Note: This blog post is from 2008. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.

Today I'll jump from the tools section of the list back to the resources section. This entry is about CFML Certification Preparation Resources.

I'd like to ask that we don't use this blog entry as a place to reopen up the old debate about the value of certification. I'm just point out resources, not judging the value of certs (or the resources). Please fight the urge... (I'm betting someone with a short attention span will have skipped this text and will do it anyway.)

CFML Certification Preparation Resources

The tools mentioned here are still only oriented toward CF 7, so if you're looking for CF8-specific information, the best bet is the CFML documentation.

• Adobe ColdFusion Certification site (including exam guidelines, example questions, and information on registering to take the exams)
• CFMX ExamBuster, commercial by inexpensive, from Centrasoft. The leading product in the space of CFML exam preparation.
• ColdFusion MX 7 Certified Developer Study Guide, by Ben Forta
• ColdFusion Certification Resources, by Ben Nadel
• ColdFusion Questions, by Charlie Griefer
• Learn by Heart CF Exam Practice
• I welcome additions/corrections/feedback.

Additions/Corrections

This tools/resources list is a perpetual work in progress. I definitely welcome additions or corrections to it. If you have any to offer, you can leave them here as a comment on this blog entry and I'll move them to the list on my site.

BTW, before you offer an update here, please do check the category on the real list. I won't be coming back here to update these blog entries to sync them if I add new items to the real list.

About this series

This entry is part of an ongoing series, sharing each of the 100+ categories and the tools and resources I (and others) have identified. They're designed to answer the questions we hear, like , "does anyone know of tools or resources to help with ...?"

Someone may ask why I'm blogging each of these categories, when they're available online anyway. It's just that, through aggregation and feeds, blogs present a way to reach a wider (and new) audience who may not otherwise come across the list of tools and resources. This also widens the pool of eyes for possible updates to the list. I want it to be as accurate and up to date as possible. I may in the future offer an RSS feed of any updates made to the list.

Otherwise, I hope people will get great value out of the lists, here or on the tools and resources page.

Note: This blog post is from 2008. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.

Tools and Resources for CFers, Part 2: CFML Blog Aggregators (and bloggers)

There are literally hundreds of CFML blogs. Some are popular and known by most, while some less popular ones may well offer some hidden gem. Rather than try to list them all here, and indeed rather than you having to read them all, the following aggregators focus on CF-oriented blogs.

Some blogs are in all the aggregators, but it's worth keeping an eye on more than one. I provide as well a link to the list of all CFML blogs that each aggregator follows. This way, you can find out all the folks who blog about CF.

• CF Bloggers, which follows these blogs
• Feed Squirrel, which follows these blogs
• Full As A Goog, which follows these blogs
• MXNA, which follows these blogs

You can always find the latest version of the list above at the official site, in the category CFML Blog Aggregators (and bloggers)

Again, if you're looking for a list of all CF bloggers, note that there is no one list, but again each of the aggregators above offers a list of the blogs that they aggregate, and I've offered the links to those lists above.

Additions/Corrections

This is a perpetual work in progress. I definitely welcome additions or corrections to this list. If you have any to offer, you can leave them here as a comment on this blog entry and I'll move them to the list on the site.

BTW, before you offer an update here, please do check the category on the real list. I won't be coming back here to update these blog entries to sync them if I add new items to the real list.

About this series

This entry is part of an ongoing series, sharing each of the 100+ categories and the tools and resources I (and others) have identified. They're designed to answer the questions we hear, like , "does anyone know of tools or resources to help with ...?"

Someone may ask why I'm blogging each of these categories, when they're available online anyway. It's just that, through aggregation and feeds, blogs present a way to reach a wider (and new) audience who may not otherwise come across the list of tools and resources. This also widens the pool of eyes for possible updates to the list. I want it to be as accurate and up to date as possible. I may in the future offer an RSS feed of any updates made to the list.

Otherwise, I hope people will get great value out of the lists, here or on the tools and resources page.

Note: This blog post is from 2008. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.

The Categories

I've split the list into Resources and Tools. Sometimes it's not clear how best to categories some subjects, such as CFML Frameworks, CFML Engine Alternatives, Monitoring Tools/Services, Testing Tools/Services, Time Tracking/Invoicing Tools/Services, and Web Site Design Repositories, to name a few.

• CFML-Oriented Resources
  • CFML Blog Aggregators (and bloggers)
  • CFML Certification Prep Resources
  • CFML Conferences
  • CFML Documentation/Help Tools and Resources
  • CFML Frameworks/Methodologies
  • CFML Hosting Alternatives
  • CFML Job Resources (Hire/Be Hired)
  • CFML Lists and Forums (finding help)
  • CFML Podcasts
    • Active CFML Podcasts
    • Seemingly Inactive CFML Podcasts
  • CFML-powered Web Sites
  • CFML Resource Sites
  • CFML-specific Search Resources
  • CFML Tuning/Troubleshooting Resources
  • CFML Tutorial/Article Sites
• Tools (CFML and other)
  • Blogging Tools
  • Bug/Defect Tracking Tools
    • Written in CFML
    • Written in other than CFML
  • Captcha Tools/Alternatives
  • CFMAIL Replacement/Enhancement Tools
  • CFML Caching Tools
  • CFML Debugging Tools
  • CFML Documentation/Help Tools and Resources
  • CFML Engine Alternatives
  • Code Generators
    • CFML Code Generators
    • Flex Code Generators
  • Comparison Tools
    • File/Dir Comparison Tools
    • Database Comparison Tools
  • Content Management Systems
  • Database Engines
    • Name brand DBMS's
    • Alternative Databases
  • Database Tools
    • Database Coding Tools
    • Database Comparison Tools
    • Database Monitoring Tools
    • Database Query/Explore Tools
    • Database Testing Tools
  • E-commerce Enabling Solutions
  • Editors/IDEs
    • CFML Editors
    • Other Editors
  • Excel File Processing Tools
    • COM
    • CSV
    • HTML Table
    • Java
    • .NET
    • Office Automation
    • ODBC/JDBC
    • Report Builder
    • WebQueries
    • XML
  • File Upload Tools
  • Forums/Bulletin Board Tools
  • Graphing/Charting Tools
  • HTTP Debugging Proxy Tools
    • Free, General-purpose HTTP Debugging Proxies
    • Free, Firefox-only Proxies
    • Free, IE-only Proxies
  • Image Processing Tools
  • Log Analysis Tools
    • Generic Log Analysis Tools
    • Intrusion Detection
    • SQL Server Log Analysis
    • Web Server Log Analysis
  • Monitoring Tools/Services
    • Application Monitoring Tools
    • ColdFusion Monitoring Tools
    • Database Monitoring Tools
    • Event Log Monitoring
    • Site Monitoring Tools
    • System Monitoring Tools
  • Project Management Tools
  • Regular Expression Generation/Testing Tools
  • Remote Presentation/Assistance/Web Conferencing Tools
  • RSS to Email Tools
  • Server-side Spell Checkers
  • Source Code Control Tools
  • Testing Tools/Services
    • CFML Code Testing Tools
    • CFML Unit Testing Tools
    • Database Testing Tools
    • Load and Application Testing Tools
    • Page Testing Tools
    • Regex Testing Tools
    • Site Security Testing Tools
    • Web Services Testing Tools
  • Screen Capture Tools
    • Still Image Capture Tools
    • A/V Capture Tools
  • Time Tracking/Invoicing Tools
  • Web Services Browsing/Testing Tools
  • Web Site Design Repositories
  • Wiki Tools
  • Wireframing/Prototyping Tools
  • WYSIWYG/Rich Text Editors

Again, I'll be offering here a blog entry on each of the lists as part of this series.

I definitely want to hear of any possible editions or changes. Otherwise, I hope people will get great value out of the lists.

PS Of course, don't miss Brian Rinaldi's excellent list of open source CFML products and projects. I don't limit mine to just things written in CFML (nor indeed just open source), and of course I show more than just tools but also resources. For those interested, I discuss the differences, and indeed how I link to his list often from within mine, in a section of my list. They complement, rather than compete with, each other.

Note: This blog post is from 2008. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.

One place to list all the approaches

I don't recall ever seeing any single listing of all the possible ways to do CFML to Excel integration, so I decided to create one. I've created a new section in my Tools to Consider for CFML developers on the topic of "Excel File Processing Tools".

You'll see I've gathered a range of articles and tools from over the years showing how to do CF-Excel integration (both directions) any of several of the following ways (the links go to the section within my tools list on this topic):

• You can easily create them using HTML tables and CSV generation (as well as read them using CSV)
• You can create them with the more powerful XML-based approach
• You can create and read them using Java-based APIs like POI, JExcel, and jXLS
• You can create and read them using COM and now in CF8, .NET
• You can read them using ODBC and JDBC drivers
• Let's not forget also that you can create them using the Report Builder in CF7 and 8, which can output as Excel
• And finally there's the old Excel Web Query feature for populating a spreadsheet from a CFML request

In the listing, I offer dozens of links to articles, blog entries, downloadable tools, any relevant CF docs, and more, all broken down by the approaches listed above.

Different Strokes for Different Folks

So you see, there are not only different solutions but different needs (create a spreadsheet CFML, read one into CFML, or populate one within Excel from a CFML request). It seems helpful to gather a single resource to organize them all and help people decide.

I need your feedback

So let me know what you think of all this. Did I leave out any other important approaches? I'm not claiming to "know it all". This is just a result of some research I did this morning (and/or recollection from past experiences). I'm sure I could have missed something. Certainly I know I'm not listing *all* possible references on each of the subjects. I just wanted to give folks something to start with, but I'm certainly open to adding any useful references or tools that I left out. Please leave a comment below.

Update: Indeed, already, in response to a comment, I've tried to make more clear the fact that I'm not just talking here about creating spreadsheets from CFML but was referring to reading them as well. That's why I chose "processing" in the title, and I referred several times to "reading them", but to make it stand out, I've bolded all the references to reading them.

More important, because it seems he had missed the 2 links to the lists where I offer more details, I've also changed the words in the list above to link into the discussion of the topic in the tools list. Hope that helps avoid people missing the real point of the listing. I was torn about just offering the listing itself as a blog entry and went with this approach instead of a summary that points to the details. I know some don't like really long blog entries. Also, listing them in the bigger tools list seemed helpful, but I may split it out into its own file. We'll see.

Not just about Excel or even Office

BTW, one may argue that I could have a generic section on processing all sorts of file types (or even just all kinds of MS Office) file types, but there are so many requests for Excel file processing specifically, and so many approaches/tools to suit those needs, that I just figured I'd start out with this and consider other filetypes later (and may rename the section then). It's also certainly true that most of the techniques/tools shown here can be used with any spreadsheet tool that reads xls files or processes CSV/HTML table files in a similar way (like OpenOffice).

Update

Note: This blog post is from 2007. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.

To answer those questions and more, I've created a new resource called, "Getting Started with the Apache Derby Open Source Database in CF8". It's a resource compendium for those interested in using the DB with CF, pointing you to general resources to learn more, linking to many CF-specific articles and blog entries on it (from both before and after the final CF8 release), and lots more to help you get started--as well as respond to some common misconceptions.

It will continue to evolve, but for now, the sections are:

• General Resources for Learning More about Derby
• Is it a pure development only DB?
• Is this the same database engine that's embedded in Adobe Air?
• I've heard that Derby is a single-user DBMS
• How can we use it/enable it in ColdFusion?
• Are there any IDE or query tools for talking to Derby?
• Why use Derby database verses using something like MySQL?
• Where can I find a reference for supported SQL, etc.?
• Is there a way to automate creation of a new Derby Database in CF?
• Where else can I learn more from other CFers using Derby?

I'll also point out that those interested in Derby, especially in discussing it with others, will want to know that a couple of weeks ago I started a Derby "community" on the coldfusioncommunity.org site. Anyone may join in. I'll note that I rolled all my answers to questions there, prior to December, into the getting started page above.

Let me know what you think of it, and certainly any additions or corrections you'd suggest.