Raymond Camden's ColdFusion Blog: ColdFusion Cookbook Update

ColdFusion Cookbook Update

For a few years now I've run (along with Jeremy Petersen) the ColdFusion Cookbook. The idea was simple: Provide a set of very direct questions and answers to common ColdFusion problems. The site did kinda well, and we have over 150 entries, but to be honest, it could be a lot more. Adobe's Flex Cookbook has been quite a success. They have a much more open process which allows for content to be created and shared much quicker than the more rigid process we have over on the ColdFusion Cookbook.

Adobe never intended to compete with my site. They have linked to my site and helped promote it. That being said, they are moving their cookbooks to a platform that will no longer restrict the content to Flex. It isn't intentional competition, but at the same time, I think we can obviously expect ColdFusion stuff to start showing up there.

I've made the decision to shut down the existing ColdFusion Cookbook site. Admittedly I feel a bit sad about this, but frankly, I think its will help everyone. I also want to help seed the site. Adobe has said they would handle as much of the grunt work as possible, but in order to do so, they need the original authors to work with them. Ed Sullivan (esulliva@adobe.com) will help work with folks to get their content migrated. I ask that the original authors ping him, and me as well, so I can keep track of what has moved over. I don't want any content lost, so if need be, I can migrate content under my account, but with a nice, clear paragraph that credits the original author, but I only want to do that for authors who aren't around anymore or don't care.

Any thoughts on this? Obviously I could do some massive architecture updates to my own site, but it seems easier to cooperate here and help give the ColdFusion content at Adobe a huge boost. Right?

This entry was posted on Monday, May 18, 2009 at 6:09 PM. It was filed in the following categories: Adobe, ColdFusion. It has been viewed 1,661 times and has 11 comments.

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Comment 1 written by Alirio Boquin on 18 May 2009, at 6:59 PM

Oh oh, I like very much your site, it's help full, for some people I really know, but your are right, "seems easier to cooperate"
Comment 2 written by Kevin K on 18 May 2009, at 8:17 PM

Stackoverflow is getting some momentum. You are not supposed to post questions you know the answer to so the data from the cookbook could only be posted in response to a q but it is turning into an amazing resource.
Comment 3 written by Scott P on 18 May 2009, at 9:23 PM

Big thanks for both of your past efforts.

Sell/give them the name because that part is easy to remember and also since I'm lazy, wasn't the source for coldfusioncookbook available once?
Comment 4 written by Raymond Camden on 18 May 2009, at 9:26 PM

Yeah, the source was available. Still is - somewhere. I'll post it again once I wrap the final move.

As for selling the domain, I've gotten a lot of free software from them. I'll see if they want it, and if so, I'll give it to them. Well, maybe I'll ask for another CF Guy tee shirt.
Comment 5 written by Steve on 18 May 2009, at 9:27 PM

Your approach to this situation proves once again how well you play the role of steward for the greater ColdFusion community. It says a lot that you are willing to embrace this development and participate in the creation of a higher profile resource. Given Adobe's continued investment in CF, it makes sense that we all work to make sure there's plenty of cookbook and sample code ready to go for the new folks.

Thanks again, Ray - from everybody.
Comment 6 written by Raymond Camden on 18 May 2009, at 9:28 PM

Thanks Steve (and all).
Comment 7 written by Jason Presley on 19 May 2009, at 12:10 AM

I echo Steve's remarks. Thanks for all the hard work Ray. I agree with what you are doing. Hopefully you will see this as one less thing to worry about. You definitely have done a major service for the entire Adobe family with this site as well as your others (I LOVE riaforge and contribute what I can)! Thanks for your work!

Jason
Comment 8 written by Hal Helms on 20 May 2009, at 7:26 AM

Also agree with Steve, Ray. You are The Man.
Comment 9 written by Raymond Camden on 20 May 2009, at 7:42 AM

Much appreciated folks. :) The 'move' is in progress w/ Ed. Will be awesome for the site to launch with a bunch of content already.
Comment 10 written by George W on 20 May 2009, at 9:30 AM

@Kevin K,

You could easily and quite acceptably post them to stackoverflow.

One question that sums it up well is here:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2572/is-it-poor....

This might however be seen as spam, but it would also be nice to see more cfml postings on the overflow.

That said I respect ray's move toward solidarity on cfml cookbook recipes
Comment 11 written by Raymond Camden on 20 May 2009, at 9:36 AM

I'll ditto George. I'd love to see more questions at SO. SO is very popular and the more CF shows up there the better. I also see nothing wrong with answering your own questions. It happens to me all the time. I try to fix X. I give up and ask for help. As soon as I send the email/post/etc, I discover the solution. So why not help others who may have the question in the future?