Fuse Developments : Chronicles of a Developer

ColdFusion 9 Performance Brief Released!

2010-02-24T21:20:00.000-05:00

Why repeat what you will eventually read. The Quick and Dirty truth .... It is way, way, way faster than before.

Use the following link to download it now!

After that ... UPGRADE YOUR COLDFUSION SERVERS!!!!

New Beta of Google Chrome for Mac now Available!!!

2010-02-11T12:57:00.000-05:00

Google just released a new beta of the Google Chrome for Mac! This new beta adds several new features like extensions and bookmark syncing that was left out of the initial beta release.

I am excited and you should be too, this is a great browser and you should give it a try.

Click here to get Google Chrome

If you are on a PC and are still using IE, especially 6, get a brain and start using a real browser like firefox and/or google chrome.

Output SQL Data to XML easily

2010-01-20T16:07:00.001-05:00

So today I needed to output data to XML at my job and rather than going the traditional way of creating a ColdFusion file to query and output the data I decided to see if I could just do it in MSSQL. Well, appears there is by using the "for XML" clause. There is a lot to learn from it and the docs are available in the following links.

SQL Server 2000 XML
What's New in FOR XML for SQL 2005
What's New in FOR XML for SQL 2008 White Paper
I think this white-paper explains the difference between SQL versions the best.

What I will do here is just explain some of the basics so you can go ahead and do as you please from here on. For my examples I will use the AdventureWorks default database but you can easily modify the SQL I have to your own and play with the results.

There are several ways to get XML output based on the XML Mode used, the following are available.

RAW
The RAW mode takes the query result and transforms each row in the result set into an XML element with a generic identifier row as the element tag and the columns in the SELECT as attributes.
AUTO The AUTO mode returns query results in a simple, nested XML tree.
EXPLICIT (I DO NOT DEMO THIS ONE)
In EXPLICIT mode, you can explicitly define the shape of the resulting XML tree. Using this mode requires that the queries be written in a specific way, so that additional information about the desired nesting is specified explicitly as part of the query. The reason I don't demo this one is because of the new PATH mode in SQL 2005+, if you are still in 2000 and need to write complex XML docs then I suggest you look up this mode.
PATH (SQL 2005+)
A simple way to generate complex XML documents rather than explicit.

The examples are as follows

Using for XML AUTO
Using for XML PATH
Using for XML PATH('path'),ROOT('root')
Using for XML PATH('path'),ROOT('root') and making the contactID column an attribute
Using for XML RAW('path'),ROOT('root')

Using for XML AUTO Returns this

Using for XML PATH Returns this

Using for XML PATH('path'),ROOT('root')
Here we add a root node and a cutom name for each row by defining the path value. Returns this

Using for XML PATH('path'),ROOT('root') and making the contactID column an attribute
Here we add a root node and a custom name for each row by defining the path value. Returns this

Using for XML RAW('path'),ROOT('root'), ELEMENTS XSINIL
This is the same as PATH it just returns the parent node with the XML Namespace. The ELEMENTS directive provides an XSINIL option to map NULL values to an element with an attribute xsi:nil="true". Returns this

In conclusion

When working with this data you can either render your results to text and/or grid. I prefered grid because the results are essentially a link that opens the xml document which then you can either copy and paste or save to your hard drive.

Some books to consider ....

Beginning SQL Server 2008 for Developers: From Novice to Professional
SQL Server 2008, Developer Edition
Murach's SQL Server 2008 for Developers (Murach: Training & Reference)

Maximixe Google Chrome on a Mac

2010-01-12T21:58:00.005-05:00

So today I was playing with Google Chrome on my mac and have decided to make it my default browser for "Browsing the Internet". I say that because I will still use Firefox as my main browser for "Development Debugging" and of course like any other web developer I am forced to continue to support IE 6+, so for that I use Parallels and test on my VM.

Anyways, enough for the introduction to this post. Basically one thing I did not like about Google Chrome was that I could not maximize the window to my full screen size, well at least until now. I first tried using the default Mac option of clicking the green button on the window with the option key held down but that didn't work. All that did was maximize the window to the content within. So what is the answer you may ask?

Shift+Green Button

Yeap that is it, that will maximize your window to your full screen size. If this post was useful, let me know by leaving me a comment below.

Woo Hoo!!! I got Google Voice!!!!

2010-01-12T21:55:00.002-05:00

So as the tile of my post says, I finally got my Google Voice invitation. You will notice now a "Call Me" widget on the right hand side of my blog. So go ahead and call me and leave me a message if you need to get in touch with me. I've opted to send it directly to voice mail for now but from time to time I may be picking it up.

Easy Code Syntax in Blog.

2010-01-04T15:31:00.002-05:00

In order to prepare to write code on this blog, I decided to go ahead and see how the code syntax plugins worked and I found one called SyntaxHighlighter by Alex Gorbatchev. So this is my test post. The following post by Carter Cole explains how to install and use.

Jumsoft Products and Coupon Code

2010-01-02T21:08:00.009-05:00

Since it is the beginning of the new year I was set on finding a finance application to use on my mac. I've been a Microsoft Money user for over 5 years now and it was one of the last applications that I hung on to as a PC user. This past year I read somewhere that MS will no longer continue to develop and eventually support that application so I thought to myself if there was a better time to move it would be now, so my search began.

I checked a couple of applications and I just did not like the UI or the price was ridiculous until I ran into Money3 by Jumsoft. They got it right, at least in my opinion. The UI is great, the price is great and the accompanying iPhone app ... well great for my needs. There are a couple of things I wish it could do or maybe I just haven't played with it enough but they are as follows.

Check Printing
Apply payments to invoices as deposits to accounts

That's about it and as far as the check printing, a rep told me that there is a big update coming soon and that will most likely be part of it.

Anyways, enough of that, I think they have great products that any person using a mac should take a look at, so go ahead and check them out by clicking here. Now the little extra that I found out today by playing on their store. Pick any product(s) and in the coupon code field in your cart, type "APPLE" and you will get 50% off your purchase. Now I do not guarantee this or how long it will last but it was a discovery I made so here I am to share with you. Hopefully someone found this helpful and if so let me know.

Learning Objective-C and getting back to this ....

2010-01-02T14:12:00.001-05:00

Ok, so as anyone who has landed here before already knows I don't post much, but one of my New Year Resolutions is to be a little more proactive with what I do. First a little update on me. I still have Fuse Developments up an running but at the same time I am the Senior ColdFusion Developer at Jobsite123.com LLC. I currently work with a great team of guys and I am learning new things everyday.

Finally after all these years I am using the ColdBox Framework, even though I was at Sandals back in the day when Luis and his colleagues decided to create this amazing framework I never got around to actually using it. Now that I have, I don't see myself doing any new projects without it. Also, I've noticed a lot of CF Bloggers love to use JQuery but I am a Prototype user by heart and I will make my best effort to write some tutorials about using this great JavaScript Framework along with it's companion animation suite, Scriptaculous.

One of the main reasons I don't blog much is my terrible grammar skills, which many of you will eventually experience. Maybe this will help me become a better writer/communicator ... we'll see. Also, I am self taught and sometimes I think I don't have much to offer but since my new job, I've realized that everyone always has something to offer and here goes my attempt.

So to summarize this is what I do, what I am learning and what I will be posting about in the near future.

ColdFusion
Expect version 8 and 9 tutorials and goodies.
JavaScript
Expect tutorials on using Prototype and Scriptaculous.
CSSExpect tutorials on using css to create better layouts and leaving those nasty nested tables behind.
Objective-C and Cocoa (Cocoa Touch)Yes after being a member for over a year I am finally taking the time to learn how to create Mac and iPhone applications and I may post things that I learn here.

That's pretty much it .... ohh and Happy New Year!!!!!

ColdFusion 8 and Apache Derby - Create and Drop Tables and Views

2007-08-05T22:31:00.001-04:00

So today I decided to mess with the Embedded Derby Database in ColdFusion 8. I wanted to figure out how to check for table and view existence and how to create tables and views. So below I will explain how I did it along with my test code at then end.

OK, so first we have to create the new database, which is very easy as explained by Ben Forta in his Blog. The only thing it is actually easier because the final release does have the create checkbox so you do not have to add create=true to the advanced settings string.(Pictured Below)

Once you complete the steps above, your database is ready to use. So now we create some tables and views. First, I wanted to check the existence of tables and views so I can drop items if they exists. This is easy now with the new <cfdbinfo> tag, which lets you retrieve information about a data source, including details about the database, tables, queries, procedures, foreign keys, indexes, and version information about the database, driver, and JDBC. (info on cfdocs).

I then use the results to check if the tables I want to create currently exists, good practice as you are building your DB, because if you try to create a table that already exists the process will break. So therefore, I save the results to a list that I later use to check for existence (I wanted to just use ListFind rather then write a query of a query everytime I wanted to check). After that, I just used SQL code to create my tables and views. To find out more about Apache Derby go to Apache Derby Docs, I used the manuals to see how the CREATE STATEMENTS had to be formed.

I believe the code below explains it all. Now there is no more need for Access Databases for small projects, Woo Hoo!!!!! I included an image of the output after the code ....


<!--- Use cfdbinfo to get the tables of the database --->

<cfdbinfo type="tables" datasource="myDerbyDB" name="dbdata">

<!--- Check if USERS table exists --->

<cfquery name="tableExists" dbtype="query">SELECT * FROM dbdata WHERE TABLE_TYPE='TABLE'</cfquery>

<cfquery name="viewExists" dbtype="query">SELECT * FROM dbdata WHERE TABLE_TYPE='VIEW'</cfquery>

<cfscript>

 // Save results into list values to check for existance

 tables=valueList(tableExists.TABLE_NAME);

 views=valueList(viewExists.TABLE_NAME);

</cfscript>

<!--- Drop Views First Due to Dependency Check --->

<cfif listFindNoCase(views,'VIEW_CARS_RELATED')>

 <cfquery name="dropView1" datasource="myDerbyDB">DROP VIEW VIEW_CARS_RELATED</cfquery>

</cfif>

<cfif listFindNoCase(views,'VIEW_CARS_ALL')>
 <cfquery name="dropView1" datasource="myDerbyDB">DROP VIEW VIEW_CARS_ALL</cfquery>

</cfif>

<!--- Drop Tables if exists --->

<cfif listFindNoCase(tables,'CARS')>

 <cfquery name="dropTables" datasource="myDerbyDB">DROP TABLE CARS</cfquery>

</cfif>

<cfif listFindNoCase(tables,'COMPANY')>

 <cfquery name="dropTables" datasource="myDerbyDB">DROP TABLE COMPANY</cfquery>

</cfif>

<!--- Create Tables --->

<cfquery name="createTables1" datasource="myDerbyDB">

 CREATE TABLE CARS

 (

    CARID INT NOT NULL GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY( START WITH 1,INCREMENT BY 1),

  COMPANYID INT NOT NULL,

    CARNAME  VARCHAR(100),

    PRIMARY KEY (CARID)

 ) 

</cfquery>

<cfquery name="createTables2" datasource="myDerbyDB">

 CREATE TABLE COMPANY

 (

    COMPANYID INT NOT NULL GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY( START WITH 1,INCREMENT BY 1),

    COMPANYNAME  VARCHAR(100),

    PRIMARY KEY (COMPANYID)

 ) 

</cfquery>

<!--- Create Views --->

<cfquery name="createView1" datasource="myDerbyDB">

 CREATE VIEW VIEW_CARS_RELATED

 AS

 SELECT CARS.CARID,CARS.CARNAME,COMPANY.COMPANYNAME

 FROM CARS

  INNER JOIN COMPANY ON COMPANY.COMPANYID=CARS.COMPANYID

</cfquery>

<cfquery name="createView2" datasource="myDerbyDB">

 CREATE VIEW VIEW_CARS_ALL

 AS

 SELECT CARS.CARID,CARS.CARNAME,COMPANY.COMPANYNAME

 FROM CARS

  LEFT OUTER JOIN COMPANY ON COMPANY.COMPANYID=CARS.COMPANYID

</cfquery>

<!--- Loop to create the first 10 cars --->

<cfloop from="1" to="10" index="i">

 <cfquery  name="insertCars" datasource="myDerbyDB">

  INSERT INTO CARS (COMPANYID,CARNAME) VALUES (#i#,'CAR_#i#') 

 </cfquery>

</cfloop>

<!--- Loop to create the first 10 companies --->

<cfloop from="1" to="10" index="i">

 <cfquery  name="insertCompanies" datasource="myDerbyDB">

  INSERT INTO COMPANY (COMPANYNAME) VALUES ('COMPANY_#i#')
 
 </cfquery>

</cfloop>

<!--- Add one more record without relation to a company --->

<cfquery name="insertCar" datasource="myDerbyDB">

  INSERT INTO CARS (COMPANYID,CARNAME) VALUES (0,'CAR_11') 

</cfquery>

<!--- Get Cars with Companies --->

<cfquery name="getCars1" datasource="myDerbyDB">SELECT * FROM  VIEW_CARS_RELATED</cfquery>

<cfquery name="getCars2" datasource="myDerbyDB">SELECT * FROM  VIEW_CARS_ALL</cfquery>

<!--- Dump the queries --->

<cfdump var="#getCars1#">

<cfdump var="#getCars2#">

Sirius Player For Mac!

2007-07-21T15:19:00.001-04:00

So today I was browsing thru the apple downloads section and found SiriusMac, which is a slick easy to use Radio Interface that streams Sirius Radio to your mac and it is Free! This is great because normally, I have to open up a browser, navigate to the sirius site, select the player (I have a bookmark but still), login then select the station and there you go. I know it is not much but it is still tedious. I wrote a blog entry on this too because they stream using windows media on their site that didn't work well with my Mac which required me to get Flip4Mac WMV (another great application) and firefox would always send me an alert about a missing plug-in - drove me crazy. As far as Safari, it didn't work great either, sometimes the player would reposition itself - crazy. So lately, I started bringing up Sirius on my PC via parallels, as I always have it on while developing (so imaging the steps just to hear Sirius on my Mac).

This player is great, just go thru the simple set up and bam! You got Sirius radio on your mac (Sirius Subscription Required). I love it! I suggest if you use this app and really appreciate what they've done, that a small donation is made, they deserve it!

The application, I believe was built using python.

To get it just go to the following links...

Apple Downloads

or

SiriusMac Site

Until next time ...

UPDATE: SiriusMac is programmed entirely in AppleScript Studio.

iTunes Store Album Browser Window function in HTML

2007-06-28T17:23:00.000-04:00

Ok so I had a hard time figuring what to call this entry, so if I confuse many of you I apologize, but I did warn before that I am not a great writer. The reason for this entry is for a feature I was asked to do not to long ago and failed miserably at. The feature was to create a scroll area that was similar to iTunes album browse interface (pictured below).

Basically you have a content area that displays a certain amount of items and when you click on either the left or right arrow all the contents shift to show the new ones. This is easy to do in Flash, but I needed an HTML equivalent of it as this site was not in Flash. So first I set out to define the divs that would encompass this feature (picture below).

So what exactly is this above? Let me explain. The entire viewable area is what I defined as "frame" this will hold all the child elements such as the left and right buttons, the scrollable area ("scroller") and the content area ("scrollcontent"). Once this was set up I decided to use my favorite animation library (script.aculo.us) and javascript framework (prototype).

My first attempt I used was with the "Photoshop Masking" mentality. Basically, the scroller div would be a defined width div with overflow set as hidden and the content area would be wider child div displaying the content. The scroller div would act as the mask as I move the content area x position. This first attempt worked great on all browsers expect for GUESS WHO!? Yeap, IE. Every time I would call the animation the child div would go to the top level and the masking of the parent div would no longer be active. This only happened in IE and at the time I could not figure out why so I decided to go with another way to display the data. Of course, this drove me crazy and I needed to make it work, so eventually I ran into the "Panic - Coda" website, where they had implemented this exact feature. I needed to know how they did this, so I decided to inspect their javascript files.

I am not going to explain exactly how they did it all, instead I decided to take it to the simplest form. The example I created will allow you to go left and right with the arrows until you reach the beginning or end of which at that point the arrow that represents further scrolling will disappear (this is not available in theirs). Inspecting their files taught me the following.

ScrollLeft: gets or sets the number of pixels that an element's content is scrolled to the left. This is what makes this possible as it can be used in divs where there is an overflow, even if it is set to hidden. There is also a ScrollTop property if you want to scroll vertically.
The use of Robert Penner's Easing Equations, the source is in actionScript but is easily implemented as JavaScript functions/
The use of setInterval in javascript - I had no clue, just like actionScript

Compared to my first draft, this new one actually never moves the position of the scroll content div, instead it changes the scroll position of the scroller div. This now works in all browsers! Yeah!

In the end I created 2 examples, one implemented by using part of Panic's Coda Website javascript functions (again simplified) and the second one using the Yahoo UI Library. I know I said I favored script.aculo.us but in the end I am a Coldfusion Developer and by what I heard some of the new ajax functions are using this library, so why not take it for a spin. I have to say the Yahoo UI Library is pretty freaking slick. Anyways, click below to view the example, the source files do good of explaining how everything works but if anyone needs help understanding just let me know and I will clarify.

Click to view Examples

Until next time ...

URL Rewrite FOR IIS with RegEx support and it isFREE!!!

2007-06-18T21:02:00.000-04:00

Well, as I was learning how to do SES (Search Engine Safe) URLs with Coldfusion and IIS , I learned that CF had a built in feature that allowed you to do this. The only problem was that it still required you to have the *.cfm file in your address and your variables/values following separated by "/" rather than the default url patterns.

ie. http://mysite.com/index.cfm/myVariable/itsValue/
translates to
http://mysite.com/index.cfm?myVariable=itsValue

Honestly, this was fine for me, but I wanted to have the ability to rewrite URLs outside of Coldfusion, like Apache's mod_rewrite, which in turn would allow me to create true pretty URLS.

ie. http://mysite.com/theValue/
translates to
http://mysite.com/index.cfm?theVariable=theValue

I did some research online regarding ISAPI filters for IIS but most lacked Regular Expression Support unless you were willing to fork out some extra money for paid for versions. Then, Ray Camden introduced me to IIRF (Ionic's ISAPI Rewrite Filter), a small, cheap, easy to use, URL rewriting ISAPI filter that combines a good price (free!) with good features.

This product is amazing, not only because of price (I did mention it was free right?) but implementation is easy. Their directions are thorough and supply enough examples that you will be up and running in minutes. Thanks for the info Ray!

Click here to go to Ionic's Site

Until next time ...

SES Not Enabled in CF8 by Default

2007-06-18T20:01:00.000-04:00

This is a follow up for my previous post regarding the ability to create SES (Search Engine Safe) URLs with Coldfusion. If you are using the beta version of Coldfusion 8 (aka: Scorpio), these setting are not on by default. You will have to open up your web.xml file and make uncomment the following lines;

<!-- begin SES --->
  <servlet-mapping id="coldfusion_mapping_6">
     <servlet-name>CfmServlet</servlet-name>
     <url-pattern>*.cfml/*</url-pattern>
  </servlet-mapping>
  <servlet-mapping id="coldfusion_mapping_7">
    <servlet-name>CfmServlet</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>*.cfm/*</url-pattern>
  </servlet-mapping>
  <servlet-mapping id="coldfusion_mapping_8">
    <servlet-name>CFCServlet</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>*.cfc/*</url-pattern>
  </servlet-mapping>
<!--- end SES -->

You will also notice that the mappings are now called "coldfusion_mapping_#" rather than "macromedia_mapping_#" as noted in the adobe tech note : ColdFusion MX 7 and Search Engine Safe (SES) URLs You can find the web.xml in one of the two places:

Standalone Install:cf_root\wwwroot\WEB-INF
EAR\WAR installation:application root\cfusion-ear\cfusion-war\WEB-INF

Remember you must restart your server to have the changes take place.

Until next time ...

Changing From CF8 to CF7 on the Fly with IIS

2007-06-16T16:34:00.000-04:00

Hello again, this is a follow up to my previous post on installing CF8 on an Existing CF7 Multi Server Setup. After you implement your CF8 site and CF7 site with the "Web Server Configuration Tool", open up your IIS Manager and right click on each of the sites to open up their properties (click on sample picture below).

Once you have both sites up click on the "Home Directory" tab, go to the bottom of the panel and click on the "Configuration" button to open up the Application Settings for each site (click on sample picture below).

As you will notice in the pictures (or your own properties panel - if following along), in the Application extensions on both sites all file extensions will point to the jrun_iis6.dll in your JRun\lib\wsconfig folder. But if you notice in the bottom section for Wildcard application maps, each site will point to a separate subfolder inside your JRun\lib\wsconfig folder. Basing this on my images, my CF7 server points to 1\jrun_iis6_wildcard.dll and my CF8 server points to 2\jrun_iis6_wildcard.dll, yours may look different, if you have configured more sites.

This was something I figured out just by trying it, but if you click on Edit and change this values from 1 to 2 or vice-versa on these servers, you will automatically change what CF engine it is using. One more thing, you don't even have to restart the webserver, just make the change, OK your way out and refresh your browser and Bam! Change Done! I tested this using a simple <cfdump var="#server#" /> to see the changes.

Anyways, I though this was pretty cool if you want to jump back and forth between versions. Alternatively, you can just create 2 IIS sites that point to the same directory, with one using 7 and the other using 8 and either use host headers or different IPs to differentiate. That is how I have it setup but I still wanted to share this little simple trick I figured out.

Until next time...

SES (Search Engine Safe) URLs w/ Coldfusion

2007-06-16T16:04:00.000-04:00

Another one of my ventures today was finally learning how to implement search engine safe URLs. If you are a Coldfusion Developer like me, I am glad to let you know that this is an easy task to overcome. While taking some time to read Raymond Camden's BlogCFC documentation, since I saw it was using SES URLs, I took notice of the following Adobe Tech Note : "http://www.adobe.com/go/2addd247". It basically tells you how to make changes to your web.xml file to allow this. He makes note of this in case your server had problems with the BlogCFC SES URLs and needed to do the change as noted by Adobe. When I inspected my web.xml file, the required change was already done.

Now that I knew how to enable it, I needed to know how to do it. One way is to inspect Ray's work inside his parseses.cfm file or another great blog entry I found was Clint's Blog : Coldfusion SES URL. This entry pretty much sums it all up and allows you to begin your way to developing with SES URLs.

There are other ways to do this with the webserver itself. Apache has mod_rewrite, but alas I use IIS6. For IIS 3rd party ISAPI filters are available and you can find out more by clicking here (Some IIS URL Rewriting Links). For me, I think the built in solution with CF is sufficient. I love Coldfusion!!!!

Until the next time ....

Compression in IIS6.0

2007-06-16T15:31:00.000-04:00

So today, I decided to begin messing around with a couple of things of which I will post about. This first one was compression in IIS 6.0, I know apache has built in modules for this, even some more that I will reference in the next entries, but I don't use apache, I use IIS, so here goes.

As I was searching for any reference to this subject I found an excellent one from Scott Forsyth, labeled "IIS Compression in IIS6.0". Anyway, since it is his teachings and not mine, I will not go into detail on how to do this process, I believe he deserves the credit and your attention so just click on the link to go to his blog entry.

Just to prove that his walk thru works and that you can see for yourself, below are two images using Firebug. The page is a pretty simple page that I was using to test SES (Search Engine Safe) URL's (My next entry). You will notice the first one was originally 7k and the compressed version came thru at 2k. I know it is a small example but with a compression of over 60%, I can only assume great results are to come to all files of all sizes.

One more note, his final 2 lines show you how to enable and disable this feature to a specific site via the command line. It is instant no restart of the webserver required, the test I show below was done one after the other with that simple command. So in case it is giving you problems, you have the assurance that you can remove it on the fly.

NO COMPRESSION EXAMPLE

COMPRESSION EXAMPLE

Until the next time ....

Installing CF8 on Existing CF7 Multi Server Setup and use JRE 1.5

2007-06-15T00:46:00.000-04:00

So tonight, I found myself searching for a little help on this subject and came up with one blog referencing a side-by-side CF7/CF8 stand alone installs using Apache. It seems pretty easy but the problem I faced was that I am using IIS and I have my CF setup as Multi-Server JRun configuration. If the first scenario I gave seems like what you need to do, then you can click here to go to that blog entry, if not read on. So let's start this little mission. First, I started by creating a new instance on my JRun server. I've read instructions from Adobe (Macromedia actually back then) on how to do this, but instead of trying to find that article I will guide you thru my steps.

STEP 1: CREATE NEW SERVER INSTANCE IN JRUN

Login to JRun Administrator
Click on "Create New Server"
When the window pops-up enter your JRun Server Name. I named mine cfusion8.
After you type your server name and either click on tab or click on "JRun Server Directory", you will notice it pre-populate. Leave this as is, as it will create your named directory in your servers folder inside your JRun folder.
Click on create server and you will get a confirmation page with all your ports for your server. At this point there is no need to do anything else and click on Finish.

DO NOT START THE SERVER YET!

Ok, so now that we created our server, navigate to your JRun Servers folder (i.e. C:\Jrun\Servers\). Inside that folder you will notice a new folder named cfusion8. Go into the folder and delete the default-ear folder. You will still have one folder inside named SERVER-INF, leave that folder alone. For now, this completes creating the server where your CF8 installation will go, now we have to go create the EAR file from the CF8 install. The steps are as follows;

STEP 2: INSTALL CF8 AS EAR

Download CF8 Beta from Adobe Labs
Run Installation and Select Deployment option (3rd option) and select EAR file.
Some important notes on your installation. The first option is where the installer will place your ear file (so remember the location) and when selecting your context root, the default in the installer is cfusion, but if you want it at the root specify it when it asks you "\". Basically make sure to read everything as you are going step by step.
Once the installer finishes navigate to the folder where the ear file is. You should see a file named cfusion.ear. You will need to extract this file, there are some instructions on how to in the included read me file.
When you extract the file make sure to change the name of the extracted folder to cfusion-ear. Then go into the folder and extract the cfusion.war file. The same applies here, when the extraction is complete make sure the name of the folder is cfusion-war.
Navigate into the WEB-INF folder, open the application.xml file and change the web-uri from cfusion.war to cfusion-war.
Navigate out and copy the entire cfusion-ear folder to the %JRun%\Server\cfusion8\ folder. (The folder we deleted the default-ear file from)

At this point you can go to your JRun Admin and start the server. Once you start the server, connect to it using the specified HTTP port for the server in the JRun settings (i.e. http://locahost:8301/CFIDE/administrator). This should get you to the initial CF page that finishes the installation. Once the installation is complete, login to your CF8 server.

OK, so at this point I was excited but then I navigated to my Server Settings and noticed the Java Version in use was 1.4.2_09 (pictured below), same as my CF7 install. This happened because my CF8 install was using the same JVM as my CF7 install and the 1.4 JRE in JRun. So there are a couple of things I had to do here, but before that. I am assuming that you are using IIS and using more than one website on your server. So open up the"Web Server Configuration Tool" (pictured below) and select the IIS sites that will use your new CF8 install and leave the CF7 sites alone. Once new JRE is selected I kept getting an error when trying to config, but there is a work around for it as well, but for config your sites at this point.

SERVER SETTINGS

Web Server Configuration Tool

At this point I needed to figure out how to use a different JVM and how to install the new 1.5 JRE on my server. So first install JRE by going to sun and selecting the JDK 5.0 Update 12 version (click here to go to download page). You will need this version as the JRE includes the server folder that is required, the SE version only has the client folder. I am sorry if this makes no sense but trust me I went thru it already. Now the next steps I used some information from another blog entry to create what I needed. I will summarize my steps below but the blog entry I referenced was Mark Kruger's "Coldfusion Muse - Including Custom JVM Settings "

Create a new JVM file - I called mine jvm.config_five
Inside the JVM file change the java.home value to the folder where the new jre is installed (i.e. java.home=C:\\Program Files\\Java\\jre1.5.0_12\\jre)
Create a new windows service using the command line jrunsvc utility in the JRun/bin/ folder - use the following command.
C:\JRun4\bin>jrunsvc -install cfusion "Adobe JRUN CFusion Server" "Adobe JRUN CFusion Server" -config jvm.config_five

At this point go back to your JRun Admin and STOP THE CFUSION8 SERVER. Once it has stopped, start your server via the windows service. If you get an error go look in the jrun4/logs directory for the cfusion8-out.log and the cfusion8-err.log. If everything goes perfect you should be able to login into your CF8 admin and see the new JRE version referenced (pictured below). At the same time you can log into your CF7 server and notice it is still running the 1.4 version as it is using the default JVM.

CF8 WITH JRE 1.5

Now, some final notes. In order for your CF8 install to use the 1.5 JRE, you must start the server via the windows services. Starting your server via the JRun Admin will make it use the default JVM and will load using the 1.4 JRE. If you need to work with the "Web Server Config Tool" to add more sites to your CF8 install, then this is something you want to do. For some reason when I attempted to work with the tool while the CF8 instance was using the 1.5 JRE I would get an mBean error. Honestly, I do not know what it means.

I did a simple cfdump on the website I configured for CF8 just to test and it worked showing version 8. I hope this helps who ever reads this post, I know I am not great at explaining and that may be the reason I don't post much, but I will definitely try to make this good practice.

Now that I have my beta install on my dev server I will begin playing around and post any bugs I may run into with this config and maybe some CF8 posts of my own. I am also working on Flash a lot lately and trying to get my hands around Flex 2 and well now Flex 3. So you may notice different entry types in this blog, but as it states, this is a Chronicle of a Developer.

Until next time .....

Remove that wretched "Missing Plug-In" Alert from Firefox

2007-01-25T13:46:00.000-05:00

Well, this is probably more of an issue for Mac Users (like me) using the Flip4Mac WMV plugin to play windows media. Apparently, every time I wanted to listen to Sirius online, it worked with no problem but that wretched alert kept popping up.

So what did I do? I went to mozilla.com and went to support and found a simple and great solution I did not know about. This may be no news to some but for those like me check out the next link.

Disable Plug-In Article

Basically, you type about:config in your address bar and a whole bunch of configuration options pop up that you can set. Look for one called plugin.default_plugin_disabled and click on it to set it to false. That is it, restart firefox and voila! Wretched alert is gone! Remember though, if you do this you will not get that alert for any plug-in, but what the hell, you should know what you are opening up anyway.

Hope this helps someone. Firefox Rules, Safari is Great, IE needs an execution.

MAX 2006 Flashback

2006-11-02T00:59:00.000-05:00

Well, everyone in the world has blogged about MAX 2006 and as you all know it was good. I was excited to see the Blue Man Group open up the Max and hearing about all the new and upcoming things that Adobe is bringing to the table. I also want to note, that it goes to show that Adobe was not shy with spending money for this convention. Except for the last day, when I felt like I was getting kicked out - the food died down to a sandwich in a box and after the last class, they all left like a one night stand.

On the classes, I sure wish I would've done what I did the last day. Even though it was great hearing and seeing about what's to come with ColdFusion, it just felt like hour long commercials. On the last day I decided to go to the character animation class presented by Chris Georgenes from Mud Bubble. This was by far the GREATEST class/presentation I went to. I loved how he bashed on powerpoint slides and got down to really showing you tips and getting to the point that the class name portrayed. Most classes were labeled one thing and the speaker never got to the point. For example, one was cue points in flash video and how to handle them with actionscript, etc. The speaker spent 80% of the class on other things except the cue points. I don't mean to bash, but I think some presentations should have been name better and I know a lot more people feel how I felt. Especially after witnessing the verbal beating a CF .NET presenter got in the Q and A portion of the presentation.

This was a great experience overall and there was as many ups as downs. Did you know that Adobe gives free soda and candy to their developers? Freaking great. After every presentation it showed as there was plenty to pick from while walking from presentation to presentation (Sodas, Candy, Chips, Ice Cream .... on and on and on). I wonder if Adobe has a gym at their facilities as well.

I am not a great writer and I am going to try to start blogging more as I want to involve myself more in the community. I will definitely start writing more about Flex 2 as I learn more and more. I did take one of the pre-conference classes on Flex and it was great. So, no promises but I will try to blog more from now on. I also want to bring this knowledge to my ColdFusion User Group (South Florida). I am always scared to do a presentation and it is probably since I only did one on certification. Signing out for now ....

MAX 2006 DAY ONE

2006-10-23T13:05:00.000-04:00

I am at max 2006!

Let me start by saying (typing) that the flight was delightful, Delta/Song is my new favorite airline. It felt as if I was a kid since the existence of nice flight attendace was there. Anyway, getting to the Venetian was very nice as well, the weather is great here. The only complain I have so far is that, with the amount of money I am paying here the gym costs an additional $35/day to attend. I do not see this as fair since I pay only $100/yr for my gym, so I will be running outside in the mornings.

Right now I am in my first pre-conference class "Building Flex Apps". I am pretty exited to get this animal down. Even though the class is a bit slow right now I have picked up some new knowledge and am looking forward to more as the class continues. Do not take this as a bad comment on the class, the teacher is great and I have to understand that everyone learns at their own speed.

Signing out for now from the MAX!

JC

Creating Time Delays withing your CFM pages

2005-11-21T19:46:00.000-05:00

Well, this is my second post and I thought it would be a good one to share. I needed to find a way to cause a user's browser to be redirected upon a certain time and in my search I found 2 useful ways to tackle this task. The first is client-side and the second-one is server side.

Client-Side
For the client-side solution I used the following javascript method: window.setTimeOut(expression/function,milliseconds)

This method is used to call a function or evaluate an expression after a specified number of milliseconds. If an expression is to be evaluated, it must be quoted to prevent it being evaluated immediately. Note that the use of this method does not halt the execution of any remaining scripts until the timeout has passed, it just schedules the expression or function for the specified time.

The following example redirects the current window and uses the setTimeout method to call the reloc() function which relocates it after five seconds (5000 milliseconds)

 function reloc(){

   location='urlToGoHere';
 }
 self.document.write("This window will redirect automatically after \ 
five seconds. Thanks for your patience");
 self.setTimeout('reloc()', 5000);

Server-Side
Excerpt from Ben Forta's Advanced CFMX 7 Application Development
For the server-side solution I took advantage of the underlying Java platform available to Coldfusion.

The Java API defines a "thread" class that has a method allowing you to make the currently executing thread "sleep" (temporarily cease execution) for a specified number of milliseconds. That method is perfect if you need to cause a delay withing a cfm page. To call it all you have to do is this:

<cfobject type="java" action="create" class="java.lang.Thread"  name="thread" />
OR 
<cfset thread=CreateObject("java","java.lang.Thread")/>

Then to simply call the class and its method, you can do this:

<cfset thread.sleep(5000)/>

The only problem I had with the solution above is that for some reason cflocation did not work after placing the thread to sleep. Even though other coldfusion actions such as a cfoutput or loop worked the cflocation did not. I will investigate this more, but for now the non-working and working example is below.

// NON - WORKING
<cfobject type="java" action="create" class="java.lang.Thread"  name="thread" />
<cfset thread.sleep(5000)>

 >cflocation addtoken="no" url="urlToGoHere" <

// WORKING 
<cfobject type="java" action="create" class="java.lang.Thread"  name="thread" />
<cfset thread.sleep(5000)>

 <script language="javascript">
 location='urlToGoHere';
 </script>

Eventhough these examples are simple and only use a redirection method I am sure you can find more ways to use them. The main difference between using client or server side is, what action needs to occur, a client or server side. I hope this was informational to some as it was to me.

JC

Flash scrolling-Loop Image Bar

2005-11-18T11:59:00.000-05:00

Well this is my first post and I am doing it because everywhere I looked for a tutorial on a flash scrolling-loop Image Bar with navigation, kept coming up short. I am also very impatient and searching gets on my nerves at times, but enough about my bad habits.

Below is an exmple of the .swf file. If it looks choppy it is because I reduced the site to fit in the blog.

The actual movie is used in the Laura Munder Website : One of my Client's

The creation of this flash movie was a joint effort of mine and one of my contractors. Our first version of the movie used tweening actions which were ok until it caused all the images to wiggle while scrolling. It also was a nuisence to edit the speed of the animation. You would have to extend the tweens and play around with the frames. To make a long story short, it was not very efficient and any future update or request would take more time then I wanted to.

So how did I do it? Well, I took my contractor's file stripped all tweenings and used all actionscript to control the animation. The movie consist of the following symbols.

15 Buttons (one for each image)
2 movie clips
- photos
  This holds all the 15 button/images
- mc_scrolling
  This holds two instances of the photos movie symbol, it is only one frame.

Now that we have all our symbols it only took a couple of lines of actionscript to make it all work. In my _root timeline on the first frame I wrote the following:

// PART 1 VARIABLES
var mySpeed:Number;
var myCount:Number=0;
var keepMoving:Boolean;
keepMoving=true;
mySpeed=1;

// PART 2 FUNCTION
_root.onEnterFrame = function(){
 
 // CHECK FOR RESTART
 if (myCount >= 2473){
 
  _root.thisBar_mc._x=-739;
  myCount=739;
 
 }else{
  
  // CHECK FOR MOVEMENT OF SCROLLING MOVIE
  if (keepMoving){
   _root.thisBar_mc._x -= mySpeed;
   myCount+= mySpeed;  
  }
 
 }
 
}
stop();

So what does all this mean? Simple I will explain.
The first section of the script sets all my variables that I need so I can control all the actions for the movie.

mySpeed: Controls the speed of the movement of the clip
myCount: Lets me know the movie clip is currently on
keepMoving: A simple boolean vale to control the movement action

The second part takes care of the movement by utilizing onEnterFrame.

First I check if myCount is greater than or equal to 2473 (this is the total length of my movie clip in pixels). If it is what I do is set the current x position of the movie clip to -739 and set myCount to 739. This automatically places the clip back to the location where the images continue to loop. Why did I choose 739, well because my main movie's width is 738px.
If myCount is Less than to 2473 I just continue the motion of the clip and keep increasing the value of myCount.
At the end of the script there is a stop() action. THis keeps the movie from looping back to the preloading scene.

That's it, simple huh?!

I know, you are asking how do I stop the animation, well that is simple too. Within the photos movie clip every button has the following actionScript:

 on (rollOver) {
  _root.keepMoving=false;
 }
 
 on (rollOut) {
  _root.keepMoving=true;
 }
 
 on (release) {
  getURL("urlHere"); 
 }

Ok so here is the breakdown;

The first action on (rollOver) sets the keepMoving variable to false which if you look at the first chunk of code, there is a check if keepMoving is true. If keepMoving is true the movie clip will continue movement and the variable myCount continues to increase.
The second action on (rollOut) set the keepMoving variable to true, which allows for the movie to continue movement.
THe third action on (release) is where you set a url to go to.

NOW THAT IS SIMPLE RIGHT!

You can download the source here, hope this was useful to some of you.

I know there are more things that I can do streamline it even more, like use only one image on the buttons and write the magnification in actionscript and create forward and backwards movement. Maybe that will be my next post.

JC