Latest News from ColdFusion Developer's Journal

The Real Time Infrastructure Ultimatum

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:30:00 EST

As virtualization entered the data center it became an accidental standard bearer for network automation. The power of virtualization helped to drive a cultural (including x as a service) shift in expectations, just as Nicholas Carr was declaring war on traditional “old world” IT with the help of Google, Amazon and a host of other cloud (and not so cloud) players.

A New Medical Journal Search Tool from DeepDyve

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:30:00 EDT

A new search site is in beta called DeepDyve that has some promise. First, they claim that they index millions of medical papers from paid journals and free sites. The problem in the past is that this content wasn’t too readily available. Yes, there is Medline, but not a very user-friendly tool. Second, getting copies of the papers to read has never been easy, particularly for those of us in the lay community that don’t have medical center accounts or access to medical libraries.

Will Moore’s Law Find It’s Way to the Cloud?

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:30:00 EDT

Moore's Law states that computer system performance/price ratio will double every two years. And that was very much my expectation when Good Data started using Amazon Web Services almost 2 years ago. But I had to wait until today to see Moore’s Law at work: Amazon announced 15% drop of EC2 prices. The price of [...]

Adobe’s Aiming ColdFusion at Multiple Clouds

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 22:30:00 EDT

Adobe is nosing its flagship ColdFusion rapid web site and Internet application development platform onto multiple clouds. Turns out it's been quietly collaborating with Alagad, a North Carolina web development services provider, on a cloud implementation of ColdFusion 9. Adobe just released ColdFusion 9 on Monday. The cloud version of the stuff is still in private beta.

How to Attend Adobe MAX Conference for Cheap

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:00:00 EDT

Three years ago, I was calculating the cost of attending JavaOne conference. Thanks to the crisis, the conferences got cheaper, but arestill not affordable for many software developers. I’d like to offer you a legal way to get more than 80% off the registration price at Adobe MAX that will take place next week in Los Angeles. But you have to move fast! It’s easy: 1. Today: enroll into a cheapest class in your local community college to get a student ID. 2. Tomorrow: register for Adobe Max for $199 at the following Web page: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/edu/max2009/. 3. Sunday: arrive to LA.

Will Oracle Have to Fire Half of Sun?

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 07:15:00 EDT

The other day Sanford Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi, one of the brighter bulbs on Wall Street, toyed with the idea of Oracle walking away from the Sun deal. He figures it’s unlikely but he wondered if Oracle’s conviction level would waiver at all on its earnings call Wednesday. After all Sun’s recent pathetic financials – it reported a 31% drop in year-over-year revenue in the June quarter, including a 38% drop in product revenues – are going to make it nigh on to impossible for Oracle to wring its promised $1.5 billion in year-one accretion profits from the acquisition, he said, unless it cuts Sun’s workforce by over 50% or 15,000 souls.

B2B Website Back Door Optimization

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 09:30:00 EDT

Most companies pay a lot of attention to their homepage. But, with search results driving a majority of click through, what happens when your website visitors come in through the back door via an internal page? All of your web pages must establish context to keep your visitors from bouncing away in search of what they need.

The Benefits of the Layered PDF and the Amyuni PDF Creator

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 12:30:00 EDT

With the release of Acrobat 6 (PDF 1.5), Adobe introduced the concept of the layered PDF. A layered PDF contains optional content that can be displayed or hidden by its reader. A layered PDF is a document that was originally generated by software with layer-generating capabilities. For example, AutoCAD, CorelDraw, Adobe’s In Design, Photoshop, and Microsoft’s Visio are all capable of producing layered documents or files.

The Rise and Rise of E-Commerce

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 08:15:00 EDT

The growth of Web 2.0 has lead to far greater opportunities for such retail giants outside to the obvious sales growth. With more of us sharing personal information online through sites like Facebook, Linkedin, MeettheBoss and Xing, companies can monetize online investment through analyzing consumption patterns, behavioral targeting, cost effective online product testing and having direct contact with the consumer.

OpSource Unveils the ‘True Cloud’

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:00:00 EDT

To most who practice it, technology is a religion. So it will come as no surprise that one amongst us now claims to have discovered the “true Cloud,” the Cloud beyond simple development, the Cloud that brings us to the nirvana of serious application deployment and production via the cloud. OpSource, our modern day St. Helena, says the true Cloud, which it’s unveiling as we speak, combines the availability, flexibility and community of the consumer cloud with the more ineffable security, performance and control that the Fortune 1000 demand. Like any viable religion, it has a little something for everybody.

Hotfixes Now Available for ColdFusion and JRun

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:45:00 EDT

Critical vulnerabilities have been identified in ColdFusion v8.0.1 and earlier versions, and JRun 4.0. Adobe has now patched them with a Security Update released on August 17, 2009. Here are the details...

Know Your Flex Proxy

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 08:00:00 EDT

Flex framework includes a pretty useful object that deserves more attention: mx.util.ObjectProxy. You can wrap your object (i.e. Person) into this proxy which will obediently report on all changes that are happening to this instance of a person. If you subclass ObjectProxy, you can even add a new behavior to the wrapped object without touching a single line of its code.

VMware Still Limping from the Virtual Nail in its Reeboks

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 07:30:00 EDT

VMware picked up a nail in its sneakers in Q1 and was still limping in Q2 but now thinks things might get a bit better the rest of the year. It said Wednesday that its earnings in Q2 came to $33 million, or eight cents a share, down 36.5% year-over-year, on flat revenues of $456 million.

Fast Track to ColdFusion 8 Classes Added

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:00:00 EDT

On3 has some excellent ColdFusion Classes scheduled during the next few months to celebrate the grand opening of our new headquarters and training center location on the 16th Street mall in Denver. The new address starting on August 1st will be: Denver Petroleum Building, 110 16th St, Ste 604, Denver, CO 80202. Please drop by [...]

Will Corporate America Embrace the iPhone?

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:00:00 EDT

Apple is a “change” company. Look at their track record: Mac II, iMac, iPod and now the iPhone. What has not changed, however, is the view of Apple a company that delivers only consumer based products. Apple simply is not perceived as an Enterprise company. Apple is working to change this perception. It is a slow process but something came along to change the pace: the iPhone.

Adobe ColdFusion 9 and ColdFusion Builder Public Betas Now Available

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:00:00 EDT

Adobe announced the public betas of Adobe ColdFusion 9 and ColdFusion Builder software. ColdFusion 9, a powerful development technology for building dynamic Web sites and Internet applications, increases developer productivity, integrates with complex enterprise environments and delivers rich and interactive experiences for users. ColdFusion Builder is a new Eclipse based integrated development environment (IDE) used for rapidly developing ColdFusion applications.

Creating A New Business On The Internet: From Ground Zero to Cash Flow

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 05:00:00 EDT

You want to establish a new business on the Internet because of all the advantages you know exist with doing business exclusively on the Internet. This article starts with the concepts of the Internet black holes vs. conservative new Internet business creation and construction.

Social Media Terrorists

Tue, 26 May 2009 08:00:00 EDT

"Mass psychology" scientists study this kind of phenomena and the "mass psychology of fascism" is of course the most famous lab case. The extraordinary experience SYS-CON Media lived through became part of a Forbes Magazine investigative cover story called "Attack of the Blogs" that found that "Web logs are the prized platform of an online lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies, libel and invective. Their potent allies in this pursuit include Google and Yahoo." The lies, libel and invective we are living through today is another such episode. Our partners, readers and the industry in general know the facts and what's going on but in a rare example like the email below, we can't be sure if everyone is on the same page as the rest of us.

SOA World Expo: Virtualization-in-a-Box?

Fri, 08 May 2009 20:30:00 EDT

Earlier this month I attended the IBM Impact conference in Las Vegas. The core theme of Impact was "Smart SOA" and how cloud computing comes together in the enterprise, with the emphasis on private clouds. The core notion of private clouds for IBM is really about extending their experience in virtualization, which is vast, into the more modern world of cloud computing. They hope to sell some hardware and software in the process.

Learning Tree Announces Latest Addition to Adobe Curriculum

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:00:00 EDT

Learning Tree International has added a new course to its Adobe products-related curriculum entitled Adobe Flash: Developing Interactive Web Content. Over four days, an expert instructor will lead attendees through extensive hands-on exercises designed to provide in-depth experience creating and delivering Flash applications.

Ulitzer to Launch ColdFusion Developer's Journal 2.0

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:15:00 EST

Ulitzer to launch ColdFusion Developer's Journal 2.0. ColdFusion Developer's Journal was first launched 12 years ago. Ulitzer will bring more than 7,000 original CFDJ articles and ColdFusion authors from the archives to ColdFusion Developer's Journal 2.0 (http://coldfusion.ulitzer.com/).

Web Services Using ColdFusion and Apache CXF

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 21:59:00 EST

Since its emergence, Web Service technology has gone a long way towards perfecting itself and finding its right application in the real world. With the maturity of the specifications, Web Service technology, with its power of interoperability, is now the major enabling technology of SOA, which is being adopted by more and more enterprises to build their application integration infrastructure.

Adobe MAX 2008: Signing My MAX Speaker Agreement

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 05:30:00 EST

Reading conference speaker's agreements may reveal some interesting gems. Since I don't have a PR agent, I have to make the following public statement by myself: "I'm not going to damage anyone's reputation (including developers of PureMVC framework) for abuse of design patterns. I'm ready to buy a beer to any Adobe Flex team member who can convince me that LCDS is that much better than BlazeDS."

ColdFusion Developer's Journal Special: How to Prevent an SQL Injection Attack

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:00:00 EDT

SQL Injection attacks are one of the easiest ways to hack into a website. One recent hack, using a script from verynx.cn, involves injecting sql into a web form that then appends some JavaScript code into fields in a database that then gets executed on the client side when a user views a database-driven page.

AJAX & RIA Journal Special: Results of OpenAjax Alliance's Browser Feature Wish List

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 05:45:00 EDT

What does the AJAX community want from future browsers? How are these different requests prioritized? Web developers have done amazing things with AJAX for both Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 applications, but what barriers need to be removed to enable the next generation of browser-based innovations? The future of AJAX runtime environments matters more than ever today.

"AJAX Is Not About Eye Candy," Says Microsoft's Stagner at AJAXWorld Keynote

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 06:00:00 EDT

AJAX is about a rich user interface that is not just reactive but also pro-active; it's about content, perhaps socialized (user-generated) content; and it's about pain-free deployment, with loosely coupled services.

Food Dial, a Facebook RIA Application Written in Flex

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:45:00 EDT

Food Dial is not just a book of recipes. Here's the big idea - you came back home, tired and hungry. Start the Food Dial application and open the fridge. Here's the red pepper. Turn the dial with food categories...

Yahoo & Microsoft: Week 21

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 08:45:00 EDT

On Tuesday TechCrunch and CNet, based on the usual 'sources,' reported that talks between Yahoo and Microsoft were back on, stories that prevented Yahoo's desperate, bewildered, shuttlecock stock from dropping below the 20-dollar barrier and landing in the high teens where it was when Microsoft entered the picture on February 1. It was certainly headed in that direction.

Red Hat Numbers Up

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:30:00 EDT

Red Hat saw earnings rise 6.6% to $17.3 million, or eight cents a share in its first fiscal quarter ended May 31 on revenue up 32% year-over-year and 11% sequentially to $156.6 million. EPS was dead flat year-over-year. Subscription revenue was $130.7 million, up 27% year-over-year and up 7% sequentially. Training and services were up 64% to $25.9 million.

Novell Delivers Optimized SUSE Linux Enterprise Performance for VMware Virtualization Environments

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:30:00 EDT

Novell announced it is collaborating with VMware to improve Linux performance in VMware environments by incorporating support for the VMware Virtual Machine Interface (VMI) into the SUSE Linux Enterprise kernel. Demonstrating their commitment to provide open interoperability and optimization for virtualized environments, the companies have worked together to optimize SUSE Linux Enterprise for the VMware platform.

Power Panel: The Importance of Middleware and Data Services

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:45:00 EDT

A panel of experts and executives from organizations that are leading providers and consumers of technology will discuss trends and important technologies for enterprise and Internet computing. The experts will discuss the role of databases and database technology trends that enhance SOA and Web development. The session will also focus on preferred solutions for architecture and middleware to enable applications and services to access data from SQL and other data sources.

VirtenSys Demonstrates PCI Express Based I/O Virtualization

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:45:00 EDT

VirtenSys has developed a PCI Express based I/O technology that virtualizes and shares off-the-shelf I/O adapters among multiple physical servers without the need for adapter, device driver, or server modifications. This technology is a critical capability that will accelerate adoption of the VirtenSys PCI Express I/O virtualization products. The cost effective VirtenSys products improve I/O utilization to greater than 80 percent; enhance throughput, and reduce I/O cost and power consumption by as much as 50 percent. The products also simplify data center management by dynamically allocating, sharing, and migrating I/O resources among servers without physical re-configuration, resulting in reduced Operational Expenses (OpEx).

Don't Let Inefficient Data Access Undermine Your Virtualization Goals

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:45:00 EDT

Data center architects naturally seek to employ server virtualization to maximize the use of their hardware systems. An often overlooked factor that can undermine this goal is data connectivity. 75 to 95 percent of the response time now associated with database access can often be attributed to the data connectivity layer - and that's using traditional, non-virtualized servers. Running multiple virtual servers on a single machine can introduce additional complications involving data access. This presentation will examine the importance of data connectivity in a virtualized environment, and the need to take an intelligent approach to data access in order to truly reap the benefit of a virtualization strategy.

Cloud Computing: rBuilder Delivers Scientific Applications as Virtual Appliances

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 11:15:00 EDT

rPath announced that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) have been using rBuilder to deliver virtual appliances to both scientists' desktops and computational clouds. The use of rBuilder in these environments reduces the effort required to support users and allows researchers to take advantage of underutilized computational resources.

Avoiding a SOA Fiasco: An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure

Thu, 29 May 2008 14:30:00 EDT

While SOA can deliver dramatic cost reduction of an organization's business operations, it is a complex, multidisciplinary undertaking, and therefore introduces significant risk. This session presents a list of the most important risk factors and ways to mitigate them BEFORE it is too late. The session will be of interest to anyone planning an SOA initiative, primarily CIOs, Technical Managers, Project Directors and Technical Architects.

A Lightweight Approach to SOA and BPM in Java Using jBPM

Thu, 29 May 2008 14:00:00 EDT

SOA is mostly associated with technologies such as BPEL, SCA and Web Services. But does SOA really imply these technologies? In this session we will show how you can use the service oriented approach while staying inside the Java world. jBPM is a powerful lightweight framework that can be used to orchestrate services in the broadest sense. It is highly extendable, very versatile and can be easily embedded in client and/or server applications. Attendees will learn how jBPM can be used in a pure workflow scenario as well as in a situation involving automated business steps.

CEP - the Secret Weapon for SOA Application Performance Management

Thu, 29 May 2008 13:00:00 EDT

Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) can deliver tremendous value in flexibility, adaptability and cost savings. But SOA environments are complex by definition, with lots of loosely coupled components and a potentially vast combination of platforms, software, databases, applications and networks. One of the biggest challenges inherent in realizing the benefits of SOA is effectively managing all of these diverse components to ensure the high availability and performance of the applications running in them to meet crucial Service Level Agreements (SLAs). This session will explore Complex Event Processing (CEP) engines and offer practical insights into how CEP can be leveraged to enable rapid real-time problem correction and predictive problem prevention that is vital to successful SOA implementations.

Ruby on Rails 2.1 is Very Close

Wed, 28 May 2008 14:30:00 EDT

Nearly four years after its initial release, Ruby on Rails is edging ever closer to version 2.1. Rails 0.5 was released June 24 of 2004, and its creator David Heinemeier Hansson hopes that v2.1, currently in release candidate state, will be out any moment. 'We've been adding a ton of extra deliciously nice goodies in preparation of its release,' blogged Heinemeier Hansson just last month.

Can Windows Save OLPC?

Fri, 23 May 2008 14:00:00 EDT

Despite hisses and boos from the open source side of the house One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is now officially soldered at the hip to Microsoft. Its novel XO laptop is supposed to go to trials in a half-dozen developing countries next month fitted with XP and a student version of Office and it expects to have a dual-boot Windows-Red Hat version ready by October.

Microsoft to Support ODF in Office 2007 Service Pack 2

Fri, 23 May 2008 13:45:00 EDT

Office will support the Open Document Format (ODF) 1.1 format when Office 2007 Service Pack 2 arrives in the first half of 2009. Microsoft said users will be able to open, edit and save documents in ODF from directly inside Office application without having to install any other code. That means no more translators. They will even be able to set ODF as the default.

Neocleus Enters the $1.8b Desktop Virtualization Market

Fri, 23 May 2008 13:30:00 EDT

Neocleus announced a suite of trusted virtual solutions for endpoints such as desktops and laptops. The solution, Neocleus Trusted Edge, provides the means for employees, partners and customers to connect to corporate resources from any endpoint regardless of its state of security. Neocleus Trusted Edge is also a solution to come to market leveraging Neocleus' hypervisor open source contributions which include enhancements the company made to the Xen Hypervisor to work directly on endpoints.

Viewpoint: Not Every ColdFusion Developer Should Be A Flex Developer

Fri, 16 May 2008 11:45:00 EDT

I am going to go ahead and contend that although a good number of ColdFusion developers can grasp and understand Flex very well, there are also a good number of ColdFusion developers who have no business going anywhere near Flex. Why do I say this? I am a big fan of Flex. I use it daily to create, what I think are, some kick-ass applications. It is a powerful tool that really changes the game on the web and the desktop. That being said, it is not a tool that every ColdFusion developer can grasp.

Building an IM Bot Using ColdFusion

Wed, 07 May 2008 13:45:00 EDT

I recently brought a Google Talk bot that I put online at cfdocs@gmail.com. Google Talk users can add this user to their buddy list and then submit CFML tag and function lookups to it. (I've also brought Yahoo IM and AIM versions online as nickname cflivedocs, but more on those shortly). In this column I'll explain exactly what the IM bot is and what it does, and show you how to easily create a bot of your own.

Improve Your Coding Smarts with ColdFusion

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 07:45:00 EDT

If you read CF-related blogs, you've undoubtedly stumbled upon discussions of seemingly arcane subjects like continuations or closures or first-class objects or absence of side effects. It's likely bloggers have tracked down the source - some would say fount - of such concepts and you'll find them waxing eloquent. As they should.

"ColdFusion Killer" BlueDragon Open Source Launch Date Announced

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 23:15:00 EDT

The wait is coming to an end. We are working feverishly to get the open source version of BlueDragon into the wild on the 3rd of May 2008 at cf.Objective(), when Vince presents his BOF. Vince will illustrate the first public open source version of BlueDragon. This will including the building of it, the deployment and other items of interest. If you want to be among the first to witness this, then get over there.

ColdFusion Language to be Commoditized on Java Platform

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 09:15:00 EDT

New Atlanta will be creating and distributing a free open-source Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) version of BlueDragon, its ColdFusion-compatible web application server. It will be released under the popular GPL license, mirroring the licensing path chosen by MySQL and Java. BlueDragon has been around for nearly a decade now.

Task Portfolio Software Created Using ColdFusion 7

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 17:15:00 EST

Bolling Technology has announced that the Cordish Company is the first major client for its new online task management software product, Task Portfolio. Invented by owner and Baltimore native Raynard T. Bolling, Task Portfolio is an enterprise level, web-based task management tool that gives managers and employees the ability to efficiently assign and track tasks throughout their organizations. Task Portfolio can be used to manage various tasks in any company or industry.

Master Building Rich User Interfaces in Dreamweaver

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 09:45:00 EST

Web application developers and designers often give up on building rich, interactive user interfaces because they lack the JavaScript skills to make it happen. AJAX development power tools--including Dreamweaver, Spry and off-the-shelf AJAX components--make it easy to build rich user interfaces in AJAX with no JavaScript coding. Andre Charland will demonstrate how to install, set up and configure extensions to Dreamweaver, and will use them to build simple, rich interface AJAX apps. After this session, even beginner developers will be able to add AJAX interactions to web applications. This session is a must for ambitious, novice and intermediate designers anxious to use AJAX in their applications.

Microsoft's Office Chief To Retire; Replaced by Macromedia CEO During Adobe's Acquisition

Sat, 12 Jan 2008 14:45:00 EST

Microsoft disclosed late Thursday that Jeff Raikes, the head of its Office operation, second only to Windows in bringing in revenue, was retiring and will be replaced by Stephen Elop, 44, Jupiter Networks' short-term COO. Before Jupiter, Elop was president of worldwide field operations at Adobe by virtue of Adobe's 2005 acquisition of Macromedia, where he was president and CEO. Elop also has experience as a chief information officer. The plan is for Raikes, 49, to hang around until September as a backstop as a member of the senior leadership team for purposes of transition.

Customers Embrace CommonSpot Version 5.0

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 11:00:00 EST

PaperThin, Inc. announced that four customers have recently gone live on CommonSpot Version 5.0, including: LeSea Broadcasting, Ping Identity, Tulane University, and Tuthill Corporation. In addition, 30 customers are currently implementing the new solution which is being widely embraced for its inherent ease-of-use and improved flexibility.