Today I wanted to give ColdFusion 8 debugging a try.

So, I started followed the instructions on how to setup the enviornment for debugging. After installing ColdFusion 8 extensions for Eclipse, I went to enable debugger in ColdFusion Administrator. The CF administrator instructs that:

You must specify this debugger port in the JVM settings of your application server, for example: -Xdebug -Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,server=y,suspend=n,address=5005, and restart the server.

If I was using JRun, I know that these options can be added in the jvm.config file.

But as I use JBoss, it took me little bit to figure out where I need to make these changes.

» Continue reading "Setting JVM options on JBoss for ColdFusion 8 debugging"

I've just setup a Google Code project for the sample contact manager application I had written a while back. The contact manager used Flex, Cairngorm framework and ColdFusion backend.

The original version of the application was based on Cairngorm .99. I've been working on upgrading the application to Cairngorm 2.2.

» Continue reading "Flex, Cairngorm based contact manager on Google Code"

Just finished my session on Working with Web APIs at Web on the Piste, Queenstown, New Zealand. The presentation was about:

• What are Web APIs
• How do they work
• How to use them
• Creating a ColdFusion and Flex front-end using Flickr API

As with my presentation yesterday on "Introduction to Flex", I had a lot of content, and lots to talk about. The presentation is attached with this blog. It was a light presentation. My session was one of the last few sessions for today and I just wanted to try and keep it simple and fun.

» Continue reading "Working with Web APIs -- Presentation at Web on the Piste"

ColdFusion 8 introduced a few new decision operators. == (is the same as EQ) != (is the same as NEQ) > (is the same as GT) < (is the same as LT) >= (is the same as GTE) <= (is the same as LTE) Note that these are available only when used in expressions inside a CFScript block. And they are NOT available in expressions inside CF tags.

» Continue reading "Decision Operators in ColdFusion 8"

The documentation that ships with ColdFusion 8 does not include the functionality to search -- unlike ColdFusion documentation in the earlier versions which included a search.

I find that I use the documentation search quite a lot. Livedocs provides the ability to search CF 8 documentation. However, I do not necessarily want to go to the web each time I want to search.

A much nicer way to search ColdFusion 8 documentation is by using Eclipse. Here's how...

» Continue reading "Searching ColdFusion 8 documentation"

ColdFusion already supports string concatenation using "&" operator.

ColdFusion 8 introduces a new string operator "&=" for compound concatenation.

<cfset sFirstName = "Indy">

<cfset sLastName = "Nagpal">

<cfset spacer = " ">



<cfoutput>

   variables.sFirstName = #sFirstName#<br/>

   variables.sLastName = #sLastName#<br/>

   variables.spacer = " "

</cfoutput>



<!--- & Concatenates strings --->

<cfset variables.sFullName = variables.sFirstName & spacer & variables.sLastName>



<p><strong>Concatanation using &</strong></p>

<p><cfoutput>#variables.sFullName#</cfoutput></p>



<!--- &= Compound concatenation. The variable on the right is used as both an element in the concatenation operation and the result variable. Thus, the expression a &= b is equivalent to a = a & b.

An expression can have only one compound assignment operator.

 --->

<cfset variables.sFullName = variables.sFirstName>

<cfset variables.sFullName &= spacer>

<cfset variables.sFullName &= variables.sLastName>



<p><strong>Concatanation using &=</strong></p>

<cfoutput>#variables.sFullName#</cfoutput>

» Continue reading "String Operators in ColdFusion 8: & and &="

In ColdFusion 8 one can use shortcuts to refer to three boolean operators: NOT, AND, OR

NOT can also be used to as !

AND can also be used as &&

OR can also be used as ||

<cfset x = 10>

<cfset y = 30>



<cfoutput>

x = #x#<br/>

y = #y#

</cfoutput>



<!--- Reverse the value of an argument. For example, NOT True is False and vice versa. --->

<p><strong>Using NOT or !:</strong> Testing for !x eq y </p>

<cfif !x eq y>

   x is not equal to y

<cfelse>

   x is equal to y

</cfif>



<p><strong>Using AND or &&</strong>: Testing for x eq 10 && y eq 30</p>

<!--- Return True if both arguments are True; return False otherwise. For example, True AND True is True, but True AND False is False. --->

<cfif x eq 10 && y eq 30>

   x is equal to y

<cfelse>

   x is not equal to y

</cfif>



<p><strong>Using OR or ||</strong>: Testing for x eq 10 || y eq 20</p>

<!--- Return True if any of the arguments is True; return False otherwise. For example, True OR False is True, but False OR False is False. --->

<cfif x eq 10 || y eq 20>

   One of the values is true

<cfelse>

   None of the values are true

</cfif>

» Continue reading "Boolean operators in ColdFusion 8: NOT, AND, OR"

ColdFusion 8 is being at the NZ CFUG meeting on 8 August, here in Auckland.

There are going to be a couple of presentations on the new features CF8.

One lucky person will win the grand prize -- a CF8 license! All because s/he was there at the right place and at the right time.

For more details, head over to the CFUG site.

See you there!

Recently the New Zealand ColdFusion user group (NZ CFUG) added a page in its Google Groups site listing various New Zealand website that use ColdFusion.

When I saw that, I was curious to find out how did they rank vis-a-vis each other in terms of number of pages of the sites listed in Google.

So I wrote a small ColdFusion application to shoot off to Google and find out the number of pages in any given site. (More on this app in another blog that I'll be posting soon.)

I fed the application the list of all the 21 sites listed on the NZ CFUG site, and here are the results.

» Continue reading "ColdFusion-based sites in New Zealand"

Straker Interactive (where I work) have just announced "Web on the Piste -- The Ultimate Conference for Rich Internet Technologies".

It will be held in Queenstown, New Zealand, 22-23rd August 2007. And will cover topics like Flex, Ajax, Spry and Flash.

Go to Web on the Piste (http://www.webonthepiste.com) site to find out more and register.

But the basic idea is to come have fun on the beautiful ski fields of Queenstown and learn about rich internet technologies.

I like the idea :)

I'll be posting more this in the coming few weeks.