Stephen (Steve) Withington

Getting Started with Mura CMS: a ColdFusion-Powered, Open Source Content Management System

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:48:00 -0700

Are you looking for a ColdFusion-powered, open source content management system? Drop in and learn how to have a site up and running in less than sixty minutes! Within one hour, I'll walk through each of these steps to help you get started using Mura CMS:

Installing Mura CMS
Creating your first site
Setting up navigation
Creating a custom 404 page
Exploring some built-in features and objects
Creating your first Mura component
Creating your first form

Where: The presentation will be online and free to anyone who's interested. The meeting will also be recorded for those who are unable to make it to the live presentation. Visit http://www.meetup.com/coldfusionmeetup/calendar/11838818/ for more information and to RSVP.

When: Thurs. Nov 12, 12:00 pm US ET (UTC/GMT-5)

Hope to see you there!

Released cfMediaPlayer on RIAForge

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:44:00 -0700

I've released cfMediaPlayer on RIAForge today. It's a ColdFusion custom tag wrapper to display FLV, MP3, MP4 and AAC files using the JW FLV Player™ with one line of code. For example, <cf_mediaplayer file="myvideo.flv"></cf_mediaplayer>.

This tag supports many more options than CF9's newly added cfMediaPlayer tag. Included is a readme.htm file that gives full descriptions on all of the available attributes as well as some detailed usage examples.

Download is available at http://cfmediaplayer.riaforge.org/. SVN access can be found at http://svn.riaforge.org/cfmediaplayer.

I look forward to hearing any feedback users might have. Thanks!

Mobile, Handheld Computing Devices: Where Does the Web Developer Fit In?

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:35:00 -0700

Recently, I was involved in a lively discussion at a ColdFusion and Flex developer conference (BFusion/BFlex) held on the campus of Indiana University in beautiful Bloomington, Indiana. Michael Labriola led the discussion, which took place during his keynote presentation, between a panel of many other developers who are active in the ColdFusion and/or Flex communities. Sometimes it's difficult to articulate your thoughts at the time of a discussion, hence I'm using this medium to do a sort of brain flush at the moment. I'm doing this also because I think the topic of discussion is an important one to consider for those of us who primarily develop applications for the web.

As for expanding the definition of 'who' actually develops applications for the web, I hope to include anyone who is involved in the process of creating rich internet applications (stakeholders, account executives, creative's, designers, developers, etc.).

Mobile Phone vs. Handheld Device

First, I think it's important for 'web' developers to try to disassociate the word 'mobile' from the word 'phone.' I myself prefer to use the word 'handheld' when referring to any type of 'mobile' device. 'Handheld' feels much more inclusive to me than 'mobile.' Whereas 'mobile,' while by itself is probably a more appropriate descriptor, can be more exclusive sounding due to its association with the more specific type of handheld device commonly known as a 'cell phone.' So when I use the word 'handheld,' I am attempting to include 'any type of compact, portable computing device.' I am purposely using a broad definition here since mobile phones only constitute one slice of the larger 'handheld, mobile computing' marketplace.

Don't Hate Apple Because Their Beautiful

Let's face it, Apple has definitely shaken up the market with their lineup of handheld devices including the iPhone and iPod touch. Whether you love, hate or are indifferent to Apple's handheld products, you can't deny that Apple's use of interface design and touchscreen technology has transformed the way other companies are designing and building handheld devices. Not to mention the number of features and available applications! I'm sure that there have been, and will continue to be, many conversations around conference tables about what works, what doesn't work and how the iPhone and iPod touch interfaces can be improved upon. Rather than throw my own subjective opinions into the mix at the moment, I will say that as an iPhone user, I certainly have my list of gripes. However, Apple has most certainly revolutionized how people can actually use a handheld device and interact with each other, the web and beyond.

Application Distribution

Take a moment to review this list of digital distribution platforms for mobile devices from Wikipedia. Considering the fact that the Apple App Store opened on July 10, 2008 and as of September 28, 2009 there are over 85,000 third-party applications available and over 2 billion application downloads to iPhone and iPod touch users, I'd argue Apple has definitely made some in-roads with software developers and end-users alike. Compare that with Google's Android Market with 10,200 applications as of September 2009 and you just might agree.

I'm not suggesting that the model Apple used to create their 'Application Empire' is the right one, but without a doubt, they appear to be doing something right. I most definitely don't agree with some of their practices, but one can't deny their level of success when compared to any other digital distribution platform.

Distributing Handheld Applications via the Web

As of today, reliably deploying an application on the web that is specifically targeted to handheld devices with a web browser is extremely difficult to do, assuming you want to offer anything more than some basic text and a few form fields. While work is currently being done to improve standards on 'technologies to enable Web access anywhere, anytime, using any device,' developers are pretty much left in the rain waiting for handheld manufacturers to adopt these standards and turn them into practices.

Once again, Apple has made significant strides in getting their handheld users online. In AdMob's Mobile Metrics August 2009 report, iPhone's worldwide operating system share has grown from 33 percent to 40 percent in the preceding six months. In addition, iPhone represented 50 percent of US smartphone usage in AdMob's network in August 2009, followed by RIM and Android devices at 14 and 13 percent, respectively.

What truly makes these numbers phenomenal is that Apple's handheld devices actually account for less than 15% of the overall Smartphone OS Market Share. Yet, this small group of users account for half of the US smartphone usage within AdMobs's network. This information more than suggests, it screams that iPhone and iPod touch users are actually using their handheld devices to go online.

As a side note however, it is frustrating that Adobe Flash is not yet supported on Apple's iPhone or iPod touch. Sure, efforts have been made so that iPhone and iPod touch applications can be developed with Flash and ActionScript 3, but users still won't be able to view Flash content delivered via the browser. To be clear, this is not the fault of Adobe. Apple, for whatever reason(s), has chosen not to support Flash at this time.

Final Thoughts

I think it's important for those of us who primarily develop applications for the web to continue our discussions and thoughts on how we can better address the needs of the ever-growing handheld device marketplace.

I believe we can learn from Apple's strengths and weaknesses to find and improve a model of 'handheld application development and distribution.'

I think if designers and developers can learn how to better account for users of handheld devices regardless of whether or not they visit a web site, overall usability can be improved for these users as they look for goods, services and/or information.

These are merely thoughts, and obviously they're constantly evolving ... even while I've been writing this article. I hope my thoughts also inspire you to think about this topic and look forward to reading and/or hearing your thoughts on this subject as well.

Disclaimer

I don't work for Apple nor have I received any compensation from Apple for writing this article. I wouldn't mind it if they decided to do so, but as of the date of publication, this has not actually happened. Finally, no handheld devices were harmed in the writing of this article.

Amazon Relational Database Service Announced

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:14:00 -0700

Amazon announced today the latest addition to their Web Services lineup: Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS). They claim the new service "makes it easy to setup, operate, and scale a relational database in the cloud." Apparently, the service will allow for the full capabilities of a "familiar MySQL database." The service does include backup storage as well.

ColdFusion and Flex Education for Only Twenty Bucks!

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 07:54:00 -0700

Do you have $20? If so, you could turn that $20 into two, count 'em 2, full days of hands-on, live-and-in-person-instructors-in-the-classrooms, education on some of the hottest technology known to man (and woman too) ... ColdFusion and Flex.

But here's the deal, you have to register like right now! Seriously. These spots are limited and going quick!

Oh, and by the way ... the facilities will blow your freakin' mind! It's on the campus of Indiana University in beautiful Bloomington, Indiana. You really can't find anything like this for the low price of only $10 per day.

What are you waiting for? Why are you still reading this?! REGISTER NOW!!!

Catch My BFusion Presentations on CFMeetup!

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:06:00 -0700

I received confirmation from Charlie Arehart, the online ColdFusion Meetup organizer, that I'll be giving both of my BFusion presentations on CFMeetup. So the good news is if you won't be able to attend BFusion/BFlex this year, then at least you'll still be able to see my presentations. However, they won't be "hands-on," which will hopefully allow me to trim my 90-minute presentations down to the typical 60-minute mark we've grown accustomed to on CFMeetup.

So, if you're interested, please mark your calendars!

Getting Started with Mura CMS

November 12, 2009, 12:00 p.m. (noon) Eastern

Looking for a ColdFusion-powered, open source content management system? Drop in and learn how to have a site up and running in less than sixty minutes! Within one hour, I'll walk through each of these steps to help you get started using Mura CMS:

Installing Mura CMS
Creating your first site
Creating your first form
Creating your first Mura component
Setting up navigation
Creating a custom 404 page
Exploring built-in features & objects
Exploring Mura templates & themes

Integrating Your Custom Design with Mura CMS

December 3, 2009 12:00 p.m. (noon) Eastern

Tired of trying to shoe-horn your custom design into someone else's content management system? Drop in and learn how to fully integrate your custom CSS and HTML with Mura CMS, a comprehensive, ColdFusion-powered, open source content management system. In less than sixty minutes, I'll attempt to cover:

Exploring Mura templates & themes
Integrating your custom CSS & HTML
Creating Mura components
Creating Feeds/Indexes
Creating Custom Feeds/Indexes

*If you haven't already done so, it might behoove you to catch part one, "Getting Started with Mura CMS."

How to Send Confirmation Emails to Form Submitters in Mura CMS

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:55:00 -0700

A question came up in the Mura CMS forums about "sending a confirmation message automatically" that I thought other developers and/or users of Mura CMS might find helpful.

When you create a form in Mura CMS, there are a couple of convenient fields available. One field allows for a comma-separated list of email addresses to receive notification whenever the form is submitted. Another field is a text area for displaying a "confirmation message" to the person who submits the form.

One field that isn't currently available is a checkbox to "send copy to submitter." A good reason for this could simply be that since a form could contain any number of unique fields and field names, it could be very difficult to programmatically allow for something as unique as this.

So I wrote a simple custom display object that will essentially check for a form field called "email" and if it is valid, send a confirmation message to the submitter (assuming the submitter's email is contained within the "email" form field). Lost yet? I hope not.

First, you'll want to create a custom display object. you can copy the code below and save it to/as "[siteid]/includes/display_objects/custom/dsp_email_confirmation.cfm"





Thank you for for your inquiry. A representative will contact you shortly. For immediate assistance, feel free to call 800.555.1212.


#confirmationText#

	
		
		
		
			
			
			
				
			
		
	
	
		
			
			A confirmation has also been sent to your email.
			
			
			Sorry, we experienced a problem in our attempt to send you a confirmation via email.
		
	
	
	
	Unfortunately, the email address you provided was not a valid email address.

Next, you'll want to go to your "Forms" section in your admin area, select the form you want to use this script in, go to the "Confirmation Message" text area, then copy and past this in:


[mura]dspInclude('display_objects/custom/dsp_confirmation_email.cfm')[/mura]

You can then simply modify the confirmation message within the script, or even pass one in dynamically.

Hope this helps!

Using ColdFusion to Generate Meta Keywords and Description For Mura CMS

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:16:00 -0700

As with most content management systems, Mura CMS offers users the ability to enter a "summary" and "keywords" for each page (among several other options). The problem is, many users fail to utilize these fields. So I whipped up a couple of simple custom display objects to address this problem.

The meta keyword generator will read the main "content" of the page, parse it and then dynamically create a unique listing of keywords. I also use a custom list of keywords to delete common keywords such as "a, in, the," etc., which can easily be modified. This makes for good SEO (search engine optimization) too since you're actually generating keywords based on the actual contents of the page! Let's save the following file as "[siteid]/includes/display_objects/custom/dspMetaKeywordGenerator.cfm"













/**
* Case-insensitive function for removing duplicate entries in a list.
* Based on dedupe by Raymond Camden
*
* @param list      List to be modified. (Required)
* @return Returns a list.
* @author Jeff Howden (cflib@jeffhowden.com)
* @version 1, July 2, 2008
*/
function listDeleteDuplicatesNoCase(list) {
var i = 1;
var delimiter = ',';
var returnValue = '';
if(ArrayLen(arguments) GTE 2)
	delimiter = arguments[2];
	list = ListToArray(list, delimiter);
	for(i = 1; i LTE ArrayLen(list); i = i + 1)
	if(NOT ListFindNoCase(returnValue, list[i], delimiter))
		returnValue = ListAppend(returnValue, list[i], delimiter);
	return returnValue;
}

/**
* Delete items from a list.
*
* @param variable      An item, or a list of items, to remove from the list. (Required)
* @param qs      The actual list to parse. Can be blank. (Optional)
* @return Returns a string.
* @author Alessandro Chisari (ruchizzy@hotmail.com)
* @version 1, May 17, 2006
*/
function listdelete(variable){
//var to hold the final string
var string = "";
//vars for use in the loop, so we don't have to evaluate lists and arrays more than once
var ii = 1;
var thisVar = "";
var thisIndex = "";
var array = "";
var qs = "";
if(arrayLen(arguments) GT 1)
qs = arguments[2];
//put the query string into an array for easier looping
array = listToArray(qs,",");
//now, loop over the array and rebuild the string
for(ii = 1; ii lte arrayLen(array); ii = ii + 1){
thisIndex = array[ii];
thisVar = thisIndex;
//if this is the var, edit it to the value, otherwise, just append
if(not listFindnocase(variable,thisVar))
string = listAppend(string,thisIndex,",");
}
//return the string
return string;
}



	
	
	
	|\!\+\-\=\.`\##\&_\(\)\[\]\%\^\$\@~\',\{\}]+", "", "ALL") />

The meta description generator will also read the main "content" of the page and grab the first twenty-five (25) words to automatically create the meta description. This also makes for good SEO since the description matches what's actually found on the page. Let's save the following file at "[siteid]/includes/display_objects/custom/dspMetaDescriptionGenerator.cfm"

How To Use

Since there may be users who actually do use the description and/or keywords fields in the admin area of Mura CMS, you want to be sure to check for that first. So, all we need to do is locate where the meta tags are being displayed at, and then replace with some simple code. In most installations, the meta tags can be found in this file "[siteid]/includes/themes/[themeName (i.e., "merced")]/templates/inc/html_head.cfm."



	
	
	#event.getContentRenderer().dspInclude('display_objects/custom/dspMetaDescriptionGenerator.cfm')#



	
	
	#event.getContentRenderer().dspInclude('display_objects/custom/dspMetaKeywordGenerator.cfm')#

Hope this helps!

Outlines of My BFusion 2009 Presentations

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 11:44:00 -0700

Listed below are outlines of the sessions I'll be presenting at BFusion 2009:

1. Getting Started with Mura CMS

Intermediate Track, hands-on, 90-minutes

Installing Mura CMS
Creating your first site
Creating your first form
Creating your first Mura component
Setting up navigation
Creating a custom 404 page
Exploring built-in features & objects
Exploring Mura templates & themes

2. Integrating Your Custom Design with Mura CMS

Intermediate Track, hands-on, 90-minutes

Exploring Mura templates & themes
Integrating your custom CSS & HTML
Creating Mura components
Creating Feeds/Indexes
Creating Custom Feeds/Indexes

Software Requirements / Files

Attendees will be required to have the following installed on their computers:

Adobe® ColdFusion® (preferably 8.0.1+) or Railo (should also work with Open BlueDragon, but I haven't tested it.)
Local web server such as IIS or Apache
Database server such as Microsoft®SQL Server® (2000+), MySQL® (version 3.0+), Oracle (version 10G), or H2
Latest build of Mura CMS
- Session 1 attendees: Do not install Mura CMS. We will do this together during the session.
- Session 2 attendees: If you do not attend Session 1, you will need to install Mura CMS prior to the session and create a few pages.
If attending Session 2, please download the free FreshMedia 1.0 template from Styleshout.com. Preview the template »

MySpace Can Update Your Twitter Status ... Who Cares?

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:22:00 -0700

MySpace has announced users can now automatically sync their status updates with Twitter. Is having the ability to create a "Global Social Status" (yes, you can use that ... I just made it up) really such a good thing?

Not long ago I ran across an application in Facebook that would pull in my Twitter updates and automagically update my Facebook status. I quickly learned that this was not exactly the best idea in the world (and I'll tell you why in a moment), so I'm not so certain the efforts of MySpace are going to bring about any kind of improvements in the social media communities.

Let's think about this for a minute ... if you're a friend of mine on Facebook (or MySpace) AND you follow me on Twitter ... do you really want to read my status updates everywhere you go? For serious, does it make sense to "shotgun" your updates to every single social community you belong to? I think not.

Sure, there are rare occasions that you might want to do this ... but I say resist the temptation! I've found that for the most part, people I follow on Twitter are a completely different group of people than I have on Facebook. Sure, there is some overlap and that's to be expected, but the vast majority of people I know of Facebook (or MySpace) are people I've actually met, am friends with, family with, grew up with, you get the picture. Many of the people (and/or companies) I follow on Twitter are people I've never personally met (although many I hope to meet someday) but we share some commonalities ... maybe it's programming, maybe it's music, maybe it's geography. You know?

Where I'm going with this is that something I might "tweet" about may not necessarily be something I want to update my "Global Social Status" with. The audiences are completely different and often warrant their own unique message, even if the messages are very similar.

The flip side to this is if you like to Twitter ... and you know who you are ... you have the potential of overwhelming your family and friends with updates like "RT @stevewithington CF9 is the bees knees ... I have ORM, do you?" or "This site rocks: http://tinyurl.com/nv62na #muracms #mura #coldfusion #sql"

Heck, I don't know about you, but I already get a little irritated having to scroll through things like "Help Me on Mafia Wars" or the ever popular "Steve Withington took the 'What Kind of Car Are You?' quiz and got the result: You're a 1969 Bitchin' Camaro. Read more ..."

So if you're goal in life is to annoy the crap out of people in your social communities, then go right ahead and applaud the efforts of MySpace and others in their quest to become THE place to go to update your Global Social Status. In the mean time, I'll continue along, grumbling and complaining about silly things like this.

I Will Be Presenting at BFusion 2009

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 09:42:00 -0700

I am very excited to announce I have just received confirmation that I will be speaking at BFusion 2009! I will be presenting two ninety-minute "hands-on" sessions at BFusion. This means bring your computer and your swimming suit, because we're diving in!

My first hands-on presentation will be "Getting Started with Mura CMS," and the other will be "Integrating Your Custom Design With Mura CMS." These will both be part of the "intermediate" track. The exact details of each session are being worked out at this time and I'll be sure to share them as they solidify.

I was fortunate enough to attend BFusion/BFlex 2008 and was absolutely blown away on so many levels. First, the facility is absolutely top-notch! It's actually held at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. Unlike some of the other conferences I've attended in the past, each person is given internet access and also has easy access to outlets so they can plug in their laptop. Nice. But what do you expect? It is, after all, held in their "University Information Technology Services" building. Can you say sweet?

In addition, the volunteers, led by Bob Flynn, are plentiful, patient, knowledgeable, and willing to help wherever needed. Each class is allotted some "teacher's assistants" to aid in keeping students up to speed and the overall class on track.

Finally, there were a plethora of giveaways thanks to all of the ultra-awesome sponsors. I think it's fair to say that most everyone walks away with something.

Oh, and did I mention the speakers are top-notch too?

Hope to see you there!

TwitterTweets: My First Plugin For the ColdFusion-Powered Mura CMS

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 08:08:00 -0700

This is my first attempt at building a Mura CMS plugin, so as you can imagine, this is going to be pretty darn simple. This plugin was actually inspired by a blog post I wrote back in March 2009 about using ColdFusion's CFFeed to display twitter tweets. If you like it ... great! If not, sorry I disappointed you.

The plugin will allow you to display the most recent tweets on your site(s). No knowledge of ColdFusion or programming should be required! However, if you are comfortable with .css, etc.then you'll be happy to know the tweets are displayed within a div id of "twitterTweets" and the tweets themselves are output in an unordered list, so you can style to your heart's content.

If there are tweets available via the twitter search interface, then you should be able to see output. If not, or if the tweets are more than a few weeks old, then you will see a message stating that there are no tweets available.

Installation

Login to your Mura CMS admin
Go to "Site Settings" (upper-right on the yellow bar)
Select the "Plugins" tab
Browse to the location of the TwitterTweets.zip file (don't unzip the files! Mura will do this for you. Unless, of course, you want to poke around the code.)
Click "Deploy"
You need to enter you twitter username. For example, if you visit http://twitter.com/stevewithington, then "stevewithington" is your username.
Under "Site Assignment" be sure you select which site(s) you wish to apply this plugin to
Go to the "Site Manager" of the site you wish to display this on
Select a page to edit
Select the "Content Objects" tab
From the "Available Content Objects" dropdown, select "Plugins"
Then select "TwitterTweets" and choose which area to display on by clicking the ">>" button
Click "Publish"

Optional settings at this point are merely how many recent tweets to display and whether or not you want to show a title above the tweets.

Need help?

Catch me on the Mura CMS forums or contact me through my site.

Cheers!

Edit

I was asked about using more than one twitter username and how to handle the plugin for multiple sites. The answer is actually quite simple. All you would have to do is install and deploy TwitterTweets again. This would allow you to have multiple installs, each with their own username, etc. This also gives you control over which install goes to which site(s).

I am considering including the ability to have multiple usernames for one install though.

Any other suggestions?

Launched ColdFusion + Mura CMS Powered Site for Rockford Linear Motion

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 07:57:00 -0700

Rockford Linear Motion, a subsidiary of Rockford Ball Screw, has just launched their first ever online presence at www.rockfordlinearmotion.com. The site is powered by Adobe® ColdFusion® and Microsoft® SQL Server with content being managed by Mura CMS, a comprehensive web-based content management system. Rockford Linear Motion offers a fully customizable lineup of linear guide rail systems, products and services.

This was my first "commercial" web site constructed to be managed by Mura CMS. I was able to take our designer's (Greg L.) completely customized design from Adobe® Illustrator® + Photoshop® to CSS + XHTML and then fully integrate this design with Mura. I was also able to leverage and extend much of Mura's functionality to achieve the final result.

At the client's request, we also integrated the custom design with two other third-party vendors including Catalog Data Solutions and Network Solutions CommerceSpace™. Needless to say, I learned quite a bit about working with each of these vendors and look forward to working with them again.

Amazingly, we were able to launch the site within three (3) weeks of receiving the final design files for the site. As anyone who builds web sites would testify, this short of a timeframe is definitely not the norm. However, by utilizing Mura CMS and ColdFusion, we were able to get the job done in record time.

Congratulations to the folks at Rockford Linear Motion! Also, a huge thanks to each person who assisted me in keeping this project moving at light speed.

Designer: Greg L. | Developer: Stephen Withington | Content Management System: Mura CMS

Installing Mura CMS: an Open Source ColdFusion Content Management System

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:14:00 -0700

If you haven't heard about Mura CMS yet, then you probably haven't been looking for a ColdFusion-powered content management system (CMS). The best part about Mura CMS is that fact that it's open source. Yep, that means free!

After poking around and actually building, then launching a site driven by Mura CMS, I became pretty hooked. So to help other developers who might be considering Mura CMS, I threw together a quick video tutorial on installing Mura.

As you can see, it's most definitely not rocket science. If you have any questions or suggestions, please don't hesitate to let me know!

Peace.

Will Work for Guitar!

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:03:00 -0700

Here's the deal ... I will build you a ColdFusion + Mura CMS powered web site and all you have to do is buy me a guitar. Now, not just any guitar of course! One guitar in particular that's been on my wish list is a Gibson Les Paul. If you have one, or something of similar value, let me know! I'm sure we can work something out. Need to see some of my recent work? No problem. I've blogged about several of my web site projects.

Inspired by Kyle MacDonald and his "one red paperclip," I'm sure somebody out there needs a quality-built web site that they can have full editing capabilities of and is willing to make a trade.

Interested? Let's talk!