ColdFusion
Setting Up a Scheduled Task in ColdFusion
by Tom Muck - 15-Jul-08
Reader Level: 
ColdFusion has a mechanism in the ColdFusion admin to set up a scheduled task. These scheduled tasks are ColdFusion pages that you want to run on a schedule -- daily, weekly, hourly, every Monday at 1pm, or on any other schedule of your choosing. The task can be any ColdFusion page. This article will show how to set up a scheduled task through the ColdFusion administrator.
Adding a JDBC Driver to ColdFusion
by Tom Muck - 03-Jul-08
Reader Level:
ColdFusion ships with JDBC drivers for most of the major databases, however, all JDBC drivers are not created equal. There are good ones and bad ones, and some of the newer drivers will improve performance and stability. In addition, some of the drivers that ship with various versions of ColdFusion have known problems (MySQL comes to mind). Also, there are databases that are not listed in the standard ColdFusion install that you may want to connect to. This article will show the simple process for adding a new driver to the ColdFusion server.
Modifying Classic ColdFusion Debugging: Part 2
by Tom Muck - 22-Apr-08
Reader Level:
If you have your own ColdFusion development box, you probably have ColdFusion debugging turned on. I have always used the Classic debugging mode as opposed to Dockable, because I find the popup window takes too long and is too cumbersome to use. However, classic debugging has a few shortfalls. I addressed some with my article on Better Debugging Info for ColdFusion, however that article discussed a completely custom debugging file. Part 1 of this article discussed how to tweak the file used internally by ColdFusion to display debugging results. In that article we expanded arrays and structures for a better debug output. In this article, we'll add some useful query debugging information.
The Modifying Classic ColdFusion Debugging Series:
Modifying Classic ColdFusion Debugging: Part 1
Modifying Classic ColdFusion Debugging: Part 2
The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties - Part 4
by Tom Muck - 16-Apr-08
Reader Level: 
If you use ColdFusion you should be using ColdFusion Components (CFCs). One of the more perplexing parts of developing CFCs for the beginning ColdFusion developer is how to define variables and properties. The proper use of variables is important for memory consumption and data integrity. You don't want variables hanging around that aren't needed or accessed from areas that they should not be accessed from.
The first part of this series explained some of the differences between local and global variables as they apply to CFCs. The second part of the series showed a simple CFC framework component. Part 3 showed a CFC that extends our base component. The first three parts are usable in any ColdFusion site with any database. Part 4 will focus on SQL Server and show how the
The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties Series:
The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties - Part 1
The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties - Part 2
The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties - Part 3
The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties - Part 4
The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties - Part 3
by Tom Muck - 04-Apr-08
Reader Level:
If you use ColdFusion you should be using ColdFusion Components (CFCs). One of the more perplexing parts of developing CFCs for the beginning ColdFusion developer is how to define variables and properties. The proper use of variables is important for memory consumption and data integrity. You don't want variables hanging around that aren't needed, or accessed from areas that they should not be accessed from.
The first part of this series explained some of the differences between local and global variables as they apply to CFCs. This second part of the series showed a simple CFC framework component. Part 3 shows a CFC that extends our base component. These first three parts are usable in any ColdFusion site wtih any database. Part 4 will focus on SQL Server.
The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties Series:
The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties - Part 1
The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties - Part 2
The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties - Part 3
The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties - Part 4
The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties - Part 2
by Tom Muck - 24-Mar-08
Reader Level:
If you use ColdFusion you should be using ColdFusion Components (CFCs). One of the more perplexing parts of developing CFCs for the beginning ColdFusion developer is how to define variables and properties. The proper use of variables is important for memory consumption and data integrity. You don't want variables hanging around that aren't needed or accessed from areas that they should not be accessed from.
The first part of this series explained some of the differences between local and global variables as they apply to CFCs. This second part of the series will continue the discusion and show a simple CFC framework component. Part 3 will show a CFC that extends our base component.
The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties Series:
The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties - Part 1
The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties - Part 2
The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties - Part 3
The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties - Part 4
The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties - Part 1
by Tom Muck - 20-Mar-08
Reader Level:
If you use ColdFusion you should be using ColdFusion Components (CFCs). One of the more perplexing parts of developing CFCs for the beginning ColdFusion developer is how to define variables and properties. This article will attempt to explain some of the differences between local and global variables as they apply to CFCs. The proper use of variables is important for memory consumption and data integrity. You don't want variables hanging around that aren't needed, or accessed from areas that they should not be accessed from.
The second part of the series will continue the discusion and show a simple CFC framework.
The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties Series:
The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties - Part 1
The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties - Part 2
The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties - Part 3
The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties - Part 4
Quickshot: How to Parse Submitted Form Fields in ColdFusion
by Ray West - 15-Feb-08
Reader Level:
Most of the time, when your site submits a form to the server, you constructed that form so you know what fields to expect on the back side. On occasion, though, you may not know exactly what fields to expect when a form is dynamically created or may only contain data for certain fields. In ColdFusion, you can use a couple of methods to determine what fields exist in a form that has been received and what the data is for those fields.
Making Stored Procedures Efficient
by Ray West - 08-Feb-08
Reader Level:
As a web application gets larger and needs to handle more traffic, special attention is needed to make sure it is running as efficiently as possible. More often than not, that means taking a look at the way that your data is marshaled from the database. I am constantly amazed at how much effort can be placed in making sure that pages are only so heavy and take X seconds to load on the HTML side, when very little consideration is given to how the database is being accessed.
The two things to remember when dealing with the optimization of your database are minimizing network traffic, and the reuse of execution plans. Both of these are accomplished by the proper use of stored procedures. In this article, we will cover a few tips to help you get the most out of your stored procedures.
Modifying Classic ColdFusion Debugging: Part 1
by Tom Muck - 09-Jan-08
Reader Level:
If you have your own ColdFusion development box, you probably have ColdFusion debugging turned on. I have always used the Classic debugging mode because I find the popup window debugging mode takes too long and is too cumbersome to use. However, classic debugging has a few shortfalls. I addressed some with my article on Better Debugging for ColdFusion, however that article discussed a completely custom debugging file. The method discussed in this article will show you how to tweak the file used internally by ColdFusion to display debugging results.
The Modifying Classic ColdFusion Debugging Series:
Modifying Classic ColdFusion Debugging: Part 1
Modifying Classic ColdFusion Debugging: Part 2
SQL Group vs. CFOUTPUT GROUP
by Tom Muck - 17-Dec-07
Reader Level:
There is a lot of confusion among some ColdFusion developers about the use of GROUP in a SQL statement and the use of the group attribute in a
Creating a Redirected Login in ColdFusion
by Rob Williams - 20-Nov-07
Reader Level: 
Creating a transparent login system is one of the easiest things a developer can do to enhance an end user's experience on an access controlled site. In this article we're going to take the concepts that were introduced previously in the PHP version of Creating a redirected login and apply them to ColdFusion.
Blocking Bad Words in ColdFusion
by Tom Muck - 05-Nov-07
Reader Level:
One of the biggest problems on the Internet these days is spam in the form of comment spam and contact form spam. Blogs are big these days, and many have implemented spam trapping features, however spammers are not all automated robots -- some of the most insidious are real people sitting behind their computer attacking you with their Viagra ads and other assorted garbage. Guestbooks attract spammers like flies. And even contact forms, meant only to go to the site owner, are under attack as well.
This article will show a simple administrative interface to maintain a "bad word" list, and a simple way to prevent the spam from reaching the intended recipient.
Tracking Most Recently Read Content
by Tom Muck - 09-Oct-07
Reader Level:
Community MX has a feature that shows the most recent items you viewed. This is quite easy to do, but requires a few things to be in place. This article will show how we do this. The article will use ColdFusion, but the technique can be applied across the board to any server language, like PHP or ASP.NET. We'll assume for this article that you have a user login system and content management system already in place. We'll focus on the functionality to store the content id of the user reading the content.
Using Text Masks in ColdFusion
by Tom Muck - 05-Oct-07
Reader Level:
Text masks can be used in web applications as placeholders for dynamic content. A mask is essentially a string of characters that can be later replaced, and not likely to be confused. Usually, you will use consecutive characters around a variable string, or simply consecutive characters. This article will show a few techniques using masks in ColdFusion.
CFPresentation - Adding Audio & Video
by Chaz Chumley - 14-Sep-07
Reader Level:
Adobe ColdFusion 8 provides us with a laundry list of new tags, including the new
Download size: 1.8MB
FusionDebug 2.0 - Variables
by Chaz Chumley - 17-Apr-07
Reader Level:
This is the final article in our series on FusionDebug 2.0, an interactive ColdFusion debugger. While we have looked at configuration, setting breakpoints within a template and stepping thru a CFC to examine the results of a query within the Variables panel, we have not looked at one of the most important functions of FusionDebug.
Variable Introspection is very powerful in that we don't have to use <cfdump> to see what various scoped variables contain. As well as with FusionDebug 2.0 we can also change the values contained within those variables which makes it a great way to test a ColdFusion application and change values during run-time to see how certain sections of code will work.
In this article we will look at a couple of examples on changing a variables value during run-time.
The FusionDebug Series
FusionDebug 2.0 - Configurations
FusionDebug 2.0 - Setting Breakpoints
FusionDebug 2.0 - Stepping Through a CFC
FusionDebug 2.0 - Variables
FusionDebug 2.0 - Stepping Through a CFC
by Chaz Chumley - 04-Apr-07
Reader Level:
In our last article we took a look at setting breakpoints within ColdFusion templates using FusionDebug 2.0 an interactive debugger for ColdFusion. While we paused code execution on a single page to view the variables contained within the page, I would bet that we have all built more complex applications that involve the use of ColdFusion Components (CFCs). FusionDebug 2.0 is a great tool in that we can set a breakpoint on any page, including CFCs, UDFs (User Defined Functions) and even custom tags. Knowing this we will take a look at what happens when we set a breakpoint on a query contained with a CFC and how we can view the contents of the query prior to actually outputting the results to browser.
The FusionDebug Series
FusionDebug 2.0 - Configurations
FusionDebug 2.0 - Setting Breakpoints
FusionDebug 2.0 - Stepping Through a CFC
FusionDebug 2.0 - Variables
Using the Bell Character—Parsing Lists in ColdFusion
by Tom Muck - 27-Mar-07
Reader Level:
What is the bell character, you might ask? In the old days of computing, before there was surround sound, you could "print" a character to the screen that made a "beep" sound. If you put a bell character (ASCII 7) in a string, it would beep to the screen. These days, the bell character is not used for much...if anything. As a ColdFusion programmer, you can make use of this not-often-used character for different situations. Some lists seem like they are unparseable using regular ColdFusion functions, and some strings might not even seem like lists. This article will show a couple ways to parse otherwise difficult lists.
FusionDebug 2.0 - Setting Breakpoints
by Chaz Chumley - 19-Mar-07
Reader Level:
In this article we will take a look at how to set a breakpoint within FusionDebug 2.0, an interactive ColdFusion debugger by Fusion-Reactor. Breakpoints allow us to stop code execution at a predetermined location within our ColdFusion template, CFC (ColdFusion Component) or custom tag. This is a big plus over having to use
The FusionDebug Series
FusionDebug 2.0 - Configurations
FusionDebug 2.0 - Setting Breakpoints
FusionDebug 2.0 - Stepping Through a CFC
FusionDebug 2.0 - Variables
Shut Off Your Site -- ColdFusion Maintenance
by Tom Muck - 31-Jan-07
Reader Level:
There is frequently a need for page maintenance or database maintenance, without turning off a server. If you are at a remote location, wouldn't it be nice to be able to shut down access to your pages without having to call someone or pull up a remote desktop? With a couple simple variables and the Application.cfc file (or Application.cfm), you can create the functionality to shut off access to your site and return a simple message to any user that happens across your site while the maintenance is underway.
ColdFusion Report Builder - Part 3b: Input Parameters
by Chaz Chumley - 23-Jan-07
Reader Level:
If you have been following the series on ColdFusion Report Builder, we have previewed the IDE, built a simple report and utilized input parameters to dynamically change a report label at runtime. However input parameters are even more powerful and as promised from the last article, we will explore using input parameters inside a query to filter the data being returned.
The ColdFusion Report Builder Series:
ColdFusion Report Builder - Part 1: Exploring the IDE
ColdFusion Report Builder - Part 2: Building a Simple Report
ColdFusion Report Builder - Part 3a: Input Parameters
ColdFusion Report Builder - Part 3b: Input Parameters
ColdFusion Report Builder - Part 3c: Input Parameters
Implementing a Record Locking System in ColdFusion 7 - Part 2
by Tom Muck - 17-Jan-07
Reader Level:
Most databases have some sort of row-level locking of database records, however when building a web application you need more than that. Picture a scenario where a database will have multiple users and each user could potentially be working on the same record. This can happen in an e-commerce site, where different departments have access to a given order for fulfillment, or in an Intranet site where various employees have access to a given record.
In this article I will show you how to implement a record locking system that relies on the Application.cfc file that was introduced in CF 7. This second part builds upon the files set up in part 1 and creates the record locking system.
The Implementing a Record Locking System in ColdFusion 7 Series:
Implementing a Record Locking System in ColdFusion 7 - Part 1
Implementing a Record Locking System in ColdFusion 7 - Part 2
ColdFusion Report Builder - Part 3a: Input Parameters
by Chaz Chumley - 10-Jan-07
Reader Level:
In our last article we took a look at building a simple report using the ColdFusion Report Builder. In most cases you may only need a simple report but when it comes to customizing the report fields on the fly we need to consider using input parameters. We will be addressing input parameters in three parts. Our first article will look at adding an input parameter to our existing report's title and then passing that report title from a form. The Second article will look at using input parameters inside a query to filter the data being returned. The third will be using input parameters for conditional formatting, such as hiding or showing parts of a report.
The ColdFusion Report Builder Series:
ColdFusion Report Builder - Part 1: Exploring the IDE
ColdFusion Report Builder - Part 2: Building a Simple Report
ColdFusion Report Builder - Part 3a: Input Parameters
ColdFusion Report Builder - Part 3b: Input Parameters
ColdFusion Report Builder - Part 3c: Input Parameters
ColdFusion Report Builder - Part 2: Building a Simple Report
by Chaz Chumley - 22-Dec-06
Reader Level: 
In our last article we took a look at the ColdFusion Report Builder interface which hopefully got you familiar with the different sections of the editor. This time around we will look at using the ColdFusion Report Builder Setup Wizard to assist us with setting up the environment by configuring the RDS server and specifying the location of our web site that the reports will be built for, defining the query fields for our report, grouping, layout, style and theme.
The ColdFusion Report Builder Series:
ColdFusion Report Builder - Part 1: Exploring the IDE
ColdFusion Report Builder - Part 2: Building a Simple Report
ColdFusion Report Builder - Part 3a: Input Parameters
ColdFusion Report Builder - Part 3b: Input Parameters
ColdFusion Report Builder - Part 3c: Input Parameters
Using a CF Custom Tag for Multiple Tabs
by Tom Muck - 21-Dec-06
Reader Level:
Tabs in a web page are an intuitive way for a user to navigate elements on a page. Using tabs, you can create pages of an article, multi-tab forms, multi-tab pages of links, or other types of pages where there is too much content to fit on one page. Using two ColdFusion custom tags -- one for the tab functionality and one for each individual tab -- you can create a simple way to add tabs to a ColdFusion page. The tab code shown in the article is simple, but can be used to expand on, or you can simply use the techniques shown with your own tab code.
Announcing My CF Photo Gallery
by Sheri German - 21-Nov-06
Reader Level:
It is the holiday season, and you will problaby be taking a lot of pictures. Need a way to easily manage and display your photo galleries online? Read all about the new CMX application: My CF Photo Gallery. With the CF Photo Gallery and a ColdFusion server, you or a client can upload and manage image galleries right from a browser window.
ColdFusion Report Builder - Part 1: Exploring the IDE
by Chaz Chumley - 31-Oct-06
Reader Level:
With the introduction of ColdFusion MX 7, Adobe gave developers the ability to create simple to advanced reports using a new tool called ColdFusion Report Builder. While you can still utilize tags such as
In this series of articles we will be walking you through the interface, simple report layouts, and even advanced topics such as sub reports, parameterization and tips and tricks that every ColdFusion Report writer needs to know.
If you are not familiar with ColdFusion Report Builder then you are in the right place. A quick overview of the product, it is a tool for allowing the user to create banded reports similar to Microsoft Access reports but for ColdFusion. These reports contain definitions with built-in SQL queries, grouping and placement and custom functions and styling that result in a very professional looking report. These ColdFusion Reports are saved with .CFR extension and are then displayed by using the
In Part 1 we will introduce the ColdFusion Report Builder interface to get you familiar where things are laid out.
The ColdFusion Report Builder Series:
ColdFusion Report Builder - Part 1: Exploring the IDE
ColdFusion Report Builder - Part 2: Building a Simple Report
ColdFusion Report Builder - Part 3a: Input Parameters
ColdFusion Report Builder - Part 3b: Input Parameters
ColdFusion Report Builder - Part 3c: Input Parameters
ColdFusion Code-Behind: Mimicking .NET's Page Directive
by Chaz Chumley - 19-Oct-06
Reader Level:
Microsoft's ASP.NET has given the development community a nice object oriented programming model with its introduction of Code-Behind files. Simply spoken, these are C# or VB.NET files that contain the physical code for wiring up events or actions such as Page Load, button clicks, etc. that the ASP.NET template calls from the very first line of code called a Page Directive.
The power of separating the presentational layout from the actual framework allows developers and designers to work separately from one another. This is very useful in large development teams. Taking a page from this concept we can achieve the same flexibility in ColdFusion by using CFCs and invoking them from the ColdFusion template on every page request.
Join me as I take you through an explanation of how this concept works and hopefully bridge the gap between any Microsoft .NET developers wanting to learn ColdFusion in creating a ColdFusion Code-Behind.
Combine Gets and Posts into the Request Scope
by Chaz Chumley - 06-Oct-06
Reader Level:
Have you ever worked on a large ColdFusion application and had to review previous templates to see whether or not the variables you were trying to process or validate were coming from a FORM submission or from a Query string? We'll don't feel alone, this is a common challenge when developing larger applications. Fortunately we can take advantage of the onRequestStart method within the Application.cfc to eliminate the need to check templates as we explore using the REQUEST scope to process all variables from now on by combining Gets and Posts into the Request scope..
Creating Daily Stats Pages
by Tom Muck - 18-Sep-06
Reader Level:
A stat page can be used for an e-store, blog, ad rotater, or any other type of application where you want to track a specific series of "things" that happen each day. For example, on a blog you might track blog hits. In an e-store, you might track daily sales. For an ad rotator you might track click-throughs.
This article will show how to write a query to group the daily activity in the first section, and how to display that as a graph using ColdFusion in the second section. The article will use SQL Server syntax, but could be adapted to any database. Also, the SQL code is applicable to any server model—not only ColdFusion. This is part 1 of 2.
Fundamental Fusebox: Part 2 - A Fusebox 5 Follow-up
by Thomas Pletcher - 30-Aug-06
Reader Level:
This follow-up to my introductory article on Fusebox 5 shows how to adapt a Fusebox 4 application to the Fusebox 5 architecture, and explores Fusebox 5's model-view-controller design pattern in more detail. See how easy it is to use the most popular ColdFusion web application framework!
The Fundamental Fusebox Series:
Fundamental fusebox: Part 1 - An Overview
Fundamental Fusebox: Part 2 - A Fusebox 5 Follow-up
Using the <cfsavecontent> Tag
by Tom Muck - 29-Aug-06
Reader Level:
There are many ways to build a string in ColdFusion, but one often overlooked method involves using the <cfsavecontent> tag. This article will take a look at the standard ways that a ColdFusion developer might build a string, and compare it to using <cfsavecontent>.
Fundamental Fusebox: Part 1 - An Overview
by Thomas Pletcher - 18-Aug-06
Reader Level:
Fusebox has long been the leading ColdFusion web application framework, noted for its use of the model-view-controller (MVC) architecture. Now Fusebox 5 has been released, and this introductory article provides an overview, including a review of changes from the previous version. The article also takes a look at the new "skeleton" application provided for Fusebox 5.
The Fundamental Fusebox Series:
Fundamental fusebox: Part 1 - An Overview
Fundamental Fusebox: Part 2 - A Fusebox 5 Follow-up
Top Ten Mistakes in ColdFusion
by Tom Muck - 14-Aug-06
Reader Level:
Many ColdFusion developers use common coding practices that are not optimal and don't follow "best practices". The following article shows 10 different mistakes and coding problems that you may find in your applications that can be easily corrected.
Multiple Insert/Update in ColdFusion
by Tom Muck - 07-Aug-06
Reader Level:
Dreamweaver has some built-in tools for doing database inserts and updates, but they only handle basic inserts/updates of one record. What if you want to insert multiple records at a time, or update multiple records? Dreamweaver is no help in this case, but using ColdFusion the process is simple. This tutorial will show two often-used methods for doing a multiple insert and multiple update, and the reasons not to use the first method.
Extract Links from a Web Page Using ColdFusion
by Tom Muck - 06-Jul-06
Reader Level:
ColdFusion provides a lot of functionality in the form of tags, but some of the more powerful features require a bit of programming knowledge, like the use of regular expressions, XML functions, and the recursive function construct.
This tutorial will show how to use a regular expression to find all given elements in a string, then use an XML function to extract HTML attributes, and use a recursive function (calling a function from within the function until finished) to streamline the coding. In this case, we'll be searching for all links within a page, but the technique could be used to find email addresses, HTML tags, phone numbers, or other formatted pieces of text.
Beating Spam On Your Contact Forms
by Adrian Senior - 03-May-06
Reader Level:
In this article we will look at how we can use a very simple method to beat the spam form scripts that populate and submit our forms.
Checking and Optimising Your ColdFusion Template Execution Times
by Adrian Senior - 18-Apr-06
Reader Level:
It is surprising how much poorly written queries can slow down your application, and yet page execution times are something we can easily test and optimise during the development process.
In this article we will look at how we can set the information we need displayed by changing a setting in the CF Administrator. We will then look at the information that is passed out into the template for our perusal.
Preventing Accidental Data Loss - Or Giving Your Clients a Second Chance
by Adrian Senior - 20-Mar-06
Reader Level:
In this article we will look at providing ways of preventing accidental data loss when providing Content Management Systems to your clients. We will specificlly look at providing an archive mechanism and interfacing delete requests with a confirmation page.
404: Not Just an Error Anymore
by Arman Danesh - 02-Jan-06
Reader Level: 
Using a unique combination of Apache's configuration directives and the way in which 404 errors are handled, this article presents a creative way to provide for caching of dynamically generated content which can still serve up entirely in static form when it is cached.
More Site Monitoring with CFHTTP
by Arman Danesh - 26-Oct-05
Reader Level:
Have you ever used a site monitoring service? Well now you can monitor your own sites remotely by building a simple ColdFusion script. This article tells you how to extend our earlier monitoring script to validate the HTML retrieved from the server.
Quick Site Monitoring with CFHTTP
by Arman Danesh - 07-Oct-05
Reader Level:
Have you ever used a site monitoring service? You can monitor your own sites remotely by building a simple ColdFusion script. This article tells you how.
Random Queries (recordsets) For ASP, ColdFusion and PHP
by Danilo Celic - 29-Sep-05
Reader Level:
While most data displays on web sites are in some predetermined, or even user specified order, such as search results of a products table in product name order, it can be quite beneficial to display data randomly, such as random banners, or even random on sale products on the home page. This article will discuss how you can use ASP VBScript with Access and MS SQL Server; PHP with MySQL; and ColdFusion with Access, MS SQL Server and MySQL to generate random results, be it a single random banner from your advertisers, or five random products that are currently on sale.
Base64 Encoding
by Joel Martinez - 12-Jul-05
Reader Level:
Your boss comes up to you, says that the requirements on the latest project have changed. You are now required to include an employee badge photo along with your company's replication feed. "But sir, the replication feed is an XML file ... how are we going to get an image into that?".
Enter Base64 Encoding. Though it doesn't come up every day, it's usefulness is undeniable, and your toolbox will be all the better for containing it. Code presented in this article will be in ASP.NET, Coldfusion, and PHP. We will discuss some situations where Base64 encoding will come in handy.
Persistent Scoped CFCs
by Tom Muck - 24-Jun-05
Reader Level:
What are the advantages and disadvantages of putting CFC instances into Session or Application variables? There have been a lot of discussions about this, but my own personal view is that you can reduce the strain on system resources and memory, and build faster applications by storing CFC instances in persistent variables. This article talks about the concept.
Using DTS Packages with ColdFusion: Part 2
by Tom Muck - 16-Jun-05
Reader Level:
Many people use SQL Server to store their data, however SQL Server is much more involved than simply a server that allows storage for data. Data Transformation Services (DTS) is part of SQL Server and allows you to import and export data, manipulate files on the system, use FTP, among other things. Using some of SQL Server's built-in DTS functionality along with ColdFusion gives your web application access to some of this functionality.
Part 1 of this series showed how to export data from SQL Server to a CSV file triggered by a ColdFusion page. This part will show how to upload a CSV file to the server and import it into a new table. It will show how to pass information (a filename) to a DTS package from a ColdFusion page and use it in the package.
Using DTS Packages with ColdFusion
by Tom Muck - 25-May-05
Reader Level:
Many people use SQL Server to store their data, however SQL Server is much more involved than simply a server that allows storage for data. Data Transformation Services (DTS) is part of SQL Server and allows you to import and export data, manipulate files on the system, use FTP, among other things. Using some of SQL Server's built-in DTS functionality along with ColdFusion gives your web application access to some of this functionality.
Laszlo: Part 3 - Hello World
by Arman Danesh - 23-May-05
Reader Level:
In the third article in our series we learn about the basic component of a Laszlo application, the canvas, and then display the ever-popular "Hello World" text on the canvas.
The Laszlo Series:
Laszlo: Part 1 - Overview
Laszlo: Part 2 - Installation
Laszlo: Part 3 - Hello World
Laszlo: Part 4 - Laszlo Widgets and Elements
Laszlo: Part 5 - Managing Layouts
Laszlo: Part 6 - Working With Data Coming Soon
Simple Search-Engine Friendly URLs
by Arman Danesh - 08-Apr-05
Reader Level:
Often in your ColdFusion applications you are forced to use URL parameters to pass dynamic data between pages. These lead to cumbersome, non-intuitive URLs which are not search-engine-friendly (let alone human-friendly). This article shows how to create ColdFusion applications which use search-engine friendly URLs.
The technique described here has been tested with Apache 1.3 and 2.0 Web servers using the server installation of ColdFusion. Quick testing with the J2EE installation of ColdFusion suggests that this technique may not work as expected. In addition, things are not quite as simple in IIS and this technique won't work without adjustments; I'll probably cover those adjustments in another article in the future.
Using Application.cfc in ColdFusion MX 7
by Danny Patterson - 22-Mar-05
Reader Level:
Components (CFCs) were introduced in ColdFusion with the release of version 6. Components help developers to reuse code much like they would in an object-oriented environment.
With the release of ColdFusion 7, developers now have more opportunities to use components throughout their applications. This article will explore a new feature in ColdFusion 7 that allows developers to replace the Application.cfm file with an Application.cfc file.
BlueDragon, an Alternative ColdFusion Platform: Part 4 - Administering BlueDragon
by Arman Danesh - 21-Mar-05
Reader Level:
In this installment of our BlueDragon series we take a look at the main components of the BlueDragon administration application.
The Blue Dragon Series:
BlueDragon, an Alternative ColdFusion Platform: Part 1 - Overview
BlueDragon, an Alternative ColdFusion Platform: Part 2 - Installing the Standalone Server
BlueDragon, an Alternative ColdFusion Platform: Part 3 - Installing the J2EE Server
BlueDragon, an Alternative ColdFusion Platform: Part 4 - Administering BlueDragon
BlueDragon, an Alternative ColdFusion Platform: Part 3 - Installing the J2EE Server
by Arman Danesh - 11-Mar-05
Reader Level:
In the third article in our series on BlueDragon we will look at an installation of BlueDragon 6.1 for J2EE on a Linux server running Apache and Tomcat.
The Blue Dragon Series:
BlueDragon, an Alternative ColdFusion Platform: Part 1 - Overview
BlueDragon, an Alternative ColdFusion Platform: Part 2 - Installing the Standalone Server
BlueDragon, an Alternative ColdFusion Platform: Part 3 - Installing the J2EE Server
BlueDragon, an Alternative ColdFusion Platform: Part 4 - Administering BlueDragon
BlueDragon, an Alternative ColdFusion Platform: Part 2 - Installing the Standalone Server
by Arman Danesh - 02-Mar-05
Reader Level:
The first article in our series on BlueDragon provided an overview of BlueDragon as it compares with ColdFusion MX. In this, the second article of our series, we look at installing the stand-alone version of BlueDragon 6.1 Server (the free version) on Linux with an Apache 2 Web server as well as installing on a Mac OS X workstation to serve as a development system.
The Blue Dragon Series:
BlueDragon, an Alternative ColdFusion Platform: Part 1 - Overview
BlueDragon, an Alternative ColdFusion Platform: Part 2 - Installing the Standalone Server
BlueDragon, an Alternative ColdFusion Platform: Part 3 - Installing the J2EE Server
BlueDragon, an Alternative ColdFusion Platform: Part 4 - Administering BlueDragon
ColdFusion MX 7: Form Validation
by Danny Patterson - 24-Feb-05
Reader Level:
With the new release of ColdFusion MX 7, code named Blackstone, the Macromedia engineering team has added more form validation features. These features offer additional options when performing server-side validation on forms. This article builds on my previous article titled ColdFusion Form Validation. I recommend you read that article or have a good understanding of form validation in ColdFusion MX 6. This article will examine the new form validation features in Blackstone using the hidden form field technique.
ColdFusion MX 7: The Newest Version of ColdFusion
by Arman Danesh - 07-Feb-05
Reader Level:
Macromedia has released ColdFusion MX 7. This is a major upgrade to ColdFusion with lots of new features bound to enhance most developer's applications. This article provides an introduction to the new ColdFusion and its many exciting features.
Liverpool JumpStart with .NET
by Heidi Bautista - 31-Jan-05
Reader Level:
Ah yes, Liverpool, not only a great JumpStart, but now you can have it with ASP.NET support. In addition to a valid CSS2 and XHTML 1.0 Transitional, WAI and 508 Accessible CSS layout, you also get a dynamic ASP.NET login application. The original release of the Liverpool JumpStart comes bundled with ColdFusion, PHP, and ASP and uses Dreamweaver's built-in User Authentication Server Behaviors. Unfortunately, Dreamweaver doesn't boast similar server behaviors for ASP.NET. To help make up for that lack, here's a special tutorial just for you ASP.NET coders. I've taken the original Liverpool JumpStart pages and added the necessary ASP.NET code. The result: an out-of-the-box ASP.NET login solution combined with a versatile layout. What could be better? :-)
Included in the support files are the CF, ASP and PHP versions of the Liverpool JumpStart. There is a link at the end of the article that will allow you to download just the .NET version if you prefer, as well as a link to download the bundled tutorials that were included with the original Liverpool JumpStart.
The .NET version of Liverpool is available as a no charge upgrade to purchasers of the original Liverpool JumpStart.
If you would like to receive the .NET version, please send us an email and we will send you the .NET files. Please be sure to include your name and the email address that is associated with the PayPal account used to make the purchase.
ColdFusion Form Validation
by Danny Patterson - 28-Jan-05
Reader Level:
Form validation is critical to the stability of every web application. Allowing incomplete or invalid data input can cause unexpected errors. There are two methods to perform form validation. The first method is to validate the form's data before it is submitted. In a HTML based web application this would be done using JavaScript. The other method is to validate the form's data on the server. This article will examine a unique feature in ColdFusion that makes server-side form validation extremely easy.
Transforming XML With XSLT Using ColdFusion and ASP.NET
by Danny Patterson - 15-Dec-04
Reader Level:
XML is a very powerful language that has many different uses. One of the most common uses of XML is for data storage. In this article I'll talk about how to transform data stored in XML format with the use of XSLT. Then I will demonstrate how to use ColdFusion and ASP.NET to perform the transformation.
Run Code at an Interval Using ColdFusion
by Tom Muck - 09-Dec-04
Reader Level:
Have you ever wanted to set up a section of code that will only execute once a day or once a week? You can use the <cfschedule> tag to run a ColdFusion template at scheduled intervals, but there is another method that in many ways is more flexible, because it works with a section of code on a page. The technique demonstrated in this article essentially runs a piece of code on your page at intervals.
Using Conditional Parameters in SQL Server
by Tom Muck - 09-Nov-04
Reader Level:
Most dynamic sites have a database search of some variety. Stored procedures are much more desirable in a web application for many reasons, yet when it comes to performing searches, the stored procedure is not as easily implemented. In a scripted web application, you can create dynamic SQL statements on the fly, putting conditional logic into your WHERE clauses and making the SQL statement fit the situtation. In a stored procedure, it's not so easy. This article will show one way to pass parameters conditionally to your SQL stored procedure. The technique applies to SQL Server, with code provided for ASP and ColdFusion.
This article assumes you know how to create stored procedures, work with the Query Analyzer, and set up your own DSNs.
File Downloads for an E-Store
by Tom Muck - 26-Oct-04
Reader Level:
Online stores can sell goods and services, but one of the frequent uses of an online store is to sell goods that are downloadable, such as software, music, videos, and pictures. There are many ways to dynamically supply the files to your customers, but this article will show one way that is secure and also saves on bandwidth because it will use Zip files for the delivery.
Calculating Shipping Costs with UPS Online Tools
by Joey Lott - 04-Oct-04
Reader Level:
Want to add accurate shipping cost selection features to an e-commerce application? Read this article to learn how you can use the free UPS online tools in conjunction with ColdFusion to do just that. You'll also get access to a ColdFusion Component to simplify working with the rates & service selection tool, and you'll be walked through the steps of a working example.
cmxBean.cfc: A Very Simple Bean Implementation in ColdFusion: Part 4
by Arman Danesh - 07-Sep-04
Reader Level:
This is the final article in our series on building a simple bean-like framework called cmxBean.cfc. In this article we look at a sample application which shows how to actually apply cmxBean.cfc to a real application. We also look at the benefits and limitations of cmxBean.cfc.
Nested Repeat Regions in ColdFusion
by Tom Muck - 31-Aug-04
Reader Level:
If you've ever wanted to nest data -- such as titles under individual categories, or products under individual headings -- this article will show you how to do it with minimum fuss and muss using ColdFusion and the cfoutput tag.
cmxBean.cfc: A Very Simple Bean Implementation in ColdFusion, Part 3
by Arman Danesh - 23-Aug-04
Reader Level:
In the third article in this series on creating a simple bean implementation using ColdFusion components we look at the getter and setter methods of cmxBean.cfc.
Using CSV Strings in SQL Server: Part 2
by Tom Muck - 20-Aug-04
Reader Level:
This article shows how to deal with a many-to-many relationship in SQL by using CSV strings to insert, update, and display data. This is useful for batch updates, multiple categories for products, and other situations where you have several items that need to be related to another item.
cmxBean.cfc: A Very Simple Bean Implementation in ColdFusion - Part 2
by Arman Danesh - 12-Aug-04
Reader Level:
In Part 2 of this series on building a simple bean implementation in ColdFusion, we look at some of the theory and features of ColdFusion behind cmxBean.cfc, including introspection and extending components, and then look at the first four methods that make up cmxBean.cfc.
Using CSV Strings in SQL
by Tom Muck - 03-Aug-04
Reader Level:
Using SQL Server stored procedures, you can parse and insert individual items from a comma-separated list in the form of a string. This has great benefit in that you can avoid complex server-side scripting of batch inserts. This is useful for multiple categories for one product, or any other type of one-to-many relationship in a database table.
cmxBean.cfc: A Very Simple Bean Implementation in ColdFusion, Part I
by Arman Danesh - 29-Jul-04
Reader Level:
This article is the first in a series of of articles detailing an extremely simple implementation of a Bean framework in ColdFusion. This framework will allow the simple creation of reusable data components which can be used to access and manipulate data in a database table without writing any new database code. This article provides a high-level overview of the framework which will be detailed in future articles.
Sending WebPage Information Directly to a Pager or Cellular Phone
by Ray West - 23-Jul-04
Reader Level:
Sending information collected on your website directly to a clients pager or cell phone is easier than it sounds, and it just might be the extra wow factor you need to impress.
Case Study: Using the New Flash Remoting Classes
by Paul Newman - 15-Jul-04
Reader Level:
Recently, one of our subscribers made me an offer I couldn't refuse. He created a ColdFusion component (CFC) that sends mail using CFMAIL, and queries an Access database. But he was having difficulty getting the data into Flash, and sending the results of a contact form to the CFC. He offered to send me the database, CFC, and FLA source file if I could use the new Flash Remoting classes to tie it all together.
In this article, you'll learn how to call methods on a Flash Remoting service and return the results to Flash MX 2004 components. Includes coverage of the following Flash Remoting classes: Service, PendingCall, RelayResponder, ResultEvent, FaultEvent, Log, RecordSet, DataGlue.
Support Files: ColdFusion component, Microsoft Access database, Flash document, ActionScript file.
Simple Dynamic Recordset Sorting Using Stored Procedures
by Tom Muck - 09-Jul-04
Reader Level:
A stored procedure gives you many benefits when building applications, including web applications using ColdFusion, ASP, and other technologies. They are fast because they are precompiled and they are secure because the database tables are not being accessed directly. One thing that is a little tricky in working with stored procedures is building dynamic queries. You can build a SQL statement as a string within a stored procedure and execute it using the EXEC statement (or xp_executeSQL), but this also defeats one of the purposes of building your functionality into a stored procedure: the statement is not compiled when it is built dynamically. This article shows one way of creating dynamic SQL on the fly while still allowing the stored procedure to be precompiled.
Beyond ColdFusion Query Basics
by Joey Lott - 15-Jun-04
Reader Level:
Queries are an important part of nearly every ColdFusion application. In this article, learn how to create more efficient queries by using built-in ColdFusion features, such as query caching and queries of queries.
Affiliate Tracking System For ColdFusion
by Tom Muck - 11-Jun-04
Reader Level:
ColdFusion users have an application.cfm file which makes building an application much easier in many respects. The reason is that this file can do a variety of different things because it is always the first file executed no matter what page was requested in your application. You can use this to your advantage in an affiliate tracking application, such as in an e-store. This article will show how to build it.
Better Debug Info for ColdFusion Development
by Tom Muck - 18-May-04
Reader Level:
ColdFusion does not have a lot of functionality to aid in debugging your applications. The built-in debug information that you can access through the ColdFusion administrator gives you some basic information, but if you are using complex objects, structures, or CFCs, you are left without a way to examine these constructs. The technique shown in this article can also be used in a production environment because it can be turned on through a URL variable, and is tied to the user's session.
Consuming RSS Feeds in ColdFusion: Part 3
by Arman Danesh - 15-Apr-04
Reader Level:
RSS Feeds provide an easy way for sites to syndicate news headlines and stories and are widely used by sites such as Yahoo! which want to make it easy for others to reuse their content. RSS is a simple XML language for defining the content of these feeds and using ColdFusion's XML object it is easy to consume and process these feeds in your ColdFusion Application. This final installment of our series on consuming RSS feeds in ColdFusion shows how to use the techniques from the previous article to build a complete page to consume and display an RSS feed.
CF Fundamentals: Data Types
by Arman Danesh - 07-Apr-04
Reader Level:
In this installment of the CF Fundamentals series, we look at data types. Data types are the types of information which ColdFusion can process and manipulate; these includes strings, numbers, dates and a variety of other data types. We also look at loosely and strictly-typed languages and how ColdFusion fits into this spectrum.
CF Fundamentals: Overview
by Arman Danesh - 25-Mar-04
Reader Level:
This is the first in a new series of articles on fundamental ColdFusion concepts for the new ColdFusion developer. This article provides an overview of the ColdFusion server and its place in your Web application framework and discusses the various versions of ColdFusion that are available.
Making The List: List Creation and Manipulation in ColdFusion
by Bryan Ashcraft - 22-Mar-04
Reader Level:
Lists can be a great friend, and ColdFusion provides several ways to create and interact with them. This article will show how easy it can be to create, manipulate, and use lists to your advantage.
A Quick Approach to Home-Brewed Content Caching in ColdFusion - Part 2: The CFC
by Arman Danesh - 05-Mar-04
Reader Level:
Caching is a technique which can dramatically improve the performance of some Web applications. This article presents a ColdFusion component which makes a home-brewed approach to caching Web application output reusable in any of your pages.
The Home-Brewed Content Caching Series:
A Quick Approach to Home-Brewed Content Caching in ColdFusion - Part 1: The Theory
A Quick Approach to Home-Brewed Content Caching in ColdFusion - Part 2: The CFC
A Quick Approach to Home-Brewed Content Caching in ColdFusion - Part 3: In-Memory Caching
A Quick Approach to Home-Brewed Content Caching in ColdFusion - Part 1: The Theory
by Arman Danesh - 26-Feb-04
Reader Level:
Caching is a technique that can dramatically improve the performance of some web applications. This article presents a home-brewed approach to caching web application output at a fine-grained level, enabling you to cache sections of individual pages.
The Home-Brewed Content Caching Series:
A Quick Approach to Home-Brewed Content Caching in ColdFusion - Part 1: The Theory
A Quick Approach to Home-Brewed Content Caching in ColdFusion - Part 2: The CFC
A Quick Approach to Home-Brewed Content Caching in ColdFusion - Part 3: In-Memory Caching
Consuming RSS Feeds in ColdFusion: Part 2
by Arman Danesh - 19-Feb-04
Reader Level:
RSS Feeds provide an easy way for sites to syndicate news headlines and stories and are widely used by sites such as Yahoo! which want to make it easy for others to reuse their content. RSS is a simple XML language for defining the content of these feeds and using ColdFusion's XML object it is easy to consume and process these feeds in your ColdFusion Application. This first installment of our series on consuming RSS feeds in ColdFusion shows how to extract information from a ColdFusion XML object so that we can process an RSS feed.
Consuming RSS Feeds in ColdFusion: Part 1
by Arman Danesh - 13-Feb-04
Reader Level:
RSS feeds provide an easy way for sites to syndicate news headlines and stories, and are widely used by sites such as Yahoo! which want to make it easy for others to reuse their content.
RSS is a simple XML language for defining the content of these feeds, and using ColdFusion's XML object it is easy to consume and process these feeds in your ColdFusion Application.
This first installment of our series on consuming RSS feeds in ColdFusion introduces RSS and the basics of the XML object.
An Image Delivery System with JIMG: Extending the Application
by Arman Danesh - 21-Jan-04
Reader Level:
This is the final article in a series detailing the design and implementation of a system for dynamic image delivery from ColdFusion using JIMG. This article provides suggestions for ways to extend the application, including implementing access control for images, and storing images in a database.
The Image Delivery System with JIMG Series:
An Image Delivery System with JIMG: Overview and Planning
An Image Delivery System with JIMG: The cmxImage.cfc
An Image Delivery System with JIMG: The image.cfm Template
An Image Delivery System with JIMG: Extending the Application
An Image Delivery System with JIMG: The image.cfm Template
by Arman Danesh - 19-Jan-04
Reader Level:
This is the third article in a series detailing the design and implementation of a system for dynamic image delivery from ColdFusion using JIMG. This article details the design of the image.cfm which handles the actual delivery of images.
The Image Delivery System with JIMG Series:
An Image Delivery System with JIMG: Overview and Planning
An Image Delivery System with JIMG: The cmxImage.cfc
An Image Delivery System with JIMG: The image.cfm Template
An Image Delivery System with JIMG: Extending the Application
An Image Delivery System with JIMG: The cmxImage.cfc
by Arman Danesh - 14-Jan-04
Reader Level:
This is the second article in a series detailing the design and implementation of a system for dynamic image delivery from ColdFusion using JIMG. This article details the design of the cmxImage.cfc component which handles the actual image processing and manipulation.
The Image Delivery System with JIMG Series:
An Image Delivery System with JIMG: Overview and Planning
An Image Delivery System with JIMG: The cmxImage.cfc
An Image Delivery System with JIMG: The image.cfm Template
An Image Delivery System with JIMG: Extending the Application
Handling Email Blasts with ColdFusion: Part 2
by Tom Muck - 13-Jan-04
Reader Level:
In Part 1 of this series, we covered some general principles for handling an email blast from ColdFusion. In this part, I'll present some code that should make it very easy to set up a recurring mailing for a newsletter. Community MX uses a similar system for sending out the weekly newsletter.
An Image Delivery System with JIMG: Overview and Planning
by Arman Danesh - 12-Jan-04
Reader Level:
This is the first article in a series detailing the design and implementation of a system for dynamic image delivery from ColdFusion using JIMG. This system resizes images on-the-fly and adds copyright notices to images if needed.
The Image Delivery System with JIMG Series:
An Image Delivery System with JIMG: Overview and Planning
An Image Delivery System with JIMG: The cmxImage.cfc
An Image Delivery System with JIMG: The image.cfm Template
An Image Delivery System with JIMG: Extending the Application
Nesting Query Driven cfoutput Tags
by Ray West - 07-Jan-04
Reader Level:
ColdFusion provides great functionality right out of the box, but what happens when it won't accommodate exactly what you need to do? Sometimes there is a simple, if not obvious, answer.
Handling Email Blasts with ColdFusion: Part 1
by Tom Muck - 26-Dec-03
Reader Level:
ColdFusion has built-in functionality that makes it easy to create an email blast for a newsletter, order confirmation, or other type of dynamic email generation. The article describes the many aspects of dynamic emails, including admin mail settings, bounced emails, different types of data used in emails, looping within emails, and other things you'll need to know when sending a dynamic email.
Deconstructing the CMX Zip CFC
by Arman Danesh - 09-Dec-03
Reader Level:
Learn the techniques used to create the CMX Zip CFC.
Deconstructing the CMX Unzip CFC
by Arman Danesh - 14-Nov-03
Reader Level:
Learn the techniques used to create the CMX Unzip CFC.
ColdFusion: Getting Into Good Coding Habits
by Adrian Senior - 28-Oct-03
Reader Level:
In this article we will look at good coding practices for evaluating form variables and guarding against url variable errors.
We will also look at customising Dreamweaver's default ColdFusion template to prepare a standard set of comments to make revisiting our older files so much easier!
Masks in ColdFusion (Part 3): Formatting Numbers
by Arman Danesh - 24-Oct-03
Reader Level:
The NumberFormat function in ColdFusion allows you to format numeric output almost any way you might want using masks. The third part in a series about masks for dates, times and numbers, this article teaches you to use these numeric masks.
Unicode and International Character Sets in ColdFusion MX: Part 3
by Arman Danesh - 23-Oct-03
Reader Level:
This is the third and final article in a series about using Unicode and International Character sets in ColdFusion. This article provides a quick overview of how to ensure your Unicode text is handled properly by databases and, in particular, MySQL and Microsoft Access.
The Unicode & International Character Sets Series:
Unicode and International Character Sets in Coldfusion MX: Part 1
Unicode and International Character Sets in Coldfusion MX: Part 2
Unicode and International Character Sets in Coldfusion MX: Part 3
Understanding CFCONTENT
by Arman Danesh - 03-Oct-03
Reader Level:
You may have seen the CFCONTENT tag used to change the character set of a page by specifying the necessary HTTP header for your file. But, the CFCONTENT tag can be used for much more. For instance, you can use it to return non-HTML MIME types from ColdFusion to the browser. For instance, a ColdFusion file could just as easily return an image or a PDF file to the browser instead of an HTML page. This article tells you how.
Unicode and International Character Sets in ColdFusion MX: Part 2
by Arman Danesh - 26-Sep-03
Reader Level:
In part 1 of this series we learned how to work with international character sets and encodings in ColdFusion MX and the role of Unicode. In this installement, learn to create forms which can accept non-ASCII text input and then correctly access the submitted data from your ColdFusion pages.
The Unicode & International Character Sets Series:
Unicode and International Character Sets in Coldfusion MX: Part 1
Unicode and International Character Sets in Coldfusion MX: Part 2
Unicode and International Character Sets in Coldfusion MX: Part 3
Flash Remoting in Flash MX 2004
by Tom Muck - 26-Sep-03
Reader Level:
Many people are wondering if Flash Remoting still supported in Flash MX 2004. The answer is “Yes”, however I think the next few months will be a transition period. The latest Flash Remoting components from Macromedia still utilize ActionScript 1.0 code, but the good news is that everything still seems to work. In this article I'll try to answer a few of those questions that have appeared since the release of Flash MX 2004 and Flash Professional.
Masks in ColdFusion (Part 2): Formatting Times
by Arman Danesh - 10-Sep-03
Reader Level:
If you have ever struggled to format times properly for output, you can take advantage of the TimeFormat function and handy formatting masks. This article tells you how to structure masks for formatting times in ColdFusion.
Masks in ColdFusion (Part 1): Dates and Times
by Arman Danesh - 22-Aug-03
Reader Level:
If you have ever struggled to format dates properly for output, you can take advantage of the DateFormat function and handy formatting masks. This article tells you how to structure masks for formatting dates in ColdFusion.
High Volume Mail without CFMAIL, Part 3: Handling Bad Addresses and Bounced Messages
by Arman Danesh - 06-Aug-03
Reader Level:
This is the third and final part of a series of articles on using outside Perl scripts to manage the delivery of mail to large lists from ColdFusion. This article addresses how to handle incorrectly formed addresses, banned users and bounced messages.
ColdFusion MX: The Red Sky Upgrade
by Tom Muck - 05-Aug-03
Reader Level:
ColdFusion MX has been out for over a year now, and has been becoming more and more reliable and stable with each updater. Updaters 1, 2, and 3 each addressed bugs and problems with CFMX. The latest update, the ColdFusion MX 6.1 updater (code named Red Sky) was released today and offers much more than simple bug fixes. The release can be considered a true upgrade. The best part of the upgrade is that it's free.
High Volume Mail without CFMAIL, Part 2: Sending Personalized Messages to a Mailing List
by Arman Danesh - 29-Jul-03
Reader Level:
This is the second in a three-part series showing how you can use Perl to bypass limitations in CFMAIL for sending mailings to big lists. This installment shows how to personalize messages sent to the list.
CF Administrator: Debugging Settings
by Neil Giarratana - 23-Jul-03
Reader Level:
There is nothing worse than spinning wheels trying to debug an application in the dark. This artice will show you how to limit the debugging information display for just yourself and describe all of the possibilities contained in the CF Administrator's debugging settings.
High Volume Mail without CFMAIL, Part 1: Sending a Message to a Big List
by Arman Danesh - 21-Jul-03
Reader Level:
This is the first in a series of articles on how to get around the limitations of CFMAIL for sending mailings to large lists by using Perl to handle the mailing. This article covers the basics of generating mailings to large lists in this way.
On-the-Fly Image Manipulation with ColdFusion and ImageMagick
by Arman Danesh - 26-Jun-03
Reader Level:
Have you ever wanted to be able to resize or convert images directly from within ColdFusion. By combining ColdFusion with a powerful open-source image manipulation package called ImageMagick, this is possible.
Enabling Session Variables in ColdFusion
by Bryan Ashcraft - 16-Jun-03
Reader Level:
Enabling session management in ColdFusion is not automatic. So if you're having trouble getting your user log in form to work in Dreamweaver, take at look at this article where we walk you through the process of enabling sessions.
cf_label custom tag
by Joel Martinez - 02-Jun-03
Reader Level:
Handy dandy little custom tag to clean up your page code. Picking up from my experience with ASP.NET, I wanted a way to be able to separate some of my display code from my program logic.
This custom tag allows me to set properties such as style and text from code at the top of my coldfusion template, and define the custom tag elsewhere on the page, thus neatly separating code from content. When it comes to code organization and maintainability, this is one of the best techniques I have found so far.
Flash Remoting 101
by Tom Muck - 23-May-03
Reader Level:
When you hear the term "Flash Remoting", you might be wondering what exactly is being referred to. Macromedia's latest push towards the Rich Internet Application has at its core the Flash Remoting technology. This article will give you a brief introduction and show you the necessary requirements to getting it up and running on your machine and your web server.
Simplify your documents with CFINCLUDES
by Lawrence Cramer - 07-May-03
Reader Level:
Site maintenance can be a real bear! A simple task such as changing an address can take hours, especially if the address is repeated on every page of a large site. Simplify your code and your life with includes!
Breathing New Life Into Custom Tags
by Neil Giarratana - 06-May-03
Reader Level:
Some have predicted the death of Custom Tags with the release of ColdFusion MX and CFC's. Not only are Custom Tags alive and well...they now can be application specific. Learn why they still have a place in your application and how CFIMPORT breathes new life into them...
Protecting Server Privacy During CF Errors
by Charlie Arehart - 03-Apr-03
Reader Level:
When errors occur on your ColdFusion page or site, are you inadvertently exposing information that could be useful to hackers? This tutorial points up the challenge and solution to this common problem.
