CArehart.org

We frequently hear that "CFML is Java," but in reality from the language perspective, Java and CFML are different beasts and have different strengths and weaknesses. Luckily because CFML runs on top of Java, it's actually quite easy to get the best of both worlds when building web applications. In this session we'll explore some of the reasons for using Java as the backend for your CFML applications, how CFML and Java communicate with one another, dig into a sample application, and see how easy it is to deploy these hybrid applications to any Java application server.

Doug Knudsen presented at the Online Flex Meetup on Drag and Drop in Flex. The link to the code examples will be posted at flexmeetup.com or cubicleman.com

Performing validations on user input is something that all of us, as application developers, must do. When moving from a procedural to an object oriented approach many developers have difficulty determining how and where to perform validations. In this session you will be introduced to an object oriented approach to validations. This approach enables you to add validation "smarts" into your business objects, while keeping that logic fully encapsulated outside of the objects, meaning that any changes to your validation rules and/or logic will have zero impact on the rest of your model. We'll look at the individual objects that comprise this approach, and understand how they work together to automatically perform server-side and generate client-side validations using metadata from a simple xml file. You will leave the session with a better understanding of how to design using objects, as well as a tool that will greatly simplify the task of adding validations to your object oriented application. This session is aimed at intermediate to advanced developers who are familiar with object oriented concepts and are interested in learning about how to incorporate validations into their objects, as well as object oriented design in general.

Architecting ColdFusion for Scalability and High Availability ColdFusion is used in thousands of large enterprise environments, many of which inevitably employ clustering of resources to provide redundancy and scalability. In this presentation Mike Brunt will look an overall ColdFusion high availability (HA) environment. Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oguz/sets/72157619583265098/

Whether you're already using Eclipse (via CFEclipse or not), or you've still not gotten into using it (or are waiting for Bolt), this talk if for you, if you don't know about the Adobe CF Extensions for Eclipse. Not to be confused with the CFEclipse plugin, the Adobe ColdFusion Extensions for Eclipse are a free set of very useful tools (for the free Eclipse editor) that many have missed, even if they do use CFEclipse. And if you don't yet use CFEclipse, these additional tools may offer features that might make you reconsider using Eclipse for CFML coding. In this session, veteran CFer Charlie Arehart will introduce the extensions (not CFEclipse), including how to find and install the extensions from the Adobe site, as well how to use them to do many things: browse datasources and build queries, generate code using wizards, browse CFCs and web services, view log files, debug CF apps (discussed only briefly and supported only for CF8), and more. Note that most of the features shown apply to if you're using CF7 as well. And since the upcoming new Adobe editor, codenamed Bolt, incorporates these same features (and many more, as discussed on the labs site), this talk will help you whatever your current or future plans.

We'll provide an overview of the open source Mura CMS and show how to leverage Mura's built in functionality to quickly build your site and handoff site content management tasks to other stakeholders, allowing you to customize your site by extending Mura or by integrating your existing CFML applications. More on Mura (formerly named Sava) at http://sava.riaforge.org.

Learn how you can leverage the productivity of ColdFusion with the Flash Platform, including Adobe Flex®, to lower costs, enhance productivity, and streamline processes. Please note that this Adobe presentation requires that you login with a Connect account or register for one, in order to view it.

Andrew Westberg of Simplified Logic presented at the Online Flex Meetup on Nitro-LM License Management tool that Flex and AIR developers can use to protect their code and software.

Generating PDF documents is a simple task in ColdFusion 8. That is if you know what you are doing. This meetup will discuss the basic knowledge needed to create a PDF document. From something as simple as taking an image and converting it, to converting an entire web page or other document. Advanced features such as page extraction, PDF merging and document security will also be discussed. Real world examples, as well as basic demos, will be used to explain the features discussed. The goal is for everyone to leave the meeting with the feeling that they can do it themselves.

When making the move from a procedural to an object oriented approach one often comes across a pattern that involves using services and gateways to act as a middle man between a controller and your actual business objects. This session will present an approach to implementing a common set of services and gateways. Through the use of abstract classes you will see how to eliminate duplicate code and how to encapsulate logic to increase the cohesiveness of your entire model. We will start with the basics, describing what services and gateways are, and then look at building a model from the ground up. You'll leave the session with an understanding of the components that go into building a model, as well as some of the object oriented principles that will help guide you in your design efforts. This session is aimed at beginning to intermediate developers who have some experience with and knowledge of basic OO concepts and are interested in learning about some of the design considerations that go into building an OO model.