In this issue of ColdFusion conference and training news: 1. Fusebox and Frameworks Conference News - hotel price ends 9/12/05 2. "Advanced Fusebox" interview with Jeff Peters 3. "Lock/key security plugin" interview with Sandy Clark 4. "Ruby on Rails for CF Developers" interview with John Paul Ashenfelter
Happy coding - Michael Smith, TeraTech, Inc http://www.teratech.com/ "Creating excellent custom software since 1989" 1. Fusebox and Frameworks News ****************************** * Win a gigabyte memory stick - if you sign up for the Advanced Fusebox class by Wed 9/21/05 5pm you will be entered in a raffle to win a gigabyte memory stick. If you have already signed up you are entered already! * We have cancelled the following classes MT101 Mach-II with Hal Helms Wed 9/28/05 FB103 Intro to Fusebox Wed 9/28/05 * Repeat sessions - from our attendee survey This Glue Dries Fast - Joe Rinehart Best Practices and Frameworks - Simon Horwith Head First Mach-II - Matt Woodward * Hotel price deadline is 9/12/05 The group rate is $199 (regular is $289) using group code FUSFUSA and is good through Monday 9/12/05 http://www.cfconf.org/fusebox2005/hotel.cfm * The winner of the survey competition is Clark Valberg who wrote on why you should go to the conference: "Because if you DONT go, life will go on as usual That is to say youll be sitting in your drab sunless cubicle breathing stale air, drinking stale coffee, and pretending to work, while at the same time bobbing your head around trying to watch your back for the boss. Youll find yourself feeling depressed as you read Simon Horwith's blog entries going on about how much fun everyones having at the conference. Then, inevitably, in a moment of weakness the boss will sneak up on you. Startled, youll accidentally ALT+TAB one too many times right onto the adult video trailer you muted, but forgot to close. The boss will ask you back to his office where youll be informed of your termination. Since you really never used any kind of real development methodology and your code was a total mess you probably wont even get a letter of recommendation. So there you'll be - managing a Bennigan's and living in your parents attic. Maybe you should have just gone to the conference, eh?" * The Fusebox and Frameworks conference http://www.cfconf.org/fusebox2005/ is only 3 weeks away * Long time CFer Cameron Childress set up a site to help displaced NOMMUG members: "Help a fellow developer from New Orleans - if you think you could offer anything at all in the way of networking, a place to stay while they get on their feet, a friendly face, even a job opportunity, please join the temporary NOMMUG Help list at" http://www.sdcfug.org/nommug * CFUNITED student wrote Katrina help site - CF rapid development succeeds again. http://www.forta.com/blog/index.cfm?mode=e&entry=1724 * CF Underground VII will be in Anaheim CA 10/15/05 before MAX The call for speakers is up at http://www.cfconf.org/cf_underground7/survey.cfm Please complete by Friday 9/9/05 2. Advanced Fusebox interview with Jeff Peters ********************************************** Michael Smith: Today I'm talking to Jeff Peters about his preconference class, "Advanced Fusebox". Welcome back, Jeff. Jeff Peters: Thanks, Michael. It's hard to believe we're on top of another Fusebox conference already! MS: It sure is. And you're teaching another class the day before the conference. Tell me a little about what attendees can expect. JP: Well, I'm really looking forward to it. I've been doing a lot of intro- level training lately, and it should be a lot of fun to do an advanced class. We're going to get into the grit of Fusebox 4 and really look at how to make it work for you in a professional setting. MS: So students should have some experience with Fusebox already? JP: I would highly recommend it, not only because we're going to be working with advanced-level material, but also because it's a one-day class and we're going to be moving fairly quickly. MS: That's good to know. What sorts of topics will you be teaching? JP: We'll be looking at the Fusebox process in detail, examining what Fusebox does when and how to leverage settings in the application configuration file. We'll also examine using CFCs with Fusebox, some advanced layout techniques, and how to integrate Fusebox with other applications. MS: Sounds like a lot for a one-day session. JP: It should be a full session, but hopefully interesting and fun enough to make the material useful and memorable. MS: Great. I'm sure your students are in for a good day. What should they bring to class? JP: A laptop with ColdFusion ready to go, and preferably the Fusebox 4 core files downloaded. I'll have them available as well, but it will save time if students already have them. MS: I'll make sure we get the word out. JP: Thanks. Good luck with the rest of the conference preparations. MS: Thank you; it's looking like a great conference. See you there. Class schedule: CF101S ColdFusion Seminar Tue 9/10/05 $10 (at TeraTech) FB101 Intro to Fusebox Tue 9/13/05 $199 (at TeraTech) FB201 Intermediate Fusebox Tue 9/20/05 $349 (at TeraTech) CF102 Intro to ColdFusion Tue 9/27/05 $349 (at TeraTech) FB301 Advanced Fusebox Jeff Peters Wed 9/28/05 $449 (at FB/FW hotel) CF201 Intermediate ColdFusion Tue 10/11/05 $349 (at TeraTech) CS201H 4 day hands on CSS class Tue-Fri 11/29 - 12/2/05 $1399 (at TeraTech) More info and registration at http://www.teratech.com/training/ 3. "Lock/key security plugin" interview with Sandy Clark ******************************************************** Michael Smith: This time we are talking with Sandy Clark about her Fusebox and Frameworks-05 talk "Lock/key security plugin". So why should a developer come to your session Sandy ? Sandy Clark: Well, security seems to be a big issue in the FB Community and there has long been a call for a security plugin. I have written one and am planning on releasing it to the FB Community at this conference. This plugin contains both a plugin for security as well as a back end adminstration arm for maintaining security. MS: So this gives you logon/password screens for any app? SC: No, what this does is allow you to secure circuits, fuseactions and xfas (via locks) so that only people who have the proper security permissions (keys) can access them. While there is a requirement for a user to be logged on in order to access secured areas, the login/password requirements are different enough for each application that I didn't even try to accommodate that. (Tho there is a logon feature in the sample We Got Widgets application that can be used as an example) MS: So this a roles based security system? Or group based? SC: Its actually a lock/key based system. Roles based security (such as ColdFusion uses with CFLogin and isUserinRole() doesn't expand well when needs arise for a user to expand or contract a role. Roles are typically hardcoded into the source which make it harder to maintain. While users are assigned to groups in this system, its more dynamic than that. Each item to be secured is locked, profiles are created which contain specific keys to those locks and finally users are assigned to those profiles. If a user has a key, they are allowed in, otherwise, they aren't. MS: What happens if a user is promoted or changes role? SC: If a user's needs change, they can either be reassigned to another security profile or a brand new security profile can be created. The system is dynamic and expandable. I've been using variations of this since 1997 (from a custom tag originally created by Peter Amiri) and while I have rewritten the system numerous times to make it faster and more reusable, the basic premise of it has served me well in that time. MS: That is cool! What level of code does your plug work at? SC: The plugin itself is set up at the prefuseaction level, that way it checks prior to executing a fuseaction. The administration is built on MVC with a CFC acting as the model. The validatePermissions() function operates from the CFC so that the controller or display fuse can call it if necessary MS: What about links and buttons? Does you code let you protect those too? SC: Yes, the validatePermissions() function in the CFC can be called wherever you need to protect individual items such as links or buttons. MS: Cool - I am looking forward to your talk and to seeing your code released! You can see more interviews at http://www.cfconf.com/fusebox2005/interviews.cfm Fusebox and Frameworks 2005 is Thu 9/29/05 - Fri 9/30/05 in Bethesda MD, just outside Washington DC. It costs $299 until 8/19/05 then $499. For more information on Fusebox and Frameworks see http://www.cfconf.com/fusebox2005/ --- Lock/key security plugin ************************* One of the most requested features in Fusebox has been a security plugin and Sandra Clark has written one. Based on a lock/key approach, the plugin and accompanying function allow you to apply security to the circuit or fuseaction level as well as applying specific security to more granular items such as navigation, links or buttons. This plugin will be released to the Fusebox community at the Fusebox Conference. Speaker Bio: Sandra Clark, an advanced Macromedia Certified ColdFusion developer, is a Senior Software Developer with the Constella Group in Bethesda, Maryland. She has contributed material to the ColdFusion 5.0 Certified Developer Study Guide published by Syngress Media/Osborne McGraw Hill and to the ColdFusion Developers Journal. She has also spoken at various CFUGS and ColdFusion User Conferences around the country. Sandra is an active proponent of applying accepted and proven web standards to development as a way of improving accessibility as well as making life easier on developers. She can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED] 4. "Ruby on Rails for CF Developers" interview with John Paul Ashenfelter ************************************************************************* Michael Smith: This time we are talking with John Paul Ashenfelter about his Fusebox and Frameworks-05 talk "Ruby on Rails for CF Developers". So why should a developer come to your session John Paul ? John Paul Ashenfelter: There's been an explosion of frameworks in the ColdFusion world over the past 12-18 months, but it's worth keeping an eye on what's going on with web frameworks in other programming languages since each framework is trying to provide the same basic infrastructure for building certain types of web sites. These frameworks can influence the ColdFusion world -- look no further than Dave Ross' ColdSpring (based on the Java Spring framework) and Matt Woodward's CFHibernate (based on Java's Hibernate tool). Many other existing ColdFusion frameworks were influenced by frameworks like the ubiquitous Java Struts and others. But of all the frameworks gaining traction today, nothing is hotter than Ruby on Rails. The primary reason for the interest, especially among elite Java programmers, is that Ruby on Rails provides a *very* fast way to build data- oriented websites, especially when compared to many other Java frameworks. Considering that one of the strengths of ColdFusion MX is that it provides a very quick way to build "J2EE" applications without Java getting in the way, any competitor is worth keeping an eye on. And since Ruby on Rails is completely open source, it's easy to experiment. MS: OK, so what is Ruby? JPA: Ruby is a very interesting scripting language for object oriented programming that incorporates much of the power of Perl, Python, Java, and SmallTalk with hints of Eiffel and Ada. Java programmers like it because it's *so* much easier than Java while still being object oriented; ColdFusion developers should like it for similar reasons. MS: And what is Rails? Rails is a web application framework built on top of Ruby. It's embodies a number of programming best practices (the Pragmatic Programmers and Martin Fowler in specific) while being simple and elegant. It's creator just won the OReilly open source hacker of the year award and it simply leaves hardcore web application developers speechless. MS: That's a lot to cover in one session! JPA: It sure is -- obviously I can't teach Ruby and Rails in one session. But what I can do is point out the similarities that are relevant to CF developers to help prepare them for spending some quality time of their own learning Ruby on Rails. Or I could just show the 15 minute introduction to Ruby video.... and then still have time to highlight things like how the open source ActionStep Flash/Actionscript 2.0 library can hook into a Ruby on Rails backend to produce Flex-like user interfaces using all open source tools. Ruby on Rails is one of the hottest areas of interest for alpha geeks right now and I'm hoping to get people interested enough to take a look. MS: That sounds exciting! I will look forward to your talk You can see more interviews at http://www.cfconf.com/fusebox2005/interviews.cfm Fusebox and Frameworks 2005 is Thu 9/29/05 - Fri 9/30/05 in Bethesda MD, just outside Washington DC. It costs $299 until 8/19/05 then $499. For more information on Fusebox and Frameworks see http://www.cfconf.com/fusebox2005/ --- Ruby on Rails for CF Developers ************************* One of the hottest frameworks in the web development world is Rails, written for and in the open source Ruby programming language. And while you can't build your ColdFusion application in Rails (yet!), there's still a lot that can be learned from the framework and the Rails approach to application architecture. Come learn about the framework that's having Java, PHP, and even .NET developers thinking about running Ruby on Rails for their next application. Speaker Bio: John Paul Ashenfelter is CTO of TransitionPoint.com, where he builds web-based business applications using a mix of open source tools, ColdFusion, and Java. He has been the technical lead on a number of ColdFusion projects for startups as well as regularly serving as an architect for existing ColdFusion sites converting to Fusebox. A ColdFusion developer since version 2.0, John Paul has written several books covering ColdFusion, contributed articles to CFDJ, and spoken at several ColdFusion conferences. ***************************** Fusebox and Frameworks Conference Thu 9/29 - Fri 9/30/05 Rockville MD http://www.cfconf.org/fusebox2005/ $299 before 8/19/05, $499 after Includes lunch and coffee both days ***************************** -- Due to TeraTech's growth we are seeking winning sales people to sell custom software. For more details: http://www.teratech.com/index.cfm?go=About.JobDetail&JobID=3 Michael Smith, TeraTech, Inc 405 E Gude Dr Ste 207, Rockville MD 20850 Voice: +1-301-424-3903 x110 Fax:301-762-8185 Web: http://www.teratech.com/sig/ Email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ICQ: 66057682 Winner in CFDJ awards Best Consulting. Member Team Fusebox. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| 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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