working on a model-glue application, i found myself in a situation where a <cfwindow> would come in handy. it's on a page that displays a list of items that belong to a user. for each item, the user can add a "journal entry". this is simply a plain text field and a time/date stamp. each entry displayed on the page has a link for "journal" that pops up a cfwindow that shows all of that item's journal entries, along with a form (a simple textarea) allowing the user to add a new entry.

using <cfform> allows the form submission to stay within the <cfwindow>, which worked great. a standard post allowed the page to refresh after the form was submitted (and the record inserted into the database), so it seemed to be a pretty user-friendly way to allow multiple journal entries to be added to an item. when the user was done adding entries, simply close the cfwindow.

here's where things got funked up... the first form submission worked great. the form's action page called an event-handler that did the insert, and added a named result to the event to redirect back to the journal.viewJournal event, which (obviously) displayed the contents of the journal. the event needed the concept of a transactionID, so i used the append attribute of the result tag as follows:

1. <result name="success" do="journal.viewJournal" redirect="true" append="transactionID" />

when i went to add a second entry, however, the cfwindow tried to reload into the main/parent window. no matter how many times i tried, the first submission would work (the form submitted to the cfwindow), but the second submission would break (the form submitted to the parent window). realizing i needed the big guns, i whipped out firebug.

it seemed the original submission (the one that worked consistently) had a few parameters that would appear to have been added by CF:

• _cf_clientid
• _cf_containerID
• _cf_nocache
• _cf_nodebug
• _cf_rc

so, i tried adding them to the append attribute of the result tag as follows:

1. <result name="success" do="journal.viewJournal" redirect="true" append="transactionID,_cf_clientid,_cf_containerID,_cf_nocache, _cf_nodebug,_cf_rc" />

fixed things right up. i could do submission after submission after submission, and they all worked within the cfwindow. not being the type of person who believes in overkill, and out of a bit of curiosity, i did try whittling down the list. seems all i really needed was the _cf_containerID (makes sense, since it was the concept of the container that was being lost). so, the code ultimately turned out to be:

1. <result name="success" do="journal.viewJournal" redirect="true" append="transactionID,_cf_containerID" />

and with that... i'll call it an evening.

ok i'll be honest, this is straight out of the docs, but i figure there may be one or two people out there that don't read the docs, so it might be worth passing along.

today i needed to create a <cfwindow> (a tag that i do like, in spite of being on the fence as to whether or not i think the AJAX bits really belong in CF... but that's another post). the source was a page that already existed in another part of the site i was working on. this page made some pretty heavy use of javascript, and not surprisingly, my first efforts to display it resulted in dismal failure.

the error occurred on the following 3 lines of js:

1. function Output() { }
2. function Proxy() { }
3. function Handler() { }

a quick check of the aforementioned docs turned up the following:

so the fix was thankfully much simpler than i had expected it would be. the 3 lines of js above simply needed to be changed to:

1. Output = function() { }
2. Proxy = function() { }
3. Handler = function() { }

...and everything was up and running and worked a treat. hope that might save somebody a few extra minutes of debugging. of course, if you want to walk away with a moral to the story... read the docs. be the docs. love the docs.

yeah, that was a stretch. serves me right for trying to come up with a witty title before i've had my full morning dose of caffeine.

this made the rounds a while back, but since then things have been relatively quiet and i'm afraid it may have fallen off of most folks' radars. joshua cyr is organizing a "non-conference" cruise. what's that mean? it means the best part of the average conference... you know, after the sessions, alcohol in hand, hanging out at the bar with your fellow developers sharing war stories and talking shop... without the pesky sessions getting in the way.

and the best part? it's on a boat. a big boat that sails from miami to the bahamas (and back). food? check. drink? check (um... gotta pay for those tho). white sandy beaches and inviting blue waters? check. people you talk to online but have yet to meet in person (or don't meet often enough)? yup.

i think it's a great idea and i applaud josh's efforts for putting it together and coordinating the effort. i'd love to attend, but living on the left coast means paying for cross-country airfare for a family of 5... and that alone would run me about 4x the cost of the cruise itself. but i'd like to see this succeed. i'd like to think that it'll be so successful that it'll be an annual event, and that maybe i can make it in 2010.

what about you? what are you doing feb 9-13th of 2009? check out http://www.riadventure.com/ for all the details.

via scott pinkston on #coldfusion...

while i haven't had the opportunity to dive as deeply into jQuery as i'd like, i've incorporated quite a few jQuery plugins into some recent projects, and have always been impressed with the quality of the output as well as the ease of implementation.

last night scott brought the CrossSlide jQuery plugin to my attention. i'm definitely in awe.

the plugin plays an image "slideshow" of sorts. it utilizes a fade transition effect, as well as a panning effect to create an overall effect that i'd only previously seen done via flash. there are a few configuration options as well, including the option of not panning the image, and panning/zooming (what they refer to as the "ken burns effect").

this is one of those plugins that, unfortunately, i really have no need for at the moment... but it's slick enough that i've been wracking my little brain trying to figure out how i could force it into an upcoming project .

check it out!

in an earlier post i had mentioned that i was in the process of starting up an east bay CFUG. it's no secret that bay area traffic sucks hard and for those people living in areas like san ramon (that'd be me), livermore, dublin, etc, the drive into san francisco after putting in a full day at the office isn't a terribly appealing notion. i've thrown out the idea of starting a CFUG in the east bay and it's been met with some pretty positive feedback. sweet.

here's the fun part... finding a location. i remember going through this with the IECFUG. trying to find a location that will accommodate enough people, has internet access and a projector, and doesn't cost an arm and a leg is a challenging endeavor. i've contacted a few schools in the area. either they hold classes at night and don't offer rooms to external groups, or they want $50/hr per meeting or they require the group to have a non-profit tax ID number (which as far as i understand would entail filing paperwork and filing taxes each year... then the hassle of transferring ownership as management changes... hoping to not have to resort to that). the business park that my company is in has a facility, but they charge over $300 (and no tenant discount).

while i continue to scout out a location on my own, i figured i'd put this out there publicly. does anyone in the east bay know of a potential meeting site? would anyone's business be willing to "sponsor" the group by way of allowing a monthly meeting?

any thoughts and/or suggestions are appreciated

many moons ago, i signed up for a twitter account. all the cool kids were doing it and damn if i'm not a lemming. i didn't quite "get it" tho. it's enough pressure to try and come up with a blog entry once in a blue moon that i think would hold a passing interest to one or two people. twitter is all about posting something "interesting" (assuming "what are you doing now?" is interesting) on a constant ongoing basis.

wasn't totally unexpected, but i failed at twitter. at any given time, i just didn't think i was doing anything worthwhile enough to hit the web site and update my status.

luke kilpatrick to the rescue. luke admonished me for being a bad twitterer, and i explained that updating my status on the website was just too much of a PITA. he then told me about twhirl, an AIR-based twitter desktop client, saying that he wouldn't be active on twitter at all without it. i downloaded it yesterday and took it for a drive.

*now* i see why people like twitter. aside from being a very cool app (i gotta start writing me some AIR stuff), it makes it ridiculously simple to not only update your own status, but also to keep up with the statuses of those people that you're following. think IM client on steroids.

if you're twittering without it, download it and give it a shot. if you're not twittering, sign up and then download it and give it a shot. feel free to follow me @ cgriefer

coldfusion 8 - enhancements you may have missed

a few weeks back, i was approached by packt publishing and asked if i'd be interested in writing an article for their article network. their original request was about arrays in cf8, but i asked if we could flesh it out a bit and cover some of the other enhancements that cf8 brought to the table. they were very accommodating and gave me quite a bit of leeway.

what's really exciting about this to me is that, i believe this is the first coldfusion-related article on their article network. and they approached me. it wasn't as if i (or anybody else in the community) approached them and convinced them to accept an article on coldfusion. they wanted a coldfusion-related article. hopefully it'll be the first of many, as every little bit of exposure helps dispel the FUD that still pops up today regarding coldfusion.

i'll also point out that packt is planning on releasing a CF 8 book, the coldfusion 8 developer tutorial, written by john farrar. very nice to see a publisher getting behind coldfusion, and i'm thrilled to be contributing even a small part to that.

please feel free to check out the article and let me know what you think. in addition to feedback on the article, i'd love to hear some ideas for other topics that you think might be of interest.

amcom technology is looking for a senior business intelligence engineer.

business intelligence is about getting the right information, to the right people, at the right time.

it provides the ability to connect the dots by taking raw information, analyzing it for patterns, and transforming it into human readable consumption. it enables management to have a constant pulse on the business, as well as being able to monitor changes in customer behavior, market conditions, the regulatory environment, and corporate position vs. competitors. by eliminating guess work the company can execute with a tactile competitive advantage.

amcom technology is currently looking for a sr. business intelligence engineer who can work with our customers to define their business intelligence needs, and then implement those needs.

the position requires someone passionate about growing their skills, and in doing so the opportunity to tailor ones career is ever present. since the B.I. initiative is a relatively new service in our organization it allows anyone coming into this position to help define the vision, and take the B.I platform to as far as their imagination and desire can go.

responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• working with executive management to understand the information they need to drive the business.
• applying analytical skills to spot patterns and trends in raw data stores.
• develop published and interactive drill down dashboards that allow management to slice information into various perspectives.
• employ technologies that transform raw data into data warehouse repositories that facilitate self service reporting, and on-demand analytics.
• create forecasting models.
• managing data dictionaries.
• working with software developers to ensure that data is stored in a manner that facilitates the goals of B.I.
• define the long term B.I vision, and the roadmap to achieve it.
• utilize technologies like crystal reports, business objects, and/or anything that you recommend.
• utilize technologies like adobe flex, excelcius, etc... to build B.I tools.

read more about the position on the amcom technology blog. if you have any questions, feel free to ping me.

so remember a few months back when i was all like, "i'm going OO, and i'm going to document my progress so maybe other folks will learn what i'm learning"? yeah, that didn't go so well. for me, my OO journey has been decidedly hit-and-miss (more miss than hit, unfortunately). i think my attempt to document that journey reflected that.

for me, i think the issue is that i wasn't working in OO day-to-day. i'd learn how to do something, but then i'd get confused as to what the next logical step should be. or, i'd talk to somebody who would suggest that what i had learned wasn't necessarily how they would do it, and i'd step back. what i really needed was a mentor. one person that i had access to during the course of the day, that i could bounce ideas off of. one person that could show me *their* way (regardless of whether or not it was how others did it), and i could journey down that particular road. later on, i'd hope to have enough of a conceptual grasp that i'd be able to say, "wait... what about doing it *this* way?".

i may finally be in that situation. jon messer recently joined us at amcom. jon's somewhat of an OO god, altho he'll try and tell you otherwise (and he'll be terribly embarrassed at reading this ). in the few months that jon's been here, working with him has been a privilege, and one for which i'm very grateful.

now, this is more than just a "neener-neener-neener-i-have-a-mentor-and-you-don't" post. jon's very much into helping others learn, and has started a series of his own blog posts in which he's going to attempt to demystify the concepts of building OO applications. i think this series is largely going to be what i was previously attempting, with the significant difference that jon's already at a point where he can teach what he knows (as opposed to trying to teach what he's learning).

the series comes out of an evaluation that he had done of some of the coldfusion MVC frameworks, and deconstructs the code that he used.

this promises to be an interesting and educational series. i'd highly suggest that if you're still making the transition from procedural to OO, you sit in. feel free to post questions, or just a comment to let him know what you think about his approach.

this is a topic i've been thinking about for a while now. nolan erck just posted something to the south of shasta blog that prompted me to flesh out my thoughts a bit.

what can user groups do to promote regular attendance?

my first user group was the phoenix cfug back in 2002 or thereabouts. it was an awesome group to be a part of. decent attendance on a regular basis, and a real sense of "community". after the meetings, most of the attendees would go out for a drink or three and talk about coldfusion. what they were working on. or what obstacles/issues they were currently dealing with. it was a blast. i always enjoyed stepping out of "my" coldfusion world and hearing about what others were doing.

i left phoenix at the end of 2004, and have had the opportunity to be a part of a few other groups. one thing that i noticed is that after the meeting... people bolted. there was no discussion, no sense of camaraderie... just a few folks showing up, listening to the speaker, then heading home.

i've also noticed over the years that attendance seems to have gradually but steadily declined. i think a lot of this has to do with the fact that the meetings are generally broadcast over connect. i think this is a good thing, as it allows the speakers to reach a larger audience, but it also makes it too convenient for members who are local to head home, kick off their shoes, and watch/listen from home.

because most meetings are also recorded via connect, there's no sense of urgency to even catch the live broadcast. it'll be there whenever you feel like watching.

for me personally, i *like* being at the meetings. i enjoy the interaction and getting to talk to other developers. i'm one of the few that, given the option to telecommute, would rather be in the office. i do much better in that environment. that applies to user groups as well. i can easily watch the broadcast version, but that's a bit... "dry" (no reflection on the presenters). i want to be able to turn to the person next to me and say, "wow... that's pretty cool". i enjoy seeing the room react when a presenter "wow's" them. i enjoy going out for a drink after the meeting and talking about what we just saw. or about what somebody's currently doing at work.

for those folks who don't regularly attend... mind if i ask why not? is it the convenience of the breeze broadcasts or the convenience of being able to catch the recorded preso later on? is that what it's come to? if so, that doesn't bode well for the future of local user groups. are purely online groups like the online coldfusion meetup the way of the future?

i'm all for the online meetup group. not everybody has a local user group that they can attend. it definitely serves a purpse, as does broadcasting local user groups over connect. but in serving their purpose, are they contributing to the demise of face-to-face local user groups?

is it a lost cause or can anything be done to improve the attendance at local meetings? i mean the regular attendance. not the folks that show up once every six months for the software raffle (which is what prompted nolan's post). i'm in the process of trying to get an east bay cfug off the ground, which isn't an easy feat. i'm wondering if it's worth the effort. is the concept of a local user group antiquated?

if you have a user group local to your area, but don't attend regularly... is there anything that the group could do differently that would make it more appealing for you to attend in person?