I still remember a genius manager I had back in the 80's. If someone offered him a "free trial" of software, he would say "it's only free if you cover the opportunity cost of the resouces I would have to devote to testing it".
Left a lot of speechless marketers <g>. -Ben > <cf_boss_person> > but .. but ColdFusion costs money and PHP is free! We don't want to > waste money. > </cf_boss_person> > > *smirk* > > I feel your pain Mike. I'm busying myself with learning PHP right now and > I'm just shocked by how overly complicated some simple tasks can be. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Haggerty Mike" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "CF-Community" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2003 4:48 PM > Subject: Coldfusion is King > > > > Alright, I am letting off a little steam here. It has been a long week, > and > > Friday is still hours away. > > > > Coldfusion is king among dynamic Web technologies. Period. It is easy to > use > > and does not require you to build an API every time you want to do > > something. I have known this for a long time, but sometimes I am forced to > > prove this fact via a practical demonstration (in much the same way as a > > gibbering idiot sometimes proves he cannot pound railroad spikes into > > concrete walls with his own forehead). > > > > I have a project where we need a low-cost data feed technology to > distribute > > to regional offices. What will happen is the contents of a database will > be > > thrown into a WDDX packet, which will be downloaded via a Web server to > the > > central office. The data can be anything, but the transport protocol must > be > > http. And the technology must already be installed or else freely > available, > > meaning we can will use PHP, Perl or ASP. > > > > So I get to learn how to automatically post variables to a Web server in > PHP > > and return the content. > > > > To do the following in CF: > > > > <cfset login = structNew()> > > <cfset login.name = "someuser"> > > <cfset login.pass = "somepass"> > > <cfset login.call = "somecall"> > > <cfwddx input="#login#" output="WXDDlogin" action="CFML2WDDX"> > > <cfhttp url="http://www.somewhere.org/wddx_output.cfm"; method="POST" > > resolveurl="true" throwonerror="no"> > > <cfhttpparam name="login" value="#WXDDlogin#" type="FORMFIELD"> > > </cfhttp> > > <cfwddx input="#cfhttp.fileContent#" output="data" action="WDDX2CFML"> > > > > ...is insanely difficult to do in PHP. > > > > First off, their file system functions are restricted to local operations, > > meaning you have to connect to their server via a socket connection. Once > > that connection is open, you have to write the F***ING headers yourself to > > GET and POST data, which is not easy considering you have to write one for > > each and every piece of data you wish to post. The resulting content is > not > > a WDDX packet, it is a raw HTTP packet which you then get to strip via > regex > > functions. Then, if you are lucky and everything worked the way it was > > supposed to, you have a WDDX packet you can deserialize and start using. > If > > you are unlucky and something goes wrong, poor you because the debug > > information is sparse at best. > > > > Now, this would not be such a big deal were it not for the nearly complete > > lack of information on how to do this. In the time it has taken me to > figure > > out the steps in the code I could have rewritten the Bible. I have endured > > millions of pop-up ads going through 'tutorial' sites for info on how to > > make this work. I have posted dozens of questions to PHP lists and for > each > > one received at least 10 responses from people who either didn't > understand > > the question or think asking 'Why would you want to do that?' is an > answer. > > > > I could go on, but the problem is now solved and the data client is now in > > place. At least I won't have to learn how to do this again. I built out > all > > the functions into a class library, and now have the equivalent of CFHTTP > in > > PHP to use on further development. > > > > It only took me about a week to complete a simple task that would have > taken > > 15 minutes to set up in CF. > > > > Praise the king. > > > > M > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=5 Signup for the Fusion Authority news alert and keep up with the latest news in ColdFusion and related topics. http://www.fusionauthority.com/signup.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
