ColdFusion on Wheels Blog

Download ColdFusion on Wheels 0.9.3

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:23:00 -0700

Wheels matures a little more with version 0.9.3. Download it today.

For those of you upgrading from Wheels 0.9.2, the most that you'll probably need to do is delete the wheels folder from your install and replace it with the new wheels folder. Voila!

What's new in this release?

Bug Fixes

Fixes to make Wheels run better on Railo 3.1 and the upcoming Adobe ColdFusion 9.
Fix to make it possible to use routes in forms.
Fix so that functions added to the events/functions.cfm file are globally available in the application and not just from ColdFusion events.
Fixes to the Oracle database adapter.
Fixes to make the ORM work better when mapping properties to columns with different names.
…and more minor fixes.

Feature Enhancements

Partials now allow you to pass a query, which will cause the partial to be run for every record in the query.
Improvement to the simpleFormat() function.
Improvements for display of pagination links.
For security reasons, Wheels will now abort all requests that don't go through index.cfm or rewrite.cfm in the root.

New Functionality

Added 3 new object callback types: afterNew(), afterFind(), and afterInitialization().
Support for the PostgreSQL DBMS.
Support for setting default values on objects based on the database settings (through the new(), create(), and save() methods).
New dependent setting for associations, which decides which join type to use in queries and whether or not to delete associated objects when the parent is deleted.

Watch for updates to the Documentation over the next few days.

Documentation Updates: Pages, Sending Email, and Configurations

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:03:00 -0700

We have 2 new chapters and 1 updated chapter in the Documentation.

First, Per wrote a chapter about Pages, which basically sums up a variety of ways that the view layer works to make your live as a developer easier.

Raul and Per worked together on a new chapter about Sending Email using the sendEmail() function. This is a powerful way to send different types of emails using templating and layout patterns similar to what's available in Wheels's view functionality.

Lastly, I updated the Configuration and Defaults chapter. I realized that we had left out some details as well as a full listing of what built-in configuration options are available.

Enjoy. Please continue providing feedback about the framework. We can't do this without you guys!

New Chapter: Object Validation

Tue, 26 May 2009 08:48:00 -0700

Another quick announcement. We've released a chapter in the Documentation about object validation.

Object validation allows you to enforce business logic related to your data easily. It also allows you to persist your objects so that your application can communicate error messages back to the user or handle the errors in some other way. It's a very clean way of handling logic that can be very repetitive if you choose to write it all out by hand instead.

How OO Almost Destroyed a Business

Sun, 24 May 2009 10:55:00 -0700

I stumbled across an honest account by Marc Funaro about how OO almost destroyed his business. He spares no detail in the post, but I still think it is worthwhile to read in its entirety as a reality check for yourself.

Dynamic languages like PHP and CFML have been on a quest over the past few years to be more "Java-like," adding more object oriented capabilities. These features bring a lot of promise for your code to become self-documenting and organized. But there have been undercurrents by pragmatists who contest that these features add unnecessary complexity for languages that were "fine just the way they were."

As I've progressed through my career with ColdFusion, I've started agreeing more with the pragmatists. While ColdFusion experts have been arguing about "XML versus no-XML" over the past year, I've strongly desired getting my work done so I could feel some accomplishment and have a fresh breath of air away from my computer from time to time.

With my personal experience, this is where ColdFusion on Wheels has entered and really brought the fun back into ColdFusion development.

One thing that Wheels has done for me is use CFCs to organize my code and make database queries easier. But at the same time, I don't feel like I'm wasting too much time worrying about the design of my objects. It all just flows and works organically, and it all works that way simply by following conventions that we've laid out for you. I will forever be amazed at what David Heinemeier Hansson has accomplished by implementing the concepts of Ruby on Rails and what these concepts accomplish for me in my life as a CFML developer through my use of ColdFusion on Wheels.

If you at all have felt CFML lose its magic in a way that Marc Funaro described so well, give Wheels a try. The more you uncover about our framework, the more it just makes sense. Our framework considers what ColdFusion as a platform does well and sticks with that. ColdFusion returns recordsets lightning-fast, so Wheels's findAll() methods return recordsets instead of CF's notoriously slow objects. (It also uses objects to represent data when that makes sense.) Wheels also helps you easily understand where your URLs point to in your code with its controller conventions. And hell, I'll even offer up the fact that Wheels's default URL behavior doesn't even give regard to the underlying platform. Having URLs that end with .cfm, .aspx, .jsp, etc. do nothing to contribute to the overall user experience anyway.

These sentiments bring me a lot of hope for Wheels's role in the CFML community. We're pushing forward and helping you develop beautiful code using the best platform for developing web applications, period.

Methods for Tracking Change

Fri, 22 May 2009 22:06:00 -0700

Per gets down and dirty with a new chapter in the Documentation called Dirty Records. Really it's all about tracking change to your database records dynamically.

Give it a read and learn about the power of methods like hasChanged(), XXXHasChanged(), XXXChangedFrom(), changedProperties(), allChanges(), and more.

Wheels 0.9.2 Release

Mon, 18 May 2009 19:56:00 -0700

We've released ColdFusion on Wheels 0.9.2 into the wild this evening. No new features really, but quite a few bug fixes.

Download version 0.9.2 and bring your Wheels app that much closer to 1.0. (We're getting really close.)

Hello Database Tutorial

Mon, 11 May 2009 21:11:00 -0700

As a follow-up to the Hello World tutorial, we've just released a tutorial called Hello Database.

As its name suggests, the point of this new tutorial is to help you get a jump start on learning about Wheels's ORM functionality. This is not an exhaustive walk-through but rather a taste so you can dip your toe into the pool.

If you've been on the fence on whether you'd like to try ColdFusion on Wheels, give the tutorial a read.

Associations Chapter in Documentation

Thu, 07 May 2009 15:26:00 -0700

A big part of Wheels's included ORM is its use of associations to describe relationships between models. It's been a long time coming, but we released a chapter in the Docs about associations along with the 0.9.1 release of ColdFusion on Wheels.

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Wheels 0.9.1 Available

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 10:58:00 -0700

We are excited to announce the availability of ColdFusion on Wheels 0.9.1. I personally can tell you that the core team and community have really outdone themselves with this release. It is a giant step toward an impending release candidate.

Here is a brief listing of what Wheels developers gain from this release:

Ability to set global defaults for most functions' optional arguments
Upgrade-friendly configuration settings
Support for using multiple data sources (set on a per-model basis)
Ability to group view helpers by controller
Support for sending multi-part emails (HTML and plain text in same email)
New PluginManager plugin that helps you find and install plugins
Improved Railo support
Lots of bug fixes and other minor improvements

Review the Upgrading to Wheels 0.9.1 chapter to see what you would need to change in your application when upgrading.

Because of the big changes to the way that configurations are done, we figured this would be a good time to finish the chapter on Configuration and Defaults.

More reference chapters and documentation on the functions in the Wheels API are in the works, so stay tuned.

Apologies for Duplicate Entries in RSS

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 12:37:00 -0700

I switched the domain for CFWheels.com to CFWheels.org yesterday (We're not trying to make money from you, after all.) As a result of this URL switch, FeedBurner reposted the last 10 blog entries as new posts. You may safely ignore the flood of "new" posts if you would like. Sorry for the confusion that I may have caused. Blunder alert!

Wheels 0.9: The Final Final Beta Cycle

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 08:31:00 -0700

We're happy to announce a significant maintenance release of Wheels: version 0.9. We're also running out of decimal points on the way to 1.0. I don't think we'll do anything cheap like version 0.10. :) Consider this the final beta cycle.

I asked Per how many bugs were fixed in this release, and he answered, "Tons."

Many of these bugs were reported by the community, which is an amazing thing to see. The success of this framework is being built on top of direct feedback from you. Many thanks!

I'd also like to announce that we've added Raúl Riera to our core team of contributors. Raúl has been working on an impressive scaffolding plugin and has contributed a ton of feedback and code patches to the project. I also run across his comments all over the CFML blogosphere, championing Wheels and getting the word out.

Many thanks to Per, Peter, Tony, Raúl, and everyone else who has been contributing to the project in various ways. It looks like we'll be production-ready this year!

New Documentation: Sending Files

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 09:18:00 -0700

Per whipped up a quick chapter on Sending Files with Wheels's sendFile() function.

You may feel that sending non-HTML files to the browser is a trivial task, but this functionality makes securing those files dead simple.

Thanks, Per!

Wheels 0.8.3: Our Final Beta Release?

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 21:02:00 -0700

You probably didn't see this one coming, at least not so soon... Wheels 0.8.3.

I'm most excited to announce that this release introduces support for Railo Express 3.0. As soon as the open sourced Railo 3.1 is released, we'll have an opportunity to offer a full-stack open source CFML environment similar to Ruby on Rails. Many thanks to Wheels's Peter Amiri and the Railo team for their efforts in getting this working.

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Creating Custom URLs in Your Wheels App with Routes

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 13:46:00 -0700

Today, I released a chapter in the Documentation called Using Routes.

Routes are a pretty cool feature of Wheels because they let you step outside of the URL convention that can sometimes feel like shackles.

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Wheels 0.8.2 Released

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 12:08:00 -0700

The Wheels community has been finding some bugs here and there, which has resulted in an improved product for everyone. That said, ColdFusion on Wheels 0.8.2 is available today. This includes many critical bug fixes. We recommend upgrading to this version as soon as you can. Keep the feedback coming, everyone!