In this issue of ColdFusion conference and training news: 1. CFUNITED News and Q & A 2. Interview CF and SQL with SQL expert Joan Falcao 3. CFMX certification study group - new Thursday group TODAY
Happy coding - Michael Smith, TeraTech, Inc http://www.teratech.com/ PS Can you help TeraTech in the CFDJ awards? TeraTech has supported the ColdFusion community since 1998! Now is your chance to help us out in return. :-) You can read how we have helped the ColdFusion and local community since 1998 and vote at: http://www.teratech.com/vote.cfm 1. CFUNITED News **************** * There are only 8 days left for the earlybird price on CFUNITED-05 - ends Fri 2/25/05 * Ben Forta interview video released at http://www.cfunited.com/index.cfm (uses Macromedia Flash Video) * Meet CFUNITED speakers including Ben Forta at CFUNITED Sneak Peek Wed 3/2/05 Prizes include one copy of CFMX 7 Standard and a ticket to CFUNITED. For more details and to register see: http://www.cfug-md.org/cfunited-sneak-peek.cfm * 132 days until CFUNITED-05 * CFUNITED-05 press release at http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20050216005757&newsLang=en * Pre and Post conference special classes are being planned for CFUNITED-05 details coming soon. * The offical airline of CFUNITED-05 is... you guessed it United Airlines! United Airlines is offering discounts to all attendees for their travel to the Washington DC area. Servicing Dulles, BWI, and Reagan National airports. 10% off tickets purchased before May 29th 5% off tickets purchased after May 29th * CFUNITED-05 Q & A ******************* Q: I'm pushing CFUNITED to my coworkers and I received a couple questions that I thought you could help me with. Why did the price go up so much? We know that it is 3 days vs. 2 but the price is twice what is was last year. A: The extra costs are the extra day, providing lunch on 3 days plus open bar reception on Wed night, a larger (and much nicer) hotel than last year. Also the hotel during the week charge events more than events at weekends. All this adds up to why the price went up 100% instead of 50%. At $399 (with discount code) for 3 days of training that works out at less than $135 per day and I think is still a bargin. Q: Will the full agenda with sessions & associated timeslots be out before the early bird deadline of 2/25? A: We will have a draft agenda up next week. The final agenda is not fixed because we still have some slots to fill from Macromedia and Microsoft and they will affect the schedule. In addition we plan to repeat some popular sessions and need to poll attendees to find out which ones to repeat. Q: Will there be a MMUG manager visiblity event at CFUNITED like last year? A: Yes we are planning both a visiblity event (green MMUG manager hats anyone?) and a special reception for managers, speakers and other VIPs like Team Macromedia. This is a great chance to meet potential speakers for your group... Q: Will there be a MMUG manager day before CFUNITED like last year? A: Yes we are planning one to help you run your group better Let me know if you have any other questions - Michael 2. CF and SQL interview with Joan Falcao **************************************** MS: I am talking with CF206 SQL class teacher Joan Falcao. Why should someone come to your SQL class? JF: Because you've been driving your BMW around in first gear, and you suspect you're missing out on something? An SQL engine is an amazing piece of software! And it's quite possible to use it for years as little more than an electronic filing cabinet for your records. You could be missing out on so much. This class shows you some of the great features of an SQL database and how to harness them from a ColdFusion interface. MS: What kinds of things might people be missing out on? JF: Well, the first things that comes to mind are basic things, like joining tables and summarizing data. Then there are "data mining" types of things: finding missing data and analyzing patterns in your data. MS: But can't you do that in ColdFusion - why learn how to do it in SQL too? JF: Most of this you can do in ColdFusion. But why reinvent the wheel? For example, instead of joining tables in SQL, you could write nested ColdFusion queries: you could loop through a ColdFusion query on table1 and then run a query on table2 to find rows related to the row in table1. Or -- another example -- when you want to total up the values in a column, you could write a ColdFusion query to bring back all the rows of interest and then add the values up inside the query loop. But if you stop to think about the inefficiency of it all... Well, it makes me cringe. And the data mining things would probably just never happen, because it's hard to justify writing code to find data relationships that might be useful. Running a query, on the other hand, is quicker and easier. It might happen today! MS: What about updating? Most ColdFusion programmers already use the SQL commands for INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE? JS: Most SQL updates use basic syntax, but there are interesting and useful variations in these commands as well. Update statements can operate on a whole set of rows at a time. The DELETE command (without a WHERE clause) is a classic (and usually unintended) example of this. The DELETE command is a great segue into a discussion on backing up data. Data integrity constraints are an important related topic which we cover in this course, as well. If you have a robustly-designed database with lots of integrity constraints, you could be hitting your head on the wall wondering why your SQL update statements don't "take." Triggers and cascaded updates could be causing some mysterious behavior in a database near you! MS: How much ColdFusion do you cover? JS: I focus on the ColdFusion commands that interface to the SQL database. We give the CFQUERY command a pretty good workout, of course, including cfqueryparams, query caching, and query-on-query. And then we go on to stored procedures and transactions. I cover architectural differences between SQL and ColdFusion that can really trip you up, such as data types, null values, case sensitivity, and quoted string values. We make a side trip to the CF Administrator page to look at datasource settings and debugging settings. MS: Thanks for explaining that. See you at the class. To register go to http://www.teratech.com/training/CF_classes.cfm#CF206 3. CFMX certification study group - new Thursday group TODAY ************************************************************ The Wednesday group filled up with in 4 hours - so we are running a THursday group in Rockville too. Also we may run a group in California MD - email me if you are interested in that. There are only 12 spots... After the success of last Fall's MDCFUG ColdFusion MX certification study group (11 out of 12 people passed, several with advanced scores!) we will be running another study group this year starting this Wednesday 2/16/05 7pm - 9pm. The group meets once a week on Thursday's from 7pm to 9pm at the MDCFUG meeting room at TeraTech 405 E Gude Dr Ste 207 Rockville MD 20850 There is no charge for the group but if you are interested you will need to: 1. Commit to coming for 15 weeks 2. Sign up for the certification exam by the second week ($150) http://www.vue.com/macromedia/ 3. Register online and buy a copy of the Ben Forta Developer Study Guide (we charge the Amazon price of $23 to MDCFUG members) at URL below. 4. Read 2-5 chapters of the book each week and lead the group on one chapter every other week. There are only 12 spots available - register online at http://www.teratech.com/training/CF_classes.cfm#CFCERT MDCFUG member Nancy Lieby is helping to organize this group. Thanks Nancy! The ColdFusion MX Developer Certification represents a professional level of expertise and demonstrates the competency of a ColdFusion MX developer. To become certified, you must pass a challenging exam that consists of approximately 65 multiple-choice questions. The exam is delivered in a secure and proctored testing environment. The basic knowledge and skills required to pass this exam include: * Two or more years experience with one or more programming languages. * Experienced in the applied use of an enterprise level database server * One or more years of experience creating applications using ColdFusion. You can read more about certification and resource at: http://www.macromedia.com/support/training/certified_professional_program/cfmx_developer.html [ CF Help ] Need expert ColdFusion, SQL, VB and Access Programming? Project stuck and need one-on-one help? Looking for onsite training? Call TeraTech 800-447-9120 or email mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] We get you moving fast ---- Check more about CFUNITED at: http://www.cfunited.com/ We have: * 3 days * 7 tracks * 20 sponsors * 64 sessions * 1000+ attendees * 100% nicer hotel * Includes lunch each day and open bar reception We have seven tracks this year: * Bootcamp - Basic ColdFusion and Flash topics * Advanced - Advanced ColdFusion topics (Blackstone included!) * Manager/Empowered - Fusebox and Project management topics * Integration - Flash, Flex and other technologies integrated with CF topics * Accessibility / usability - section 508, CSS and disabled access * Deployment/Platform - tuning, install issues, OS, picking a database * Life Cycle - software development The early bird price of $449 for CFUNITED-05 ends 2/25/05. Save upto $400 by registering now! * Early Bird $449 til 2/25/05 * Timely Bird $549 til 4/30/05 * Regular $649 til 6/10/05 * Late $749 til 6/28/04 * At the door $849 Register today at http://www.cfunited.com/ -- Michael Smith, TeraTech Inc - Tools for Programmers(tm) TeraTech voted Best Consulting Service by CFDJ readers! CF/ASP Web, VB, Math, Access programming tools and consulting 405 E Gude Dr Ste 207, Rockville MD 20850 USA Please check out http://www.teratech.com/ - email mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED], or call us for more information; in the USA at 1-800-447-9120, +1-301-424-3903 International, Fax 301-762-8185 Thanks! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Logware (www.logware.us): a new and convenient web-based time tracking application. Start tracking and documenting hours spent on a project or with a client with Logware today. 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