Sneak preview of CFLib via Bolt
I uploaded this to RIAForge this weekend, but for folks who are not yet on the pre-release, I thought I'd share a few screens from my CFLib Bolt Extension. I've given it the cool name of: CFLibExtension. Yes, my imagination was at an all time low. You can download the bits from the RIAForge project, and if you did have Bolt installed, here is how it would work.
First, right click on a file, and click into the CFLib menu:
What's that on RIAForge?
First off - sorry for the downtime at RIAForge this weekend. I was out of town until yesterday afternoon, and just got time to work on it today. Turned out to be kind of a silly issue. The host had contacted the account owners (other people at Adobe) about a required IP update, and I never got the news. I've made sure they know to contact me from now on so something like this shouldn't happen again.
Oh... and is it just me - or is there a new category up at RIAForge? Obviously I can't talk much about it, so please don't ask me details here, but I was told to go ahead and set it up, so perhaps it's time to start getting real excited? Pay special attention to this project, especially the screen shots. In case it isn't obvious: Yes, that's browsing and downloading RIAForge projects direct from Bolt.
Multi-file search and replace in Eclipse
Ok, a big thanks goes out to Scott Stroz for this one. I've been using Eclipse for a while now but never needed to do a multi-file search and replace until last week. Turns out it is rather simple, but I had never really noticed the feature before. I figure a quick blog post may help others, and since I know I'll probably forget in six months, it will help me as well.
Riddle me this, OSX Firefox Users
As the manager of ColdFusionBloggers.org, I view a heck of a lot of RSS feeds. I've noticed that the description field is always (nearly) impossible to read:
Yet with Firefox under Windows, the same feed's description field is much more easy to read:
I don't really read RSS feeds with Firefox, I just view them in order to get information for adding feeds to my aggregator, but I've wondered if anyone else has ever noticed this?
p.s. Maybe I should just shut up and be happy that Firefox 3 isn't slow as molasses like Firefox 2 was under OSX!
Yet another ADC article on Dreamweaver: Creating a Spry XML data set
Just a quick note to point out another of my Adobe Developer Connection articles has been published: Creating a Spry XML data set. The title doesn't make it exactly clear, but this is a Dreamweaver CS4 related article.
Using jQuery to add form fields
A reader on another post asked me about using jQuery to dynamically add form fields to an existing form. I whipped up a quick demo that I'd like to get folks opinions on. Here is what I came up with:
Ask a Jedi: Career advice for a ColdFusion Developer?
Asoka asks:
I need your advice, Ray. I'm at sort of a crossroads in my career right now and am looking to either move up or move on to greener pastures. I'm in a web developer position in the federal government and I've been building web apps with ColdFusion for several years. What I want to know is, what would be a better option for a developer like me who's looking to move up: (1) Learn a ColdFusion framework, gateways, and a bunch of other advanced CF stuff that I don't already know, or (2) learn PHP or another entirely different programming language. I'm sort of leaning towards the second option because I *think* it would give me greater flexibility and marketability and I want to avoid being a "one-trick-pony", especially in today's competitive IT job market. As always, thanks for your expert guidance and assistance!
So before I offer any type of career advice, I'll remind folks that I probably don't have the best history for someone who should be offering suggestions. I think I've had around 5 jobs or so over the past 10 years, which averages about a job every 2 years. My wife and kids have been understanding of this (thank goodness!) but I'm probably not the example you want to use if you specifically want to 'move up' in an organization. That being said, I'll try my best to offer some thoughts on your main question - should you advance your ColdFusion knowledge or focus on learning other languages?
Article on Spry HTML Datasets and DWCS4
Yes, my continued affair with Dreamweaver CS4 continues. Today Adobe published my latest article: Creating a Spry HTML data set
I went into this being convinced that I'd never use an HTML dataset in Spry, but they are actually pretty darn handy. I can see how they would be useful for people who don't feel comfortable creating XML or JSON. I know I've got at least one reader who maintains their data in a simple HTML table.
Also, I was extremely impressed with how easy DWCS4 made the process. I hope I was able to adequately express that in the article. You can go from a few clicks in the IDE to a table that loads data via AJAX and has column sorting built in. For people who don't make their day to day living slinging JavaScript code or working in ColdFusion, DW can really be a powerful tool.
Oh, and I love the Smurf Ray on the ADC home page:
Why you should, and should not, break encapsulation in methods
There was an interesting blog post this morning on Ben Nadel's site (A Serious CFThread Bug in ColdFusion?) that lead to a discussion about CFC methods and encapsulation. This is a topic I've covered before but I think it bears repeating with some good examples. We all know that we shouldn't break encapsulation in methods, but why? And is there ever a good reason to break encapsulation?
If I'm going to use Eclipse for ColdFusion development, what packages do I need?
This question just came into my mailbox and I see it enough on cf-talk and other listservs so I figured it warranted a quick blog post. If you are just concerned about doing ColdFusion development with Eclipse, then you want to grab:
CFEclipse - This is the main package for doing CF development with Eclipse. It will give you syntax highlighting, CFC method views, tag completion, etc.
Adobe CF Extensions - This gives you RDS support as well as query building/exploring (you can view your tables and write simple queries as well as testing them). It also gives you the sexy log viewer. This tool lets you watch a log file and as messages are appended, they automatically show up in the viewer. You also get the debugger and snazzy wizards.
Adobe CF Help for Eclipse - The ColdFusion docs for Eclipse
There are certainly other packages a good developer will want, but these will get you going with ColdFusion.