RE: New Search Engine
-Original Message- From: Charlie Griefer [mailto:charlie.grie...@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2009 12:04 AM To: cf-talk Subject: Re: New Search Engine That was on CFC-Dev, and I'd like to think it was a joke. He said he was 90% done with the search engine because he had completed the front end (which one would imagine consists of a text input and a submit button). Then yeah, I think the rest of the plan was to store all of the data from the internet in RAM :) Actually that's sorta (kinda, if you squint) true: http://www.labnol.org/internet/search/google-query-uses-1000-machines/7433/ Google holds the ENTIRE search index in RAM which also means that a single search query (which takes about 0.2 seconds) touches over 1,000 machines. Or course this isn't holding all of the Internet in RAM... but it could be argued that, well, it IS kinda like holding all of the Internet in RAM. ;^) Neat stuff. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:321172 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: Beefing up authentication
On 1/14/09, Doug Smidt doug_smi...@yahoo.com wrote: The small company I work for has been discussing different options to beef up our authentication. Currently, we're just an old fashioned enter username/password, check user table, login if credentials match system. If you're large enough (or rich enough) to afford it (and since you admit that you're not a security expert) you could do worse that a vetted off-the-shelf solution. We use SiteMinder from CA... I'm not sure if I'd actually recommend it but I'll definitely say that it provides better security than any home-grown solution. CWE/SANS just recently came out with their Top 25 Programming Errors: http://cwe.mitre.org/top25/ This list is weighed heavily to web applications and security: you could do a lot worse than looking at this list and attempting to ensure that all of these, at least, are covered. One main one I would add to that list is the inability to prevent Login Floods (brute force dictionary or rainbow attacks are almost ludicrously easy if the site allows for unlimited, unthrottled logins per ID). One blog I've found invaluable is Coding Horror (http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/) - in fact his most recent entry covers the list above. Scan through the entries: he OFTEN covers security topics (in addition to human factors, management and general programming). The entries a generally more philosophical than technical: more than anything else they point your brain in the right direction. Also you should feel free to post specific implementation details here and discuss. Any implementation details you feel like you can't discuss should be carefully considered: that's almost always a sign of security through obfuscation and a gaping hole in your system. ;^) Lastly (just as an example not an epitome) I've posted the core CFC code for my security system (written for CF 6+) here (look to the bottom, security - download links are at the top): http://www.depressedpress.com/Content/Development/ColdFusion/DPLibraries/Ind ex.cfm I'm afraid it's not documented very well (even after 5 years) but it still works well and, I think, is based upon sound security and performance practices. It's also designed to be easily layered into existing sites and easily enhanced/extended. It's all open source under the (very liberal) BSD license so have at it. In any case it might give you some ideas. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:317989 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: My Starbucks Idea - and Coldfusion
-Original Message- From: Ian Vaughan [mailto:i.vaug...@neath-porttalbot.gov.uk] Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 5:15 AM To: cf-talk Subject: My Starbucks Idea - and Coldfusion Using coldfusion what is the best way of implementing a user vote facility on suggestions submitted. So as users click on the thumbs up icon it becomes more popular and the same when the click on thumbs down the idea becomes less popular. Hope this makes sense? Sorta, kinda? ;^) More information would be good. To speechify a little, you're not going to get very far unless you can segment your problem. Divide and conquer. To do this you really have to define what you want out of your system - really understand it. What does popular mean (quantified, to the system)? Does the item appear more often? Always? In order? Can each user impart the same amount of popularity or do more popular users have a greater impact? Can popularity be altered by the author (can I improve an idea based on feedback)? Is a thumbs down equal-but-opposite to a thumbs up or not (most successful systems do not make negative feedback - which is more common - equivalent to positive feedback). Is popularity a simple count of votes? A percentage (of what - total users, total items, visiting users, positive users, etc)? A calculated value (and calculated how)? Is it is a specific value or a simpler rank/grade (Popularity = loved|liked|ignored|disliked|hated)? Lastly spend some time considering where you want to end up - how you want the system to evolve? You don't have to know completely, but some time should be spent to ensure - as much as possible - that your decisions now won't prevent you from doing something later. Once you do that up-front work you should start seeing a collection of tools rather than a single nebulous feature. The tool to capture popularity is separate than the tool that calculates it which is separate from the tool that selects items based on it and so forth. Okay - that was more speech than I intended. I worked, years ago (9 years ago, actually - damn I'm getting old), on a similar, but smaller problem - here's an article about one aspect of it: http://www.depressedpress.com/Content/Development/ColdFusion/Articles/Weight ingRandom/Index.cfm In this case I wanted to weight otherwise random selections. So popularity would cause some items to appear more than others, but other items would also, sometimes, appear. The system in the article worked fine but I think it's a definite victim of everything's fast for small N - for the 20 or 30 possible choices we had it worked well, for thousands of choices it would be (I'm almost sure) WAY too slow. Still it might give you some ideas. The basic idea is that you're not selecting items rather you're selecting popularity. Think of it as a carnival game: there are 10 buckets and a ball is randomly thrown at them. If the buckets are equal sizes then there's (for the sake of argument) an equal chance for the ball to go into any of the buckets. If you want a particular prize to come up more often (say the plastic Kazoo) you can make that bucket bigger while a prize that shouldn't come up often (the brand new PSP) should have a smaller bucket. So most people will get the kazoo but there's still at least a chance that they'll get a PSP. Another analogy might be a raffle: each ticket has only one chance out of the total to be selected but each person can have multiple tickets. The more tickets somebody has the more popular they are. Somebody that has half of the tickets will probably win - but somebody with only one ticket still has a chance. I'm assuming, of course, that this a feature you'd actually like/have - the ability to randomly select an item where popular items are more likely to be selected. Maybe that's not something you were considering at all. ;^) Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:317514 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: Oracle Clob support?
-Original Message- From: Matthew Levine [mailto:matt.lev...@blueriver.com] Sent: Monday, December 22, 2008 11:54 PM To: cf-talk Subject: Oracle Clob support? Does anyone have any experience storing more than 4000 Chars of information in an oracle clob table field? I'm using the Oracle thin client with Oracle Express and CF8. Any help would be greatly appreciated. In addition to Chuck's comment remember that you also have to enable CLOB support directly on the CF DSN (advanced properties)... that little necessity always seems to bite me in the ass. ;^) Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:317105 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: A few unique random numbers
-Original Message-
From: Barney Boisvert [mailto:bboisv...@gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, December 14, 2008 6:51 PM
To: cf-talk
Subject: Re: A few unique random numbers
numbers = {};
while (structCount(numbers) LT 6) {
numbers[randRange(1, 20)] = ;
}
numbers = structKeyList(numbers);
I think my current job's turned my brain to mush. That said this is as
clever as hell.
Jim Davis
~|
Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to
date
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RE: OT JavaScript question.
-Original Message-
From: Ian Skinner [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 4:15 PM
To: cf-talk
Subject: Re: OT JavaScript question.
Adrian Lynch wrote:
Or do you mean with?
with someObject {
var1 = not;
var2 = sure;
var3 = about;
var4 = this;
var5 = syntax;
var6 = or;
var7 = whether;
var8 = it's a JavaScript;
var9 = thing or not;
}
alert(someObject.var1);
Yes that is the one I was looking for!. I found 'with' to be a very
poor search term on Google, or any search engine for that matter.
The actual, factual name of this is Object Literal Notation - Google
should be more cooperative with that. ;^)
Jim Davis
~|
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RE: Blowin our own horn: New CF Site
-Original Message- From: Robert Harrison [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, October 31, 2008 10:07 AM To: cf-talk Subject: Blowin our own horn: New CF Site We've just launched our own new site. It's fully CF driven from MS SQL DB. If you want to see it, it's at: http://www.austin-williams.com It seems to load quickly for me (Comcast Cable). But... +) I had a lot of trouble with the sideways menu text. It's small (too small to support a cosmetic orientation) and heavily anti-aliased (making it fuzzy and hard to read since text antialiasing is optimized for horizontal text). The very tight kerning doesn't help. +) Like others I also tried (in vain) to click on the items in the Flash movie. That's a LOT of real-estate to consume for a non-functional element (especially one that doesn't actually explain anything). +) A lot of the interactivity is frustrating. When I click on Our Mission I get the mission... then when I move the mouse out of the way to READ Our Mission it disappears (even tho' you've also included a specific control element as well). +) You're navigation is all over the map... the main navigation palette is spacious and large (even if the text is small and cramped) while on inner pages (like the brand studies page) this is replaced with a crowded, tiny palette (with even harder to read gray-on-gray text). +) I think most importantly: after watching the Flash Intro longer than I would normally watch ANY Flash into in the wild I still don't know what the site is for. I asked my lovely bride as well and she immediately knew what it was: a site for an art gallery. Oh, and yeah: we're pricks. But you did pop your head up into our sights. ;^) Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:314672 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: How can I make this code better?
-Original Message- From: Tom Chiverton [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 5:38 AM To: cf-talk Subject: Re: How can I make this code better? On Monday 20 Oct 2008, Rick Faircloth wrote: First, what variables need to be used in the cfset var someVar = code and why is it important to do this? Everything that is local to the method. So cfquery names, the loop variables in cfloop, the cfhttp return scope etc. etc. etc. It's an old trick, but the simplest way to do this is to create a pseudo-scope. At the top (or near the top) of your method add something like this: cfset var local = StructNew() You can then use local as a scope name throughout the method - any place you'd need a local variable. For example: cfset local.tempvariable = cfloop collection=#local.CurMembers# item=local.CurMember If you use it regularly it'll quickly become second nature. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:314211 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: How can this CFC be improved?
-Original Message- From: Rick Faircloth [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 10:10 AM To: cf-talk Subject: How can this CFC be improved? Hi, all... still trying to get a handle on using CFC's. Here's an update method I wrote and I'd like to know what can be changed to make it better. Such as, why not use the form scope in the query? And, why not just use the application scope for the dsn, instead of converting it to the variables scope? I don't see anything wrong with that per se. However I've sometimes found it more versatile to parametize such things: in the best case you'll be using your CFCs again in other sites (portability of OO) and knowing what they need and being able to control it without modifying the CFC is sometimes a life-saver. If components have access to the url, form, session, and application scopes, etc., why not use them in the component? What's the benefit of converting them? In general OO likes to be encapsulated - the information used by an object should be clearly passed in and out. Of course there are millions of exceptions, but that's the rule of thumb. One comment at least in this code: it seems like you're creating the query in the CFC variables scope (by not creating the query name first with var). This makes it available outside of the CFC but also makes the CFC less self-documenting. As with the input side being explicit about the output side is also generally desirable: in this case making the query variable a function-local variable (using var) and passing the result explicitly out using return. More importantly however: this could cause data corruption depending on how you instantiate this CFC. For example if you make this CFC persistent (store it in the Session, Application or Server scopes) you might get a situation where two requests call the same method. If that happens the methods themselves will be isolated but the public variable they BOTH write too is not. If they both run at the same time you could very easily end up with data from one thread ending up in the other. Not good. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:314225 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: Can CF look at an image's contents?
-Original Message- From: Mike Kear [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2008 9:54 AM To: cf-talk Subject: Re: Can CF look at an image's contents? Exactly Ray, but thats the issue. We have to have some kind of evidence or the host just says 'it was like that when i came in to do my shift and the host of hte previous shift says no it was working fine when i left eh studio . . Silly question... but why not archive the images? Storing a webcam image every thirty seconds or so shouldn't consume much storage space, will pinpoint any hanky-panky to within 30 seconds and you should be able to do some cool time-lapse video. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:313966 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: docx (office 2007) from CF? (Cross)
-Original Message- From: Tom Chiverton [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2008 4:38 AM To: cf-talk Subject: Re: docx (office 2007) from CF? (Cross) On Tuesday 14 Oct 2008, Jim Davis wrote: course, nearly all the documentation on this stuff is available in PDF (a format more closed than OOXML). Umm, eh ? http://www.google.com/search?btnG=Google+Searchq=pdf+standard Adobe had only released some of the standard PDF - many of the enterprise features are not in the current public standard (for example the Archival PDF). However I now see that those are also being opened sourced (they're not available yet, but they are being worked on). So you're absolutely right: with PDF Adobe is being just as open as Microsoft. ;^) Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:313967 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: docx (office 2007) from CF? (Cross)
-Original Message- From: Tom Chiverton [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2008 10:36 AM To: cf-talk Subject: Re: docx (office 2007) from CF? (Cross) On Tuesday 14 Oct 2008, Loathe wrote: We already have a PDF solution in place. Which is great if they just need to print the document. They also want to be able to save, edit and pass around the document. Perfectly possible in a PDF file format. Sometimes without paying Adobe (OpenOffice v3, for example). I'm just a poor country chicken... but this here OpenOffice don't seem like it's Word. Seriously tho' - the requirement is to do this in Word. It's nonsensical to suggest non-Word alternatives. The client-side requirements are immutable. That said, Loath, the link provided should give all the information about the format. I'm sure you've thought of this but I'll say it anyway: don't try to build the doc from scratch. What you've described seems pretty formulaic (complex, but formula) - create a template that contains all the elements and look to add/edit new nodes as needed rather than build from scratch. In my experience with formats like this (I've not done DocX, but I have dealt with similar) the key is to let the native tool do as much of the work as possible. Doing small changes natively then comparing (diffing) that doc to the previous one can be invaluable. While developing test CONSTANTLY because even small changes can have dramatic effects. I also strongly urge to have the output checked out by multiple people: in docs like this there are so many little things to go wrong. The more eyeballs the better. Sorry I can't be more specific. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:313862 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: docx (office 2007) from CF? (Cross)
-Original Message- From: Shannon Peevey [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2008 12:41 PM To: cf-talk Subject: Re: docx (office 2007) from CF? (Cross) Perfectly possible in a PDF file format. Sometimes without paying Adobe (OpenOffice v3, for example). I'm just a poor country chicken... but this here OpenOffice don't seem like it's Word. Seriously tho' - the requirement is to do this in Word. It's nonsensical to suggest non-Word alternatives. The client-side requirements are immutable. OpenOffice can convert between Microsoft Office and other document formata, (server-side). (It's really probably the best there is at this). OpenDocument Format is the original standard for file representation, ( ISO/IEC 26300:2006 Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.0), so I don't know why Microsoft pursued a second standard... Last but not least, Microsoft Office will soon support OpenDocument Format, ( http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2008/may08/05- 21ExpandedFormatsPR.mspx). And it could turn water to wine, heal the sick and offer sexual favors for free... but it's not what the client uses. Also remember: the MS XML format was first released with Office 2003 and refined for Office 2007 - the OpenFormat wasn't approved until 2005. Even Open Office itself still isn't (last I heard) in full compliance. There are also several problems with the standard that further explain MS's decision. The released version of the standard, for example, doesn't support tables in presentations (a staple of PowerPoint). There's no standardized way to include programmatic functionality (macros, accelerators, Smart Tags, etc - staples of Office). There are other features of Office not supported by the standard as well. Even the open source community can't decide... support ODF or CDF? And, of course, nearly all the documentation on this stuff is available in PDF (a format more closed than OOXML). But in the end you're absolutely correct: any format that gains significant critical mass is going to be supported by nearly everything. To be honest I'd be happy to see either on in day-to-day use. My (large, unwieldy and sluggish) company is still standardized on Office 2000 and a 9-year old version of DocuMaker Studio for online forms and letters. XML? What's that? We're far from alone in that... and I guarantee that one of the side-effects of the financial crisis will be a propensity to delay new software adoption among large companies. So this whole argument will be going on for at least another few years. I see your point, though :) Oh... then nevermind. ;^) Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:313870 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: SQL Server on development box?
-Original Message- From: RobG [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, October 08, 2008 12:15 PM To: cf-talk Subject: Re: SQL Server on development box? I thought MSSQL Express (developer) edition was free? Rob I second this - the Express version is limited, but not stripped down. If you can live within those limits (and nearly everybody can) then you've got a great DBMS with (IMHO) the absolute best-of-breed management tools around. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:313630 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: SQL Server on development box?
-Original Message- From: Gerald Guido [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, October 08, 2008 6:19 PM To: cf-talk Subject: Re: SQL Server on development box? absolute best-of-breed management tools The only issue I really had with the express MSSQL Management Studio is the lack of import/export functionality. If you have a license for MSSQL 2005 you should be able to install the Management Studio that came with the server. Actually this is a just a bone-head move by MS. The DTS tools (import/export) are available and work with SQL Server Express - they're just not installed by default and little hard to find. Here's a blog entry that links to it and describes how to install: http://mobiledeveloper.wordpress.com/2007/01/31/data-import-export-with-sql- server-express-using-dts-wizard/ The DTS wizard is (my opinion) very good (I've been forced to use a lot of DB2 and Oracle lately so I'm absolutely sold on MS's infinitely better interfaces) - but it's always been a separate tool. I'm not sure what you mean by the last bit... as long as you have a license for the full SQL Server you can definitely (legally) install the client tools to as many clients as you like... that's been the case since at least SQL Server 6.5. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:313639 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: Debugging Coldfusion and javascript
-Original Message- From: Scott Stewart [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2008 8:03 AM To: cf-talk Subject: Re: Debugging Coldfusion and javascript Your only option, is Firebug, a plug in for Firefox. It's a great option but far from your only one. ;^) I still like my own a lot (although it's not been updated in 2 years) - it does not do as much as the full FireBug (since it's not an install) but does run cross browser (Opera too) and may be a bit simpler for some CFers to grok (as it's based primarily on CFDUMP): http://www.depressedpress.com/Content/Development/JavaScript/Extensions/DP_D ebug/Index.cfm It gives easy access to dumping JS variables (even complex, circular ones), available cookies, the Query String, a simple timer and the ubiquitous but all important logger. Really great for exposing AJAX calls. It can also be enabled and disabled through code allowing you to embed it in your applications and enable it as needed via a query string switch. Of course you can never have too much help... Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:313535 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: CFLock deadlocking
-Original Message- From: Andrew Mason [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, October 02, 2008 8:54 AM To: cf-talk Subject: CFLock deadlocking Hi Folks, I wonder if someone can help me. I have a situation where I use cflock when generating IDs to ensure no duplications occur etc which 'sometimes' results in a deadlock situation. cflock timeout=8 throwontimeout=No name=LockName type=EXCLUSIVE cfset ID=.. /cflock Insert Query Here Because the Throw is 'no' whenever the lock gets 'stuck' for whatever reason (which is quite rare, but has a high impact negative outcome) the timeout is ignored and then it carries on forever, or atleast until I restart my webserver. It is important to keep the Throw set to No. Does anybody have any suggestions as to what to do to break this vicious circle of locking without any manual intevention? I think you might be incorrect in your assumptions here... throwOnTimeout (as I understand it) only comes into play if the timeout was reached. And the timeout can only be reached if the lock was NOT OBTAINED during the wait period. A timeout occurs (meaning I was unable to obtain a lock) and then, based on this setting, a decision is made to throw an error or continue as if nothing happened. In my experience it's very rare that you'd ever want to use throwOnTimeout=no, but there are cases. If a deadlock has occurred it means that the timeout value was not met - the lock was granted. So both these attributes become meaningless once you're inside the lock. Deadlocks are caused when two processes require the same resources to continue but each process already has a hold on one of them. The classic example is two people that want to put on the same pair of pants: person A puts on the right leg and person B puts on the left leg and now their deadlocked. Both need the other's resource to continue and neither can finish until they get it. You need to focus on what resources are being tied and figure out how to extricate them. The code above is actually an improved snippet than my earlier version because I had previously included a select query and an insert query inside the same bounding CFLOCK by the way. This may have been the root cause of my problems because there was more work required in the original lock code, but I don't really understand cflocks enough to be sure. Very generally the more code that's in a lock, the safer that code is from deadlocks (after all, if all code were serialized then there could be no deadlocks) and the less code that's in a lock the more dangerous it is (the more likely two threads will deadlock). There are definitely a few generalities to look at with problems like this: +) A common problem is that the same resource is locked using different lock names or there are calls to the resource that are not locked at all. In this case two locks are fighting it out because both have a hold on the same resource. Do a catalog of all the locks in your app: do all locks for the same resource share the same name? Do the same for all accesses to the resource - are any not locked? +) Remember that CF can only lock code it's running. A database could have other applications (other CF apps, other application engines, etc), servers or admin tools requesting access that could affect CF as well. In other words try to remember that you're locking the code NOT the resource. (This is much more important when using direct Database lock however.) +) Beware (and understand) of Exclusive vrs ReadOnly locks. It's a common issue that some people face that they overuse exclusive locks or that they misunderstand read-only locks. For example in your code you might want to put that database read inside a readOnly lock. That lock should have the SAME NAME as the exclusive lock. This says I can read this database only if nobody has an exclusive lock and seems to be exactly what you want (but defiantly DO NOT nest the locks). Maybe I could use an server monitor software to analyse a test CF page which tries to run a lock with the same name and then runs some sort of action to restart on it's own as a last resort? You might - but the problem, obtuse as it may be, should be completely addressable in code. But you really have to pick things apart from the point of view of who is doing something with my resource and what access do they need? Hope this helps, Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:313399 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: Missing Template Handler is missing part Duex
-Original Message- From: Ian Skinner [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, August 08, 2008 10:20 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: Missing Template Handler is missing part Duex Ok so what is wrong with using expandPath() in a 4.5 ColdFusion template that is used as the Missing Template handler? That is the source of my problem. When the 404error.cfm file is called directly in a browser the expandPath() function works properly and resolves the absolute path I need to work with for the cffile... calls to replace the !--include virtural... -- directives. Just to poke in, maybe it's already been discussed: CF 4.5 didn't allow the use of any CFML in error templates. It's a bit buried, but the docs for CF 4.5 are here: http://www.adobe.com/support/documentation/en/coldfusion/documentation452.ht ml/ This is from the Developing Web Application... book: The error application page is a file that includes HTML and the parameters associated with the error. The error application page cannot use any CFML tags. The parameters associated with an error depend on the type of error. All the error parameters use the Error prefix (for example, Error.Diagnostics). The original thinking was that if the server was hosed you'd still get your error page. But it wasn't very flexible. I honestly can't remember or find if the missing template handler was restricted by the same rules... but I have a vague recollection that it was. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:310519 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: Missing Template Handler is missing part Duex
-Original Message- From: Ian Skinner [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, August 08, 2008 11:26 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: Missing Template Handler is missing part Duex I had originally used the expandPath() function to dynamically get the web root so it would not matter which server it was on. I guess if it becomes important enough I will create a switch structure based of cgi.server or something like that. But at least for now it is working as desired on the production server. Not really a solution, but a possible workaround: We had a similar situation (dev, int, qa, dr and prod servers with slightly different settings). We ended up adding environment variables to the boxes with the different information (paths, names, etc) and using the CFREGISTRY tag to fetch the values. The environment variables could be easily changed without a code deploy and the code didn't need needless complications to determine which environment it was running in. Maybe too complex for this problem, but it worked a treat for us. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:310534 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: Javascript and Coldfusion
. These libraries tend to focus on a specific technology but in the end produce JavaScript and some server-side script. For example the Google libraries allow you to produce both the Server and Client-side code using only Java. The Yahoo YUI library simplifies your JavaScript as do many popular JavaScript libraries. There are several ColdFusion libraries that let you do nearly all your work in CF. Which of the many options available would be best will really decide on what you're trying to do, your skill level and requirements. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:310110 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: (ot) Best FTP Software 4 Windows
-Original Message- From: Che Vilnonis [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2008 9:07 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: (ot) Best FTP Software 4 Windows Just curious as to what y'all use. In the past I've used Smart FTP, but it has grown into 'bloatware' IMO and I'm looking to find something a bit more lightweight and free to use. Your thoughts? Generally I find the FTP tools in my development tools (Under Eclipse Aptana, CFEclipse and Remote System Explorer all provide FTP support) to handle nearly all my tasks. The FTP capability in Windows itself (a bit hidden, but there) to do everything else I need. I've really not installed a dedicated FTP client in years although I use FTP everyday. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:309988 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: (ot) Eclipse Question
-Original Message- From: Gerald Guido [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2008 11:19 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: (ot) Eclipse Question I know that the Aptana studio plugin has a file view that allows you to work on CF files with out using projects. http://www.aptana.com/ Aptana, CFEclipse and Remote System explorer all allow for this within Eclipse. Aptana also has a automated file-synching tool (one that I've yet to get working... but I'm assured that it does work!) Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:309989 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: (ot) JS Saving dragged DIVs
-Original Message- From: David [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2008 12:49 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: (ot) JS Saving dragged DIVs Hi, We've been looking into updating a simple templating engine for a customer. They want to expand on their fixed templates for mailing, and allow users to add more blocks and rearrange within the layout areas. I've seen some ways to move blocks with JS libraries. Are there any existing packages for handling the reordering / managing+saving the layouts on the server side? (that can be modified to get us the rest of the way) I'm sure some of the bigger libraries have much more complete systems for it, but if you're looking for something more componentized I pimp my PanelManager component: http://www.depressedpress.com/Content/Development/JavaScript/Extensions/DP_P anelManager/Index.cfm This abstracts most common (and some no-so-common) DHTML tasks into simple, cross-browser methods. The component abstracts basic properties (size, position, opacity, visibility, order) all changeable with animation, collision detection, cross-browser events. The manager can also provide lists of its members ordered by any property. There are examples provided that demonstrate drag-and-drop (not completely abstracted by the component, but easier because of it), animation, ordering, etc. Look at the Drag-and-Drop with Ordering example - I think that might be similar to what you're looking for. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:309994 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: (ot) Anyone run into this issue w/ CrystalTech.com
-Original Message- From: Che Vilnonis [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2008 2:45 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: (ot) Anyone run into this issue w/ CrystalTech.com Just noticed it myself. Amazing that in 2008 that this is an issue. http://forums.crystaltech.com/index.php/topic,33421.0.html I've not see it, but CrystalTech uses the Serv-U FTP Server (an off-the-shelf server) - the bug is apparently in there. If you're on a dedicated box you could enable the built-in Windows server to upload the file. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:308439 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: Looking for advice on permissions
-Original Message- From: Mike Kear [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 6:52 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: Looking for advice on permissions Thanks for your suggestions Claude. Perhaps i should give you a bit more background to this project. Just to clarify, the scenario is about the opposite to the one you are puzzled by. I see the circumstances where we might want to allow someone to edit content, but for safety's sake not delete it or add new content. For what it's worth we see this all the time. (Some) people can edit content or remove it from view (effectively deleting it), but only a select very few people can actually delete content. This is due, in our case, to SOX laws and accountability: you can't delete any content (EVER!) unless that content has been fully reviewed by legal first. In practice this means that content is essentially never deleted (although we sometimes delete content that never actually made it to the public site for some reason). In case it's not clear this also means that all content management must be source controlled and we must be able to show the content as it appeared publically at any point in its lifetime. The Law... it's a bitch. Also i have a current need at a radio station to allow the sports people to work on the sports part of the site, but not touch the programming pages. We want to let the people working on one radio show to be able to update their page - add, edit and delete content, but only from their page.I dont want to let them accidentally (or deliberately - egos are huge at a radio station!) interfere with any other show's content. Similarly we used to host agency sites for detached brokers. It would be (literally) criminal to allow one broker to edit the content of another's (a competitor's) site. I don't have any real suggestions... just commiserating that these situations do exist. ;^) Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:307641 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: many sites, one codebase
broker than contained the traditional switch statements and so forth. The actual broker used is determined by the PersistenceInfo component in the application - it contains the broker name (such as SQLServer2000) and credential information. In this way the single codebase supports multiple databases at once (actually a single instantiated application could support multiple databases at once). Finally major sub applications are set up as associated packages. For example the security system is completely abstracted into the Security package. The pages call methods on it, but really don't know anything about it. You could extend or replace it fairly easily. Other (planned, but never implemented) systems might have been blog or comments or forums or whatever. Sorry that this is rambling. The system has been working flawlessly for me for years now and I actually got to use it on some sizable, busy applications. I'm proud of it but shortly after I began documenting it in earnest I was forced to switch from CF professionally to other tech and in all the learning found myself with no time... that was three years ago and I'm still waiting for that time to reappear. ;^) Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:307487 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: many sites, one codebase
-Original Message- From: Rick Root [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, June 13, 2008 2:20 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: many sites, one codebase I have a client who is running hundreds of web sites using the same code base in subdirectories of the parent domain. Example. www.mydomain.com/site1/index.cfm and www.mydomain.com/site2/index.cfm. They are duplicating the entire file structure like this: C:\inetpub\wwwroot\site1\index.cfm C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\site2\index.cfm EVERYHING under site1 and site2 is duplicated. One of the best things I ever did was to abstract everything that made sense into CFCs. The CFCs are shared and use a broker model for DB access so the same codebase can easily support any number of databases/DBMSs. Each site, for example, might instantiate an Application CFC which contains site-specific properties - but all of the code is shared. Really the only thing in the site's directories are the site specific material. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:307450 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: One thing I've always wanted to build... breadcrumb trail...
-Original Message- From: Rick Faircloth [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, June 09, 2008 11:54 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: One thing I've always wanted to build... breadcrumb trail... Not the one that represents a folder structure or hierarchy, but shows the exact places visited. Home Services Contact Pricing FAQ I've done this on my site for years: www.depressedpress.com I call it the ClickStream - it's up near the top right. Anyone know of a tutorial on how to do this? In my case a lot of this falls from application framework. I maintain an instance of a session component for each user - that stores information about them (browser information, clickstream, credentials, etc). The whole framework (all the CFC libraries) is here (look to the Framework Package specifically): http://www.depressedpress.com/Content/Development/ColdFusion/DPLibraries/Ind ex.cfm The actual clickstream component (a property of the session component) is really just an abstraction of an array: http://www.depressedpress.com/Content/Development/ColdFusion/DPLibraries/Doc umentation/DocViewer.cfm?Component=cfc_DepressedPress.Framework.DP_Clickstre am If you look at the add method that's the meat of it. I store the URL, the QueryString (if any), the title of the page (to make using the data easier - but it also means that your title is available), the datetime (let's you infer how long they've spent on each page) and a boolen true if the user was logged in at the time of the entry. Each user has a key and each session has a key - when the session ends the clickstream is saved to the database for later analysis. I could pull up clickstreams from previous visits (one of those to do items I never seem to get around to) this way. In any case the basic idea is just an array of URLs - what you do with the data is up to you. It can be as simple as here's where you've been or you can get into really cool custom analytics. ;^) Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:307200 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: CF thinks 0F is boolean.
-Original Message- From: Fred Anderson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 5:31 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: CF thinks 0F is boolean. A more simplified example would be: cfoutput #isBoolean(0F )# /cfoutput Additionally '0D' has the same effect. I think you may find that 0D and 0E have the same effect - I'm guessing, but I think CF is treating the letters as part of a number in scientific notation. 0E isn't really useful, but it IS zero in scientific notation. ;^) And in CF a zero is an acceptable Boolean. You should be able to test this by doing cfif 0F EQ 0 Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:307206 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: CF thinks 0F is boolean.
-Original Message- From: Adam Haskell [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 5:34 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: CF thinks 0F is boolean. 0A is a line feed (pretty sure on this) which is certainly not boolean. I have no idea what 0F is though I thought it had some significance like terminator or something. To be clear (and just a bit smugly, self-satisfied and pedantic) 0A is just a number (a hexadecimal number which is 10 in decimal). 10, in ASCII, is a line feed, but 0A is just a number. The function char(0A) would return a line feed, tho'. Yup. I can be a picky, picky prick sometimes. ;^) Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:307207 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: Scratching my head over this one
-Original Message- From: Toby King [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, May 16, 2008 9:13 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Scratching my head over this one Hi all I'ms tuck on this and wondering if it can be done. Basically I have a coldfusion application developed and working. I also have another computer in the network that is used as a security monitoring system with cameras attached to it. It's almost definitely a firewall issue... how are these machines connected (both to each other and to outside)? Does the camera need a particular port to be open? This could be more complex since there might be several firewalls involved (local ones on the machine, network devices, etc) - heck, if specials ports are needed even your ISP or hosting provider might be blocking them. Basically once you know what you need you just have to make sure that nothing's blocking it... but it's hard to help with that without more information. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:305544 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: DateCompare or Diff? To determine if the Current Date is the Weekend or a Weekday
-Original Message- From: Nate Willard [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 1:47 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: DateCompare or Diff? To determine if the Current Date is the Weekend or a Weekday Dave James. This is for a time tracker tool, so I would like the weekend to start Friday at 6pm... Is there anyway to do a DateCompare for a set date range? The weekend being Fri 6pm - Sunday 10pm? I'm assuming that you're new to CF (forgive me if you're not). The absolute best thing you can do when starting out with CF is to take an hour (in the CF 2.0 days it was 15 minutes) and flip through the reference manual: http://livedocs.adobe.com/coldfusion/8/htmldocs/help.html?content=Part_3_CFM L_Ref_1.html Just flip through and read the first sentence description of each function and tag. They won't completely sink in but you'll get a feel for the capabilities and families of functionality. When a new task comes up it's likely something will trip. It's the absolute best time you can spend. I think every good CFer has a story about spending an inordinate amount of time building something that the language already did. In my case the first app I built was a calendar... boy was I proud when I built a function for determining leap year to CF. ;^) Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:305243 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: combining query column rows
-Original Message- From: Richard White [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, May 04, 2008 1:35 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: combining query column rows hi i have a query that returns x amount of columns (i wont always know how many) such as follows: col1 | col2 | col3 -- 1 | 2 | 3 i need to run some code that combines the columns into one string, and each value seperated by a space. so that a string would then equal 1 2 3 I'm reading this two ways... so here are two answers: ;^) 1) If you want the values of a column (a single column) then the ValueList function will do this. But I don't think that's what you want. 2) If you want the value of each row in the query as a single value then there are several ways (and several ways to combine these ways depending on how you need to do things): +) As you already noted you can loop over the query using the ColumnList (queryname.ColumnList will give you the list of column names) as your list in a CFLOOP. Use array notation to get the values (something like queryname[CurrentColumnName][RowNumber]). +) If possible it's probably easiest to do this in the original query. Depending on your DB you can concatenate multiple columns into a single return... something like SELECT COL1 + + COL2 + + COL3 AS MyValue. +) If you can't do it in the original query you might (should?) be able to do it as a query of queries. I'm just not sure if concatenation works in QoQ in this way (it does in others) but it would make the whole mess pretty simple. You could grab the ColumnList as above, replace the commas with the concatenation and generate the SQL you need use. For example the ColumnList: Col1,Col2,Col3 Could become, using a single replace of all commas: Col1 + + Col2 + + Col3 You can then build your SQL for the QoQ out of that (if it works). If the columns are consistent for some time (or multiple queries) you can also do this with the database itself - you need an initial query to get you the column list but then all your queries for data could use the concatenation to return the value as you want it. +) In the end what you really want is a pivot query: the same data you have turned 90 degrees such that ValueList() will return exactly the information that you want. If you're getting a lot of rows initially then you could pivot the query in CF (there are UDFs out there to do it) but again, if your DB supports this then you should do it there - SQL Server 2005 supports a PIVOT clause for example as do many others although they all have their own names (Access calls this Crosstab Queries for example). We could probably be more specific if you told us what DBMS you're using, how many rows you'll be returning and how often you'll be doing this. In the end, unless this is a performance hotspot then the simplest method (looping over the column list and creating the value) is probably going to be the fastest to develop/test and easiest to maintain. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:304729 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: OT - Size of a chromed out window
and track it. I've got old code (that still works) that tracks basic resolution data (SOMEDAY I'll update it): http://www.depressedpress.com/Content/Development/ColdFusion/Articles/GetRes /Index.cfm Adding the above functions to it should give you some useful information to work with. I suggest storing it in a database (or parseable log file) and tagging it with a date. I actually link this data to complete click streams (pages viewed), browser information and other data... now if only I had a website that got enough traffic to do something useful with it. ;^) Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:304558 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: Need to pass multiple value from a CFC - stuck
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2008 11:33 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: Need to pass multiple value from a CFC - stuck All, To see the cfdump, first go to ... http://209.41.164.253/store_finder/application/zip.cfm or see cfdump below I need to pass the zipcodes info from a cfc to another query that looks up stores that contain these zip codes. I need multiple value returned from the CFC that creates this result. How do I do this? When I try to return the cfc values for zip I get a single zip code. How do I get all the zip? I'm not good at Structs or Arrays. Not to put too fine a point on it... but get good at them. ;^) The complex data types (structs, arrays, queries) are exactly how you'd accomplish this goal. They're job in life is to create a single reference/handle/ variable that logically contain multiple values. I've a guide that covers CFML Variables in some detail that you might find useful in beginning to learn about this stuff here: http://www.depressedpress.com/Content/Development/ColdFusion/Guides/Variable s/Index.cfm It's old (it was written when CFMX first came out) but I think it's still valid (neither CF 7 or CF 8 changed or added to the core language all that much). I should set aside some time to update it... In any case the basics it covers will still serve you very well. Definitely post back with any questions you have! Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:303829 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: need an opinion
-Original Message- From: Don L [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2008 4:14 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: OT: need an opinion My apology for OT. Need an opinion, when you see the following icon, http://24.254.1.94:8000/test/logo_idea.bmp what do you make of it? Also, it's boring, clearly I lack creativity. One of the keys to doing competent work without talent is to know your limitations. Doing plain, boring - but usable, clean work is enough to look better than the vast majority of design work out there. Nobody will mistake you for a professional designer, of course, but neither will you embarrass yourself. ;^) That said the letters here are meaningless to me - for an icon you shouldnt need letters, and if you DO need them then get rid of the graphic and use them. They're small and difficult to read. They also spoil the balance of the image - turning it from a nice, soft rectangle into a rather sharp pyramid. The image itself is okay - perhaps a little too detailed for an icon. You rarely see more than two objects in an icon and this one has six. It also seems like you might be trying to indicate inclusiveness or diversity, but that might be better done with abstracts (even something as simple as multi-colored spheres or shapes) rather than actual people. Icons thrive on cliché - it's kind of counter-intuitive but REALLY creative icons are rarely understood because most people aren't that creative. ;^) If this is a signature icon then you'll need to be unique and brand it appropriately, but for general application/website icons boring is best. Some are easy: Print, Save, Home, etc. Some are too abstract and so you have to do your best and reinforce the image. For community the silhouette of several people, hands clasped, etc are all pretty clear. Sorry for lecturing. It's really NOT at all a bad graphic - it's not a great icon, but it's not an embarrassing one either. ;^) It's incredibly really hard to judge icons in isolation in any case - it's only really fair to judge them in a complete iconography with context. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:303535 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
[OT] New JavaScript Date Library - comments/testing appreciated
Well - not really a new one, but an addition to my old one: http://www.depressedpress.com/Content/Development/JavaScript/Extensions/DP_DateExtensions/Index.cfm I've added a parseFormat() method that works similar to the Java SimpleDateFormat method. You give the method a string (a date) and a mask (a date format) and if the string matches the format it will convert it to a native date. It supports UTC time, timezone conversion (pass a PST time into EST and it will be converted to local time) and all of the date mask characters from the included dateFormat() and timeFormat() functions. Most of the functions available in the library should feel comfortably familiar to CFers. I'd love some help testing this new feature out if you get a chance. Comments are also always appreciated (but feel free to post them to me privately so as not to pollute the list further with off-topic stuff ). Thanks, Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:303279 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: OT: domain registrar
On Thu, Apr 10, 2008 at 3:14 PM, Jenny Gavin-Wear [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi all, I'm looking for a good domain name registrar with: 1. a good control panel, including nameserver changes 2. decent rates on domain name registrations 3. an affiliatiate/partner programme (api would be handy) If anyone springs to mind the info would be much appreciated. I've been using mydomain.com/namesdirect.com for many years (they've gone through several name changes). Lots of free services (DNS, mail forwarding, url forwarding, etc). Nice interface too - something a lot of companies cheap out on. It's not a super flashy interface or anything, but it's clear, consistent and easy. They're a little under $9 a year but offer discounts on longer terms and bulk domains. I pay about $40 every five years. I'm not sure about an affiliate program... I know that they have referral discounts and the like, but I'm not sure if it goes deeper than that. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:303157 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: Can you guys give me your thoughts on this?
-Original Message- From: Matt Williams [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, April 07, 2008 11:49 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: Can you guys give me your thoughts on this? This type of data logging is quite common. One way to do it is before doing the update, get the record again from the db. Compare it to the form data. Another way is to have the form send a duplicate set of form fields named something like orig_productName. Or you could even be fancy with some javascript to make a list of the fields changed when they are changed. For tracking what was changed, you don't really need the XML, you can do it with an additional table. You could have a table with something like changed_ID | changed_table | changed_field | orig_value | new_value. A sample record would be 1234 | 'tbl_product' | 'product_name' | 'my widget' | 'my cool widget' I've done this before using the same table. Basically I added two new columns: EditDate (the date of the change) and EditUser (the user ID of the one making the change). When somebody updates something you save a new row with the updated data - then select it using a MAX date. Deletes can be handled in two ways: 1) You can just plain delete things. Done and done - but you lose the audit trail. 2) You can add another column, a boolean - something like Active or Deleted. Only active records should be shown - the rest would be considered deleted. The main issue with this is that it's a waste of space - even a small change will result in a duplicate of all information. This is fine for small databases (storage is cheap) and it does make things easier. Going back to an older version is as easy as copying a row and setting a date. Matt's system above is much better on storage although it has a shadow of the same problem. The most commonly edited fields tend to be the larger ones (descriptions for example) and these will be double stored as well - in fact for them (since you're saving a before and after instance for each field) the total space usage might end being the same as my version depending on the data you're talking about. Really the only way to truly optimize storage would be to implement a base difference system like they do in high-end source control. This would be complicated, require more processing and would be generally icky (that's a technical term). This seems like enormous overkill unless your database is so large that storage costs are an issue. One major advantage to Matt's, however, is that it can be bolted on to an existing system more easily - although the process for storing and recovering edits is more complex no changes are needed to the core system. In my case everything that accesses the tables will need to understand to grab only the latest version. There are probably dozens of variations here - the size of your data, the frequency of updates, the traffic, etc - that's going to determine what you want to do. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:302895 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: glass effects
-Original Message- From: Richard White [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, April 05, 2008 10:05 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: glass effects Hi my apologies for posting this thread here but i see what list i should have put it on. In these parts this would probably go into Community since it's the most active non-specific group. i am trying to create a shiny glass panel over the top of a faded picture, then i also want to have engraved text in the glass. i want to do this either in flash or in photoshop and wanted to know if any of you had any ideas or tutorials on how to do something like this. i have searched google and come up with nothing that is of any use right now I've not done this in PhotoShop (I've never used it). But I found these tutorials: http://www.adobetutorialz.com/articles/2392/1/Photo-Reflection-Effect http://www.adobetutorialz.com/articles/167/1/Beveled-Glass-Button http://www.adobetutorialz.com/articles/467/1/-Curves-Are-an-Abomination None are exactly what you want, but they all seem to have pieces of it. I DO know how to do this in CorelDraw... here's a button tutorial that has the basics (long URL): http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Corel3/Section/Displaysid=1 047024315119gid=1047024331836cid=1047024809803 I would think that you could mimic the same effect in Flash pretty easily. It really depends on the look you want: a bitmap/true media package will generally be better at realistic looking work while a vector package will be better at illustrations. Glass only looks like Glass because it reflects light - glass that doesn't reflect is clear (you've seen this before - usually because of a trick of the angle with really clean glass where it looks like the window is open and you can't see the glass at all). In illustrations like this you're basically just picking a phony light at approximating it - cartoony diagonal streaks are all you really need to imply glass - they don't look realistic, but they get the point across. You're not ever drawing glass, rather you're drawing the reflections in the glass. So you can't draw glass without considering the environment in which it sits. Is it under diffuse office lighting, a bare lightbulb or sunlight? Which direction is the light coming from? Just take a picture under glass around and look at it under different light sources - the differences are dramatic. One of the best things to do is understand how to represent glass in traditional media. As far as the engraving - that should be pretty simple. Simple glass engraving is done either via acid etching (which produces a smooth surface) or sand blasting (which produces a finely textured) surface. In both cases the result is opaque so only the strongest light sources would make a difference - for the most part you can just put the lettering on and do an appropriate fill in a light-gray texture. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:302788 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: Trim leading zeros
-Original Message- From: Paul Ihrig [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2008 10:43 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: Trim leading zeros how would i trim the results below i only want the numbers after the zeros. 0009970656 056901 9970656 56901 Val() should do exactly what you want. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:302440 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: Windows CF8 VPS?
-Original Message- From: Dave l [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 4:15 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: Windows CF8 VPS? Calling a hosting provider to set a mapping on YOUR box should cost you. Having that host install CF ON HIS BOX should cost him. IT'S HIS BOX. ok so they should have charged him $300 or whatever it was for what should have been 1 minute of their time... yeah thats a great deal jim!! SIGN ME UP! It doesn't matter what it is or how easy it is. The cost structure is specifically designed to be forbidding so that people DON'T ask for application-level support. CF is an application on YOUR BOX. How much should they charge if I call them and ask for macro to be created in Word? How much to add a new email account to SmarterMail? How much to change my desktop wallpaper? The answer for all of these is: a huge, unreasonable amount that will prompt you not to call for work you should be doing. None of these assertions can be backed up by the original request. The requestor only said that he didn't like the performance or support. No assumptions can be made about his skill level. Ok so he says basically that he needs support, you don't need a zune manual to figure that part out. If he knew enough about running his own Your assumptions are faulty. Needing support doesn't say anything: every level of service needs support. You're assuming however that he need an unreasonable level of support for his chosen service. CT provides appropriate service and provides it well. When I opened my account I needed support to set up DNS. I opened a ticket and was promptly pointed to a well-written document in the knowledge base covering that process. When I need to upgrade RAM on a box I need support. Since no details were given no clear assumptions can be made. I prefer to assume that the poster is asking for a level of service that they understand, you treat everybody like an idiot. Different strokes. Damn I'm so consistently amazing by the warped lens through which you view life. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:302368 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: Windows CF8 VPS?
-Original Message- From: Jason Durham [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 4:48 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: RE: Windows CF8 VPS? BTW, CrystalTech doesn't offer VPS so the point is moot. :-) I'm curious tho' - why consider only VPS and not dedicated? I was under the impression that VPS was, mostly, just a way to provide dedicated-like features at a cost savings. Am I missing something? Their 'semi-dedicated' is just a shared box. And not really worth it in my opinion since their dedicated boxes are so competitive... of course if you can't amortize your CF license over several years then it may be attractive I guess. Jim Davsi ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:302375 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: Windows CF8 VPS?
-Original Message- From: Jason Durham [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 5:05 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: RE: Windows CF8 VPS? FWIW, I was talking about a local colo. :-) What's local? I had lots of options in Boston for local colo, but there aren't that many in Scranton. ;^) Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:302376 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: Windows CF8 VPS?
-Original Message- From: Charlie Griefer [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 5:49 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: Windows CF8 VPS? On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 2:44 PM, Jim Davis [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I'm curious tho' - why consider only VPS and not dedicated? I was under the impression that VPS was, mostly, just a way to provide dedicated-like features at a cost savings. Am I missing something? And not really worth it in my opinion since their dedicated boxes are so competitive... of course if you can't amortize your CF license over several years then it may be attractive I guess. yeah, for me it's the cost of the software (windows and CF specifically). my VPS with AHP comes with windows 2k3 server, cf8, smartermail, smarterstats, and smarterticket. but again, it was specifically Windows and CF. Yeah - the OS is included on most hosts I've seen, but CF is another story. With standard still costing $1200 it's not a bad deal if you can amortize it over three years (about $33 a month in addition to hosting) but if you need enterprise or need to upgrade with each new version then costs will increase a lot. BlueDragon might be an attractive option for dedicated customers as well. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:302384 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: Windows CF8 VPS?
-Original Message- From: Jason Durham [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 5:57 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: RE: Windows CF8 VPS? I considered VPS mainly because of cost. It was an easy sale to the people who write checks around here. We have several shared accounts with HMS which we intended to combine on the VPS. Your only additional cost will be the CF license - and it's not inconsequential. Although note that you can often find older versions or used copies for significant savings. You'll need to determine the initial investment: for example real Adobe CF or an alternative engine? Standard or Enterprise? Then plan for the lifetime of that investment (for software like this three years is pretty standard). Divide your investment by the lifetime and figure out the premium you'll be paying. For example CF Standard over three years is about $33 a month. My dedicated box costs $85 a month and I pay an additional $5 a month for a block of 5 additional IPs. So my monthly cost is about $123. You'd have to add any additional software you need in there as well of course - but often the total cost of ownership for dedicated is less than VPS depending on your needs. It's harder to calculate but also consider the risks involved. VPS does, inherently, contain more risk than a dedicated box. Runaway processes on one VM can overrun shared resources (especially network resources and disc access). Since you're looking for colo at this point it's pretty clear that you've already done this. ;^) I just see a lot of people making the assumption that a VPS will be more economical when the real answer is more complex. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:302385 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: Windows CF8 VPS?
-Original Message- From: Dave l [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, March 30, 2008 5:32 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: Windows CF8 VPS? Yes Jim but if he is not satisfied with the support then common logic would say that he DOES need support in which case he'd be SOL at crystal tech because that price comes with exactly 0 support and if you do need support they rape and pillage you there. Yet again: I've never been upset with the support I've gotten I've gotten at Crystal Tech. I've never been charged for it the few times I've needed to take advantage of it. Perhaps they only charge pains-in-the-ass? Since no specifics were given I'm not sure if the original poster would fall into the pain-in-the-ass category or not. When running your own server I honestly can't see why you'd need support for anything but the most basic plumbing anyway. Most everything is self-serviceable using the control panel or management tools. And most of that is well-documented in the knowledge base and the little that isn't tends to be covered in the forums. If you ignore those resources and just call support I see no reason NOT to charge you. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:302298 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: Windows CF8 VPS?
-Original Message- From: William Seiter [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, March 30, 2008 6:32 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: RE: Windows CF8 VPS? Having never gone the way of using a dedicated box for my personal sites, I was wondering. 1. What usually is preloaded on the server? Each host has their own packages, but many tend to use the same vendors. CrystalTech's Windows package is pretty representative: SmarterMail (up to 50 Domains, unlimited email addresses for each), SmarterStats (50 Domains) and SmarterTicket (5 Agents). They also provide the Serv-U FTP server (easier, I think, than the Windows 2000 FTP server). Of course you also get all the features of Windows 2000: IIS, DNS Server, Streaming Media, etc. Some provide a local DB by default (usually SQL Server Express or MySQL) but most don't (since you can just install what you like). 2. Do you have to purchase your own license of CF or do you still use the hosting company's license? Usually you need to provide your own. You can lease a license but this is almost always more than it's worth. For example CrystalTech offers CF 8 Enterprise for an EXTRA $120 a month. For my part I tend to find an older, cheaper version if I can and I'm usually stuck on Standard. I can't afford to upgrade every year so I'll stick with a version for at least three years. Of course you can also explore alternatives such as Blue Dragon which are nearly as capable and much cheaper. 3. How much extra is it to use their MSSQL server rather than installing your own 'local' version? In my experience most hosts offer this as a standard feature. CrystalTech offers 500 Meg of DB space on a shared SQL Server 2005. You use the standard tools to manage your DB and control panel features let you easily set up DataSources and do basic maintenance. 4. Are there any other software/ancilliary costs that should be taken into account? Oddly enough I've NEVER seen a dedicate host that has offered any kind of Anti-Virus or protection software standard. If you lock your server down enough you don't really NEED it but if you run a lot of email it's a good idea to run something that can proactively scan incoming email. Most hosts will set up something for you for an additional monthly fee, but it's often cheaper to just buy your own license (or use a free solution). Provider Back-up solutions can also be expensive so you should plan on doing something home grown or network (there are several online backup vendors, some as cheap as $5 a month). I have a home server set up which takes a backup (using a DTS package) of my database nightly and an incremental backup of the web/ftp server every third day (I don't update things very often). The biggest obstacle is usually the CF license - it's a large lump sum. But the freedom of dealing with only your own mistakes is definitely worth it if you can swing the cost. You'll never hear again: somebody else's bad code took down the server. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:302302 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: Windows CF8 VPS?
-Original Message- From: Dave l [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, March 30, 2008 9:57 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: Windows CF8 VPS? Like I have said before.. I work with a guy who has a dedicated box at ct and it's a joke, i have never seen someone break more things (including a 3 day old loaded mbp) over their service. As far as charging for PITA.. well my personal fav was when he needed at virtual mapping made to a folder outside the root. First they charged him $300 to try it and then an additional $750 to re-install cfm because they said it was the problem (of course it wasn't) and after all that they still couldn't get it done so he called HMS who helped him do it over the phone in 30 seconds. Then he deserves it. Calling a hosting provider to set a mapping on YOUR box should cost you. Having that host install CF ON HIS BOX should cost him. IT'S HIS BOX. As you've declared the issue here he paid over a thousand dollars instead of reading one page of a manual. If you're that fundamentally illiterate about the technologies involved you've no business running a server. I don't see any VPS provider doing any different: when you have full access to the box (whether physical or virtual) you take responsibility for it. CT servers also dont have ANY protection whatsoever on them, not even a decent firewall. That's an outright lie. CT servers are behind very good, industrial HARDWARE firewalls. They enforce rules which ensure network stability, not server stability (unless it affects the network). For example when Code Red was rampant all dedicated customers were given notice that any unpatched server would be patched by CrystalTech. They also blocked the ports used by the exploit. A while back when several customers allowed they're servers to be compromised and become spam relays they blocked that traffic at the network level. Again this an iron and pipe provider: good network, good hardware. You do the rest. Oddly enough I've NEVER seen a dedicate host that has offered any kind of Anti-Virus or protection software standard Mine does jim, comes with norton anti-virus. Good for you. Look around - it's not that common of a feature. I've never said a single word against your host: you don't have to sell them to me. I'm not saying that you don't get good service there Jim but these people that ask and then you say well i got a ded box for $85 a month and they don't realize that that comes with no support (aka unmanaged) it also doesn't come with cfm so if you need support and cfm you are right back up to what a managed server is anyways. None of these assertions can be backed up by the original request. The requestor only said that he didn't like the performance or support. No assumptions can be made about his skill level. I assume that anybody looking for a VPS or dedicated box has the basic skills required to actually use that service. If you assume that everybody looking for this high-end service is in fact unable to actually use such a service then continue to bitch EVERY TIME I CONFER MY OPINION. You're a smart guy jim and you can run the server but most people can't. That's the sad part: you're not talking about running a server - you're talking about working with an application. Setting up a CF mapping isn't running a server - it's square one basic. If you can't figure out how to that then you've got no business managing a web application at all under any hosting plan. So yes, original poster; as Dave has said: if you're unable to read a manual please don't consider CrystalTech. They do expect you to be literate. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:302313 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: Windows CF8 VPS?
-Original Message- From: Casey Dougall [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, March 30, 2008 10:32 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: Windows CF8 VPS? On Sun, Mar 30, 2008 at 9:56 PM, Dave l [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: CT servers also dont have ANY protection whatsoever on them, not even a decent firewall. I'd just point out, this is not uncommon for ANY hosting company... Firewalls are not normally a part of the package. Doesn't matter who. From Host My Site to Rack Space. Check with each company before you sign up. Exactly my point. But just so we're clear: any decent hosting company starts with the network. What we're talking about here is LOCAL firewalls/AV - on the box. That doesn't mean that the network itself is unprotected - there will be firewalls, secure routers and other network-level hardware appliances. Also networks will be segmented to allow targeted response (for example it's unlikely that any shared resources will share an external network segment with dedicated hosts). Any sensible host does whatever it can to ensure that its network is as secure as possible; both against external attacks and internal dumbassery. Again this is the norm for larger hosts - as you get smaller and smaller your mileage may vary. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:302317 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: Windows CF8 VPS?
-Original Message- From: Jason Durham [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2008 7:44 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Windows CF8 VPS? I'm currently evaluating HostMySite's entry level CF VPS and am dissatisfied with the performance and support. Can anybody recommend another VPS host? I'm looking to spend about $1500 annually and be able to run MS SQL or MySQL on the box. Opinions vary greatly (I love them, other hate them) but you can get a very nice dedicated box (no VPS) for that price at CrystalTech. I pay $89 for their entry-level box which happily supports my sites. You get a large allotment of a shared SQL Server or you can, of course, install your own copy. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:302233 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: Any Gotcha's in using CF UUID for db record primary key?
For what it's worth I kind of agree with the others about the performance benefits... but at the same time the busiest site I've ever worked on (and my personal site, since it's built using the same engine) uses only UUIDs for PKs and never had an issue because of it. We used them, as I assume you are, to ensure that cross-domain information could be easy combined (something we actually didn't end up doing) and used in the application (the same PKs were used as StructKeys in session management) but we took millions of hits on moderate hardware using CF 6, Windows and SQL Server and it never winced. At the same time I kind of DON'T agree with them if you're doing what we were doing: if you're using the key to link tables (so that you can combine multiple databases easily) and using them to link to non-DB information (log files, etc) then it seems like extra work to do a real auto-increment PK as well. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:301873 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: Voodoo programming case one
-Original Message- From: Don L [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 7:38 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: Voodoo programming case one Thanks. You're right, using class is a standard approach, however, the new CFWINDOW tag is nice but quite picky and I have more than one cfwindow on the same page, so, inline js tends to work better for my case... Well... you can change just the width property of the column as easily as you can change the class name using the script Isaac provided (actually, at worst, you'd need to loop over the cells and set the width... but you should be able to do that to just a single cell and have it work). You don't NEED to use classes. But they do make it simpler to understand. Also note that while, technically, style declarations should be in the HEAD all major browsers (and all minor ones that I know of) accept them inline as well. So inline away! Note that IE 6 has a weird behavior in some cases (specifically where you're including new content into a container on a page). If it looks like your included content is ignoring style declarations try moving the style information to the bottom of the page. I describe the issue here: http://www.depressedpress.com/Content/Development/JavaScript/Articles/Quirk_ IncludeStyles/Index.cfm Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:301617 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: Voodoo programming case one
-Original Message- From: Don L [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 11:08 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: Voodoo programming case one Thanks. As I indicated in my very first post, it was working (at that point I did not test it with IE6 though). Later I tested with IE6, and it seems fine as well. I was curious to know if there's a better approach... It's good to know you endorse this approach as well. Well... I guess it's like everything else: there are a thousand ways to do anything and what makes them better will change depending the need. For pure speed not much is going to improve upon Isaac's single line of code and one DOM change. But it does require some pre-work. There are other ways to do the same thing where the table in question needs no prior set up. One script could accepts a DOM reference to a table and do all the work. It could - just by looping over the DOM - add a link or control to the headers to collapse the columns, add all of the style information needed, all of the event information, etc. This would be more complex, but in the end you'd have a simple-to-use script that could add this functionality to ANY table with a single line of code (and NO manual changes to the table). You could also add in row sorting, cell selection, etc - any features you want. This would definitely be better in the sense of being more encapsulated, more portable and more reusable. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:301621 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: UDF function inside cffunction?
-Original Message-
From: Dominic Watson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2008 8:38 PM
To: CF-Talk
Subject: Re: UDF function inside cffunction?
While that's not a nested function (again, you're just assigning a
function
as data), you can definitely build them in JavaScript:
You learn something new every day ;). Thats interesting that functions
that
are 'scoped' to variables are treated as 'data' and not referred to in
object terms, any idea why that is? You certainly use them in exactly
the
same way as methods in an object. Can they be scoped publicly /
privately?
Sorry for drifting off topic, but its interesting stuff init :p
It's really just semantics... you can call them methods and everybody will
understand what you mean. ;^)
But - technically - in JavaScript there really isn't a thing called a
method, just a very flexible function object. It's sometimes useful to
think about things as they really are - it opens up a lot of potentials.
For example, since functions are objects you can assign properties to them:
function MyFunction() { };
MyFunction.MyProperty = 42;
Of course since functions are data that could be a function as well:
function MyFunction() { };
MyFunction.MyProperty = function() { };
Here's a brief, but great overview of nearly everything you can do with
functions in JS:
http://www.permadi.com/tutorial/jsFunc/index.html
Basically when you start getting how flexible objects are in JavaScript
and then add that functions are objects a lot of new approaches open
themselves up.
Another thing that many people seem to forget is that (for the most part)
system objects are also, well - objects. They can have additional
properties added (and since functions are data they can have methods
added...). A simple example:
Say you have several form buttons on the page. You want to change a graphic
when each is pressed, but you also want to count the number of times each is
pressed. Most people create an array of presscounts with an index for
each button... but this data is related to the button? Doesn't it make more
sense to add a property to the button to count the presses?
Using advanced event management (available in most libraries) you can set up
multiple onclick handlers - one would just increase the presscount. You
can then access the presscount as a property of the button:
document.getElementById(MyButton).presscount
This may be a silly example but there are cases where it comes in handy...
radio buttons can pass around large amounts of complex data by extending
them (rather than just know clicked or not clicked), text controls can
maintain history allowing complex application to offer undo capability and
so forth.
As much as I love the accessibility and power of CF and as much as I'm stuck
doing grunt work with Shell Scripting JavaScript has always been, by far,
the most exciting language to me. You can really never learn it
completely since the flexibility it provides will always surface something
new to try.
Jim Davis
~|
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date
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RE: UDF function inside cffunction?
-Original Message-
From: Dominic Watson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2008 7:46 PM
To: CF-Talk
Subject: Re: UDF function inside cffunction?
Javascript allows you to 'nest' functions in as much as you can create
a
method for an object on the fly:
function somefunction(){
var someObject = new myObject();
someObject.someOtherFunction = function(){alert(I've just been
created!);}
}
Calling it a method is really just semantics: functions are data in
JavaScript. This is really just setting a property whose value is a
function (instead of some other data).
The only thing that really changes for functions in JavaScript is the scope
chain: which scopes they have access and which scopes have access to them.
I would not say this was a nested function though (which no languages
allow AFAIK).
While that's not a nested function (again, you're just assigning a function
as data), you can definitely build them in JavaScript:
function somefunction() {
function myInnerFunction() {alert(I've just been called!);}
myInnerFunction();
};
In that case myInnerFunction() is a nested function - it's only available
within that function - it's a scoped child.
Unlike your first example (where the function was accessible outside the
parent function because it was assigned to a public property) this
function isn't accessible outside. It won't interfere with global functions
of the same name.
This is a VERY powerful tool for encapsulating functionality that's just not
taken advantage of enough. How often have you seen excellent JavaScript
libraries with huge footprints (lots of functions and support functions)
that could be condensed into one or two functions if built as nested
functions or object methods?
Throw in recursion, scope escalation, closures and all the other aspects of
scope interaction and you've got the power to do just about anything you
could want. JavaScript is truly one of the most syntactically powerful and
flexible languages around... it can also be a HUGE pain in the ass for the
same reasons. ;^)
Jim Davis
~|
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date
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RE: DB choice for small Intranet site
-Original Message- From: Russ [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, March 16, 2008 10:22 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: RE: DB choice for small Intranet site Personally, I like MS SQL Express. The only thing is that it doesn't come with an agent, AFAIK, so you'll need to find another way to do backups. I second SQL Server Express. It's pure bias of course, but it rocks. The management tools are best of class (actually - after being forced to use DB2 at the office - better than class) and the capabilities amazing. Transact SQL is very easy to pick up and if you don't want to bother you can create stored procs in any .NET runtime language (C#, javascript, etc). It supports XML and webservices natively and most of the basic OLAP stuff. You want the Advanced Services edition tho' - the basic edition is more for integrators (people want to integrate a DB into an application). The Advanced Services Edition (still free) includes the management console and (very nice) full-text search engine. I do miss some of the features of the full edition but the actual engines are exactly the same: there's no performance hit going from Enterprise to Express. Never having dug into them I can't compare it to mySQL or Derby but I can say compared to DB2 SQL Server is a freakin' joy to behold. But then again... that really isn't saying a whole hell of a lot. ;^) Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:301382 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: Hosting Problems
On Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 10:19 AM, Richard White [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: we have had severe problems with host my site hosting company, can anyone recommend a really good coldfusion 8 and mysql hosting site. I think most of the problems that we see talked about here are with the hostee, not the hoster. It's not that the host they're on is bad but rather that it's bad for them. Another common scenario is that the host itself is fine but the service option chosen is wrong for the needs. Expecting dedicated services on shared hosting (CF isn't friendly to shared hosting - it just isn't). Expecting application-level support from pipe and iron. Expecting 24 hour support form garage hosts (if you know the guy that runs your server by name then it's likely you'll get excellent, personal service punctuated by periodic catastrophes). I feel that every one of these problems indicates not a problem with the hosting provider per se but customer that made the wrong choice in providers or service level. When there's an argument where one person loves a host and another hates it IT SAYS ALMOST NOTHING ABOUT THE HOST. All it says is that two completely different sets of expectations are being applied. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:300810 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: Hosting Problems
-Original Message- From: James Holmes [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, March 09, 2008 9:56 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: Hosting Problems I simply expected from HMS a shared linux CF server that stayed functional most of the time. They were unable to provide this - to the point where they no longer offer shared Linux CF hosting. I'll leave it to your judgement as to whether I expected too much. Not to be flippant, but it might be. I spent way too long using CF ion shared hosts... it never worked. CF just wasn't designed for it. Hosts do better or worse but the sad truth is all it takes is one jag-off to continually hose a shared server. Basically if you want any kind of reliability you probably don't want shared hosting. I feel for those hosts that try to support CF in a shared environment... more power to 'em, but I've become convinced that they're fighting a losing battle. But just to be clear: there are definitely bad hosts out there. Just plain incompetent service providers. There are also just bad luck cases - an otherwise competent host having a bad time of it, or a single server having trouble (common in shared hosting due to the aforementioned jag-offs). What I was addressed was the nearly continuous arguments that run like this: Poster 1: Hey guys, what's a good host? Poster 2: My host is good. I like them. Poster 3: Your host is bad. Your intelligence must be questioned. Now assuming that poster 3 can indeed be pleased (and in some cases this just can't happen) then clearly there's a mismatch between expectation and service or need and service. Poster 2's needs and expectations have been met, after all. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:300828 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: Application UI's
-Original Message- From: Ryan J. Heldt [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 5:54 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: Application UI's http://cssremix.com is a favorite of mine. However, in my opinion, although a backend can look nice, at the end of the day it should be about getting the job done, so avoid using lots of graphics and other eye candy that can get in the way. People don't necessarily remember something that's well designed, but they will remember something that isn't. Exactly - simple elegance generally always wins out over complexity. I would suggest: +) Keep it simple. Seriously consider when you should use graphics (words are better than icons in many cases) and fancy layouts (broad, simple layouts are better than complex, cramped layout in most cases). Whenever you're going to add something ask the question: do I need this? Keep your resource count LOW. Two, maybe three, fonts are all anybody needs. Choose a small number of signature colors that work together. Build basic assets (bullets, headers, etc) and use them over and over. Animation should be subtle - people pick up on more than you think and a common mistake is to beat them over the head with change. Edward Tufte talks about Chart junk - extraneous lines, elements, graphics, etc - which detracts from understanding. The same is true for applications. Any visual element that doesn't have a well-defined job should be dropped. +) Don't exceed your skills. You can lift all the professional icons and canned designs you like but they will ultimately have a strong tendency to fail when put together with other pieces you'll need to design yourself. If you can only do stick figures... then do stick figures. If you're design sense is stretched by a left nav bar and a content area... then do that. +) Be consistent. In color scheme, wording, grammar (address) and so forth. Most bad websites are bad primarily due to inconsistency. Determine (and enforce!) basic rules and variations in content and behavior (for example bold items are active or all task links are on the left navigation). +) Usability ALWAYS wins out over design. Don't use cramped, tiny text size because it looks better - it doesn't and it's difficult to use. Don't use complex graphics which blend into the background for buttons... use buttons. If you're looking for a GREAT, easy to read book on these principles you can't go wrong with Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think!. The Invisible Computer by Donald Norman is also amazingly good... neither talk specifically about design, but rather about what kind of designs are easiest to understand. And easy is more important than pretty every time. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:300701 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
Re: Interesting idea for next CF - thoughts...
Jim Davis said: I know it won't validate, but can't you do that now? I would expect CF to ignore any unknown attributes. Way back when, CF5 and prior, it would throw errors on attributes it didn't recognize. When CF6 was introduced they allowed you to add whatever arbitrary attributes you want to cfcomponent, cffunction, cfargument and cfproperty tags so you could use that metadata via getMetaData() -- with other tags I'm not sure, haven't tried it. But it's likely that the server might already ignore unrecognized attributes on tags by default. So yeah, you could possibly get away with it, although I tend to agree with Dave Watts' comments regarding its usefulness. As do I, personally. But I'm also of two minds on the issue: While I wouldn't use such a feature (for all the reasons already stated) some people clearly might. In the end consistency and workability is more important to me. If this guy finds this useful and, most importantly, is consistent with his usage then great. Anything that lets us remember what the hell we were thinking a year later can't be all bad. ;^) Of course there are other considerations. I think the most important one is are you inflicting this system on others? If so, and they DON'T understand then your consistency means nothing - you must be consistent within your workgroup for anything like this to truly work. I've actually gone further and created my own comment tag and parsing engine for CFC development... probably worse that this to many people but it works wonders for me and allows me to self-document my code pretty darn well. In any case any documentation, whether it's via strict comments, code markup, naming conventions, etc is definately more good than bad. But it only works really when everybody involved works together. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:300103 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: Interesting idea for next CF - thoughts...
-Original Message- From: Brad Wood [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2008 9:13 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: RE: Interesting idea for next CF - thoughts... Watch out for that though. I remember someone on this list who used to use the extends= attribute in their cfcomponent tags. That worked great until CF8 when Adobe actually implemented that attribute and all their code broke. :) Yeah... you really can't use any common words. Since my imprint in the DepressedPress I prefix everything with DP_... something like that should keep it off any reserved word lists. ;^) Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:300140 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: How is CF8 working on shared servers?
-Original Message- From: Terry Schmitt [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 10:07 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: How is CF8 working on shared servers? I had previously hosted at Crystaltech on shared CF7. Due to so many CF mapping issues I finally gave up and moved to a viviotech and then ahp VPS. I love having a VPS. The flexibility to configure as I see fit is priceless. Due to the ahp issues that we're having, though, I'm on the search for the holy grail again :( I'm not asking for which hosting company to use, but rather, how is CF8 working on shared servers? My main beef was the constant struggle with CF mappings. Since CF8 now supports application level mappings, that should really be a non-issue now. I think this was the main issue (since CFMODULE and CFCs are often very dependent on mappings such that even simple apps usually need them) and, in general, simple applications should be fine on shared hosting. But there are still a lot of gotchas - you're still running in the same instance. There are still tags and capabilities that can be problematic on shared hosts (especially external services like COM). Tags like CFDIRECTORY and others that give broad, server-level access may still pose risks. Many hosts just don't enable them, others let the chips fall where they may. None of the shared information is really, truly safe. If you have the application name then you can see all the information stored in it for example. A good host will use various means to prevent people from getting access to each other's folders with a shared process like CF running then it's more likely that a bug or misconfiguration can allow such access. Once you have that kind of access it's very likely that you'll be able to get database access and perhaps dangerous information. For that reason alone I wouldn't consider hosting any eCommerce or delicate/sensitive apps on a shared server. Even something as simple as an email list or the like might end up costing you more than you'll save if it gets compromised. Finally you always still have the good old threat of idiots creating instability on the server. ColdFusion's gotten better with tools that can mitigate this but nothing will ever stop it completely... there's still the chance that some borderline mental case will do something to take everyone down. The fact remains that, even with the improvements, CF was just never designed (and probably never will be) for shared hosting. You can make it work, mostly, but it's definitely a square peg in a round hole. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:299967 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: Interesting idea for next CF - thoughts...
-Original Message- From: Brad Wood [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 4:28 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: RE: Interesting idea for next CF - thoughts... I would be inclined to simply use a regular comment. I might see value in your suggestion if you wanted to have some auto-documenting process for your code. Kind of like Java's Annotations. Even in that case, annotations feel more like structured comments that are parsed. Generally auto-documenting applies at your class and method level-- not at each individual line of code. I know it won't validate, but can't you do that now? I would expect CF to ignore any unknown attributes. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:300029 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: Resolution and Color Depth Data
-Original Message- From: James Smith [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, February 25, 2008 4:57 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: RE: Resolution and Color Depth Data Ok, I can understand that a resolution of 3840x1024 is some lucky person with 3 1280x1024 monitors next to each other but what kind of device produces an 800x5000 resolution!? I noticed that too. ;^) Picking out those real oddballs is where that thumbnail display really helps. If it's reporting correctly (and it might just be a bug in the javascript reporting or an outright lie since it's not hard to spoof bad data) I have to assume it's some sort of virtual desktop display. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:299823 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: The unofficial ahphosting status thread
-Original Message- From: Anthony Katgert [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 9:22 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: The unofficial ahphosting status thread I do not follow you Tom. What did you mean with that remark. Not a lot of help now, but next time you'll make sure systems send you nightlies, yes ? :-) I'd assume Nightly Backups. For example I've got a Virtual PC Server running here at home with duplicates (my Disaster Recovery servers) of my production ColdFusion and database servers. I use a SQL Server DTS (Data Transformation Services) package scheduled to run every night at 3am which copies all data from the production database to the DR database. I don't actually do any backups for the CF server (since I only update it from a development virtual server so it's always backed up) but you could easily script an FTP to copy any important files. Of course there are easy to use automated tools as well. You can also, of course, run an actual backup program in difference mode which saves to a remote location - the initial backup would take a while (even over broadband) but the nightly differences should be small. More sensitive data might require quicker backups (hourly or even live) but that of course consumes more resources as well. Most databases have methods for subscribing to data todo close-to-live backups (using log shipping - which sends updates to one database's log files to another from minute to minute is popular). The bottom line is that you have your data (or at least the vast majority of it) when things like this happen. There are plenty of cheap or free options for all this stuff but it does take some resources (time and sometimes equipment) but every pain will be forgotten then first time that backup saves your hide. ;^) Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:299692 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: MS Source Fource Super Friends
-Original Message- From: Paul Vernon [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 10:47 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: RE: MS Source Fource Super Friends Do you think they got Lego's or Lucasfilm's permission to use that look and those blah the fource slogans? Also, it says they are a fearsome four and then shows seven distinct characters including ones that look like Karate Kid and Mr Miagi... All topped off with a 60's Batman narrative... How many rip-offs can MS do on one page... Dude... you've really gotta lighten up. ;^) Christ on a crutch: they're giving away toys. Yes they're so evil. (And, by the way - the page clearly says that this is the original fource and their amazing friends - thus the 7 characters. The 60's Batman only spoofed the comic book conventions of the 50's, it didn't invent them and Lucas doesn't own the word Force much less the word Fource. These guys only vaguely look like Lego Minifigs and, in any case, where designed by a marketing firm that creates custom toys not MS.) I'll bet if Apple did the same thing they'd be so cute and kitschy or irreverent. ;^) Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:299717 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
Resolution and Color Depth Data
I'm really trying to get back into the swing of actually working on my site. So, as a start, I've finally reworked the Resolution Data page that was broken by my big redesign a (long) while ago. Here's the page: http://www.depressedpress.com/Content/Development/Design/Statistics/DPRes/I ndex.cfm These charts collect a bit under four years of data. Obviously this is only data for my site (not a very large audience I'm afraid) but I still hope that the information is useful (or at least interesting). Next I'd like to find an elegant way to present the numbers as functions of time. This is more complex using my data source and might not be performant so I might end up with simple six month snap shots instead... but we'll see. I'd love to hear any thoughts or suggestions! Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:299769 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: How to sort columns and Group them at the same time
-Original Message- From: Ali [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 3:26 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: How to sort columns and Group them at the same time That's true. UserID is unique and makes everything else in ORDER BY useless but what should I do? Cause group in cfoutput needs UerID. Have you tried just making UserID the last column sorted? Remember that ORDER BY will sort items in the priority given - currently it would sort by DogID then by UserID then by DogPurchWaitDate then finally by desc. Put the most variable/random column of information last in the list. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:299398 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: SOT: Holy Grail? Hosting?
-Original Message- From: Mary Jo Sminkey [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 1:17 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: SOT: Holy Grail? Hosting? My server is little used and has tons of free space if you need to set something up temporarily (I've got Windows 2003, IIS 6, CF 7 Pro). I'm working from home today so I could give you access pretty quickly. Mine is pretty much gone at this point. He was really giving me a great price on my hosting which was why I was willing to wait it out for awhile, but this is just too much. The biggest problem I'm having right now is reliably getting my email...I'm using the email forwarding through EditDNS but that just does not work well, and I have no idea what customer emails I may or may not be getting. If I could get email forwarding working I could probably wait it out a little longer...does anyone know a really *reliable* way of doing this? Maybe a similar DNS hosting service that has email forwarding that actually works? I host/manage all of my domains at http://www.namesdirect.com/ - they do basic DNS, email forwarding, etc. I then point to my own DNS server. The big issue would be DNS propagation but that's a matter of hours for the vast majority (and if you've been down for days...). I'm pretty sure it's all free service (they want you to pay them for renewals) but I've been using them for years and never had a problem (I've got 19 domains with them). Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:299486 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: SOT: Holy Grail? Hosting?
-Original Message- From: Rick Faircloth [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2008 10:02 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: RE: SOT: Holy Grail? Hosting? www.AHPHosting.net That is damn impressive. I've been considering a move and this is definitely something to think about. (I do like CT a lot but they don't provide CF on their dedicated boxes and I can't really afford an upgrade... then again I don't really NEED an upgrade either.) Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:299250 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: SOT: Holy Grail? Hosting?
-Original Message- From: Dave l [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2008 4:28 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: SOT: Holy Grail? Hosting? They have an excellent customer knowledgebase and support information and support ticket system but would clearly rather limit human interaction to a minimum. Actually they don't, one of my partners still has a dedicated box there and I have to deal with them all the time and they are a complete nightmare. Well then they don't Dave. As we've come to expect all other opinions are incorrect because you're experience differs. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:299190 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: SOT: Holy Grail? Hosting?
-Original Message- From: William Seiter [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2008 1:17 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: RE: SOT: Holy Grail? Hosting? Unfortunately Will, the $130+/month for VPS is not covered by my criteria of Speaking of CrystalTech - you can get an actual dedicated server (not a VPS) for $90 a month (even cheaper for Linux). I've had one for years: I host something like 20 sites and have complete control. I've actually never had a serious problem with CT and CF, but clearly others have. In my experience CF really isn't a good choice for shared hosting. It's technically possible but there's a lot of technical limitations that cause problems. If you can afford it, dedicated is the way to go. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:299179 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: SOT: Holy Grail? Hosting?
-Original Message- From: Dave l [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2008 1:35 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: SOT: Holy Grail? Hosting? sure you can get a cheap server there and get 0 support. And when you do need support (talking about crystal tech) they will ream the crap out of you in charges. The bottom line is that if you want or are gunna be cheap then you will not be getting the holy grail, you will simply be getting cheap hosting. All I can say is that my experience has been completely the opposite. I've hosted with them for over 9 years now and have seen no reason to switch. I get quality, feature-rich hosting with liberal bandwidth and storage space limits. Hosting that also happens to be cheap. I find them very communicative (one of my biggest complaints about most hosts) and feature-rich. I'm not sure if I would recommend an amateur host with them as they do lean towards self-service as much as possible (one of the reasons, I suspect, that they can keep such low prices). They have an excellent customer knowledgebase and support information and support ticket system but would clearly rather limit human interaction to a minimum. To this end they have a very feature-rich, constantly evolving control panel, one that allows me to perform many tasks that I might otherwise have to submit a request for. Of course I pay for this but to me it's worth it. For ex: if one of my customers needs help they can call anytime and get helped by HMS, Now say one of jims clients has problems and cant contact jim and hes on a $90 ded box at CT then that client is Sh*T Outta Luck! If thats not a I honestly have no idea what you're talking about... one of the fundamental aspects of CrystalTech (and many other hosts) is that YOU run your business. They do everything they can to ensure that your customers are NOT aware that you're hosting at CrystalTech. They're customer control centers are generically branded as all customer-facing services - they abstract themselves out of the picture as a feature. The whole idea is that you can tailor your service to your clients. Your clients don't call Crystal Tech - they call YOU and, if you need to, you call CrystalTech. You determine the level and quality of service - all CT provides is the iron and pipe. That's not a business model that everybody wants but it is their business model. They stick to it. If that's not what you want then CT is clearly not even an option... and criticizing them for it seems silly. It's like complaining that your local muffler shop doesn't do body work... that's just not a business they support. I can only relay my personal experience... and my personal experience has been excellent. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:299182 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: OT Javascript - when is an element visible
-Original Message-
From: Rey Bango [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 3:50 PM
To: CF-Talk
Subject: Re: OT Javascript - when is an element visible
In Ext, the Element class has built-in methods to get just about
anything you need from an element, including position info.
http://extjs.com/deploy/dev/docs/?class=Ext.Element
For what it's worth my PanelManager will do this as well:
http://www.depressedpress.com/Content/Development/JavaScript/Extensions/DP_P
anelManager/Index.cfm
You do have to make each element into a panel - this extends the element
with a ton of methods including getPosition() which returns the element's
position from the top/left of the canvas.
To be easy tho' the method provides a hasCollisionWith() method which can
determine if one element overlaps another. So (once you've made panels of
the elements) you can just say something like:
if ( MyElement.hasCollisionWith(MyContainer) ) {
In View!
} else {
Not in View!
};
This would return true if any part of MyElement is overlapping
MyContainer - to figure out how much they overlap you might use the
getDistanceFrom() method - this returns zero if the elements are touching
(but not overlapping), positive numbers if they're apart and negative
numbers if they're overlapping.
The panelManager itself provides general methods to get canvas and window
size and mouse position allowing you to easily determine if the parent
container is visible.
Lastly the component supports a fully cross-platform event manager/model so
you can easily react to collisions.
It's small, doesn't pollute host code and I've found it insanely useful.
Jim Davis
~|
Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to
date
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RE: Better validation then isDate()?
It also sounds like some negative testing might help in this case - there's data being tested as dates that can contain ambiguous values. 09-262 may not seem like a regular date to us but it could be - CF doesn't have any prejudices: if there's any way to consider the value a date, then it does. So in this case it might be as simple (if that's a regular format) to create a isCubicleNumber() function and run that as well: cfif NOT isCubicleNumber(myVar) AND isDate(myVar) You can create as many negative tests as your data requires to winnow away the ambiguous values before sending them to isDate(). But you're always going to have problems applying type-detection to essentially random data - there will almost always be chances for false positives. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:297300 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: poll - How many MS should it take to load a site's home page?
-Original Message- From: Tom Chiverton [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 4:40 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: poll - How many MS should it take to load a site's home page? On Monday 21 Jan 2008, Dave Watts wrote: On the other hand, to be successful, your application simply has to be no slower than your competitors' while providing the same level of functionality and reliability. Speed is very important but experience is moreso. People are definitely willing to invest more (time, money, whatever) for even a perceived gain (In quality, status, whatever). The classic example is Starbucks where (at least for a regular cup of coffee) you pay more and wait more for a cup of coffee that's doesn't test as better than many quickserv chains. It's the experience that keeps them. Speed is important in the CONTEXT of that experience but isn't the SUM of it. Usability is a huge, almost completely overlooked (by most organizations) part of that: people will pay more, suffer lag and accept fewer features to work with a highly usable system. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:297054 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: poll - How many MS should it take to load a site's home page?
-Original Message- From: Neil Middleton [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 7:58 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: poll - How many MS should it take to load a site's home page? I kinda disagree on this. For me, you only need to look at performance overall if you are slower than your competitors, but that first hit should always be nice and snappy. Once the user is looking at your site, they are less likely to run off on the first slow page hit. Exactly true - it's part of that queue affinity I was talking about. Until you get people in the line they've no loyalty to their choice. Once they choose a line their loyalty for it increases the longer they stay even in the face of obvious negatives. That's all a long way of saying ya gotta get 'em through the front door! ;^) Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:297055 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: poll - How many MS should it take to load a site's home page?
-Original Message- From: Tom Chiverton [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, January 21, 2008 5:21 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: poll - How many MS should it take to load a site's home page? On Sunday 20 Jan 2008, Dave Francis wrote: Slightly different scenario, but back in the days of big iron (CICS and 3270? terminals), IBM came up with a study that stated that anything over a 2sec response time caused anxiety in the user. Different era. Users are more used to waiting for things now, esp. over the internet. Not really... user expectations haven't really changed. Anxiety may be a strong word but it's still appropriate (I'd probably use frustration). It could be argued while the internet has created an expectation of delay faster computers have created an expectation of speed. It doesn't really matter tho' as users tend not to distinguish things that way. It's a pet peeve of mine (I'm not really talking about what you said) but developer's really have to stop assuming that people are as sophisticated as they are. More specifically (and less arrogantly) they have to stop assuming that people actually give a rat's ass about the stuff they do. ;^) People want things to work, work fast and work correctly - they don't care if it's web-based or not, uses a database or not, etc. People may sit down to a web application and intellectually think this is going to be slow but it doesn't alter their innate transactional timetable. People may EXPECT a satellite feed to be delayed, they KNOW it will be delayed. But they are still disconcerted and frustrated by the delay nonetheless. These numbers aren't what people are willing to put up with - they describe the results of waiting for response, generally. Even if a person KNOWS that this web application will be slower they will still lose focus and attention. It's just the way we're wired - regardless of how fast our technology happens to be. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:296978 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: poll - How many MS should it take to load a site's home page?
-Original Message- From: Nate Willard [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2008 3:35 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: poll - How many MS should it take to load a site's home page? Looking forward to hearing everyone's thoughts. How many milliseconds should it take for a site's home page to load? The rule of thumb is: +) .1 seconds (100ms or less) is what people consider instant response. They won't lose focus or notice any delay. +) Anything up to 1 second will allow most people to stay focused. They'll notice the delay but it won't interrupt or frustrate them - they still move freely through the information space. +) Anything up to 10 seconds will let the user maintain attention on the task, but the delay will be frustrating and disconcerting. +) Anything greater and the person loses focus (wants to do other things). This is where you need to start considering progress bars, warnings, background downloads and other mitigating interfaces. These aren't specifically for web pages but for general computer transactions. Similar numbers result in nearly all interaction scenarios: industrial design, communication (notice, for example, how communication often breaks down on live satellite conversations when the delay grows larger than a second), etc. There aren't separate expectations for web applications vrs applications - we're talking about user experience and the delivery mechanism doesn't alter that. Also note that this isn't ColdFusion time or Download time or Browser Rendering time - this is EVERYTHING. Click-to-done. You can sometimes use the click-to-useful time (the time it takes for useful information to be displayed as when a browser is done displaying the requested information but not down downloading non-essential graphics) but that can get touchy and should be tested - depending on the page being unfinished can be very noticeable or barely noticeable. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:296925 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: poll - How many MS should it take to load a site's home page?
-Original Message- From: s. isaac dealey [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2008 5:06 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: poll - How many MS should it take to load a site's home page? IIRC when Macromedia had launched their new website a few years ago (Dylan I think they called it), they published a few articles that described web-wide averages as well as their own targets (the research they'd done during the planning phase). They hit their target of having pages load completely in under 15 seconds... as compared to a web-wide average of about 7 seconds. (Those numbers are from memory -- they may not be entirely accurate.) The overwhelming response from users was that although it was visually appealing, it seemed tragically slow (for what seemed to be relatively static pages anyway - I believe users are generally okay with waiting a little longer for pages that are returning data dynamically from a search for example). It's not so much that they're more willing to wait for databases (they don't know or care HOW the thing works). There are actually a few things that work here. People are always willing to wait longer for information specific to them. If they enter a search term they will wait for the results. This doesn't change user experience - they still notice the delays, lose focus, etc - but they are willing to wait because the page is working for them. I've never actually seen it studied (and I'm too lazy to do so) but I strongly believe there's a form of queue affinity going on. Queue Affinity is when people get into line, say at the grocery store or the bank - anyplace where there's multiple lines moving at different speeds. Once people make a decision to get into line there's a strong tendency to stay there even when they're faced with another line moving faster. They'll stay in the line past normal levels of task abandonment (the time it takes to drop a task in frustration). There's been some work correlating this to phone queues as well as technology decisions (fanboyism, where an essentially arbitrary choice - a cell phone, game system, computer OS, etc) results in string emotions AGAINST the competition. Once people fall down that road they become more and willing to put up with the negatives of their chosen option. This is one of the main reasons that (I think) sites like Amazon.com and eBay.com - sites which have taken severe plunges in usability - are still so popular. Despite the fact that these sites are usability nightmares they still have rabidly loyal followers (I still buy more from Amazon than from anybody else). Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:296926 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: date problem
-Original Message- From: Claude Schneegans [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2008 3:03 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: date problem But are you sure the field is defined as a *date* type, or as a string? Anyway, CF should be able to recognize the format even if it is passed as a string from the query. I think that the dateFormat() functions will consider any string passed as a numerical representation of the date unless it's quoted... I'm not sure how that will affect this, but it might. Perhaps putting the value like this: lsDateFormat(#variable#, mask)? Something to try at least. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:296931 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: date problem
-Original Message- From: Claude Schneegans [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2008 6:21 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: date problem I think that the dateFormat() functions will consider any string passed as a numerical representation of the date unless it's quoted. All CF function will take ANYTHING, strings, numerics or dates (which are float values anyway), This is what I was remembering - from the docs for lsdateformat and dateformat: When passing date/time value as a string, enclose it in quotation marks. Otherwise, it is interpreted as a number representation of a date/time object. So it definitely seems like CF treats the input differently somehow. ;^) Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:296944 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: date problem
-Original Message- From: Claude Schneegans [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2008 10:48 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: date problem So it definitely seems like CF treats the input differently somehow. Not really. CF is a typeless language. It is SGML compliant and HTML compatible. So by definition, EVERYTHING is passed as a string in attributes, even if there is no quotation mark. Just reportin' what I reads, boss! ;^) The statement in the docs isn't really clear on how the behavior differs, but it was deemed important enough to note so I assume it differs somehow. On the other hand it may not make a bit of difference. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:296951 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: UUID - breaking in emails
-Original Message- From: Matthew Friedman [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 1:28 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: UUID - breaking in emails I have an application where I am using UUID as the key for accessing the record. It works great, but he issue is that we email out the link to a client, they then forward the email to an person and the email program wraps the url link breaking the uuid onto two lines. Does anyone have any thoughts on how to solve this. How do you format it? I think that most modern email programs try to keep URLs together if you bracket them in angle brackets like so: url I don't think this is any kind of standard but it seems to work. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:296836 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: beat a dead horse?
-Original Message- From: James Holmes [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 10:17 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: beat a dead horse? And I will add my +1 to these responses. I develop for FF (which means developing for standards) and then make adjustments to make it also work in IE (trying to stick to standards where possible, hacks as a last resort). I agree with the idea but not really the method. You can develop for standards with IE and with FF: it's just a matter of actually knowing the right way to do things. When you do take advantage of a browser-specific feature (even if it's a standard only currently implemented in one browser) you need to realize that and accept the consequences. All browsers have their quirks and bugs - deal with them in whatever order you like after you've written good code. ;^) Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:296590 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: translate js function to cfscript
-Original Message- From: Richard White [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2008 2:06 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: translate js function to cfscript Hi, i have done most of it but the difficulty i am having is, like i said, with the pattern matching and also the line: Is the requirement to match the code exactly? Honestly all that pattern matching is doing is attempting to determine if a date has been entered. CF's isDate() function will do the same work but allow a much broader range of entry. isleap = (year % 4 eq 0 and (year % 100 neq 0 or year % 400 eq 0)); Again this is just doing something manually that CF provides automatically - namely the isLeapYear() function. If your requirement is to match the code exactly then fine, but if not then you can make things much simpler using the pre-defined CF datetime functions. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:296504 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: OT: Hosting
On Jan 12, 2008 9:17 PM, Qasim Rasheed [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I know this topic has been beaten to death but my current host xtreme-host have run out of business. Any recommendation for a cheap host? Does anyone has any experience with efree2net.com? How cheap? I still like CrystalTech.net (a lot)... but you'll also find several poorer opinions of them here. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:296489 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: Output a Query by Date DESC, with A month, Day header were applicaple.
-Original Message- From: Nate Willard [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2008 1:40 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: Output a Query by Date DESC, with A month, Day header were applicaple. I've been struggling with a desired output. I'm eager to hear everyone's thoughts and ideas on how to efficiently achieve my goal. Thanks... I have a query that returns the following data: TITLE - dateTime The results span past a month. I would like a way to output the results as follows Ordering or grouping by date should give you that. You can use CFOUTPUT's built in support for grouping output (via the group attribute) to display the information how you've described in nested CFOUTPUT's. Without any sample code it's hard to be more helpful but something like this: cfoutput query=YourQuery group=dateTime #DateFormat(dateTime, dd)#br br cfoutput #Title#br cfoutput /cfoutput In essence the group attribute is a looping construct: it takes a column name and loops over the values in it. For each value, inside the NESTED CFOUTPUT it loops over each line of the recordset with the same value - when the grouped value changes it re-runs the outer CFOUTPUT and the process starts over. Your datetime information comes directly from the query so there's no fussing with information for blank dates - if it's not in the query, it's not in the output. It's basically a shortcut for the following (pseudo-)code (this assumes your TITLE, dateTime query): CurDate = null LOOP OVER RecordSet IF CurDate NEQ CurrentRow.dateTime CurDate = CurrentRow.dateTime Output header for dateTime /IF Output Title. /LOOP You can see that each row in the recordset is processed by the main body but only when the dateTime changes is the header output. (CFOUTPUT is actually more complex that this in that it also eliminates duplicate rows of data.) Of course you don't need to understand it completely to use it. ;^) Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:296492 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: Replacing these chars
-Original Message- From: Will Tomlinson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, December 30, 2007 1:06 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Replacing these chars There's a problem with my xForm which causes it to output a ton of these in a textarea. #13; Do you actually see this string? That's the character entity for a Carriage Return - like you get when you hit enter. I'm not sure why it would be in there but it's important - not just a string. I'm trying to do a replace on it so they won't show up. #Replace(retProductInventory.prodlongdescription, ###13;,, All)# If it's really carriage returns you want to replace you need to replace the character itself, not the code - something like this might work: #Replace(retProductInventory.prodlongdescription, chr(13),, All)# The chr() function takes the ASCII/UCS-2 decimal code for a character and returns the character. Again I'd also try to track down why your field is getting filled with carriage returns - stop that from happening and you don't need to replace anything. The officially unsupported TEXTAREA attribute wrap may have a lot to do with the insertion of carriage returns - are you using it? Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:295550 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: Query of Queries Issue
-Original Message- From: Flesher, Rob [USA] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, December 28, 2007 12:29 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Query of Queries Issue All, Please forgive me if you get this twice, as it did not appear to post the first time. I am having an issue with cold fusion query of queries when upgrading to MX7. Previously, when doing a SUM(querycol) in a query of queries when all the values of the column were null, the sum would return a 0. In MX7, it is returning a blank string, causing all calculations to error out. Can someone tell me if CF query of queries has a function similar to oracle's NVL? Basically, what I need to do is NVL(SUM(querycol), 0) to insure any null values return as a 0. If a function like this doesn't exist, how would you recommend I deal with this issue? Well - I'm sure you could do an if outside the query (you can modify queries manually like any other data structure) but I assume you'd prefer something in the query itself. I'm not sure but can you do math in the query? Something like SUM(querycol) + 0 - that should (if it's allowed trigger CFs automatic type conversion to create a number for you). For that matter having a zero in any of the rows should also do it... perhaps adding a dummy row with a zero value into the original query might be possible? Something to try at least. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:295490 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: Best way to do this...
-Original Message- From: Lori Stone [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, December 21, 2007 7:11 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: RE: Best way to do this... That is what they did last year. Last year they pre-stuffed envelopes and categorized them by last name. They don't want to do that this year. Apparently they had problems with names not being spelled correctly or they wanted nicknames on their badge. The problem is that this is a HUGE Well - if you had metrics from that first event you do a cost analysis of the potential solutions. How many people were unhappy with the pre-printed packets? How long did addressing those complaints take? A hybrid solution - pre-printed packets for everybody and enough gear to fix the mistakes/requests (perhaps even a please come back in a half-hour for your new packet) may work best and would be orders of magnitude cheaper and simpler. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:295259 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: Best way to do this...
On Dec 20, 2007 10:22 AM, Lori Stone [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Here is the situation: There is a conference in March. The customer wants to have an application where when the registrants come in they can immediately print out their information, tickets to events (maybe up to 5 events at the most) and their ID tag (name and logo) First of all we need to have a printer that can handle a huge load (most likely 3,000 registrants a night) and of Not for nothing, but have you done the math on that? Even if each registration only took 20 seconds it would take over 16 hours to register everybody if there were 3000 people. Sounds like you want to have SEVERAL printers. ;^) But it does lead you to a good place to start: determine your registration process and how long it will take (padding high). Multiply that by the number of people you expect - that's how long your registration time will be. You need to weigh that value against the amount of time you'll be accepting registrations (taking popular times into consideration) and determine the number of stations/printers you'll need to provide service... then add 20%. Assuming you want portable then I think most high-capacity, high-speed printers are out of the question. Consumer level printers (if there's enough of them and if there's somebody to do basic maintenance like change ink and load paper) should do fine. course the logos have to be in color (ugh!) We are trying to figure out the best way to The best bet here, if at all possible, would be to print black and white over pre-printed color stationary. The printing will be MUCH faster (and much cheaper). Cheap black and white laser (or even inkjet) printers would do fine - anything you can find today can print at least several pages per minute in BW. Printing color on the spot adds a lot of complexity to an already complex process. Think about the conferences you've been too: none of them print in color - they all print in BW over color stationary. A redundant set of cheap printers is probably going to be more reliable overall than a single monster printer. If a big printer goes down you're stopped dead but if a cheapy dies you just replace it or close that one station. You should also ask the venue - many places that support large conferences have this kind of gear already - you pay extra to lease/rent it but they tend to know their stuff. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:295232 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: Does anyone know of a non-idiot CrystalTech support person?
-Original Message- From: Adrian Lynch [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, December 17, 2007 6:57 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: RE: Does anyone know of a non-idiot CrystalTech support person? CF8 has app level mappings and custom tag paths if you can change to that. Oh, of course they add them NOW! Where were they when I really needed them 5 years ago! ;^) Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:294919 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: memory issues
-Original Message- From: Dustin M. Snell [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, December 17, 2007 11:44 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: memory issues We have the same issue. Sometimes jrun freezes as well. I suspect though that it may not be a problem (the memory usage) as it may just be set up to use all available memory for speed (caching etc) just like .net, SQL server and vista. But if there is a shortage they may give back. I have no proof of this however. So give it lots of ram. It's cheap enough these days. This is common of Enterprise apps - there's an unspoken assumption that resources are there for you (the app) so many apps (CF included) tend to grab resources early and hold on longer than they might (the assumption being I needed it once...) As others have noted explicitly destroying variables when you're done with them can provide much needed hint to virtual machine. Remember that Java Garbage Collection doesn't run constantly - only once in awhile (it tries to wait for slow times -it may only run every few minutes). Also look at your machine: does it have enough RAM? If so is CF/Java able to use it? If you're getting Java out of memory errors on a machine that's otherwise running fine (and has memory to spare) you might want to try and give Java more space. The setting you want is in the CF Admin and is Heap Size. Here's a decent article that goes over the background of the issue and how to think about it for CF apps: http://labs.fusionlink.com/katapult/index.cfm?page=articles/jvmtuning Considering your application - which is kind of odd in this space and probably needs to be tuned very differently that the assumed defaults - you wants lots of RAM (to store all those documents in memory) and you want to increase the heap size so that Java can use the memory. Definitely look at your app and consider ways to decrease the space needed per session, but also make sure that you're using the resources you have - there's no point in crashing with out of memory when there might be another Gig of RAM sitting idle just because of a stupid setting in the admin. ;^) Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:294982 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: Does anyone know of a non-idiot CrystalTech support person?
-Original Message- From: Will Tomlinson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2007 10:45 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Does anyone know of a non-idiot CrystalTech support person? I'm hopin maybe Jim D. or someone with CT hosting can point me to a support person they trust and deal with regularly. I'm sorry - to be honest with so little work being done on my own site (and the fact that I run a dedicated server) I've not had to call support in (quite literally) years. I'm helpin a friend with his site at CT. If I place a simple expandPath(/images) on a page, it gives me a path to another person's site. Kinda entertaining... for a minute or two. Anyway, CT tells us CF is mapping the path wrong, and we need to change the directory name and the path name because it's gettin crossed up. And they says we need to use a mapping. lol! Too funny! I guess all the folks with images folders need to change their names? Well... that actually sounds right - this IS a shared server. Only one person can own a mapping since you're all sharing an instance of CF. (I do love CF, but shared instance friendly it isn't.) The CF function is expanding the path using it's mappings - and that mapping is already set to a folder. CF doesn't allow for application-specific mappings (something I lobbied hard for a long time ago), just instance-specific mappings. I think what they're saying (it sounds like badly) is that you can create a new mapping for you if you like, as long as it's unique on the server (perhaps myimages or whatever) and change your code to use that. It used to be (maybe it's changed) that mappings were dealt out on a first come, first serve basis. I had a similar problem long, long ago with a mapping called CFC - same situation, somebody else had already requested it and my app needed it. That's actually when I decided to go to a dedicated server. This is also one of the reasons that my CF development libraries have their own path expansion functions: they work without needing CF mappings set up. Here's the library page (the DP_Paths component is in the Utility library): http://www.depressedpress.com/Content/Development/ColdFusion/DPLibraries And here's a tutorial on using the paths component: http://www.depressedpress.com/Content/Development/ColdFusion/DPLibraries/Art icles/Tutorial_DPPaths Basically you instantiate at the root of your application (from application.cfm or application.cfc for example) and it uses that information to generate paths from everywhere else. It's probably too heavy for you need but I know it works on CT shared servers! ;^) Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:294901 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: Does anyone know of a non-idiot CrystalTech support person?
-Original Message- From: James Holmes [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2007 11:02 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: Does anyone know of a non-idiot CrystalTech support person? You can use a relative mapping ../../images or whatever. You might also be able to use the servicefactory classes to work out which mapping is the issue so that the support crew can fix it. Or you might get lucky and find the non-idiot you're after :-) Yeah... but what could they do if they weren't an idiot? The mapping already exists (and presumably is in use) for another site. You can't point it to your site without breaking thiers. I think the problem is pretty much intractable: on a shared server you can't have the same mapping point to two different places. There's just no fix that would make everybody happy - somebody has to change their code to use a different mapping. That said I'm betting that the support person didn't explain this well and that probably caused the hard feelings more than anything else. To be fair it can be pretty confusing but that just means you have to be more patient and not piss your customers off. ;^) Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:294902 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: VPS hosting, anyone?
-Original Message- From: Rizal Firmansyah [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2007 12:54 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: VPS hosting, anyone? Hi Guys, i need your input on choosing VPS hosting service. Anyone using it? Any pros and cons on using shared vs vps vs dedicated machine? I think the only real con to VPS hosting is that many providers charge just as much for it as for dedicated hosting. Other than that I doubt, with a decent provider, that you'll ever truly see a difference. For the most part the cost savings is in the pack-ins and included services - for example some providers include a CF license in the cost, saving you a sizable cost out of the gate. Jim Davis ~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:294725 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
RE: No Longer Need to Lock Session Variables?
-Original Message- From: Rick Faircloth [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2007 1:18 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: No Longer Need to Lock Session Variables? Hi, all. Now, remember, I'm still learning to write CF8 code straight from CF4.5 code, so. Is my understanding correct that I no longer need to place cflocks around any setting or reading of session variables? In short you no longer need to do this to ensure server reliability (the structures which hold this information are now thread-safe) - no more crashes because of locking. (5 year-old Yay!) (Just kidding - we went straight from 4.5 to 7 so I know exactly where you're coming from.) However you still may need to lock to protect your data for application/design reasons (race-conditions for example). It's rare that you'll need to lock whole scopes however and for the most part named locks should provide all the utility you need without dragging performance. Jim Davis ~| ColdFusion is delivering applications solutions at at top companies around the world in government. Find out how and where now http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/showcase/index.cfm?event=finderproductID=1522loc=en_us Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:294420 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
RE: Conceptual Search against Database(s)
-Original Message- From: d l [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2007 11:19 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: Conceptual Search against Database(s) On Thursday 29 Nov 2007, d l wrote: my own set of domain knowledge / weightings Sure, imho, the key word here is good enough, and probably cost effective as well. Maybe. But for one site 'energy' bringing back 'geothermal' may be OK, but on another site 'zen' would be a much better choice. Scientific American has a great article this month about how the Semantic Web could direct searches in just that kind of way. You can buy the issue online here: http://www.sciamdigital.com/index.cfm?fa=Products.ViewIssuePreviewARTICLEID _CHAR=3734452E-3048-8A5E-1068474BA8D770C8 The example they use is Search for Sitcoms set in New York City and explode that out to three clauses. Sitcoms get matched Television Show, TV and many other things. Set in equates to Takes place in, located, etc and New York City is an amalgamation of neighborhoods, nicknames and the like. It's easy to over-simplify and damn the concept but it truly is interesting. However it does reinforce a fundamental concept: truly useful searching results from cooperation between the search engine and the content owners. Content scanners like we have today (Google, Verity, etc) work wonders but are always going to be hamstrung by the lack of contextual, machine-understandable information. Of course users also need to be involved. As you've inferred nearly any search which lacks a domain context has the potential to be poor. Jim Davis ~| Download the latest ColdFusion 8 utilities including Report Builder, plug-ins for Eclipse and Dreamweaver updates. http;//www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?e=labs%5adobecf8%5Fbeta Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:293985 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
