Henry Learns to Rock

Do you want ColdFusion to support HMAC hashing natively?

2011-11-01T19:21:00.000-07:00

Vote it up! http://cfbugs.adobe.com/cfbugreport/flexbugui/cfbugtracker/main.html#bugId=86654

What is HMAC? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMAC

Where is HMAC needed? Amazon Web Services, Credit Card Gateways, Twitter, etc...

Which CFer has used HMAC successfully with ColdFusion?

What can we use today?

HMAC_SHA1() <-- would the author please post to cflib or adobe cookbooks?

"SHA" in hash() is not SHA-1 in CF8/9, it is SHA-0! (according to CFWACK)

2011-10-31T17:53:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: I wasn't intend to promote the use of SHA-1 for hashing password, or hashing anything using SHA-1 in general. This post is here to point out the highly used "SHA" param for hash() is actually SHA-0. For those who intended to compute a valid SHA-1 hash, please use "SHA-1" as the algorithm param.

Do you know "SHA" algorithm in ColdFusion is actually the ~~broken~~ flawed "SHA-0"?

According to wikipedia

A retronym applied to the original version of the 160-bit hash function published in 1993 under the name "SHA". It was withdrawn shortly after publication due to an undisclosed "significant flaw" and replaced by the slightly revised version SHA-1.

And according to owasp.org

SHA-0 has been conclusively broken. It should no longer be used for any sensitive applications.

So please use "SHA-1" instead of the flawed "SHA" if you want a SHA-1 hash. It is available in ColdFusion Standard Edition. Somehow it is not in CFBuilder's code assist for hash().

I cannot believe how error-ridden is the CF 9's documentation on hash(). Many errors are carried over from CF 8 documentation and this is unacceptable. Just read the comments section and you will see that all the returned lengths are stated incorrectly, and many algorithms that are available in Standard Edition are listed under Enterprise Edition only.

Please use Adobe ColdFusion 9 Web Application Construction Kit (block-quoted below). The list is applicable to CF 8 as well, but I'm not sure about CF7 or earlier. Also, please read the comments of this post.

.... In ColdFusion 9, the Hash() function also leverages the message digests supplied by the SunJCE provider.

...

algorithm
Optional. This is the algorithm used to hash the string. ColdFusion includes a backward-compatible algorithm, as well as the default algorithms supported by the SunJCE provider:
CFMX_COMPAT (default). Algorithm used in ColdFusion versions prior to MX 7; this is the least-secure option (same as MD5 algorithm)
MD2. The MD2 algorithm; generates a 32-byte, hexadecimal string
MD5 (default). The MD5 algorithm; generates a 32-byte, hexadecimal string (same as CFMX_COMPAT algorithm)
SHA. The original Secure Hash Standard (SHA-0) algorithm specified by NIST FIPS-180; generates a 40-character string
SHA-1. The SHA-1 algorithm specified by NIST FIPS-180-2; generates a 40-character string
SHA-256. Uses SHA-256 algorithm specified by FIPS-180-2; generates a 64-character string
SHA-384. Uses SHA-256 algorithm specified by FIPS-180-2; generates a 96-character string
SHA-512. Uses SHA-256 algorithm specified by FIPS-180-2; generates a 128-character string
ColdFusion 9 Enterprise edition includes the following RSA BSafe Crypto-J library algorithms for use with hash():
SHA-224. The 224-bit secure hash algorithm defined by FIPS 180-2 and FIPS 198
HMAC-MD5. The hash message authentication code calculated using the MD5 hash algorithm
HMAC-RIPEMD160. The hash message authentication code calculated using the RACE Integrity Primitives Evaluation Message Digest 160-bit message digest algorithm and cryptographic hash function
HMAC-SHA1. The hash message authentication code calculated using the 160-bit secure hash algorithm defined by FIPS 180-2 and FIPS 198
HMAC-SHA224. The hash message authentication code calculated using the 224-bit secure hash algorithm defined by FIPS 180-2 and FIPS 198
HMAC-SHA256. The hash message authentication code calculated using the 256-bit secure hash algorithm defined by FIPS 180-2 and FIPS 198
HMAC-SHA384. The hash message authentication code calculated using the 384-bit secure hash algorithm defined by FIPS 180-2 and FIPS 198
HMAC-SHA512. The hash message authentication code calculated using the 512-bit secure hash algorithm defined by FIPS 180-2 and FIPS 198

Tip
If an algorithm is in both the Sun JCE and Crypto-J, ColdFusion will use the one provided by Crypto-J.

jQuery was named jSelect, Yahoo didn't hire John Resig, who'd have known?

2010-11-03T19:00:00.000-07:00

Don't believe me? Listen to This Developer's Life 1.0.7 here

MAX 2010 SESSIONS on Adobe TV !!!

2010-10-29T14:26:00.001-07:00

Recorded sessions available here!

I'm so gonna watch them all this weekend! Hurray!

Terrence Ryan taught me why is not needed

2010-08-20T12:36:00.000-07:00

I guess most of you have heard of or used <cfhtmlhead> for injecting things in between <head></head> in html, right?

Today I came across a blog post which talks about frontend performance tips, and one of them is to include script tags in the bottom of the page to avoid blocking (for more tips, see http://code.google.com/speed/articles/ ). I know this tip for a while now, but I found myself hard to implement it with most MVC frameworks I used (i.e. MG2, ColdBox, FW/1). For a second I really wish there's a <cfhtmlfoot> tag. So I asked on the tweeter, and @tpryan replied:

@henrylearn2rock I use the request scope for this. Inject code into request.footer, then in the closing of my view, check for and publish.

Nice! I guess we don't need <cfhtmlfoot> after all. Thanks Terrence.

edit: gosh blogger, html encode post title and body ALREADY! And why are URL's not turned into hyperlinks automatically? You suck! It's 2010!!!

update: wow! look at this reply from @mach_ii!

@henrylearn2rock M2 supports this on OpenBD. cfhtmlbody: http://is.gd/esh24 & htmlbody(): http://is.gd/esh0Z Railo tix: http://is.gd/esh7x

update: oh, my man tpryan also blogged about this: Injecting JavaScript to the foot of a ColdFusion Page

How to render Chinese / Japanese correctly with cfdocument / cfreport?

2010-08-12T22:22:00.000-07:00

In order to have the Chinese or Japanese characters rendered up correctly in PDF using and , you should first check what's your default locale at ColdFusion Administrator -> Setting Summary -> Java Default Locale. One would have thought CFML will respect custom locale using setLocale(), but it doesn't.

If it is "en_US", edit /lib/cffont.properties. Otherwise, create a /lib/cffont.properties.#locale#(e.g. /lib/cffont.properties.zh_TW ) using cffont.properties as reference.

Replace the font(s) after '=' with system's Chinese font (e.g. MingLiu) for Chinese or system's Japanese font (e.g. MS UI Gothic) for Japanese respectively, assuming ColdFusion is installed on Windows, and client has the respective font(s) installed.

Restart ColdFusion, and then the font should show up correctly...

p.s. In Report Builder, make sure you set Preference -> PDF Encoding to "Identity-H".

Now with the PDF open, Right-click -> Document Properties... , you should see the specified font in the cffont properties file.

Hmm... now why can't PDF support UTF-8 correctly is beyond me... How to display both Chinese and Japanese and Korean in the same PDF? I don't know.

If you know which Chinese / Japanese / Korean fonts are installed by Adobe Reader language pack, please let me know here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3474221/which-fonts-are-installed-by-adobe-reader-asian-and-extended-language-font-packs

If you have a better method of getting cfreport / cfdocument render Chinese / Japanese / Korean, please share in Comments!

Thank you

update: if you don't need PDF, format="flashpaper" just works. Thanks Macromedia!

Apache CouchDB is cool

2010-06-07T16:06:00.001-07:00

2-layers made possible! DB <-> front end, bypass app layer thanks to JSON over HTTP (RESTful)

Hibernate Indexed Collections works with CF ORM!

2010-06-03T18:37:00.000-07:00

By default, ColdFusion would use <bag> when you use type="array" to map "one-to-many" fieldtype.

/** Parent.cfc */ component persistent="true" { property name="id" fieldtype="id" generator="native"; property name="children" type="array" fieldtype="one-to-many" inverse="true" cfc="child" cascade="all"; }
Add this parent.hbxml below and save it in the same folder as parent.cfc if you want to use Indexed Collections. Hibernate will do all the bookkeeping behind the scene for you to preserve the order of the array by storing the order in the sortOrder column (int). Cool eh?

<!DOCTYPE hibernate-mapping PUBLIC "-//Hibernate/Hibernate Mapping DTD 3.0//EN"
                                   "http://hibernate.sourceforge.net/hibernate-mapping-3.0.dtd">
<hibernate-mapping>
    <class entity-name="parent" lazy="true" name="cfc:com.test.parent" table="parent">
        <id name="id" type="int">
            <column name="id"/>
            <generator class="native"/>
        </id>

        <—- rename ‘bag’ to ‘list’ -->
        <list name="children" cascade="all">
            <key column="parent_id"/>
            <—- set base="1" to match CF array index (optional, default to 0) -->
            <list-index column="sortOrder" base="1"/>
            <one-to-many class="cfc:com.test.child"/>
        </list>

    </class>
</hibernate-mapping>

Didn’t know it’s this easy! :)

NCDEVCON On-line Session Videos

2010-05-27T11:58:00.000-07:00

Most of theNCDevCon sessions were recorded!
Check them out: http://tinyurl.com/ncdevcon2010

CF9 GetMemento() that works with inheritance

2010-01-22T17:50:00.000-08:00

Here's my take on getMemento() in CF9... (non-recursive)

You might want to return a duplicate() of properties if you like.

struct function getMemento() { var properties = {};    for (local.md = getMetaData(this);
       structKeyExists(md, "extends");
       md = md.extends) {     if (structKeyExists(md, "properties"))     {       for (local.i = 1;
           i <= arrayLen(md.properties);            i++)       {         local.pName = md.properties[i].name;         local.properties[pName]
          = structKeyExists(variables, pName) ?
            variables[pName] : "";       }     } }    return properties; }

Adobe ColdFusion 9 released!!!

2009-10-04T21:18:00.001-07:00

http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/

Building iPhone Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

2009-10-02T12:44:00.001-07:00

http://building-iphone-apps.labs.oreilly.com/

Awesome, I will read this later.

Wanna learn Git?

2009-09-17T20:46:00.001-07:00

Watch Tom Preston-Werner, Chris Wanstrath and Scott Chacon — Git, GitHub and Social Coding on Yahoo Developer Network.

Sorry, my blog entry is getting shorter and shorter, blame #Twitter!

How to use cfinclude in CFScript (CF9)?

2009-09-17T19:03:00.001-07:00

include "path/andfilename.cfm"

Thanks @PaulKukiel.

update: and Adam's comment below..

Workaround for using MXUnit in a CF9 ORM app?

2009-09-11T12:19:00.001-07:00

If you want to use MXUnit within a CF9 ORM app, you’ll need to delete application.cfm in the mxunit folder (don’t worry, it is safe to do so) and move the mxunit folder inside your application folder. Then you may get the following exception:

Error Occurred While Processing Request
Context Validation error for tag cffunction
The end tag </cffunction> encountered on line 12 at column 11 requires a matching start tag.

If you encountered a similar error to the one above, here’s the workaround. In your own Application.cfc, set:

this.ormsettings.cfclocation = YOUR_CFC_FOLDER_PATH

Happy unit-testing. :)

Should CF9 officially introduce the null value?

2009-09-09T12:46:00.001-07:00

Thank you Adobe for giving us IsNull() function, and we can finally use that instead of the more verbose StructKeyExists() or the less efficient IsDefined(), but how do I set a variable to null?

When do we need to set a property to null? How about a property in a persistent=true component that represents a nullable column?

Let’s say for the Member table, the gender field is optional, the gender column is nullable.

option 1: setGenderNull() method in Member.cfc:

public void function setGenderNull() {
structDelete(variables, “gender”);
}

option 2: use setGender():

m = EntityLoad(“member”, memberID);
m.setGender(JavaCast("null", ""));

Notice that this is totally valid, but this is weird because I’m not really doing anything java, but I’m forced to use JavaCast() function, why? There’s no ‘null’ value in CF!

Would you like CF to introduce NULL as a new reserved word? Then we can finally do:

m.setGender(null);

// CFML becoming more java? What do you think?

Do not put required arguments in init() if…

2009-08-28T13:24:00.001-07:00

… if CFC persistent=”true” (in CF9 beta).

For instance, when you use ORMExecuteQuery() to return an array of that entity with init(required arg), it will throw an exception.

Should we abandon Instance scope in CF9?

2009-08-26T00:01:00.001-07:00

INSTANCE scope is never an official scope, but it has been adapted by many CFer's (including myself) for writing CFC.

<cfset variables.instance = structNew()>

Common usages include:

dump() private variables for debugging
getMemento() / setMemento(struct)
clone()

However, CF9 brings lots of much needed <cfproperty> functionality:

<cfdump> will now dump all properties
implicit getters and setters (can be turn off optionally)
validation on setter (optional)
metadata for the almighty ORM with Hibernate

Unfortunately, all the properties are stored in VARIABLES scope by default, and it can’t be changed. However, since <cfproperty> has become so important and powerful in CF9, should we abandon the INSTANCE scope convention?

What do you think?

CF9 beta: cfinterface does not respect implicit getters/setters

2009-08-24T17:34:00.000-07:00

I'm excited these days because I get to play with CF9 for a new project. However, I'm disappointed that <cfinterface> does not respect implicit getters and setters.

I was working on a CreditCard.cfc that implements ICreditCard.cfc in CF8.

CreditCard.cfc has holdername, number, expiryMM, and expiryYYYY properties defined using <cfproperty>.

ICreditCard.cfc (interface) has getHolderName(), getNumber(), getExpiryMM(), getExpiryYYYY().

I then try removing the getters from CreditCard.cfc, but CF9 complains:

"The getNumber method is not implemented by the component or it is declared as private."

Oh, that sucks. Don't you agree?

UPDATE: CF9 FINAL will generate the getter and setter methods for you when you specify accessors=true, and they Will respace the interface if the method signatures are the same!

Excellent FLEX tutorials PDF

2009-05-31T14:01:00.001-07:00

Last Thursday, my coworkers and I attended Free Full Day Training for Flex/AIR/Flash! conference locally at Vancouver SFU Harbour Centre campus. Thank you everyone for making such event happen.

Download: VancouverRIADay.pdf here!

There are 26 step by step labs in the PDF that will turn you into a Flex developer in a snap! :)

Oops, livedoc.Adobe.com forgot about onError()?

2009-05-15T11:35:00.001-07:00

Today when I tried to access adobe’s livedoc…

Yikes?! ;)

Very First Steps in Flex Refcard

2009-04-22T10:31:00.001-07:00

Today I found this gem from dzone.com…

Very First Steps in Flex

Rich Internet Applications and Flex are taking off. Many developers need to learn Flex fast. This refcard will help readers get started learning Flex. Firstly, a simple “Hello, World” application which will help familiarize readers with the Flex Builder tool and programming model. Secondly, we'll go into depth about how to connect Flex applications to back-end data through RESTful XML and SOAP. And lastly, “Remoting and Messaging with Java” walks through how to easily connect to a Java back-end with the open source BlazeDS product.

Features include Hello, World, Web Services, Remoting and Messaging with Java, Hot Tips and more.

Download it here (PDF)!

I think it is nice.

Dear CFDUMP, why don’t you HtmlEditFormat() your output!?

2009-04-15T17:25:00.001-07:00

Today I finally tried using <cfxml> for the first time. However, when I tried using an element from the xml, it always have an empty space in front. Hmm…

<cfoutput>’#value#’</cfoutput>

At first I thought it is some CF quirks, so I tried

<cfprocessingdirective suppressWhiteSpace=”true”>

but the white space is still there somehow…

Then I tried putting a Trim() around the value, but the white space still there!!! What!?

Finally, I highlight the non-removable space, right-click, “view selection source” in Firefox, and THERE IT IS!

‘<myElement>xxx</myElement>’

Lesson learned. I needed to reference myElement.XmlText to get ‘xxx’.

If <cfdump> does a HtmlEditFormat() for the browser output… I guess I’ll have nothing to blog about today. :)

“學如逆水行舟,不進則退” Keep learning mate!

2009-03-25T12:48:00.001-07:00

No, my blog is not hacked by a Chinese worm. :) The title of this entry is a famous Chinese proverb about learning. It is frequently used to encourage students to keep learning.

English translation of the proverb:

Learning is like travelling on a little boat against the current. You either go forward (by working/paddling hard), or you will be pushed backward.

So moving forward, my goal this year is to learn:

Flex and AIR
ColdBox Framework
Groovy and CFGroovy with Hibernate

Looking back, what have I learned last year?

Let’s keep learning everyone! :)

Book Review: “Career 2.0: Take Control of Your Life”

2009-03-23T18:10:00.001-07:00

Recently I’ve been asking myself, what step I should take next in my career path. While I was glancing through the 200+ topics from the feed aggregators on Google Reader, this blog entry from Peter Bell caught my eye. He highly recommended this book, which can be purchased as a PDF for US$12.50, so I bought it and gave it read.

Before I purchased the book, I was hoping that I can get some great insights on my next career move, but I think the book fell short of my expectation.

The first chapter or two was okay. It explains what are jellyfish, developers who only learn and use what’re needed in projects at work, and what are sharks, developers who learn technologies outside of work. It encourages the readers to be more like sharks.

Then it has a few chapters on improving the writing and public speaking skills, which I did not expect to find on a book about career. It encourages one to blog and speak at local user group, and then write a book or speak at a conference later.

I found myself already near the end of the book before I expected. The book ends with several “been there, done that” software developers talking about how their career lives were formed and things that they have learned. I think they are quite valuable, but many of them have already been quoted throughout the first few chapters, reading them again seems repetitive.

Overall, I think it is an easy read, but it was just okay in terms of the quality and quantity of the original content. Fortunately, it was not expensive. :)

How do you get motivated at work?

2009-03-20T17:18:00.001-07:00

Where do you find your motivation? Are you really passionate about the project you’re working on? Is your goal to become the best software developer like a Kung Fu Master? Or… something else?

I remember back then when I was in college, our team can code up a project full of features and reasonable reliable in just a few weeks. Yes, the code might not be in the best shape, but I can remember that we used to have the project implemented in a passionate way. Why? Maybe it was because there are different teams working on the same project and we wanted to be the best team. Or maybe we wanted to get good marks so that we can graduate. Or maybe we were naive and thought the employer would mine what grade I got in course XXX.

After working at a company for around 2 years now, I’ve noticed that my fellow workers, including myself, feels less passionate about what we do. What should we do? What’s wrong with us?

If you’re working full-time at a company, what drives you to do what you do? Maybe… stock-option? bonus? a share of the revenue?

If you’re working by contract, what drives you to do what you do? Use the current contract to get the next big contract?

Please give me some feedback… I’d really like to know. :-)

No Pain, No Gain

2009-03-13T11:40:00.001-07:00

In an interview with the creator of jQuery UI, Paul Bakaus explains how jQuery UI was born:

I had a day job, and I estimated I would need to work on it 3-4 hours everyday. After some days of consideration, I finally said ‘yes’, and for a three month period woke up every day at 6am to work for 3 hours on jQuery UI and then go to my day job. Now I can say that it was worth it. :)

Reminder to self: “DON’T BE LAZY! YOU COUCH POTATO!”

"DAO / Gateway nonsense in CF"

2009-03-02T14:28:00.000-08:00

I did not say that, Sean Corfield did! (on this CFCDev post)

Since I'm sort of responsible for the separate DAO / Gateway nonsense in CF - due to a recommendation I made in 2003 in the Mach-II Development Guide - I'd really like to see it completely eradicated! (more...)

Railo will rock the CFML world!

2009-01-30T08:14:00.001-08:00

I watched the record Railo Open Source presentation yesterday, and I must say, it is the best thing that has happened in the CFML world! Don’t you agree?

It is almost like what Firefox did to MS’s IE6. Let’s challenge the big guy with something competitive and FREE!

It is wonderful to hear from Railo’s mouth that Adobe, Railo and OpenBD do work together to ensure CFML/cfscript consistence and high compatibility. The last thing we CFML developers want is to remember a long list of what works which CFML engine and what not. Thumbs up for the guys in that committee.

I like the direction Railo 3 open source is heading. Every decisions they have made seem very smart. I wish jBoss and Railo all the best, especially when it comes to marketing CFML to the JAVA/JSP crowd and beyond. It’s time to improve the reputation of CFML! I hope that one day when we tell people that we write CFML for a living, we won’t be looked down by our peers with questions like “Isn’t CF[ML] dead?”

Lastly, I’m not sure why they’re launching on March 31/April 1st though… would people take it seriously? ;-)

CF9 vs Railo3! The fight of 2009! Oh wait… is CF9 releasing this year?

The next interesting fight: CFEclipse vs. Bolt.

Scalable solution for routing dynamically created sub-domain?

2009-01-23T15:52:00.001-08:00

It is very common nowadays to have a sub-domain created upon a successful user registration. How to write a web app that does that efficiently and easy to scale?

The most common solution is to insert a *.domain.com entry to the DNS server, and make use of mod-rewrite or look at CGI scope at the application level to determine the correct user.

However, what happen when you have a lot of users, and the single server *.domain.com is pointing to is not enough?

Someone suggested me to make use of a load balancer, but that will require some sort of clustering, and we all know how expensive that can cost in terms of hardware & software. Most software requires a more expensive edition to support clustering.

What if, we borrow the idea of Partition in the DB world, and apply it to the whole stack (Application Server + File Server + SQL Server)? It sounds like a good idea… but who’s responsible for directing traffic?

DNS seems to be the most logical place, since it can manage sub-domain easily with A-record’s. However, inserting a new row into the zone file requires a DNS server restart (at least for BIND, the most common DNS server). Although there is no hard limit on the file size of a zone file, requiring a restart for every new sub-domain entry seems rather crazy. The loading of that potentially huge zone file can also introduce latency, and we don’t want our newly registered user to experience site no found, right?

I asked the same question on stackoverflow.com, but so far there’re no one answer that satisfies my needs. Therefore, I thought of making this blog post and cry for help. :)

If you have any suggestion and insight, please fill me a comment, or answer my question at stackoverflow.com. Thank you!

MVP of Head First OOA&D

2009-01-18T19:37:00.000-08:00

To be honest, the Most Valuable Page (MVP) of all 500+ pages of this book is:

This book is very easy to read, but I expected something more advanced. Any other recommendation that can put me on track to become an OO Guru? :)

update: if I'm violating any copyright law, please let me know and I will remove the image immediately.

"Why is ColdFusion so unpopular?"

2009-01-16T11:54:00.000-08:00

OK, I'm not on the side of "CF is DEAD", because we know it is not with CF9 coming. However, I'm very interested to see how people in the industry thinks about ColdFusion in general. Therefore, I posted the question "Why is ColdFusion so unpopular?" to stackover.com

Someone tried to change the title to "Why is ColdFusion not as popular as ASP, ASP.NET or PHP?", but I revert back to "Why is ColdFusion so unpopular?" for a broader discussion, rather than just language & feature comparison.

However, there were only 10 Answers because someone thought it is "subjective and argumentative" and closed the thread.

Want to know how other thinks about CF outside of the CF community? Read here.

Fw: Top Java Developers Offer Advice to Students

2008-12-12T19:06:00.000-08:00

Contents

Joshua Bloch: Write Lots of Code
Tor Norbye: Learn to Use Your Tools
Chet Haase: Don't Put Your Entire Application in One Method
Ben Galbraith: Interact With an Expert
Masood Mortazavi: Start Simple and Keep Learning
Raghavan Srinivas: Don't Be Overwhelmed
Cay Horstmann: First, Don't Panic
Arun Gupta: Try Different IDEs
Rick Cattell: Good Technology Is Only 10% of Success
Chuk-Munn Lee: Choose an Area of Your Immediate Need
Tom Ball: Programming Is Still a Craft

> Link to the article here.

This piece is really valuable to me. I hope it is valuable to you too, and that's why I want to share it.

7 Principles for Transforming Difficult Tasks into Simple Ones

2008-12-01T18:04:00.000-08:00

Although this book is already 20 years old, surprisingly the design advices and observations still hold true for software UI today. I have not finished reading the book, but these seven principles are so useful that I owe it to myself if I don't post it somewhere.

Have you read any good books on software UI?

Quote from The Design of Everyday Things , page 188-189

Use both knowledge in the world and knowledge in the head.
Simplify the structure of tasks
Make things visible: bridge the gulfs of Execution and Evaluation
Get the mappings right
Exploit the power of constraints, both natural and artificial
Design for error
When all else fails, standardize

If you don't want to buy the book, look it up from your local library! I am pretty sure they have it!

WinHEC 2008 Coverage: Windows 7 looks very cool!

2008-11-05T16:40:00.001-08:00

WinHEC 2008 Coverage

Windows 7 seems like a very exciting product! Even runs on a netbook? you kidding me!

Mac user: sorry you'll need to install Silverlight Plugin if you don't have it installed already.

Get burnt using underlying java method in CF array

2008-10-24T16:31:00.001-07:00

Today I received a bug report. When I took a closer look at the bug, I realized that I used x.contains() method where x is a CF array. The code needs to determine if an integer is in the array x, and the java contains() method does exactly what I need. (FYI: CF array == java.utils.Vector)

However, since the array is from JSON, hell breaks loose...

You would think both cfdump will give you "YES", but they do NOT!

YES NO

Why? if you try it you'll find that after serialized and deserialized to and from JSON, the array actually became [0.0,1.0,2.0] ! You may verify with #d.toString()# if you don't believe me.

So... how do I continue to use contains()? You would think b.contains(0.0) would work, but actually this is what you need:

b.contains(javacast('double',0))

...and this finally returns 'YES'.

However, since my code need to work with both [0] and [0.0], I ended up writing the contains function in CFML instead with <cfloop> and <cfif>.

I thought I would save time by calling underlying java method, but I actually ended up spending more time fixing this 'bug'... For those who use underlying java methods in CF, watch out! Especially when you use JSON!

Have I used CF8 to its fullness?

2008-10-01T13:07:00.001-07:00

Our team is starting on a new project, and we will be in the low level design phase soon. One question that popped in my mind over yesterday's meeting: Have we used CF8 to its fullness?

CF8 brought a lot of new and improved features to the table. Some of them I don't see us using any day, like .NET integration & Microsoft Exchange Server integration, while some of them we have tried, but then realize that they are not as useful as they seem at first.

Here are some CF8 functionalities that we tried or looked at but didn't get to use:

Ajax tags are cool at first, but they turn out to be a big turn-off when...
- we realize how many .js files the client need (20+ on average from Ext JS 1.1.1, YUI 2.3.0, & custom CF js from Adobe).
- there are only so many additional theme available for Ext 1.x (1 to be exact) and none of the 2.x themes work with Ext 1.x. CF8 comes the following themes in /cfide/scripts/ajax/et/resources/css:
  - default (ext-all.css)
  - aero (xtheme-aero.css)
  - gray (xtheme-gray.css)
  - vista (xtheme-vista.css)
- we realize how many hacks it takes to add functionalities to CFGRID that Adobe missed (calendar picker for type datefield anyone? context menu?). For all hacks, at least 2 CF tags are needed: <cfsavecontent> and <cfhtmlhead>
- the documentation of Ext 1.1.1 is not even linked by the main ExtJS page anymore and took us a while to find. Good luck with the download link of Ext 1.1.1. :)
- <cfwindow> doesn't work inside a <cfinclude>, so it becomes a mess when you use any template system provided by your MVC framework.
- <cflayout type="border">cannot be nested, and css inside the <cflayoutarea> can be problematic.
- <cflayout type="tab"> looks funny for a split seconds when the JS has not been processed by the browser
- <cfsavecontent> fails to save functionality of tags that generate JS scripts to head in order to function (e.g. cftooltip)
- <cftooltip> would sometimes show up on the lower left corner of the browser.
Server monitor, as cool as they seem, do not work well with our framework of choice (i.e. Model-Glue)
<cfinterface>, anyone use it when one can duck type?
<cfpresentation> (demo), anyone uses it on a public site? Somehow I can see it getting obsolete in the same rate of <cfform format="flash">. It provides only limited customization on the look, and therefore very hard to incorporate it into a site.

Then after a while, we come to the conclusion that we only like CF8's native JSON support, easier to cfloop an array, and the improvement in performance...

What is your answer to the question: Have you used CF8 to its fullness?

Fat bean vs Fat service?

2008-09-15T15:11:00.000-07:00

I recently started a thread on CFCDev, a google group for CFer's like you and me.

Fat bean vs Fat service?
http://groups.google.com/group/cfcdev/browse_thread/thread/fd27e0332043278a

'Bean' was introduced to me when I was learning Model-Glue.

While I did blindly use bean as instructed by MG and other tutorials on MG, I found that:

1.) Some thinks bean is nothing more than using CFC as a struct to hold fields of forms.
2.) Some thinks bean is nothing more than representing a table in SQL (data-centric extreme)
3.) Some thinks bean is an object that handles everything internally and (talks to database)
4.) Some thinks bean is an object that handles everything othan than talking to database (with external XXXDao.cfc)

I have used a code generator to generate all the getters and setters. With code folding support by CFEclipse, I don't mind them too much. Using MG together with ColdSpring, it seems the preferred way is to code most logic in the Service layer because they will be kept alive throughout the lifetime of the application through use of Singleton. However, doesn't that lean towards... procedural programming?

I like the idea of having a "fat bean", and with that I can rely much less on getters and setters. However, as the object grow larger with number of methods, wouldn't initializing the object be too expensive on CF8?

What's your take? Please continue the discussion at the thread, or leave a comment here whatever is easier for you.

10 things I learned from my first job as web dev

2008-08-22T03:50:00.000-07:00

dzone is better than digg
there are frameworks that accelerate or decelerate your progress
how not to mess with code not in any version control
to love firefox & firebug & to hate IE6
to be thankful there are tutorials blogged for newbies
not everyone uses OOP, and OOP is not for everything
interface is almost useless when you can duck type
taking a nap after lunch can gain productivity and weight
primary goal: keep the boss happy
coworker who looks Chinese might be Korean

What's your 10? Do you still remember your first job??

A year as a ColdFusion developer... now what?

2008-08-22T02:55:00.000-07:00

I don't know where my future is headed, and I need some direction.

Graduated from some university with a CS bachelor degree, I landed myself a job writing CF web app about a year ago. I took the time on the job to learn CF8 inside out, and to understand ModelGlue, Coldspring, Transfer, and common design patterns. I successfully got them all working together while my coworkers were still writing CFM and some basic CFC with no idea why should they care for var scooping. After working there for a year, I quit because I have delivered a decent application, and I found nothing new and exciting to learn. And I want to be surround myself with experts and learn from them, instead of the other way around.

And now I'm unemployed, or in between jobs, that sounds better. I'm excited to learn about Flex/AIR, as it seems it is the most logical path to follow now that I have experience with web development and they work so well with CF and LCDS Express. However, as I being to search for my next job, reality kicks it, CF is just not that popular. Don't you think it is sad to just see feed occasionally titled "1 CF dev needed in XX state", or "2 Flex dev needed in YY state"?

I love Adobe, and ColdFusion. In fact, I should hate them for spoiling me 'cause they make things so easy (most of the time). I guess if I stay with doing web app, and if my future project happen to be not in CF, I will miss CF very much... and start learning other frameworks, in other languages, all over again.. which is normal.. I guess.

I actually not sure if I should continue doing web app, since I've seen so many useful/useless app and service popping up everyday on makeuseof.com, but I wonder if they will actually keep getting users and traffic once the hype dies down. Many of them has no business model behind them, yet they offer service for free which keeps me puzzling. Oh well, last time I check YouTube is still losing Google's money... so I don't know anymore.

There should be another world out there outside of web apps, but... where to begin? I feel so lost... Help...

To all experts in this field, please forgive my ignorance and guide me to a better place in my career path. It would be very helpful to share what you have been through, or any advice to people who are in similar situation like me.

Thank you Thank you Thank you!