In this issue of ColdFusion conference and training news: * Don't be late! sign up today! Prices expire this Friday 6/16/06 * Extended number of laptop bookbags for attendees! * Registration packages are arriving. * New Sponsor * CF News Release: FUSIONDOX-ECM 2.5 * NEW EVENT: Bridging the Gap between Marketing and IT professionals * CFLive - Thursday 12:30pm - Doug Ward Fundamentals of Good Usability * Interview with Jeremy Lund - Another Look at Microsoft Office Using Apache Jakarta POI
SEE ALL RECENT CFUNITED NEWS AND PAST. Get CFUNITED news fast as soon as it is posted! Subscribe to our blog today! RSS feed or email. http://www.cfunited.com/blog/ CFUNITED is the premier ColdFusion Conference near Washington DC 6/28-7/1/06 (Four whole days!) Check out speakers and topics at http://www.cfunited.com/ - Michael Smith TeraTech, Inc "Application development involves rapidly evolving technologies. Anyone in the industry who does not actively pursue expanding their knowledge will quickly become obsolete. CFUNITED looks to provide the best value for my education dollar." -Clay Mabbitt, Conference Alumni Conference and training news **************************** * Upcoming TeraTech classes Cost $349 see http://www.teratech.com/training/ for more details and registration FB101 - Intro to Fusebox Sep 12 2006 FB201 - Intermediate Fusebox Sep 19 2006 CF102 - Intro to ColdFusion Sep 26 2006 CF201 - Intermediate ColdFusion Oct 10 2006 CS201H - CSS hands on TBA * Pre-conference classes Cost $449 see http://www.cfunited.com/classes06.cfm for more details and registration Location: Bethesda North Marriott and Conference Center CFUNITED NEWS! * Prices for registration expire 6/16/06, currently 4 day package $849 and 3 day package $749 After that, the late price is $949 for the 4 day package and $849 for the 3 day package See list of all prices http://www.cfunited.com/discounts.cfm Can't come? purchase the VIDEO package for this event. * 100 more laptop bookbags for registered attendees! We've hit the 750 mark! However our Platinum and Gold Sponsors have made it possible to provide more laptop bookbags for registered attendees! Thanks Adobe, Hostmysite, TeraTech, Microsoft, and New Atlanta. Register today and you'll be sure to receive this awesome giveaway. * Registration packages will be arriving to attendees soon. Enclosed will be a receipt, name badge, t-shirt, and conference instructions. We've mailed about half the packages last week until now. Keep your package in a safe place and bring the name badge with you to the event. It will help you check- in faster. If you do not get your package in the mail, you can still check-in at the conference and we can issue you a new badge. * New Bronze Sponsor: Zion Software Since 2001, Zion Software, has provided Instant Messaging and Presence (IM) solutions and IM software infrastructure to innovative companies worldwide. ColdFusion MX7 introduced Event Gateways and Zion introduced JBuddy-CF at CFUNITED '05 as the first commercial IM event gateway plugins for ColdFusion MX7. Come by of booth at CFUNITED '06 and see what's new! * IEXP Software, Downingtown, PA The new FUSIONDOX-ECM 2.5 Document, Data, and Record Management Platform is designed to provide ColdFusion programmers with a complete, open standards based document/data/record management solution for building and deploying a broad array of business applications. FUSIONDOX has been built from the ground up to specifically address a growing market demand for an integrated document and data management platform that simplifies the creation and management of business process applications without high cost and complexity of traditional ECM software suites (Enterprise Content Management). FUSIONDOX is stable, works with your existing applications, and because it is 100% browser based, the easy-to-use web interface encourages high user adoption rates with low administrative impact. FUSIONDOX comes with a full suite of ready-to-use (but highly customizable) tools and allows CF developers to easily extend the system, including using custom CFML components and connecting to other enterprise applications to further leverage their value. ItÂ’s web service enabled API speeds development time and allows in-depth customization of the navigational and GUI components, document templates, workflow processes, publishing routines, report templates, and portal display components * Have you ever noticed that the marketing department and IT department seem to speak different languages? Would you like to receive the tools that can help your business roll out a successful software project from start to finish? Bridging the Gap between Marketing and IT professionals, June 29th http://www.cfunited.com/bridging_gap.cfm * 63% of our Pre-Conference Classes are full. Be sure to reserve your seat today! http://www.cfunited.com/classes06.cfm * 772 people are already registered for CFUNITED-06! The first 850 registrations get the free laptop bookbag! *CFLive Hear CFUNITED speakers from your office via breeze talks every Thursday 12:30pm - 1pm EST. Learn new tips and ask questions live. See past talks http://www.cfunited.com/breeze_talks.cfm or download via Podcast http://www.cfunited.com/blog/cflivepodcast.xml CFLive! Doug Ward Fundamentals of Good Usability Thursday, June 16, 12:30 PM US/Eastern http://coldfusion.meetup.com/17/events/4919541/ * Only 12 days left until CFUNITED!!!! * Can't afford to come for 4 days? Or can't take time off work during the week? Come to our Saturday only CFUNITED event. Or watch via web video after the event. * We still have opportunites for sponsorship available to companies. ****************************************************** And now our CFUNITED spotlight interview. Michael Smith: This time we are talking with Jeremy Lund about his CFUNITED-06 talk "Another Look at Microsoft Office Using Apache Jakarta POI". So why should a developer come to your session Jeremy? Jeremy Lund: Let's face it, Microsoft Office files are a part of business life. People send e-mail spreadsheets and documents around the office. When they get done passing it around, they want the content posted on a website or loaded into a database. Other times, they want data exported into a spreadsheet or document from a website. The Apache Jakarta POI project provides a native Java layer for reading and writing Microsoft Office files. MS: What does POI stand for and why do you like it? JL: POI stands for "Poor Obfuscation Implementation". I like it because it gives me control of the content in ways that other methods do not. MS: What other methods are you talking about? JL: For instance, one way to provide a client with a data-driven spreadsheet is to output the content as a tab-delimted file and change the mime-type to application/vnd.ms-excel. But, this doesn't allow me to change how the data is styled. MS: For styling the content, couldn't you simply use the new cfreport feature available in ColdFusion 7? JL: Yes, that's also a possibility, provided that you are on ColdFusion 7. For those who are not on ColdFusion 7, POI can help. But, remember that cfreport is only for output. We may also want to read content out of spreadsheets and documents. MS: Oh, I have used COM before to do this. Its interface allows me to communicate with the Office automation API. All I have to do is to use cfobject to get a link and I am good to go. Why not use COM? JL: I, too, have used cfobject to interface with Office via COM. In my experience of using COM with ColdFusion, it is slow, and doesn't scale well for larger applications. Additionally, it also requires that you have access to a Microsoft Office installation on the server, and that you on running on a Windows server. POI is fast, scales well, and can be used on operating systems besides Windows. MS: How do I get run POI on my ColdFusion server? JL: If you are on ColdFusion 7, and only want to work with Excel spreadsheets, then you're in luck! The necessary Jar files are already installed. If you are on an older version of ColdFusion, then you have to install them yourself. But, it's not hard, and I'll go over it in my session. MS: And where can I download them from? JL: The library can be downloaded from the Apache Jakarta POI site at http://jakarta.apache.org/poi/. MS: What about working with Word or PowerPoint? JL: While the Excel interface is quite mature, the Word and PowerPoint interfaces are still being developed, and exist in the "scratchpad" portion of the POI libraries. While I haven't had a need to use the PowerPoint interface just yet, I have used the Word interface and found it to work well for my needs. MS: BTW how much does POI cost? JL: POI is free, and is open source. MS: Cool! Many of us, including me, do not have a lot of time to learn a huge, complicated API. How hard is it to come up to speed with POI? JL: It depends on how familiar with Java, but by using some of the quick start guides available on the net along with the Javadocs, it is easy to to get started with POI. Of course, by attending my session at conference you should be ready to use POI even quicker! MS: It sounds like POI could help me with some of my development projects. I look forward to seeing your session. CFUNITED-06 is Wed 6/28/06 - Sat 7/1/06 in Bethesda MD, just outside Washington DC. For more information on CFUNITED see http://www.cfunited.com/ --- Another Look at Microsoft Office Using Apache Jakarta POI ************************* Has a client sent you a Word document, wanting the content added to their website right away? And of course, they want the content to fit in flawlessly with the rest of the website. What about that excel spreadsheet data that they want imported into their database? Or, what about that nice table report that it sure would be nice to have as an Excel spreadsheet? In this presentation, I will look at the Word and Excel options that Apache Jakarta POI project offers in working with Word and Excel documents, and present code examples and use cases where POI is a good choice. If you have ever found COM too slow to work with in ColdFusion, or the conversion facilities of Word of Excel too limiting for your needs, then Jakarta POI just might be the answer! Speaker Bio: Jeremy Lund is the manager of the Web Resource Center at University Health Care in Salt Lake City, Utah (http://uuhsc.utah.edu/wrc/). As the manager he coordinates development efforts, designs their web architecture, and in what time is left, develops web applications. He has worked with Internet technologies for over seven years, and enjoys working not only with ColdFusion, Java, and Perl, but also is an advocate of using XHTML and CSS. Jeremy received a bachelor's degree in computer engineering from the University of Utah, and is a Sun Certified Programmer for the Java 2 platform. **************************************** * Speakers include top names like Simon Horwith, Charlie Arehart, Hal Helms, Michael Dinowitz, Ray Camden, Ben Forta and many more respected CF authors and presenters. * Great tracks: * Bootcamp - Basic ColdFusion and Flash topics * Advanced - Advanced ColdFusion topics * Manager/Empowered - Fusebox and Project management topics * Flex/RIA - 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 * Included in your full conference registration is the following: * Attendence for 4 days (6/28/2006-7/1/2006) * Keynote and General Sessions * All conference sessions including repeat sessions on Saturday * Entrance to Expo Area * Networking Events * Badge and Badge holder with bar scan code * Free Lunch for each show day (Dinner is not included) * Access to all presentations after the event, including all the recordings. * Promotional bag with materials including show guide, CD, coupons, etc. * Opportunity to participate in all raffle drawings * Can't stay 4 days Wed - Sat? Optional 3-day and Saturday only packages available too. Saturday will consist of repeats the most popular sessions from the week - something many attendees asked for last year! * The price is $849 for all four days of CFUNITED-06 Price expires 4-day 3-day Saturday-only Early Bird 01/31/2006 $649 $549 $249 Timely Bird 03/31/2006 $749 $649 $299 Regular 06/16/2006 $849 $749 $349 Late 06/28/2006 $949 $849 $399 Door 06/29/2006 $1049 $949 $449 Be one of the first 850 registrations and you will get the Awesome Laptop Bookbag instead of the average tote. 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! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:4:244158 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:4 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54