me think I will not be getting much sleep tonight (2am release in Perth).

Along with the engine, new web sites too.

• Railo Services and Support
• Railo Community

If you want to know more about Railo, and will be in Sydney in May (21-22), make sure you see Gert Franz at webDU 2009.

I am offcially a Railo Fan - it says so right on their site ;-)

Posted by AJ Mercer at 2:00 AM - Categories: Railo | ColdFusion | CFML

webDU 2009

I am all booked in for another trip to Sydney, this time the familiy is coming as well. Fly in Wednesday lunch, check in, then on the ferry to Manly. If there is time will try and swing by Bondi too. We are planning on going to the Aqaurium one night.

Then two days for ColdFusion and web goodness for me while the family hits the Sydney town. Looking foward to catching up with CF buddies and finally get to meet Gert Franz.

After that it is off to the Blue Mountains for the weekend. Then one more look around Sydney before flying home Monday afternoon.

0 comments - Posted by AJ Mercer at 2:37 PM - Categories: Railo | Family Life | ColdFusion | CFML

New ColdFusion Podcast

Posted by Webonix at 8:57 PM - Categories: Railo | ColdFusion | CFML | CFUGWA