Charlie Arehart has presented more than 170 presentations at nearly 400 user group meetings, conferences, and webinars over the years.

Following are the presentations he has given-- with the most recent first, though even old ones can still be valuable.

2024 (created or last presented or to be presented in 2024)

  1. Understanding cflocks: how they work/how they can help or hurt  [More]
  2. Using Redis for session storage in CF and Lucee: why, and how it's easily done  [More]
  3. Options for running Redis (or Valkey, etc.), locally or as-a-service  [More]
  4. CF Scheduled Tasks: there's more than you may know  [More]
  5. Migrating CF Admin settings between versions, safely   [More]
  6. FusionReactor Vendor talk: Revolutionizing Monitoring with AI  [More]
  7. Demonstrating Monitoring Solutions for CF and Lucee   [More]
  8. Optimizing Adobe ColdFusion with FusionReactor APM: Unlocking Superior Performance and Reliability for your Applications   [More]
  9. What if no one is monitoring your DB server?  [More]
  10. Hidden Gems in CF2023   [More]
  11. The Many Capabilities of the CF Package Manager, cfpm   [More]
  12. Updating the Java underlying ColdFusion: considering it, doing it   [More]

2023 (created or last presented in 2023)

  1. Installing CF2023: choices, challenges, and solutions   [More]
  2. Migrating apps to ColdFusion 2023 from earlier versions   [More]
  3. The Many Ways to Run CF or Lucee   [More]

2022 (created or last presented in 2022)

  1. How the Adobe CF Docker Images Have Evolved   [More]
  2. CFMeetup 300th episode looking back and new direction   [More]
  3. Using Adobe's "new" CFSetup tool to manage CF Admin settings for ANY CF version   [More]
  4. Comparing and contrasting Docker images from Ortus, Adobe, and Lucee   [More]
  5. ColdFusion: More modern than most realize   [More]

2021 (created or last presented in 2021)

  1. Hidden gems in CF2021, a year later   [More]
  2. Migrating apps to ColdFusion 2021 from earlier versions   [More]
  3. Considering Monitoring Solutions for CF and Lucee   [More]
  4. Installing CF2021: choices, challenges, and solutions   [More]

2020 (created or last presented in 2020)

  1. Hidden Gems in ColdFusion 2021  [More]
  2. Differences between ColdFusion Enterprise and Standard: more than you may think  [More]
  3. Migrating or Comparing CF Admin Settings, between instances, versions, and engines  [More]
  4. Keeping CF (and Java) updated: challenges and solutions  [More]
  5. Getting Started With Adobe's CF Docker Images  [More]

2019 (created or last presented presented in 2019)

  1. Comparing Monitoring Solutions for CF and Lucee  [More]
  2. Going from Zero to 60 with Docker and ColdFusion images (Day-long CF Summit Preconference Workshop)  [More]
  3. Hidden Gems in ColdFusion 2018  [More]
  4. Troubleshooting with FusionReactor, part 4: Post-crash troubleshooting  [More]
  5. Troubleshooting with FusionReactor, part 3: When requests are slow for less obvious reasons  [More]
  6. Troubleshooting with FusionReactor, part 2: Why are requests/transactions running slowly?  [More]
  7. Troubleshooting with FusionReactor, part 1: What has just happened on my server?  [More]

2018 (created or last presented in 2018)

  1. Troubleshooting Common CF Challenges (Day-long CF Summit Preconference Workshop)  [More]
  2. Tomcat Monitoring Alternatives, Pros and Cons  [More]
  3. What was new in CF 10, 11, and 2016 that you may have missed?  [More]
  4. Troubleshooting Database Performance Issues with FusionReactor  [More]
  5. What's new in FusionReactor 7 and 7.1  [More]

2017 (created or last presented in 2017)

  1. Solving problems in ways never before possible, with FusionReactor 7  [More]
  2. More on FusionReactor Log Analysis via Excel  [More]
  3. SQL Server 2016 SP1 changes the game: things you can do now that were Enterprise-only before  [More]
  4. Are spiders eating your servers? The impact of their unexpected load and how to counter it  [More]
  5. Are spiders eating your (SQL) servers? The impact of their unexpected load and how to counter it  [More]
  6. Troubleshooting JVM memory problems with FusionReactor  [More]
  7. Making the Most of FusionReactor's Logs  [More]
  8. FusionReactor: Post-crash troubleshooting  [More]
  9. Setting up and Using the FusionReactor Enterprise Dashboard  [More]
  10. Troubleshooting and Identifying Application Issues using FusionReactor 6  [More]
  11. Hidden Gems in ColdFusion 2016  [More]

2016 (created or last presented in 2016)

  1. Configuring FusionReactor for ACTION  [More]
  2. Getting Started with FusionReactor  [More]
  3. Hidden Gems in FusionReactor 6  [More]
  4. Hidden Gems in FusionReactor  [More]
  5. Keep Applications Online & Detect & Isolate Application Issues & Performance Bottlenecks In No Time With FusionReactor 6  [More]

2015 (created or last presented in 2015)

  1. 10 Common CF Server Challenges and How to Find/Solve Them  [More]
  2. Hey, my web app's slow. Where's the problem?  [More]
  3. FusionReactor Sponsor Talk 2015 ("Become an Application SUPER-HERO - Minimize Application Downtime and Accelerate Time to Resolution")  [More]
  4. Updating/Hotfixing ColdFusion 11, 10, 9 and 8: Tips and Traps  [More]

2014 (created or last presented in 2014)

  1. Using FusionReactor, FusionAnalytics, and FusionDebug to Solve CF Server and Coding Challenges  [More]
  2. Monitor, Troubleshoot and Protect Your ColdFusion Servers with FusionReactor  [More]
  3. Hidden Gems in CF 11  [More]
  4. Monitoring CF: What are my options and why should I?  [More]
  5. Monitor, Troubleshoot & Protect Your CF/Railo Servers with FusionReactor 5  [More]
  6. CF911: Solving Frequent CF Server Problems in New/Better Ways  [More]

2013 (created or last presented in 2013)

  1. What's New and Different About CF 10 on Tomcat  [More]
  2. Locking down the ColdFusion Administrator: Your First Line of Defense Against Hackers   [More]
  3. IIS 8 Troubleshooting Features for CF/Railo Admins  [More]

2012 (created or last presented in 2012)

  1. 10 Things That Plague Most CF Servers  [More]
  2. What's New in CF10 for CFSCRIPT Coders?  [More]
  3. Hidden Gems in CF 10  [More]
  4. Lightning Talk: 10 Things That Plague Most CF Servers, in 5 minutes, with Solutions  [More]
  5. Monitoring ColdFusion (and LiveCycle and more) with FusionReactor (Adobe Webinar)  [More]
  6. Introducing FusionAnalytics and FusionReactor 4  [More]

2011 (created or last presented in 2011)

  1. What's New in CF Zeus  [More]
  2. Continuously Improve CF Code Quality, Server Availability & Application Stability  [More]
  3. Understanding and Using the ColdFusion Server Monitor  [More]
  4. CF911 ColdFusion Performance Report 2011  [More]
  5. Hidden Gems in CFBuilder 2  [More]
  6. CF911: Pinpointing and Resolving ColdFusion Performance Issues  [More]

2010 (created or last presented in)

  1. Hidden Gems in CFBuilder  [More]
  2. CFUnited Keynote: CFCommunity - You're Never Alone  [More]
  3. CF911: Stack Tracing CFML Requests to Solve Problems  [More]
  4. CFMythBusters: Countering Some Conventional Wisdom  [More]
  5. Setting up ColdFusion Builder Step Debugging  [More]
  6. CF911: ColdFusion Tools for When the Stuff Hits the Fan  [More]

2009 (created or last presented in)

  1. Surprises About Browser-to-Server Request Processing  [More]
  2. Using Apache Derby, the Open Source Database Embedded in ColdFusion 8/9  [More]
  3. CF911: Tools and Techniques for CF Server Troubleshooting  [More]
  4. Getting Started with Multiple Instances in CF  [More]
  5. CF911: Sessions and Clients and Crashes, Oh My!  [More]
  6. Introducing the Adobe ColdFusion Extensions for Eclipse  [More]
  7. CF 8 Multi-User Admin and RDS Feature  [More]

2008 (created or last presented in)

  1. ColdFusion 8: Best-Kept Secrets  [More]
  2. Interactive Step Debugging with the CF8 Debugger  [More]
  3. Developing with Eclipse and CF Extensions  [More]
  4. CF911: CF8/9 Enterprise Server Monitor Introduction  [More]
  5. Continuous Server Analysis: Keeping ColdFusion Servers Healthy!  [More]
  6. CF911: CF8/9 Enterprise Server Monitor Hidden Gems  [More]
  7. Step Debugging in CF 6/7/8 with the CF8 Debugger and FusionDebug  [More]
  8. Leveraging RDS in Eclipse, DW, and HS+: Secure, Useful  [More]

2007 (created or last presented in)

  1. Hidden Gems in CF8  [More]
  2. Understanding, Improving, and Resolving Issues with the SQL Server Procedure Cache  [More]
  3. New in CFMX 6, 7 - What did you miss? (CFunited Preview)  [More]
  4. Introducing the CF Admin - CFUnited Bootcamp session  [More]
  5. FusionReactor and FusionDebug - Professional Monitoring and Debugging tools for CF 6,7 and 8!  [More]
  6. Understanding, Improving, and Resolving Issues with Database Prepared Statements (or the Performance Impact of CFQUERYPARAM)  [More]
  7. "Caching in" on CF Performance  [More]

2006 (created or last presented in)

  1. Taking Your SQL Beyond Simple SELECTs and (Inner) Joins  [More]
  2. Step through your CFML code with FusionDebug  [More]
  3. Understanding SQL Server 2005 ReportBuilder  [More]
  4. Creating and Consuming Web Services in CFML  [More]
  5. CFML Web Services Tips and Tricks  [More]
  6. Making the Most of Dreamweaver MX/8, CF Studio, and HomeSite+  [More]
  7. Deploying CFML Natively on .NET  [More]

2005 (created or last presented in)

  1. Laszlo and WebOrb: Alternatives for Flash Integration for ColdFusion and BlueDragon  [More]
  2. Integrating CFML and ASP.NET  [More]
  3. Leveraging .Net Strengths from CFML (daylong course)  [More]
  4. SeeFusion: CFML Monitoring and Troubleshooting for BlueDragon and ColdFusion  [More]

2004 (created or last presented in)

  1. Building Web Services with CFML  [More]
  2. Secret Powers of Includes  [More]
  3. Secret Powers of Session Handling in CFML  [More]
  4. Introducing BlueDragon  [More]
  5. Deploying CFML on J2EE with BlueDragon  [More]
  6. Database 2: Slicing and Dicing Data in CF and SQL  [More]
  7. Database 1: Using Databases in CF and SQL Basics  [More]
  8. HomeSite+ for CF Studio Fans  [More]
  9. More Flexible Testing Against BlueDragon, CF5, and CFMX  [More]

2003 (created or last presented in)

  1. Browsing Within CF Studio and HomeSite+  [More]
  2. Deploying Fusebox w/BlueDragon  [More]
  3. Deploying CFML w/BlueDragon  [More]
  4. Intro to JSP for CFML Developers  [More]
  5. Augmenting Application.cfm with Filters  [More]
  6. CF RDS: From Stress to Success  [More]
  7. Flash for CFers: Getting Over the Hump  [More]
  8. Dreamweaver MX for Studio/HomeSite Users  [More]

2002 (created or last presented in)

  1. Using JSP Custom Tags in CFMX  [More]
  2. Overview of CF Security Options  [More]
  3. Incorporating JSP Custom Tags into Your Web Apps  [More]
  4. ColdFusion MX Hidden Gems  [More]
  5. ColdFusion Performance Testing and Tuning  [More]
  6. Java Web App Performance Testing and Tuning  [More]
  7. User Defined Functions in CF5: Best Practices and More  [More]
  8. Toward Better Error Handling  [More]
  9. Wireless Possibilities for CF Programmers  [More]
  10. E-Testing: Debugging Your CF Apps  [More]
  11. CF5 in Depth: Opportunities and Challenges, One Day Seminar  [More]
  12. Marrying ColdFusion and Java  [More]
  13. Toward Better CF Server Administration  [More]
  14. ColdFusion 5 Hidden Gems: What You May Not Know  [More]

2001 (created or last presented in)

  1. The Wonderful World of Wireless  [More]
  2. Lighting the Shadows: A Roundtable on Overcoming Fusebox Objections  [More]
  3. Database 3: Improving Database Processing  [More]
  4. Slicing and Dicing Data in CF and SQL- Part 2  [More]
  5. Slicing and Dicing Data in CF and SQL- Part 1  [More]
  6. What's New in CF5: More than you'd think  [More]
  7. CF Hidden Gems  [More]
  8. CF and JSP   [More]
  9. Real World WAP Development, Issues and Challenges for WAP Developers  [More]
  10. Getting Started with WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) and WML  [More]
  11. Server-side Source Code Control: It really can work!  [More]

2000 (created or last presented in)

  1. Common Problems Developing Wireless Applications  [More]
  2. Creating and Using ColdFusion Custom Tags  [More]
  3. CF- Just the Basics   [More]
  4. Building Dynamic WAP Applications with ColdFusion  [More]
  5. Building Wireless (WML) Apps With ColdFusion  [More]
  6. Helping Yourself, Resources for Learning and Getting Questions Answered  [More]

1999 (created or last presented in)

  1. DatabaseBlocks Wizard Tool   [More]
  2. Web Application Development with ColdFusion  [More]
  3. Potpourri of Topics   [More]
  4. Hidden Gems in 4.01  [More]
  5. Setting Up and Using the CF Studio Debugger   [More]
  6. Using the Studio Query Builder   [More]
  7. Stored Procedures in Access? Yes indeed!  [More]
  8. Journeyman CF  [More]

1998 (created or last presented in)

  1. Remote Development in ColdFusion: More than Meets the Eye  [More]
  2. Version Control in ColdFusion: It's Free, and Not Just For Teams Anymore   [More]

Details of the talks he has presented

2024 (created in, last presented in, or to be presented in 2024)

Understanding cflocks: how they work/how they can help or hurt (shareable link)
Presented at Adobe CF Summit 2024, Las Vegas

Slidedeck: PDF

Recording: CFSummit sessions are not recorded live but are typically offered again in an Online Summit a few months later

Description:
Whether you're a CF developer or are managing a CF application, it's in your interest to understand the CF lock (cflock) feature: both how they work AND how they can hurt. And whether your app may have hundreds of locks, or only one, unless it truly has none it's something most folks should be more familiar with (and if you have none, that could be hurting you for different reasons). There are a LOT of misconceptions about locks.

In this session, veteran CF server troubleshooter will lead you through the many considerations of cflocks (or "lock" in cfscript): first how they work (whether "readonly" or "exclusive") and why they're useful--as well as when they're an anti-pattern, then how named locks differ from scope locks (and how those do NOT lock access to a scope!), then how lock timeouts work (they do NOT control how long a lock is "held"!) and why it can be TERRIBLE to use cflock's throwontimeout="false", and more. We'll also cover the need of better diagnosis about locks, in terms of how long requests might either HOLD or be BLOCKED by locks, which can be "silent killers" of app performance.
Using Redis for session storage in CF and Lucee: why, and how it's easily done (shareable link)
Presented at CFCamp 2024, June 2024, Munich, Germany; Adobe CF Summit 2024, Las Vegas;

Slidedeck: PDF for 2024 CF Summit; PDF from 2024 CFCamp

Recording: CFCamp recordings are typically available at first only to registrants or via purchase, then are released publcly about a year later; CFSummit sessions are not recorded live but are typically offered again in an Online Summit a few months later

Description:
Did you know that you can setup CF and Lucee so that if they are restarted, your user's sessions are not lost? It requires zero code changes, just admin configuration. And did you know it's been possible for CF since CF2016? Oh, and this CF Redis sessions feature works on CF Standard as well Enterprise and the free Developer edition of course.

In this session, Charlie Arehart will show how easy this is to setup and use. He'll discuss how to configure it in both CF and Lucee, and since that's so easy he'll also discuss and demonstrate options for setting up a Redis server (on Linux, Windows, or Mac) or using a Redis service (including zero-cost options for testing or production). He'll also address various other important aspects of using this Redis sessions feature.
Key points: (Show/hide)
Options for running Redis (or Valkey, etc.), locally or as-a-service (shareable link)
To be presented at Online CF Meetup, Sep 2024

Slidedeck: PDF

Recording: Youtube recording of CFMeetup presentation (livestream recording available immediately after meeting);

Description:
You may be considering use of Redis (or alternatives like Valkey), whether for caching or as a document store/db or as an alternative repository for sessions (such as is an option for ColdFusion sessions since CF2016). But before you can USE Redis you need to have some IMPLEMENTATION of it. In this session, veteran server troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will review different approaches for implementing Redis (and/or Valkey, and other plug-compatible replacements): with most approaches being free, while some come at a cost.

We'll review options first for installing it (including challenges and solutions for Windows machines), then options for running it via Docker/containers, or finally on a VM (or WSL). Then we'll identify cloud service implementations of Redis, and not only from AWS, Azure, and GCP, but also online services focused specifically on offering Redis (or alternatives) as-a-service--some free and some at a cost. Different options will appeal to different folks, but you really can be at least testing/demonstrating your possible use of Redis within minutes, for free, and that's the main motivation for this talk. (I have another talk focused more on using Redis for sessions in CF and Lucee. This talk supplements that one.)
CF Scheduled Tasks: there's more than you may know (shareable link)
Presented at Online CF Meetup Aug 8 2024, Hawaii CF Meetup (online) Jul 28 2023

Slidedeck: PDF

Recording: Connect recording from 2023 Hawaii Meetup

Description:
If folks were asked to discuss CF scheduled tasks, I suspect most would feel "there's not much to say". But there really is a lot more to working with them than simply "setting a given url to run on a given schedule" (did you know it could be a CFC, for instance? Did you know about the cron time feature? Did you know about clustering scheduled tasks--even with ColdFusion Standard?). Besides there being more features than many may realize, there are also some common problems people face when running them, and there are tools and techniques to help with that.

In this talk, veteran CF troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will address all these and more, starting with several ways to create them (yes, even more than just cfschedule and the CF Admin UI) then more on those more advanced/easily missed features, as well as tools and techniques for solving common problems with them. We'll also explore configuration files and features for managing tasks. Finally we'll also cover ways CF scheduled tasks may seem to NOT work and discuss alternatives to them.
Migrating CF Admin settings between versions, safely (shareable link)
Presented at Online CF Meetup, Aug 2024; Adobe CF Summit East 2024, Apr 2024, Washington DC;

Slidedeck: PDF

Recording: Youtube recording of CFMeetup presentation; sessions at CF Summit East were not recorded

Description:
When moving from one CF version to another (or even to the same version but from one machine or instance to another), someone will face the need to "bring along" the CF Admin settings, including such things as datasources, scheduled tasks, mappings, and so on. How can that be done quickly and safely? (Note that you should NOT just "copy over the neo xml files", nor must you "open two tabs/screens and start copy/pasting between them".) Did you know there are a few different ways to migrate admin settings safely—one of which is new starting with CF2021?

In this session, veteran CF troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will walk through these options, some old and some new, some built into CF and some freely available. We'll also cover briefly COMPARING CF Admin settings between two CF instances—again, other than just eyeballing two tabs/screens—as such a comparison can be very helpful to check things whether before or after such a migration.
FusionReactor Vendor talk: Revolutionizing Monitoring with AI, A Journey Towards Proactive Problem-Solving (shareable link)
Presented at CFCamp 2024, June 2024, Munich, Germany;

Slidedeck: PDF

Recordings: CFCamp recordings are typically available at first only to registrants or via purchase, then are released publcly about a year later)

Description:
(Vendor presentation for Intergral, offered at CFCamp 2024 in David Tattersall's place.) This presentation offers a deep dive into the transformative potential of AI in application monitoring. We explore the shift from traditional reactive approaches to proactive, AI-driven monitoring.
Demonstrating Monitoring Solutions for CF and Lucee (shareable link)
Presented at Into the Box 2024, May 2024, Washington DC;

Slidedeck: PDF

Recording: CFCasts recording (IntotheBox recordings are typically offered initially just for conference attendees)

Description:
In this talk, Charlie will focus instead on actually demonstrating these various tools, showing some key observations/metrics you can view, get alerts about, and more. You'll come away appreciating what's possible and how easily it can be found—if you know where to look. He'll also cover how some of the tools have evolved since the last talk, as he shares here his experience from helping thousands of folks leverage such tools and techniques daily, whether they're running on servers, containers, or via CommandBox.

This is a follow-on to Charlie's 2021 ITB talk, "Monitoring Solutions for CF and Lucee". In that presentation, he offered considerable detail about the variety of monitoring solutions available to solve various common troubleshooting and tuning problems, including tools built-into CF/Lucee or Java as well as tools that could be added—both free and commercial. As can happen, it was heavy on info, considerations, and resources.
Optimizing Adobe ColdFusion with FusionReactor APM: Unlocking Superior Performance and Reliability for your Applications (shareable link)
Presented at Adobe CF Summit East 2024, Apr 2024, Washington DC;

Slidedeck: PDF

Recording: sessions at CF Summit East were not recorded

Description:
(Sponsor talk for Intergral at CF Summit East 2024)
Join us for an insightful session led by Charlie Arehart, a veteran ColdFusion monitoring and troubleshooting expert, as we delve into the transformative capabilities of FusionReactor APM. In a time when everyone demands the utmost in performance, and reliability, FusionReactor stands out as the premier monitoring tool designed to meet these critical needs.

This presentation will not only introduce you to the advanced features and benefits of FusionReactor APM but also showcase a compelling case study of its successful deployment within a government setting. Expect a deep dive into real-time insights, troubleshooting techniques, and strategic optimizations - ensuring your ColdFusion applications run at peak performance. Whether you're a current user or new to FusionReactor, this session will equip you with the knowledge and tools to elevate your ColdFusion applications to new heights of efficiency and reliability.
What if no one is monitoring your DB server? (shareable link)
Presented at: Mid-Michigan CFUG, online, Apr 2024; Into the Box 2020, Online, May 2020;

Slidedeck: PDF

Recordings: Youtube recording from 2024 MMCFUG presentation; The 2020 ITB recording is offered via cfcasts and available to conference registrants and cfcasts subscribers

Description:
Are you having problems in your CF or Lucee web app, where you wonder if it might (or might not) be due to your database? Are you able to monitor what's going on in the DB? Is *anyone* doing that? Often, no one is watching, trusting that "the database should just work" or "that's the DBA's job". Maybe you don't have one. Does anyone there know how to see what queries/activities are running right now in the db? How about what's run most recently? or what ran an hour ago, or yesterday at 2:31 when your app server crashed? There are tools that may (or may not) help with that.

Indeed, there are "database monitoring tools" (some free, some commercial) for most any type of database, but some may only monitor very broad metrics, or conversely may focus on needless levels of depth. Sadly, most can't answer those simple questions I just asked. What can you do if you have no DB monitoring tools, or your tool seems to be lacking? And what if you may feel you "can't install a DB monitoring tool"? There may be better solutions than you think--and even if your DB is in the cloud.

In this session, veteran server troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will discuss this topic of DB monitoring, which he helps clients deal with about weekly. Folks come to him with "server problems" (about 200 clients per year), and they often have no insight into where the problems really are or how to solve them. Sometimes it IS a DB problem, and sometimes they DO know that--but they can't figure out "why"; other times they THINK it's a DB problem when it's NOT, and still other times it's a DB problem and they don't even realize it. A good DB monitor can help you know either way--and can help the DBAs and/or the developers.

In this talk, you will come away with several options to consider, and perhaps a new perspective on how to view DB monitoring.
Hidden Gems in CF2023 (shareable link)
Presented at Adobe ColdFusion Online Summit, Feb 15 2024; Adobe ColdFusion Summit, Oct 2 2023; CFCamp 2023 (based on CF2023 final), Munich, June 24 2023; Adobe ColdFusion Summit East (based on CF2023 prerelease), Apr 6 2023;

Slidedeck: PDF

Recording: Youtube recording from 2024 Online CF Summit; Recording from CFCamp 2023 via Youtube or via cfcamp site (the latter available only to registrants or via purchase}

Description:
It's that time again: another new ColdFusion version, and another chance for Charlie Arehart to reprise his classic "hidden gems" approach to finding what all is new that you might miss, like he's been doing since CF4.0.1. With CF2023 released in May 2023, Charlie had done a first version of this talk based on the prerelease, then has updated it for the final release. As for the topics to be covered, some may be modest features that few would use, while others may be pretty big deals but which just don't get much press.

There are always FAR more new things with each release than most people realize--usually dozens (and CF2023 is no exception), with more that often comes in updates to follow. Charlie will identify them, highlighting some, both from a developer and administrator perspective, and he'll cover also migration issues, pricing/licensing/edition differences if any, and more. And as always he will point to resources for learning more.
The Many Capabilities of CF Package Management and cfpm (shareable link)
Presented at Online CF Meetup, Jan 2024

Slidedeck: PDF

Recording: Youtube recording

Description:
You may or may not have heard that CF2021 added a new tool called cfpm, the ColdFusion Package Manager. It was introduced in CF2021, and while some are aware that it can help manage the new modular packages-based design of ColdFusion, many are unaware of the many features of this cfpm tool--and how this package management mechanism can be used to their advantage.

In this talk, veteran CF troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will introduce the feature (CF's package-based design and the package manager), including identifying the way it can manage the packages used in a current CF instance as well as in automating creation of new instances. Perhaps most useful, we'll see how the tool offers a mechanism to SCAN your CFML code base to identify what packages you would need. We'll also see how the tool can help with updating CF, as well as managing the update download "repo". And speaking of updates, we'll discuss ways the cfpm/package mechanism has evolved in updates since the release of CF2021 and in CF2023.
Updating the Java underlying ColdFusion: considering it, doing it (shareable link)
Presented at Online CF Meetup, Jan 2024; and previously at Online CF Meetup, Apr 2022;

Slidedeck: From 2024: PDF from 2022: PDF

Recording: Youtube recording from 2024, Youtube recording from 2022

Description:
With Java updates now happening quarterly (and one just this week), it's important that ColdFusion administrators and/or developers keep up to date on the Java version underlying their CF (or Lucee) deployments. The simplest question may of course be "how do I perform such a JVM update, effectively"--and it really can be quite simple. But there's a good bit more to updating Java (aka the jvm, jdk, jre).

In this session, veteran troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will share his experience helping people deal with this topic about weekly for many years, including:
  • Considering and planning for the jvm update: On the many "current" JVM versions; what jvm do you have, what can you update to, and why should you
  • Performing the jvm update: where to get it, which one to choose and how to install it, how to configure CF to use it
  • Avoiding various potential gotchas when updating the JVM
  • How to be made aware of new JVM versions
Whether you use CF or Lucee, and regardless of whether you deploy these traditionally or via Commandbox or even containers, most of this presentation will apply to you.

2023 (created or last presented in 2023)

Installing CF2023: choices, challenges, and solutions (shareable link)
Presented at The Online ColdFusion Meetup, Dec 2023

Slidedeck: PDF

Recording: Youtube recording

Description:
If you'll be installing CF2023, there are some things to consider before or as you do. First, be aware that besides the traditional full installer there's the new "zip" install option (added in CF2021). What's that about, why might you want to use it--or not?

Then there are are some options and choices during installation--some new also with CF2021. Perhaps it's been a while since you've installed even previous CF versions. We'll cover some of the key options to consider (including license activation, package/module management, and more) as well as post-install steps including updating CF and the JVM, and migrating in CF Admin settings (including using the new CLI/json admin config tool, cfsetup).

In this session, veteran CF troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will share his experience helping folks install CF thousands of times, including several dozen installs already of CF2023. We'll conclude with discussion of alternatives to installing CF (some which you may know about, some maybe not). We'll also open the floor to questions about other topics we might discuss in the time remaining.
Migrating apps to ColdFusion 2023 from earlier versions (shareable link)
Presented at The Online ColdFusion Meetup, Dec 2023;

Slidedeck: PDF

Recording: Youtube recording

Description:
While CF2023 has been out since May 2023, many orgs may only now be considering moving to it, whether from CF2021 or especially CF2018, CF2016, or CF11. Naturally, folks considering such a migration will wonder how have the latest version might affect affect existing code. But perhaps you're also skipping some CF version/s in your move: what might have changed in those versions (which would have tripped you up then) which would affect you now in moving to CF2023? And what can you do to mitigate such challenges? What tools and resources might help?

In this session, CF troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will share from his experience helping folks make such migrations the past several months (and for years with previous CF versions), whether in his role as an independent consultant or in providing assistance to the CF community. He'll cover things you can consider in advance of the migration as well as things that might help during or after the migration. Most important, this talk will focus on the differences between CF2023 and each of the past few CF versions that you may be migrating from. (Note that he has previously given talks on migrating CF admin settings, that you should consider also.)
The Many Ways to Run CF or Lucee (shareable link)
Presented at The Online ColdFusion Meetup, Jun 8 2023

Sliddeck: PDF

Recording: Youtube recording

Description:
Depending on your experience you may tend to favor running CF and your CFML the way you've "always done it" (perhaps by installing CF or Lucee, or perhaps via Commandbox). But did you know there are in fact several ways to deploy CF or Lucee, including ways to run CFML without even needing to do that? In this session, veteran CF consultant Charlie Arehart will identify these, starting first with WHY it's useful to have different ways to be able to deploy CF/Lucee and CFML.

Then he will discuss and demonstrate those several ways--whether you prefer to run CF on your own machine or another (whether hosted or in the cloud), to include even being able to run CFML WITHOUT need of CF or Lucee to be "installed" at all. He will cover such topics as installers (GUI and console-based), silent installation (and updates), Commandbox, WAR file deployment, container-based (Docker/Kubernetes) deployment, serverless deployment, as well as CLI-based execution of CFML, and execution via cffiddle and trycf, among others.

Buckle up, buttercup, for a fast tour of this varied landscape.

2022 (created or last presented in 2022)

How the Adobe CF Docker Images Have Evolved (shareable link)
You may (or may not) know that Adobe has offered Docker images for CF since 2018 (initially for cf2018 and cf2016)? But are you aware of how they have evolved? The configurability features built into them have improved in significant ways, especially with cf2021 (which is much smaller, faster) and whose admin settings can be configured via json. In this talk, veteran CF consultant Charlie Arehart will review and demonstrate those feature changes for the CF images, as well as the images for the CF Performance Monitoring Toolkit (PMT) and the CF Enterprise API Manager--all available at Dockerhub since 2021.

(PDF, Youtube recording from Online CF Summit [Sessions at the Summit in Vegas were not recorded])

Presented at Adobe Online ColdFusion Summit, Nov 16 2022; Adobe ColdFusion Summit, Oct 4 2022
CFMeetup 300th episode looking back and new direction (shareable link)
We did it, reaching episode 300! Join us as we celebrate this momentous anniversary. The Online CFMeetup was formed in 2005 and has been hosted since 2007 by Charlie Arehart, with sessions from over 150 speakers on a wide range of topics related to CF. In this session, we'll celebrate the past and look to the future for the group, where I will propose a new direction/format. All still about CF, of course. Here's to 300 more!

(PDF, Youtube recording

Presented at The Online ColdFusion Meetup, Oct 27 2022
Using Adobe's "new" CFSetup tool to manage CF Admin settings for ANY CF version (shareable link)
You may (or may not) have heard that CF2021 added (in 2020) a new command-line tool called CFSetup--but first, did you know that it could be used with ANY CF version, not just CF2021? And perhaps you heard its main value is to export/import CF Admin settings via JSON: it can indeed do that, and while that may excite some, others may yawn if they've "seen that elsewhere". (To be clear, it can export/import either ALL settings or selected ones.)

But did you know it could be used for far MORE than that alone? And did you know that those exported json config files could be used to set the admin configuration on startup of CF 2021 Docker images. Even if not using Docker, the tool can be a boon for all sorts of automated deployment of CF--again any CF version. And did you know you don't even need to install CF2021 to use it?

While the feature is well-documented (and offers its own help), who has time to read the docs, right? In this session, veteran CF troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will present and demonstrate the key capabilities of CFSetup, as well as others that may surprise you. He'll also conclude with a brief discussion of the similar (but different) tool, CFConfig, a plugin for Ortus Commandbox. He'll touch on the question of why one might choose one over the other (it's ok to use either or both with the same CF instance). He'll also contrast these with the much older CF "CAR" Admin migration tool. Each tool has its value for different needs.

(PDF, Youtube recording)

Presented at The Online ColdFusion Meetup, Sep 29 2022
Comparing and contrasting Docker images from Ortus, Adobe, and Lucee (shareable link)
Most who attend ITB may know about the Ortus Commandbox Docker images for ACF and Lucee, but there are in fact other container images available from Adobe and Lucee directly. How do these all differ? Why might someone choose one approach over the other? The Commandbox images may well do "all" that some need, but there are indeed differences to consider including such things as how they perform automated configuration, admin configuration (cfconfig vs cfsetup), monitoring config (with FusionReactor or the CF PMT), as well as such things as their CF/Lucee version support, ARM support, and more. (There's also more to ACF container licensing than most may realize.)

Whether you plan to use containers only for development (which is free, even for the ACF images) or in production--and then whether in a CI/CD pipeline or on an orchestration platform like Kubernetes--anyone using containers with CFML should get some value out of this talk, even if it's simply to be able to more completely present differences about the three alternatives should the question arise. While the talk does presume you already understand Docker and containers in general (their purpose, how to run them, etc.), we will conclude by talking about several resources which can help those exploring deployment of CFML on containers specifically.

(PDF [including updates made during and right after presentation], CFCasts Recording (available for all to view since Dec 22 2022. Prior to that, it was available only to ITB attendees and cfcasts subscribers.)

Presented at Into the Box Pre-con/Dev Week, Sept 2022
ColdFusion: More modern than most realize (shareable link)
If you listen to many folks in IT, you'd think CF is "legacy technology" which "hasn't kept up with the times". In fact CF has evolved in each release and even more so recently. In this session, we'll look back at how recent and past releases have added quite modern features which may surprise many—even those working with CF currently. And if you struggle "finding CF people" or "getting buy-in", these improvements could help you with both challenges. If nothing else, they're things designed simply to help you get your job done, while keeping up with modern practices.

We'll start with newer coding techniques that may be familiar to those using "modern" languages but which many don't realize CF supports--and in some cases it has for years. We'll then look at modernizing improvements to such things as CF installation/deployment, cloud integration, containerization, CI/CD, monitoring/observability, security, and more. Put simply: it's not your father's CF!

(2022 presentation: PDF, Youtube recording
(2021 presentation: PDF, Adobe TV recording)

(Original title was "ColdFusion at 25: not the kid most have stuck in their minds", but I found that clunky so have renamed it going forward, and revised it in 2022)

Presented at ColdFusion Dev Week Jul 2022; ColdFusion Dev Week, Jun 2021

2021 (created or last presented in 2021)

Hidden gems in CF2021, a year later (shareable link)
It's been a year since the release of CF2021, and also since Charlie Arehart offered his "hidden gems" talk at last year's CF Summit. Perhaps you caught his talk then, or not, and maybe you've started using the release--or still have not. Either way, there've been a number of updates as well as some changes in features since the release. In this updated talk, Charlie helps both audiences consider aspects of CF2021 that they may have missed.

(PDF, Adobe TV recording)

Presented at ColdFusion Summit 2021, Online, Dec 2021;
Migrating apps to ColdFusion 2021 from earlier versions (shareable link)
While CF2021 has been out now for a year (released in Nov 2020), many orgs may only now be considering moving to it, whether from CF2018 or perhaps CF2016, CF11, CF10, or even earlier. How have the versions changed, in ways that some older code may not run on CF2021? And if you're skipping some CF version/s, what might have tripped you up in those, though not really "new" in CF2021 itself? And what can you do to mitigate such challenges?

In this session, CF troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will share from his experience helping folks make such migrations the past year (and for years with previous CF versions), whether in his role as an independent consultant or providing assistance to the CF community. He'll cover things you can consider in advance of the migration as well as things that might help during or after the migration. Most important, this talk will focus on the differences between CF2021 and the past few CF versions. (Note that he has previously given a talk on migrating CF admin settings, and he plans a future talk on some other aspects of migration.)

(PDF, Youtube recording)

Presented at The Online ColdFusion Meetup, Nov 2021;
Considering Monitoring Solutions for CF and Lucee (shareable link)
If you're suffering performance and stability problems, there's no substitute for having SOME kind of monitoring in place. But there are quite a variety of monitoring solutions available for ColdFusion and Lucee. How do you choose? (Or are they "all the same"? No!)

There may be some monitoring features built-into your CFML engine (and free), which perhaps you didn't even know about--or it may depend on which version of the engine you're running. There are also commercial third-party monitoring tools, built for CF and Lucee. And there are still other Java monitoring tools (some free, some commercial), which can be used readily with CF and Lucee. So many choices, but which is best for you?

In this session, we'll review several of these monitoring alternatives, and which are available for various releases of CF and Lucee. We'll identify several goals (problems to be solved or features one may seek). With this information, one can better determine if a built-in tool may suffice, or better choose among other options that would best meet their specific needs, including whether having more than one tool (yes, more than one monitor against a single instance) may be the best way to satisfy different needs.

(PDF, and CFCasts recording [initially available only to conference registrants and cfcasts subscribers, but in 2022 those were opened to all])

Presented at Into the Box 2021, Online, Sept 2021;

(An earlier variation of this talk, under a slightly different name, was offered at the 2019 CFcamp and is listed below)
Installing CF2021: choices, challenges, and solutions (shareable link)
If you're considering moving to CF2021, there are some things to consider before or as you may install it. First, there's a new "zip" install option, in addition to the traditional full installer. What's that about? why should you use it? what are some challenges, and why might you not want to? We'll cover that.

Second, even with the full installer there are new options and choices, and perhaps it's been a while since you have installed even other CF versions. We will cover some of the key choices presented.

We'll also discuss aspects of migrating CF admin settings from an old version to a new, and touch briefly on the pros and cons of installing a new CF version alongside an old one.

There are certainly other challenges with installing ColdFusion, and we will also open the floor for questions about that and cover whatever else we can in the hour allotted.

(PDF and Youtube recording)

Presented at The Online ColdFusion Meetup, Apr 2021

2020 (created or last presented in 2020)

Hidden Gems in ColdFusion 2021 (shareable link)
It's that time again: another new ColdFusion version, and another chance for Charlie Arehart to reprise his classic "hidden gems" approach to finding what all is new that you might miss, like he's been doing since CF4.0.1. Some may be modest features that few would use, while others may be pretty big deals but which just don't get much press. There are always FAR more new things with each release than people realize--usually several dozen (and CF2021 is no exception), then more that may come in updates to follow. Charlie will identify them, highlighting some, as well as discussing edition differences, pricing, migration issues, and pointing to resources for learning more.

(PDF and Adobe TV recording)

(See a more recent revision/reprisal of this talk, offered in 2021, above.)

Presented at Adobe ColdFusion Summit 2020, Online, Nov 2020
Differences between ColdFusion Enterprise and Standard: more than you may think (shareable link)
Most people know there are SOME differences between CF Enterprise and Standard, but if pressed they may not be able to name more than a couple or a few. But there are literally a couple dozen. And while you may think you "don't need" Enterprise when it costs so much more, you may be surprised to find some things that could very well be "worth it" compared to remaining on Standard, whether for performance, or feature, or infrastructure support differences. Did you know there are things which used to be Enterprise-only but which are now available in Standard?

In this session, veteran server troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will walk through the many differences between Ent and Std. Is CF Enterprise right for you, or is Standard "good enough"? Could you even SAVE money using Enterprise rather than Standard? Each edition has its place, and there are even alternatives outside of ColdFusion which may provide needed functionality. In this session, those and the edition differences should become very clear so you can more confidently/accurately discuss them with colleagues, stakeholders, etc.

(PDF, Recording of Carahsoft webinar, or as a Youtube recording of the CFMeetup)

Presented as a Carahsoft webinar for Adobe, Oct 2020; and at The Online Coldfusion Meetup, Sep 2020
Migrating or Comparing CF Admin Settings, between instances, versions, and engines (shareable link)
Have you ever wished you could easily compare the CF Admin settings between one instance and another? Whether on different machines or multiple instances on the same machine, or even between one version of CF and another? What about between CF and Lucee?

And when you install CF, you may know that it offers to import Admin settings of a previous instance found on the same machine, but what if you need to migrate settings from one instance to another, again perhaps even between versions? Or what if you skip that auto-import and want to run it again?

In this session, veteran CF troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will walk you through all these scenarios, showing tools that are either built into CF or can be used for free, including one that's coming in the next release of CF (and which has been shown publicly already). One of the tools even helps with BOTH migration AND comparison between instances AND between CF engines! But each tool has its place and and may be new to you. Come see what's possible!

(PDF, Youtube recording)

Presented at The Online Coldfusion Meetup, Aug 2020
Keeping CF (and Java) updated: challenges and solutions (shareable link)
Are you keeping up on whatever updates are available for the CF version you're running (2018, 2016, or so on)? And how about updating the Java/JVM that CF uses? You should be, for security as well as bug fix reasons. And ever since CF10, the mechanism to update CF has been a single-click operation in the CF Admin--or at least, that's how it's supposed to be. But sometimes things go amiss, and you can be left with CF not coming up, or the admin not opening, or something in your app failing to work right which you may not notice for even days or weeks.

And the same is true when it comes to updating the JVM that CF uses: there are several things you can easily do "wrong" that will have CF not starting. And even if you do it "right", there may be something amiss (because you missed an important step) that might not bite you for some days--when someone tries to make an https call out of CF. And you may wonder, "what version of Java can I use with my version of CF?"

The good news is that there are answers and a few key best practices to follow in updating CF, the JVM, and wsconfig, which if followed can ensure that each is a quick and painless task. In this session, veteran CF troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will walk through all this, based on his decade-plus experience in helping people troubleshoot such problems daily. The session will apply both to those using the Admin or command line for such update mechanisms.

(PDF, Connect recording, Youtube recording)

Presented at The Online ColdFusion Meetup, Online, June 2020
Getting Started With The Adobe ColdFusion Docker Images (shareable link)
Are you new to Docker containers, or an old hand? Either way, did you know Adobe has provided Docker images since CF2016? Do you know how to use them, seen them running in Kubernetes, etc? Are you aware of Adobe's plans to dramatically improve container support in CF2020?

In this talk, veteran CFer Charlie Arehart will lead you first through a fast-paced introduction to Docker and Kubernetes in general, then the use of those with the CF images in particular, including showing communication among containers, orchestration of them, and more. He'll show easy ways you can start exploring in minutes, including options that require no software installation at all, whether for playing or for production.

Whether you're a developer or admin, a tester or team lead, interested in easing development or deployment, there's value in understanding containers and orchestration. Even if you're already using containers, you may pick up a tip or two in this talk, especially if new to the Adobe CF images. Of course, there's more to understand about Docker and Kubernetes, and Charlie will share several resources for moving forward in this burgeoning part of the IT landscape.

Please note I gave two talks of the same name at the CF Summit 2019 and Adobe Devweek 2020. The talks are different, though the same name, them if we could and however we would. I tried to remove some details to make room for new and different ones. Most folks will find value in seeing both. Finally, the description above is for the more recent version, and the links to each are offered immediately below.

CF DevWeek 2020 version: (PDF, Youtube recording)
CF Summit 2019 version: (PDF, Youtube recording)

Presented at Adobe CF Dev Week 2020, Online, May 2020 (replacing CF Summit East 2020 that was to be in DC); A variation was presented at CF Summit 2019, Las Vegas NV, Oct 2019;

2019 (created orlast presented in 2019)

Comparing Monitoring Solutions for CF and Lucee (shareable link)
See the updated version of this 2019 talk, which I offered first at Into the Box 2021, above, where I not only updated the talk in various ways (and tightend up the slides) but also re-titled the session instead "Considering Monitoring Solutions for CF and Lucee", as really even this 2019 talk also did more "considering" than "comparing".

(PDF; Recording [available only to registrants or via purchase])

Presented at: CFCamp 2019, Munich, Germany, Oct 2019;
Going from Zero to 60 with Docker and ColdFusion images (Day-long CF Summit Preconference Workshop) (shareable link)
Have you boarded the Docker train yet, as the new way to run server software? Did you know that Adobe (and others) provide ColdFusion images for CF2018, CF2016, and more? If you didn't know, you're not alone. Or maybe you tried working with them, perhaps only dabbling or ran into challenges that discouraged you. Either way, are you aware of the many powerful ways that containers can be used, whether for development, testing, research, or production?

In this day-long session, veteran server troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will guide participants new to the topic in a hands-on introduction to the world of Docker, especially leveraging ColdFusion images from Adobe and others. It's ok if you've still never even used Docker, and it doesn't matter whether you favor Windows, Linux, or MacOS. We'll cover some basics and then move quickly to your actually using CF and other images and containers, learning as you go, including tips and techniques that may delight those who've worked with Docker for some time (including solving common gotchas, and command-line tips, including alternatives to using that).

Most important we'll use real-world demos (on your own machine or via a freely available remote service that can be used for demos at the workshop or afterward) to help show WHY containerization is so compelling. We'll show how easily you can bring up and network together multiple containers (using Docker Compose), including use of different web servers, database servers, caching servers, Redis for external sessions (new in CF2016), CF's add-on service (for use with its Solr and PDFg features), CF 2018's PMT and more. We'll also see the power of easily trying out different VERSIONS of such services, and in various combinations.

Along the way, we'll learn how to use "volumes" in Docker, which allow us to reuse existing code and data with containers--as well as how to preserve and/or destroy generated information upon restarting instances. And since things don't always work well, we'll learn how to troubleshoot containers, beyond just using logs. For many, getting to this level of understanding is enough to open a whole new world of making productive use of containers, whether for development, testing, research, and/or production deployment, including CI/CD.

Finally, we'll show how easily you can get started in "orchestrating" all these instances, with multiple clustered instances spinning up and down based on demand and being watched with health checks, whether using Docker Swarm and Kubernetes (as well as some alternatives that are growing in popularity). We'll see especially how we can demonstrate both of those right on your laptop, or again using a free remote service for demonstration--and even if you may ultimately deploy onto some other production server or platform as a service (like AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure. We won't have time to explore each of those in any depth, but you will see how easily you can move to them if desired.)

Of course, like any IT platform, not everything is perfect when working with Docker and related tools/services, but it's a constantly evolving topic and toolset. We'll cover some of the warts that may have plagued past users, whether with Docker and related tools in general or with the CF images in particular, and we'll see how most such issues have been resolved or may be soon. We'll also touch on such diverse topics as licensing of CF containers, OS differences regarding containers, image registry alternatives, security matters (including storing sensitive data as container "secrets"), and more.

By the end you'll have seen how easily you can be working with CF on containers, literally going "from 0 to 60" in just the one day. And along the way you'll learn of ample resources for learning still more as you wish to expand on topics or get help on your own, whether you prefer slack channels, twitter feeds, mailing lists, docs, online courses, podcasts, videos, free online labs, and more.

(More details, including what software to implement and what containers to obtain in advance, provided to participants in the weeks before the workshop.)

Presented at: Adobe CF Summit 2019, Las Vegas NV, Oct 2019; (No PDF made available publicly, as a paid day-long workshop)
Hidden Gems in ColdFusion 2018 (shareable link)
It's that time again: another new version of CF has come out (CF2018), and it's time for veteran CF troubleshooter and presenter Charlie Arehart to continue his tradition of identifying "hidden gems" in the new release, as he's been doing since CF4. Sure, most people can name a few of the big, new features in each release, while others will lament "there's not much new", when in fact there is! Just as in every release of CF, there are always lots of things that go unheralded and which may be just what you've been waiting for or that may delight you, whether solving a long-standing problem for you or providing a new technique, and whether related to coding, troubleshooting, administration, enterprise integration, and more. Charlie will also help identify edition differences and pricing, as well as migration issues, etc. And as always he offers where to find out more.

(PDF, Links PDF; Video from CFCamp [free to attendees, others must buy access]; original PDF from CF Summit 2018, Connect recording [from Adobe Dev Week 2019])

Presented at: Adobe CF Summit East 2019, Washington, DC, Apr 2019; Adobe CF Dev Week webinar, Online Feb 2019; CFCamp 2018, Munich Germany, Nov 2018; Adobe CF Summit 2018, Las Vegas NV, Oct 2018;
Troubleshooting with FusionReactor, part 4: Post-crash Troubleshooting (shareable link)
In the previous sessions of this series we have talked about aspect of using FusionReactor which were focused on what it could tell you while problems were happening or starting to happen. But what if your monitored instance or server has crashed/restarted?

FusionReactor tracks up to 1 week's worth of information in the core metric graphs – if the server crashed or restarts, this information is no longer available (as it's stored in memory). But FR still has the information in the logs and it's still available in the Archive metrics.

In this final session introducing troubleshooting, we will focus on the aspects of FusionReactor which can be used AFTER a crash/restart of your monitored instance. In addition to two features which have long existed in FR (alerts and logs), we will especially focus on two newer features that can dramatically ease the process of post-crash troubleshooting:
  • Archived metrics
  • Alerts and logs
  • FR cloud: alerts and profiles
(PDF, Youtube Recording)

Presented at: FusionReactor webinar series, Online, Mar 2019;
Troubleshooting with FR, part 3: When requests are slow for less obvious reasons (shareable link)
In the previous session of this series, we looked at the features of FusionReactor that generally make it easy to see why a request or transaction is slow, but we acknowledged that sometimes those features don't identify the reason.

In this session we will look at a few of the features of FusionReactor that can be used to understand some less obvious reasons for slowness:
  • Stack tracing requests
  • Profiling requests
  • CPU sampler
  • Memory profiler
As useful as these features can be, they do all require that FR be running at the time of the hangup. What can you do when you are not able to get to FR during a hangup? Or if you are looking at it after a restart? We will cover that in the final part of this series.

(PDF, Youtube Recording)

Presented at: FusionReactor webinar series, Online, Feb 2019;
Troubleshooting with FR, part 2: Why are requests/transactions running slowly? (shareable link)
In the previous session of this series, we took a broad view at how FusionReactor can help you understanding what is or has been going on recently in your server/instance, especially in terms of request or transaction processing.

In this session, we will delve into using aspects of FusionReactor to help understand WHY requests or transactions are running slowly. There are some aspects which stand out quite clearly to explain a slow request, if you know where to look. As such, we will cover FR features like:
  • Request details
  • JDBC processing within requests
  • Other monitored relations/transaction types within requests
  • JDBC history over all requests and applications (recent, slow, longest, and errors)
That said, some problems will remain elusive, because they have to do with a request doing something that is not so clearly identified with these features. In part 3, we will move on to using features of FR that can be used in such cases.

(PDF, Youtube Recording)

Presented at: FusionReactor webinar series, Online, Feb 2019;
Troubleshooting with FR, part 1: What has just happened on my server? (shareable link)
In this session, the first of 4 parts, we will focus on using the key aspects of FR related to finding what is or had been going on recently in a given server/instance. And whereas some folks tend to presume that problems are due to resource issues like high use of memory or CPU constraints, often it's more important to step back first and look at the overall state of request and transaction processing, which may give real insight into the nature of problems (or indeed to confirm where there IS a problem, even when users or other monitors are reporting problems).

As such, this session will focus on making the most of these key features in FusionReactor:
  • Web Metrics
  • Request history (recent, slow, and longest)
  • Requests error history
  • CPU, memory and garbage collection information
There can be many explanations for WHY requests are slow or WHY resource usage is high. We will delve into additional features to better understand that in later parts of the series. In this first session, the goal is to get a clear understanding of the overall nature of problems, before diving into their causes.

(PDF, Youtube Recording)

Presented at: FusionReactor webinar series, Online, Jan 2019;

2018 (created or last presented in 2018)

Troubleshooting Common CF/Lucee Server Challenges (Preconference Workshop) (shareable link)
In this daylong workshop, veteran server troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will guide you through understanding and resolving several of the most common problems that befall nearly all ColdFusion and Lucee shops at some point, whatever version you may be running (CF 2018, 2016, 11, or earlier; Lucee 5 or earlier).

Focused nearly entirely on demos, we will not only learn about common problems (and their causes and solutions), we'll also review key diagnostic mechanisms that are either built-in or easily made available in both engines. Most important, we'll see how to connect what the diagnostics report to whatever may be the real underlying cause of problems and their solutions.

Among the problems we will address and see demonstrated are:
  • High CPU use in CF/Lucee
  • High memory use
  • Long-running or hung requests
  • Long-running queries (jdbc/ORM transactions)
  • CF/Lucee crashing
  • CF/Lucee slow to start or stop
  • Problems updating CF
  • Problems updating the JVM underlying CF/Lucee
  • Problems updating and tuning the CF web connector
  • And more
Among the diagnostic tools we'll see will be:
  • CF/Lucee/Tomcat logs
  • CF metrics logging
  • CFSTAT
  • Perfmon metrics (Windows only)
  • CF enterprise server monitor (CF 8-2016)
  • CF Performance Monitoring Tool (CF 2018 and above)
  • FusionReactor
  • SeeFusion
  • JVM tools
  • Other Java monitoring/APM tools
  • Server monitoring tools
  • Database monitoring tools
Students wishing to follow along with demonstrations must bring a laptop. Be prepared to work against your own local copy of CF or Lucee, in case the internet connection in the workshop may not allow you to remotely connect to your servers at work. Links to trial editions of the software to be used will be provided in advance or at the event.

(Because it's a paid class, the PDF is not being offered here publicly. It was offered to paid attendees, in advance of the workshop.)

Presented at: Adobe CF Summit 2018, Las Vegas NV, Oct 2018;
Tomcat Monitoring Alternatives, Pros and Cons (shareable link)
If you're responsible for running Tomcat (or are a developer or just a user of a Tomcat-based site), you know there are times when things don't work quite right. What tools are available to help diagnose and resolve problems? Many more than most seem to realize.

In this session, we'll look not only at such tools provided in Tomcat (and Java) but also others, ranging from free ones that expand on built-in monitoring to commercial ones that bring additional, powerful capabilities. We'll assess pros and cons of these many alternatives.

(PDF, Recording snippet)

Presented at: TomcatCon 2018, Montreal, Quebec, Sep 2018;
What was new in CF 10, 11, and 2016 that you may have missed? (shareable link)
Are you moving up to CF2016, or maybe 11 (or 2018 when it comes out)? In doing so, are you skipping over 11, or perhaps even 10, in that move?

Shops often drag their feet upgrading from one version of CF to another and may well skip multiple releases in the process, so that they may not have paid attention to what was new in the release(s) skipped. Can you name the top 5 or 10 features/changes in these three most recent releases? Are you aware of some key hidden gems? Are you aware of compatibility concerns in moving to any of them?

In this presentation, veteran CFer Charlie Arehart will help fill these gaps for you, highlighting the top features of 10, 11, and 2016, along with some hidden gems, as well as compatibility issues and more. (Whereas his classic "hidden gems" talks have gone deep to uncover a few dozen features per release, this talk will necessarily focus on just a couple dozen or so key ones in each release.) Including links to resources for learning more, you'll be in a better position to take full advantage of your new CF implementation.

(PDF, recording from NCDevCon 2017 presentation [50 mins], Podcast interview on the session [50 mins])

Presented at: Adobe CF Summit East 2018, Washington DC, Apr 2018; Adobe CF Summit 2017, Las Vegas NV, Nov 2017; NCDevCon 2017, Raleigh NC, Oct 2017; cf.Objective() 2017, Washington DC, July 2017;
Troubleshooting Database Performance Issues with FusionReactor (shareable link)
Have you ever wondered if database performance issues were killing your web applications? Whether running CFML or Java apps (FR can monitor both), did you know that FusionReactor lets you view the JDBC activity for every request? You can see the SQL in queries (select, insert, update, delete, etc.) as well as stored procedure calls, and the arguments to either of those types. You can also see JDBC activity you may not code yourself, such as the SQL underlying ORM calls, or the client variable database processing in ColdFusion or Lucee.

In this webinar, veteran troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will guide you through the various aspects of how FR can watch every query, including how such monitoring is filtered by default and can be configured to suit your needs. He'll show you the various places JDBC activity is tracked in the FR web interface (including powerful aggregation across and within applications), as well as how it is tracked in Crash Protection alert emails, and how such activity is tracked in the FR logs (on an aggregate basis per request, or even logging individual slow queries). You can even optionally have FR track the query plan created by your DB server for each query!

Armed with such information, you can better understand either hangups or slowdowns that may be caused by database activity. And while FusionReactor has no insight into what's going on IN your database or database server, specifically, it can arm you with evidence of when it detects slowness, so that you can present more factual information to work with DBAs, if indeed it helps clarify that a problem is in fact in the database.

(PDF, Youtube Recording)

Presented at: FusionReactor webinar series, Online, Mar 2018;
What's new in FusionReactor 7 and 7.1 (shareable link)
In this webinar you'll learn about what's new in FusionReactor 7 and 7.1. Did you know there were 20+ completely new core features and 100+ major improvements and bug fixes? Obviously we can't chronicle them all, but if you are either moving to the latest release of FR or have been running on it, you'll learn about many of the key benefits. Among the new features covered will be the new CPU and heap profiling, thread visualization, JMX metric monitoring, AWS cloudwatch integration, support for more frameworks, and more.

Among the enhancements we will discuss are enhanced tracking of request errors and calls to external resources, improvements to the interactive step debugger, auto detection of datasource names, and more. FusionReactor 7 also marked the production release of FusionReactor Cloud, and we will conclude with a brief introduction to that (covered already in another full webinar earlier in 2017).

(PDF, Youtube Recording)

Presented at: FusionReactor webinar series, Online, Jan 2018;

2017 (created or last presented in 2017)

Solving problems in ways never before possible, with FusionReactor 7 (shareable link)
FusionReactor is continuously adding improvements, but this year we have a real treasure trove of tools and solutions to mine. FusionReactor 7 adds many new ways to solve problems and keep your servers healthy, whether using ColdFusion, Lucee, or any Java application/server. In this session, veteran troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will share tips from his experience using FR every day to help people improve stability and performance, and without need of additional JVM tools or configuration.

Want to resolve seeming JVM memory leaks? FR 7 adds a memory profiler, allowing you to explore the heap, compare snapshots over time, plus more. Wish you could understand the Tomcat web connector better? FR 7 adds built-in support to view, explore, and graph JMX metrics, which can of course be used to measure ANY aspect of your application or your application server components which may expose metrics via JMX, all in the FR web UI. Want to watch your server's performance via AWS CloudWatch? FR 7 lets you export any and all metrics to that service. Want to fully understand what each thread is currently doing and know how long it's been busy? FR 7.1 now has a new CPU Thread Sampler.

FR 7 also expands upon traditional capabilities from earlier releases. For instance, have a runaway request you can't kill? You can now pause or suspend it! The debugger has simplified breakpoint setting as well as a brand new UI to make it easier to view current variables and step through the stack frames. There is enhanced error tracking for requests and queries, enhanced tracking of calls to external resources, and even little things like how you no longer need to use DSN connectionstring args to identify datasource names for queries, as FR now auto-detects them. And so much more. You can get a head start on appreciating more about FR features via the new "features panel" on the FR web site: https://www.fusion-reactor.com/feature-panel/.

FusionReactor 7 also marks the production release of FusionReactor CLOUD, a cloud-based repository and interface alternative that extends the on-premise implementation of FR, adding historical metric data retention (up to 90 days). It also adds enhanced alerting, including alerting on many more conditions and seamless integration with alerting platforms such as PagerDuty, Slack, HipChat, and more.

All these are on top of the recent important additions to FusionReactor 6, including CPU profiling, line metrics, production debugger, and system resource and NOSQL monitoring, which features add to the traditional APM, database, and end-user monitoring capabilities FR has long had, along with crash protection, high performance logging, multi-server dashboards, and more. All these together make FR a unique tool compared to traditional java APM tools, with FusionReactor 7 capable of solving problems in ways never before possible.

(CFSummit PDF)(CFCamp PDF)

Presented at: Adobe CF Summit 2017, Las Vegas NV, Nov 2017; CFCamp 2017, Munich Germany, Oct 2017;
More on FusionReactor Log Analysis via Excel (shareable link)
In this presentation, we will show you the fundamental steps of getting the logs into Excel, and then we'll go further with several specific sorts of analysis which can be done against such log data via spreadsheets, the kinds of useful troubleshooting information we can obtain this way, and we will take time especially to leverage the unique value of pivot tables. You'll see how easy it is for you to use such spreadsheet features, by demonstration of the simple (but not always obvious) steps to follow.

This is a follow-up to last month's webinar, "Making the Most of FusionReactor's Logs". In that one, we discussed the benefits of analyzing FR's logs (for post-mortem, trend, or spot troubleshooting), and we reviewed at a high level the many tools available to do such analysis. In this webinar, we will go deeper into using spreadsheet tools like Excel (though the concepts apply as well to OpenOffice Calc and Google Sheets).

(PDF, Youtube Recording, though video title shown there was changed by Intergral)

Presented at: FusionReactor webinar series, Online, Aug 2017;
SQL Server 2016 SP1 changes the game: things you can do now that were Enterprise-only before (shareable link)
As some may know, the recent release of SQL Server 2016 SP1 included a major change that enables nearly all features to work in all editions. In other words, there used to be features that were Enterprise-only (or Trial or Dev), such that folks on editions below that (Standard, Web, Express, and Express LocalDB) could NOT use, at all. Or you may try things in Trial/Dev only to find they didn't work in production if using one of those other editions, or Azure SQL DB. Now you can use many features previously limited to Enterprise-only. This opens doors to capabilities which will be very helpful, even amazing, to many.

And this is not just about features that are new in SQL Server 2016 but also some features from previous editions which are also now available in editions other than Enterprise (of course, you need to be using SQL Server 2016 SP1 to get the benefit of being able to use such features on an edition below Enterprise).

In this talk, veteran server troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will outline, discuss, and in some cases demonstrate the features that are now available. He'll also indicated the specific editions where they are, as well as why they are so important, and he'll conclude with some related changes of interest, all of which can be considered before leveraging or planning for this important change of functionality.

(PDF)

Presented at: SSWUG Spring Conference 2017, Online, May 2017;
Are spiders eating your servers? The impact of their unexpected load and how to counter it (shareable link)
For years, I've watched people try to tame "server problems" with a focus on their code, their SQL, the jvm, and so on. Yet often it turns out that the root cause is actually unexpected load. And that load may be from things you never expected (automated), at volumes you never expected. I've found folks with as much as 80% of their web traffic to be such unexpected automated traffic! Worse, there are characteristics of such automated visits that may actually have MORE IMPACT than "real users": for instance, did you know they create a new session/client variables, and run session startup code, for each page they visit?!

The good news is there are solutions to better manage (or simply block) such automated requests which may already exist in your environment, and tools you may consider (some free, some commercial) which can be easily implemented. There are even SAAS solutions that could help alleviate such problems with just a single tiny change in your environment! You may also want to consider some admin configuration options related to sessions and/or client variables, as well as reconsider some coding choices in your session startup code.

In this session, veteran server troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will guide a more detailed review of the issues above, including how to identify such traffic, more on these specific impacts, and most important identifying the solutions along with their pros and cons. He has helped shops achieve dramatic reductions in impact from such automated requests, resulting in greater server stability and performance.

(PDF, Podcast interview on the session (54 mins))

Presented at: cf.Objective() 2017, Washington DC, July 2017; Into the Box 2017, Houston TX, Apr 2017;
Troubleshooting JVM memory problems with FusionReactor (shareable link)
Are you aware of all the ways that FusionReactor can help you troubleshoot memory problems? They're the bane of Java-based applications and application servers, right? Actually, sometimes what seems to be a "memory leak" actually has a root cause having nothing to do with JVM tuning or GC algorithm choices. Indeed, there are many tools and techniques that many turn to when trying to solve such problems, as well as tips and gotchas that may or may not really prove accurate or true for your own problem. There are also a fair share of (well-meaning) myths that swirl around resolving JVM memory problems.

n this webinar, veteran troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will show the ways that FusionReactor can be used to understand (and indeed prove or disprove) JVM memory problems. Is there a problem with your heap, or might you be misunderstanding something you see? If memory use truly is high, what might be the cause? Or might you have a different kind of memory problem in another JVM memory space, like the code cache, or the metaspace (in Java 8 and above, or permgen in 7 and below)? Is garbage collection happening? Is it hurting? Would forcing one help clear up a misunderstanding? FusionReactor can show all this and more as we'll see in this webinar, and soon it will help even more!

(PDF, Youtube Recording)

Presented at: FusionReactor webinar series, Online, Jun 2017;
Making the Most of FusionReactor's Logs (shareable link)
In this webinar, veteran server troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will take you on a guided tour of the logs, with a focus on how to get to them (in the FR UI and in the file system), how to find and use the online help for the logs, and most important how to use tools to make them easier to digest. We'll start with spreadsheet tools (Excel, OpenOffice Calc) which can do a great job lining up columns, as well as offer feature to sort, filter, and of course sum (where appropriate) the data in metric columns.

Then we'll move on to the more advanced notion of pivot tables (or data pilots as their known in Calc), which can do a great job slicing/dicing the data, creating aggregate counts, and lots more. We'll wrap up with the nifty free LogParser tool from Microsoft (which lets you query logs using SQL, from the command line), as well as some other log viewing tools which at least can make it easier to view the FR logs in a nice columnar display. We'll conclude pointing out still other tools/services that focus on digesting/archiving logs of any sort, and then finally we'll discuss briefly FusionAnalytics, a sister tool to FusionReactor which provides a lot of the above in a single package, which we'll go over in more detail in a later webinar.

(PDF, Youtube Recording, though video title shown there was changed by Intergral)

Presented at: FusionReactor webinar series, Online, Jun 2017;
Are spiders eating your (SQL) servers? The impact of their unexpected load and how to counter it (A SQL Server-oriented variation of my CF talk on the same topic) (shareable link)
For years, I've watched people try to tame "database problems" with a focus on their code, their SQL, their app server, and so on. Yet often it turns out that the root cause is actually unexpected load. And that load may be from things you never expected (automated), at volumes you never expected. I've found folks with as much as 80% of their web traffic to be such unexpected automated traffic! Worse, there are characteristics of such automated visits that may actually have MORE IMPACT than "real users".

A common reaction on learning of this unexpected volume is to want to "block" such automated requests, and perhaps some could be, but most just needs to be better "managed". (And bad guys have become clever about looking like "regular users".) The good news is that there are solutions to better manage (or simply block) such automated requests which may already exist in your environment, and there are tools you may consider (some free, some commercial) which can be easily implemented. There are even SAAS solutions which could help alleviate such problems with just a single tiny change in your environment!

In this session, veteran server troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will guide a detailed review of the issue, including how to identify such traffic, more on their specific impact, and most important identifying the solutions along with their pros and cons. He has helped shops achieve dramatic reductions in impact from such automated requests, resulting in greater server stability and performance.

(PDF)

Presented at: SSWUG Spring Conference 2017, Online, May 2017;
FusionReactor: Post-crash troubleshooting (shareable link)
Most people think to use FusionReactor to troubleshoot a problem WHILE it's happening (looking at slow requests and queries, etc.), but they may find that once their instance (of CF, Lucee, or a Java server) has crashed/restarted, they can't see anything in FusionReactor about what went on BEFORE that crash/restart. In this webinar, veteran troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will guide you through using aspects of FR that CAN very much be helpful to understand and even resolve the causes of such crashes, especially via the FR logs and Crash Protection alert emails.

He'll review some specific examples of common problems and how to troubleshoot them this way. He'll also briefly discuss the separate tools FusionAnalytics and FusionReactor Cloud, which each show information across restarts. Finally, he'll show how there's even value in the currently displayed FR information, at least to compare what the logs show to what's "normal" as shown now.

(PDF, Youtube Recording, though video title shown there was changed by Intergral)

Presented at: FusionReactor webinar series, Online, May 2017;
Setting up and Using the FusionReactor Enterprise Dashboard (shareable link)
For users of FusionReactor Enterprise or Ultimate (or the Trial or Developer editions), it's possible to setup an Enterprise Dashboard (ED) which can watch any number of FusionReactor instances (Enterprise/Ultimate/Trial/Dev) in a single screen (and optionally from a separate server from your monitored instances).

In this webinar, veteran troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will demonstrate first how the ED lets you watch the overall health of one or many FR instances, how you can choose to see a subset of metrics about a monitored instance, or how you can drill down into the more detailed FR UI for a given instance. We'll then discuss the implementation and configuration of the ED, including how and where it can be implemented (pros and cons of various choices), and how to add instances to the ED (whether automatically or manually), and how multiple instances can be "grouped' within the ED for still better manageability.

The FR Enterprise Dashboard also reacts to when a monitored instance becomes unresponsive, and we'll see demonstrations first of how it indicates visually the overall health of the monitored instance(s), as well as how it can be configured to send an email notification of when an instance becomes unresponsive. The ED can even be configured to restart an unresponsive instance (and the determination of when a server is deemed unresponsive is itself configurable, as we'll see).

(PDF, Youtube Recording)

Presented at: FusionReactor webinar series, Online, Apr 2017;
Hidden Gems in ColdFusion 2016 (shareable link)
Prepare to be surprised! In this talk, veteran CF troubleshooter and presenter Charlie Arehart will continue his tradition of identifying hidden gems, this time in ColdFusion 2016. Sure, we hear all about the big, new features in each release, or some that wow certain developers (or disappoint others), but in every release of CF there are always lots of little things that go unheralded and which may be just what you've been waiting for or may delight you, and this is just as true in CF2016. Some may solve a long-standing problem for you, or provide a new technique, whether related to coding, troubleshooting, configuration, administration, enterprise integration, and more.

(Apr 2017 Adobe CF Gov Summit PDF, Oct 2016 CF Summit PDF, Oct 2016 CF Summit PDF, June 2016 PDF)

Presented at: Adobe ColdFusion Government Summit 2017, Washington DC, Apr 2017; CFCamp 2016, Munich, Oct 2016; Adobe CF Summit 2016, Las Vegas, Oct 2016; dev.Objective() 2016, Minneapolis, June 2016;
Troubleshooting and Identifying Application Issues using FusionReactor 6 (shareable link)
In this webinar, join troubleshooter Charlie Arehart as he shows features of FusionReactor 6 that can help in troubleshooting and identifying application issues, including such topics as:
  • Observing the current state of processing
  • Understanding cause of a slow running request, several techniques
  • Understanding a situation of many slow running requests
  • Understanding cause of a recent crash/restart
(Youtube Recording)

Presented at: FusionReactor webinar series, Online, Mar 2017;

2016 (created or last presented in 2016)

Configuring FusionReactor for ACTION (shareable link)
So you have installed FusionReactor now what …? In this webinar we will be showing you how to get FusionReactor configured and ready for action. We will be covering the more advanced settings and features in FusionReactor. Along with showing you how to you can get to the root of the problem as fast as possible to resolve your Java application issues.

(PDF, Youtube Recording)

Presented at: FusionReactor webinar series, Online, Dec 2016;
Getting Started with FusionReactor (shareable link)
Agenda:
  • Quick FR Overview
  • Installation and activation (automatic and manual)
  • Initial setup of FusionReactor (configuring instances, accessing them)
  • Using basic features
(PDF, Youtube Recording)

Presented at: FusionReactor webinar series, Online, Dec 2016;
Hidden Gems in FusionReactor 6 (shareable link)
In this webinar, we focus on the newest release of FusionReactor, FusionReactor 6. As with the other webinar, whether you are new to FR6 or have been using it (or one of its many point release updates) since it came out in Nov 2015, there are lots of hidden gems in every FusionReactor release and its updates which can make it still more useful for you.

(PDF, Youtube Recording)

Presented at: FusionReactor webinar series, Online, Oct 2016;
Hidden Gems in FusionReactor (shareable link)
Are you a long-time (or even a new) user of FusionReactor? Whether you're on the latest release (6) or an earlier one, there are lots of hidden gems in FusionReactor that can make it so much more useful for you, whether it's about some useful settings you should consider enabling, or some helpful information it can report. Some people go years of using it and miss some fundamental aspects of FR that give it unique strength.

(PDF, Youtube Recording)

Presented at: FusionReactor webinar series, Online, Oct 2016;
FusionReactor Sponsor Talk 2016 ("Keep Applications Online & Detect & Isolate Application Issues & Performance Bottlenecks In No Time With FusionReactor 6") (shareable link)
Another year and another major release for FusionReactor. FR6 introduces some amazing new capabilities which enable you to solve problems in ways never before possible, whether you're using ColdFusion, Lucee or Railo, or indeed any Java application or server e.g. Tomcat, JBoss, Wildfly, WebSphere etc. Come learn about such things as: the low overhead Profiler, which lets you see where the most time is spent within a request; the Production Debugger, which lets you interactively step through code, view and change variables and more, all without the bother of setting up an IDE and yet totally safe for even PRODUCTION use! We'll also have a sneak peek at FusionCLOUD (coming soon). And if you've perhaps never seen or heard of FusionReactor, it's a powerful and inexpensive tool that lets you do so much more, from monitoring your CFML or Java app server (every request, and details about it; every query, and details about each), to end user performance monitoring, to alerts about problematic situations (with emails showing tremendously useful status info, and the possibility of protecting against some crashes), to logs (that let you view these and other details over time), and more, all with very little overhead and including optional monitoring from mobile devices. Check out the free 14-day trial and inexpensive licensing by monthly subscription or perpetual purchase, with more info at http://www.fusion-reactor.com or come by the booth here to meet the FR folks.

(Oct 2016 CFCamp PDF, Oct 2016 CFSummit PDF, June 2016 PDF)

Presented at: CFCamp 2016, Munich, Oct 2016; Adobe CF Summit 2016, Las Vegas, Oct 2016; dev.Objective() 2016, Minneapolis, June 2016;

2015 (created or last presented in 2015)

FusionReactor Sponsor Talk 2015 ("Become an Application SUPER-HERO - Minimize Application Downtime and Accelerate Time to Resolution")
Despite the best testing efforts & due diligence of programmers, we still find that applications break, systems are slow and businesses are impacted, costing direct loss of revenue and indirect damage due to unhappy customer experience. The challenge is to minimize application downtime and accelerate time to resolution. The answer is FusionReactor.

(Oct '15 PDF) (May '15 PDF)

Presented at: CFCamp 2015, Munich Germany, Oct 2015; dev.Objective() 2015, Minneapolis, May 2015;
Updating/Hotfixing ColdFusion 11, 10, 9 and 8: Tips and Traps
In this session, veteran CF Troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will share some tips, tricks, and traps with respect to updating ColdFusion 11 and 10 as well as applying hotfixes in CF 9 and 8. There's a lot more to it than meets the eye.

First Charlie will discuss the auto-update mechanism introduced in CF10, and basically unchanged in CF 11. While it's "just a single button" now, there are still lots of ins and outs, including some unexpected quirks that arose after the release of CF10, so that it's really not (for now) that simple. Then there are some other gotchas that can trip people up, and while there is ample documentation of these things, the sad fact is that few notice or read the docs. So in the first part of the talk, we will review the ins and outs of updating CF10 and above, with the hope that someday it may well really be that simple one-button operation.

Then we will discuss the process of updating CF9 and 8 (and by association, CF7 and 6, so those running one of those releases will still benefit, but those are quite old and have their own vagaries which we will not have time to discuss). Again, on the surface, updating CF 9 and 8 should be pretty simple: you apply a hotfix. But as any who has done them will tell you, in recent years it became anything but simple. There are matters to note regarding individual hotfixes, cumulative hotfixes, and separately security hotfixes.

We will also discuss the available "Unofficial Updater" which can ease the process on CF 8 and 9. But Charlie will also explain a serious potential gotcha with respect to that tool, and one that can burn you on any release of CF depending on your configuration, with respect to a problem of your perhaps having multiple CFIDE folders. If you don't update all of them, you can easily find things busted.

The good news is that with knowledge comes power, and in his consulting practice Charlie finds that once most folks are made aware of a few key points about the ins of the CF update process, they can and do get them applied more successfully, from then forward.

(PDF, Youtube recording, from 2015 Online CFMeetup)

Presented at: the Online CFMeetup, May 2015; cf.Objective() 2014, Minneapolis MN, May 2014; Atlanta CFUG 2013, Atlanta, June 2013;
10 Common CF Server Challenges and How to Find/Solve Them
In his daily work of CF server troubleshooting, veteran CFer Charlie Arehart helps people solve problems that plague their servers, whether causing crashes, hangs, failures to start or stop, long-running requests, unexplained failures, including failures in applying updates, many of which nag and vex administrators (and often developers).

In this presentation, he'll present 10 of the most common and vexing challenges he's seen that plague most CF servers. More important, he'll present the solutions, all at a level that should be understandable by nearly anyone working with ColdFusion, whether administrators or not.

(PDF)

Presented at: Adobe CF Summit 2015, Las Vegas, Nov 2015;
Hey, my web app's slow. Where's the problem?
Whatever client or server technology you may be using, when your web app is slow, it can be maddening because it's not always obvious where the performance problem is. Is it on the client? on the server? On the network between? Is it all parts of the request or only some? If it's slow on the client, is it slow in all clients (if you support many)? And is it slow for everyone using the app? If it's slow on the server, is it slow in the web application server you may be talking to, if any? Or might it be in the web server? Or the database server?

In this session, veteran troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will help you consider these various possible performance pain points, and he'll share tools which may be available to you (many free, some built-in, some commercial) that may offer just the answer to the questions above. You can't solve a problem until you really understand it, and with the concepts and tools discussed here, you will be well on your way to identifying and resolving the real source of your web application performance problems.

No particular experience is required. Familiarity with web application development with any client and any server technologies will be sufficient to appreciate the techniques and tools to be shown.

(PDF, and May 2015 PDF)

Presented at: Adobe CF Summit 2015, Las Vegas, Nov 2015; dev.Objective() 2015, Minneapolis, May 2015;

2014 (created or last presented in 2014)

Using FusionReactor, FusionAnalytics, and FusionDebug to Solve CF Server and Coding Challenges
In this 90 minute talk, veteran CFer Charlie Arehart will introduce and demonstrate the "Fusion tools", FusionReactor (FR), FusionAnalytics (FA), and FusionDebug (FD). If you're not familiar with the tools, or are not aware of how they have evolved, you'll come to appreciate how they can quickly and easily help you solve server or coding challenges.

First, as for FusionReactor, you may wonder, "why do I need a CF server monitor? What if I already have one? What if I don't want to sit around watching a monitor?". Well, FR is more than just a monitor: its unique logging capabilities help resolve problems after a crash, while its alerting features can help warn you and provide valuable diagnostic info BEFORE a crash. It can even help forestall a crash in some situations. And in its monitoring capabilities are many powerful features you may never have known were possible to understand your CF environment. And FR is also more than just a CF monitor: it can monitor CF, Railo, BlueDragon, and indeed any JEE server (such as Tomcat, JBoss, Glassfish, Jetty, and more) and including Solr and the CF11 PDFG service. It can also monitor multiple servers from a single dashboard, including from mobile devices. And with FR 5 you can also monitor complete end-to-end performance (from server to client).

Second, as powerful as FR's logs are, they're made even more powerful with FusionAnalytics, which analyzes those (and CF's logs) to provide a database-backed means to quickly and efficiently watch metrics over longer times (hours, days, weeks, months, or even years), as well as to watch still more metrics than are available within FR itself. With FA, you can spot trends and hotspots that you might otherwise have missed in your own analysis.

Finally, while monitoring and analytics tools can help solve server problems, and might also point out coding problems, there's no better way to understand flow of processing in your code than to use an interactive step debugger. FusionDebug is a fast and capable debugging tools that offers features not provided by the debugger included in ColdFusion Builder (CFB). It also lifts limitations imposed by CFB: FD does NOT require use of RDS on the CF instance being debugged. And if of course FD does not require use of CFB, so it benefits those using CFEclipse or those not even currently using any Eclipse-based editor.

We'll spend about 80% of time on FR, with the remaining time on FA and FD, along with time for questions. Finally, Charlie will offer a sneak peak at the coming Cloud-based version of FusionReactor, which will offer even more powerful capabilities for monitoring your servers. With the "Fusion tools", your server is no longer a black box, and resolving problems becomes something you can look forward to, for having the right tools for the job.

Presented at: Northern VA CFUG, Nov 19 2014; (Connect recording)
Monitor, Troubleshoot and Protect Your ColdFusion Servers with FusionReactor
When it comes to running ColdFusion servers, you may find that applications break, systems are slow, and business is impacted, costing loss of revenue and indirect damage due to unhappy customer experience. And all this could be despite the best efforts & due diligence of programmers and testing efforts, and perhaps even the use of various monitoring tools.

The answer is FusionReactor, which gives you all the information you need to get to the root of your application and CF server problems. It also offers Crash Protection, a unique set of features to alert and guard against server crashes, so that you can start to take action before systems go down - as a result, your applications have less downtime and more stability, so that end-users (and you, and management) are a lot happier!

Join us for a one-hour complementary webcast which demonstrates how you can make sure your servers and application get healthy and stay healthy using FusionReactor!

(Connect recording)

Presented at: Carahsoft Government Webinar, Nov 13 2014;
Hidden Gems in CF 11
Prepare to be surprised! In this talk, veteran CF troubleshooter and presenter Charlie Arehart will continue his tradition of identifying hidden gems, this time in CF11. Sure, we hear all about the big, new features, or some that wow certain developers (or disappoint others), but in every release of CF there are always lots of little things that go unheralded and that may be just what you've been waiting for or may delight you, and this is just as true in CF11. Some may solve a long-standing problem for you, or provide a new technique, whether related to coding, troubleshooting, administration, enterprise integration, and more.

(PDF Oct 2014 version, PDF Sep 2014 version, Recording Sep 2014 version)

Presented at: CFCamp 2014, Munich Germany, Oct 2014; Adobe CF Summit 2014, Las Vegas NV, Oct 2014; NCDevCon 2014, Raleigh NC, Sept 2014
Monitoring CF: What are my options and why should I?
In this session, veteran CF server troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will present a session that identifies the various options available to monitor CF, from tools included in CF, to third party solutions. More important, he will explain WHY it's important to monitor CF, and some aspects of these tools that may give you insight to understand problems, which maybe you never even noticed was available in the tools if you've had them for years. He'll cover the CF Enterprise Server Monitor, FusionReactor, SeeFusion, as well as some lesser known tools. He'll show that these tools are for more than "watching a screen" but about alerts as well, and the value of the alerts and stack trace features to tell you why a request us running long, down to the current line of code. He'll also reserve a little time to show some of the key problems that can be spotted using such tools, and how.

(PDF)

Presented at: Adobe CF Summit 2014, Las Vegas NV, Oct 2014
Monitor, Troubleshoot & Protect Your CF/Railo Servers with FusionReactor 5
FusionReactor is the number one monitoring tool for ColdFusion, Railo, and other Java servers. If you're a long-time FusionReactor user, come learn what's new in FusionReactor 5 (whether 5.0.x, 5.1.x, or 5.2.x). If you've never used FusionReactor or don't fully appreciate it, you'll learn the key things it can do to help monitor, troubleshoot, and indeed protect your servers and applications. It's far more than "just a monitor", and FR 5 is not your father's FusionReactor!

(PDF - Oct 2014 version, PDF - May 2014 version)

Presented at: CFCamp 2014, Munich Germany, Oct 2014; cf.Objective() 2014, Minneapolis MN, May 2014
CF911: Solving Frequent CF Server Problems in New/Better Ways
In this session, veteran CF server troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will help you better solve some frequent CF server problems using tools, diagnostics, and resources that may surprise and delight you. Some may be new to you, some may offer help you never realized. Don't struggle guessing or googling for answers (which may NOT really be right for your need) when the right techniques may point out the exact cause of problems.

Whether you're new or experienced in such issues, are solely responsible for your CF setup or perhaps have others who seem to struggle, this fast-paced and information-packed session should help nearly anyone. Given his several years' experience focused solely on CF server troubleshooting, as an independent consultant to companies of all sizes and experience levels, Charlie has shared these tips with thousands of developers/administrators and found most of them to be new or under-utilized by most.

(PDF--2014 cfobjective version; PDF--2013 CF Summit version)

Presented at: cf.Objective() 2014, Minneapolis MN, May 2014; Adobe CF Summit 2013, Las Vegas NV, Oct 2013

2013 (created or last presented in 2013)

What's New and Different About CF 10 on Tomcat
By now everyone should know that CF 10 runs on Apache Tomcat. What's new and different about that? Sure, Adobe's goal is that running atop Tomcat "just works" and is simply better than JRun, and for many there will be no apparent difference. But there's no denying there are new capabilities and some differences. In this session, veteran CF troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will review and explore these new capabilities and differences.

He'll address such things as changes regarding web servers (the "internal" web server, now Tomcat's, and changes in external web server integration); config tweaks people have done in JRun and whether/how those are to be done on Tomcat; some things about native Tomcat don't apply to Tomcat as run under CF; as well as logging, configuration, and other matters. More than that, Charlie will identify new capabilities that Tomcat enables, some of which may not be necessarily identified as "new" by Adobe but which we might leverage.

(PDF) (2012 version: PDF, Recording from NCDevCon)

Presented at: Adobe CF Summit 2013, Las Vegas NV, Oct 2013; NCDevCon 2012, Raleigh NC, Sept 2012; RIACon 2012, Silver Spring MD, August 2012; Adobe ColdFusion Developer Week 2012, June 2012; Adobe CF10 European Road Tour (Scotch on the Road 2012), 5 cities, May 2012; cf.objective() 2012, Minneapolis, May 2012;
Locking down the ColdFusion Administrator: Your First Line of Defense Against Hackers
You've (hopefully) heard about the recent spate of attacks on CF servers. Some have even made the national news. And Adobe has indeed some out with a flurry of recent security hotfixes to address those. But as experienced admins will tell you, so many of those attacks could have been foiled if the admins had just taken the precaution to lock down their CF Admin from public access. Don't misunderstand: this is not saying that those hacked had no CF Admin password. The problem is that if your CF Admin login page is open to the public, you are vulnerable.

Adobe has closed more and more vulnerabilities related to this, what if a new zero-day attack comes out? Or what if you fail to apply the update, or fail to apply it correctly? Or what if you are on CF8 or earlier, where no more hotfixes are being offered? More than anything, what if you could take one precaution that would have stopped nearly all of the recent attacks, even without Adobe hotfixes in place? And would you be surprised that this is a precaution that Adobe has warned about for years (in security guidelines going back to CF8)?

In this session, veteran CF troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will explain how and why you should lock down public access to the ColdFusion Administrator login screen as well as some other key vulnerable folders. He'll discuss doing it through all the ways that your admin may be accessible, whether an external web server like IIS or Apache, or the internal CF web server. Indeed, don't think you're covered because you already have "locked things down". Charlie will show some ways that you may still be vulnerable despite your own efforts. With even just a little more knowledge than you may have now, you can protect yourself far more effectively.

(PDF)

Presented at: Atlanta CFUG, Atlanta, June 2013;
IIS 8 Troubleshooting Features for CF/Railo Admins
While the cognoscenti may run *nix/Apache, it seems that many (if not most) production deployments of ColdFusion do run on Windows/IIS. And while some folks are still just getting into using IIS 7/7.5 for the first time, more widespread use of IIS 8 (on Windows 2012 servers and, for developers, on Windows 8) is inevitable. And Adobe has said publicly they plan to add support for IIS 8 in CF10 in early 2013.

In this session, veteran CF troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will introduce several of the really cool new features in IIS 8 which will aid the average CF server (or Railo) admin in keeping their servers reliable and performing better. Among the features to be discussed will be:
  • New "Application Initialization" feature, which enables configuration of init tasks (such as running a first request for a framework-based app, which might take a long time and need to load up the app scope, etc.) And until that request is finished, a static "please wait" page can be shown. This can be done globally or per site, and was available in IIS 7.5 as a separately available module
  • New ability to block excessive requests from a single IP (as detected dynamically!), with the option to base that on an x-forwarded-for header (when in a proxy/load-balanced setup), and an option to abort the request (rather than reply with 403.6, as when IP address blocked manually)
  • New ability to limit CPU use per app pool, which adds an optional action to "throttle" and "throttleunderload" (where IIS 7 had only an option to kill the app pool, "killw3wp")
Still other features will be discussed. We will also highlight several hidden gems in IIS 7.5 and 7, similar to the above, which you may have missed (and can use right now).

(PDF, Resource document PDF)

Presented at: cf.Objective() 2013, Minneapolis, May 2013;

2012 (created or last presented in 2012)

10 Things That Plague Most CF Servers
In his daily work of CF server troubleshooting, veteran CFer Charlie Arehart helps people solve problems that plague their servers, whether causing crashes, hangs, long-running requests, unexplained failures, or which just nag and vex administrators (and often developers).

In this presentation, he'll present 10 of the most common and vexing challenges he's seen that plague most CF servers. More important, he'll present the solutions, all at a level that should be understandable by nearly anyone working with ColdFusion, whether administrators or not.

(This is an hour-long version of the lightning talk of the same name that he presented at cf.Objective 2012, mentioned below.)

(PDF, Connect recording of Chicago CFUG presentation--audio starts immediately, screenshare starts at 2:50 in)

Presented at: Chicagoland CFUG, Chicago, Dec 2012;
What's New in CF10 for CFSCRIPT Coders?
Among the several dozen new things in CF10 are several related to CFSCRIPT development. And beyond those that are only for scripting, there are also several more changes of interest to scripters (but which apply to all CFML developers). In this session, veteran CF troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will introduce these topics, which he's also written about in the chapter on this topic in the upcoming ColdFusion 10 Web Application Kit book.

(PDF)

Presented at:Atlanta CFUG, Atlanta, Nov 2012;
Hidden Gems in CF 10
Prepare to be surprised! In this talk, veteran CF troubleshooter and presenter Charlie Arehart will continue his tradition of identifying hidden gems, this time in CF10. Sure, we hear all about the big, new features, or some that wow certain developers, but in every release (of CF and CFBuilder) there are always lots of little things that go unheralded, and this is true in CF10 as well. Some may solve a long-standing problem for you, or provide a new technique, whether related to coding, troubleshooting, administration, enterprise integration, and more.

(PDF, Recording from NCDevCon)

Presented at: NCDevCon 2012, Raleigh NC, Sept 2012; RIACon 2012, Silver Spring MD, August 2012; Adobe ColdFusion Developer Week 2012, June 2012; Adobe CF10 European Road Tour (Scotch on the Road 2012), 5 cities, May 2012; cf.objective() 2012, Minneapolis, May 2012;
Lightning Talk: 10 Things That Plague Most CF Servers, in 5 minutes, with Solutions
In my daily work of CF server troubleshooting, I help people solve problems that plague their server, whether causing crashes, hangs, long-running requests, unexplained failuers, or that just nag and vex administrators (and often developers).

In this Lightning Talk, I'll present 10 of the most vexing challenges that plague CF servers. More important, I'll present the solutions. Yep, we can cover a LOT of ground in just a few minutes. You can listen to me now, or you can pay me (or other consultants) to help you later! :-)

(PDF)

Presented at: cf.objective() 2012, Minneapolis, May 2012;
Monitoring ColdFusion (and LiveCycle and more) with FusionReactor (Adobe Webinar)
If your CF server starts acting up, how do you go about resolving problems? If you're on ColdFusion 8 or 9 Enterprise, you may know that you have a built-in ColdFusion Server Monitor. Do you really use it? And do you find there are ways that sometimes you cannot? Did you know there is an alternative tool that supplements it well? FusionReactor is a commercial third-party tool, which can monitor not only any version of CF (6, 7, 8 or 9, whether Standard or Enterprise) but also Livecycle and any other Java web application or server in your environment.

Such monitoring is about more than "watching a screen". You can arrange to receive email alerts with valuable information (sort of a black box recording before a crash), and FusionReactor also creates really valuable logs that can also help with post-mortem analysis. They can also assist with deciding on CF server configuration settings, watch trends for hardware upgrades, and more. And as of FusionReactor 4, these logs now track information that previous only the CF Server Monitor displayed (but didn't log at all). Finally, an additional tool, FusionAnalytics, can help analyze and visualize that data over minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and so on.

In this 50-minute session, veteran CF troubleshooter and independent consultant Charlie Arehart will introduce and demonstrate these and other key features of FusionReactor (including stack tracing and crash protection), and will end with a brief demo of FusionAnaytics.

(PDF unavailable)

Presented at: Adobe webinar, Feb 22, 2012;
Introducing FusionAnalytics and FusionReactor 4
When your CF (or Railo or BD) servers are troubled, there are often a wide range of possible explanations, some code-oriented, some configuration, some load/traffic, and so on. To solve them, you need an equally broad range of diagnostic and analysis tools. FusionReactor and FusionAnalytics (from Intergral) offer just that, a range of tools to help find and resolve problems, including powerful ways to identify, plan for, and even prevent problems.

FusionReactor was recently updated to release 4, adding important features that even the CF Server Monitor doesn't offer, while FusionAnalytics is now available commercially, allowing you to analyze and compare server performance information across applications and over hours, days, weeks, months, and years, as well as obtain daily reports of server performance suitable for managers, and much more.

Working in complement with, or instead of, built-in ColdFusion troubleshooting tools, come see how you can improve your complete CF environment. Even if you may be famliar with these tools, you will likely learn important new uses that could mean the difference in your server staying up and running for days, weeks, or even months.

(PDF)

Presented at: Atlanta CFUG, Feb 2012;

2011 (created or last presented in 2011)

What's New In CF Zeus?
While the formal name for the next release of ColdFusion is not yet labeled "CF10", many are referring to it that way; but the code-name is Zeus. In this session, veteran CFer Charlie Arehart will present an overview of the key features as well as some hidden gems in the new release. Besides information that's been shared publicly to this point, Charlie may also get to share some new information with Adobe's permission. Plus, the Adobe team has continued to leak more and more things recently, so you may be surprised by what is coming. Come see how this next release has many abuzz with the substantial changes, including some that have been long-requested.

(PDF)

Presented at: CFCamp 2011, Munich Germany, Oct 2011;
Continuously Improve CF Code Quality, Server Availability & Application Stability
When your CF servers are troubled, there are often a wide range of possible explanations, some code-oriented, some configuration, some load/traffic, and so on. To solve them, you need an equally broad range of diagnostic and analysis tools. Until recently, most CFers could turn to one or two common types of tools, but lacked coverage across the entire software solution lifecycle.

The Fusion product suite from Intergral offers just that: from improved code-level debugging tools (with features not available in CF Builder), to new and improved request/resource monitoring (with features that expand upon and go beyond the CF Server Monitor), to brand our brand new server analytics tools - FusionAnalytics, which allow you to analyze and compare server performance information across applications and over hours, days, weeks, months, and years. Working in complement with, or instead of, built-in ColdFusion troubleshooting tools, come see how you can improve your complete CF environment across the whole software lifecycle.

(PDF of 2011 talk, PDF of 2010 talk)

Presented at: CFCamp 2011, Munich Germany, Oct 2011; Atlanta CFUG, Sep 2010; CFUnited 2010, Landsdowne VA, Aug 2010;
Understanding and Using the ColdFusion Server Monitor
If you run ColdFusion 8 or 9 Enterprise, or the free Developer edition, you have access to a powerful tool, the Server Monitor, which can help find and resolve problems in ways never available before. Still, some have come to regard the Monitor as sometimes itself a cause of problems (which is often not the case at all). When can you use it? What features should you be careful about? How does it help you when your server is unresponsive, or after it crashes? What happens when you close the monitor? How has it changed in ColdFusion 9 Update 1? In this whirlwind tour of the Server Monitor, veteran CF troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will share his experience of helping people use it and similar CF monitoring tools every day.

(PDF)

Presented at: Adobe DevWeek Webinars, Sep 2011;
CF911 ColdFusion Performance Report 2011
Starting a new tradition, veteran CF troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will present a review of the performance aspects of making various choices when working with ColdFusion, especially in recent version(s) of ColdFusion. Leveraging the important value of real load testing (as opposed to the less accurate conclusions from "large loop" testing), Charlie's annual report will help attendees appreciate the performance-related improvements of new/changed features, as well some older features where choices can make an important impact. Depending on the timing of the release of CF10, the session may cover its new features, but it will certainly cover some things new in CF 9 and 9.0.1.

(PDF)

Presented at: RIAcon 2011, Aug 2011;
Hidden Gems in ColdFusion Builder 2 (Also known originallly as "More Hidden Gems in CFBuilder 1 and 2")
In this session, veteran CFer Charlie Arehart will share dozen of tips and tricks (and a couple of traps) for working with ColdFusion Builder 2, in this updated version of his "Hidden Gems in CFBuilder" talk from 2009.

As before, the talk is not "what are the most important features in CFB". There are many we will not cover (because they're not "hidden" or easily missed). Nor will it be "what all is new in CFB2", because again there are prominent new features we will not take time to cover. The focus here is on things you may miss (often features within other features).

The topics will range from gems in installing and configuring, to gems in coding features, shortcuts, searching, and other miscellaneous gems. As always, it includes resources for learning more.

(PDF, Connect recording from CFMeetup, Recording via vimeo)

Presented at: the Online CFMeetup, May 2011; cf.Objective() 2011, Minneapolis, May 2011;
CF911: Pinpointing and Resolving ColdFusion Performance Issues
Sadly, it's a pretty common problem: something makes your CF app go belly up. Either the whole server hangs up sometimes, or perhaps it's some specific page or app that performs poorly. Or worse, the same page may be sometimes fast and sometimes slow. It can be maddening. What are you to do? Tweak the code? Change the JVM settings? Move off of ColdFusion?

Hold on there. That's the way many respond, but it's really not the right way. You just need to find the problem, and solve it. And to do that, you need to evaluate the right diagnostics (some that are available, others that can be enabled), then you need to connect the dots to determine the real root cause, and only THEN make whatever changes are indicated. Often, it won't be code changes, believe it or not. It might be CF configuration. It might be JVM settings. It might be something else.

In this talk, veteran CF troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will help clear the fog of war that often confuses people when the stuff hits the fan. He'll help identify and make use of the most vital logs (not those in the CF Admin), help understand how to make best use of CF server monitors, and discuss a few of the most common problems that befall CF shops. But all in the context of helping you find out what your real problem is, not throwing spaghetti at the wall to see if it sticks.

(PDF)

Presented at: cf.Objective() 2011, Minneapolis, May 2011;

2010 (created or last presented in)

CFUnited Keynote: CFCommunity - You're Never Alone
One of the hallmarks of the ColdFusion community has long been the way it's banded together. People helping people: sharing knowledge, solving problems, giving away code, pointing to resources, making recommendations, and so much more. Yet as powerful as that network of resources is, it's easy to presume, "well everyone knows where to turn for help".

In fact, a lot of CF developers do work heads down, in their bunker, on their own, just getting their job done. They miss out on these great resources, this great community, and their work suffers for it. Things take longer to solve, when someone may have the answer. They get frustrated with problems that have been solved.

In this session, veteran CFer Charlie Arehart will highlight many of the most important--and some little known--places to turn for help. An inveterate "resource librarian" himself, Charlie is known for being able to point quickly to where in the CF community a solution may exist. He's benefited from those resources over the years, and he's also paid it forward by creating more of his own.

Come find out just how many resources may exist that you've not known about. Whether you're new or experienced in CF,there's a suitable resource for you. You're never alone.

(PDF, Recording by Oğuz Demirkapı)

Presented at: CFUnited 2010, Aug 2010;
CF911: Stack Tracing CFML Requests to Solve Problems
Regardless of what CFML server monitoring tool(s) you have, or even if none, did you know that you can use a feature called "stack traces" to be able to pinpoint the exact line of code that a CFML request is running at any time? Did you know how to use that information to troubleshoot performance/stability problems? Do you know how to obtain that information either manually or automatically (such as during a crash while you're not watching)? Do you know how to obtain that information in any of the CFML Server Monitors (FusionReactor, SeeFusion, the CF8/9 Enterprise Server Monitor), or with free command line tools? And how to do this for any CFML engine (CF, Railo, BlueDragon, etc.)? Do you know how to interpret the information once you get it?

In this session, veteran CF troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will help remove the mystery from using stack traces. It really is amazingly simple with the right tools, and it can be incredibly useful to solve otherwise thorny problems, once you understand how to interpret the information.

(PDF, Notes PDF, Connect Recording from CFMeetup)

Presented at: The ColdFusion Meetup, Jun 2010; cf.Objective() 2010, Minneapolis, Apr 2010;
Hidden Gems in CFBuilder
In this session, veteran CFer Charlie Arehart will share dozens of tips and tricks (and a couple of traps) for working with Adobe's new ColdFusion Builder IDE.

Whether you're entirely new to CF Builder or have used it since its release, there will be items of interest for you. Of course, those with prior experience with CFEclipse will recognize some of the tips, but many will of course be unique to CFBuilder, and even experienced CFEclipse users have said they learned things in this talk.

The topics will range from gems in editing code, to working with files, to configuring the IDE; from troubleshooting problems, to connecting the IDE to CF servers and editing code on remote servers, as well as miscellaneous gems, gotchas, and resources for learning more.

(Updated PDF for talks after Sep 2010, Older PDF from talks on or before Sep 2010, Recording from Boston CFUG in Sep 2010 [75 minutes], Recording from CFMeetup in Nov 2009)

Presented at: Boston CFUG, Sep 2010; cf.Objective() 2010, Minneapolis, Apr 2010; The Online ColdFusion Meetup, Nov 2009; CFinNC 2009, Oct 2009;
CFMythBusters: Countering Conventional Insider Wisdom
In this talk, veteran CF troubleshooter and user group speaker Charlie Arehart will challenge various "sacred cows" of conventional wisdom about working with ColdFusion, often shared as truths by many. Ranging from coding techniques to configuration options to troubleshooting approaches and lots in between, this is not a talk about myths held by those outside of CF, but instead is a talk aimed at those who use it every day. Come prepared to be surprised by some things, or challenge him if you disagree!

(PDF, Pecha Kucha edition PDF (20-seconds per slide) for cf.Objective conference)

Presented at: cf.Objective() 2010, Minneapolis, Apr 2010; Atlanta CFUG, Jun 2009; Adobe Max 2008 CF Unconference, San Francisco, Nov 2008;
Setting up ColdFusion Builder Step Debugging
Some may know that ColdFusion Builder offers interactive step debugging, allowing you to step through code line by line as it runs. But have you had any trouble trying to get it to work? The good news is that you can nearly always solve the problem, if you know where to look.

In this talk, veteran CF troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will help explain and resolve the common pitfalls in using the step debugger. We won't focus on using the tool (he's spoken on that before), but instead we will focus solely on getting your CF server and CFBuilder setup properly for being able to do step debugging.

This involves a combination of proper settings on the server (RDS, Admin, web server, firewall, and other settings) as well as in CFBuilder itself (RDS, Eclipse preferences, projects, perspectives, etc.), and also understanding factors regarding where the code and the server are relative to where the debugger/Builder is.

Again, step debugging is not really new: it was available in the older Adobe ColdFusion 8 Extensions for Eclipse, as well as with FusionDebug, and for the most part, the interface for using the tool is no different. Charlie has talked about using the debugger before. While he may reprise and update that as a follow-in for this talk, those who want to see *how* to use the debugger can check out that presentation before or after this talk.

(Notes PDF [no "slides"], Connect Recording from CFMeetup)

Presented at: The ColdFusion Meetup, Apr 2010;
CF911: ColdFusion Tools for When the Stuff Hits the Fan
If you run a production CF server, you've likely hit a situation where the server seems to hang up. Do you know why it's happened? How to troubleshoot it? It may not be CF's fault at all, though it tends to get the blame. In this presentation, I'll point out a few tools (some free, some commercial, some built-in and some third-party) which you ought to know about when the stuff hits the fan. With the right tools and just a little understanding, you can be a CF troubleshooting superhero.

(PDF, Connect Recording, Downloadable recording (FLV) from CFMeetup)

Presented at: The ColdFusion Meetup, Feb 2010;

2009 (created or last presented in)

Surprises About Browser-to-Server Request Processing
In this session, veteran CFer Charlie Arehart shares a couple of tips that he offered at an Atlanta CFUG "lightning round" session of 5 minute talks.

(PDF)

Presented at: AtlantaCFUG, Dec 2009;
CF911: Tools and Techniques for CF Server Troubleshooting
Are you having problem with unresponsive servers or poorly performing applications? It doesn't need to be such a hassle. In this talk, veteran CF troubleshooter and user group speaker Charlie Arehart will discuss various tools and techniques to consider when faced with a troublesome CFML server (many apply to CF, Railo, or BD/OpenBD). While some tend to dig into code and to focus on improving code performance, or focus on JVM tweaks, Charlie's experience helping hundreds of shops over the years is that often the problems come down configuration, installation, and administration issues.

Rather than take random stabs at trying many different "fixes" often found on the web, he helps people focus first on gathering the diagnostics needed to identify the nature and magnitude (and repeatability) of a problem, using tools and techniques (and logs) that come pre-installed or can be easily obtained either free or at low cost. When you know where (and how) to look at problems, their solution often becomes much more apparent. He likes to show how CF doesn't need to be regarded as a black box, and why you don't need to rely on the question "is it up?" as a measure of the stability of your server.

This is actually a small subset of a full day class of the same name that Charlie has offered (at CFUnited 2008) and may soon begin offering online.

(PDF from CFUnited 2009) (older PDF)

Presented at: CFunited 2009, Landsdown VA, Aug 2009; CFunited Express Atlanta, Apr 2009; Adobe Max 2008 CF Unconference, San Francisco CA, Nov 2008; Atlanta CFUG, Oct 2008;
Using Apache Derby, the Open Source Database Embedded in ColdFusion 8/9
Learn about the Apache Derby database included in ColdFusion 8/9. A full-featured database with a ten-year heritage, Apache Derby is fully transactional, easy to use, and standards based and has the advanced features you'd expect in any quality DBMS. Yet it's small, at only 2MB. In this session, you'll find out how to use Apache Derby within ColdFusion, as well as about tools that work with it and where to learn more.

(Presentation PDF (CFunited 2009), Presentation PDF (Adobe Max 2008), Notes PDF (Adobe Max 2008), Recording from Max, available via tv.adobe.com])

Presented at: CFUnited 2009, Landsdown VA, Aug 2009; CFMeetup, July 2009; Adobe Max 2008, San Francisco CA, Nov 2008; Atlanta CFUG, Oct 2008;
Getting Started with Multiple Instances in CF
Have you wondered about using or trying out the "multiple instance" feature of CF (technically the "multiserver" installation option). Available in its current form since CF 7, many developers and shops still have not adopted it, perhaps because they don't understand its benefits, or maybe they tried it and got confused about the options during installation/configuration. Or maybe they assume it's only about creating clusters/load balancing and/or replication: it's not and can be valuable for many other reasons.

In this talk, veteran CF troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will introduce the topic, presuming you have no prior experience with it. (Note that while it's a feature of CF Enterprise, you can also use it with the free Developer edition, and he'll explain why you may want to.)

What we will (and will not) cover:

We'll address things from the ground up, starting with what the feature is, how it's evolved, and why you should use it in development and/or production. Charlie will demonstrate an installation from scratch, talking about the various choices presented, and proceeding to add another instance and how to demonstrate successful setup. He'll also show connecting the new instance(s) to an external web server and share tips about that.

Along the way Charlie will address such other practical concerns as how to share admin settings among the instances, whether and how to share jvm.config settings, how to find the various logs for each instance, why to be careful about scheduled tasks, how you can monitor the instances, and more. He'll also offer some recommendations that could vary depending on your setup, such why you might want to use the cfusion instance only for creating instances, when/why you may be able to stop and disable the cfusion and admin instances, why you may/may not want to consider sandbox security, and more.

We will not have time to discuss or demonstrate clustering, load balancing, and replication, but can mention it only briefly. If that may be what you'd want to hear more about, please know this is not the talk for that. Perhaps a later talk.

But you will be pointed to many resources available for you to further investigate more on all the things we discuss (with a warning to be careful about older resources which describe an older but still-supported approach to multiple instances, from the CF 6.1 timeframe.)

(PDF, Connect recording from CF Meetup)

Presented at: The ColdFusion Meetup Jul 2009;
Introducing the Adobe ColdFusion Extensions for Eclipse
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 CF8/9), 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.

(PDF, Connect recording from CF Meetup)

Presented at: The ColdFusion Meetup, Jun 2009; Atlanta CFUG, Apr 2009;
CF911: Sessions and Clients and Crashes, Oh My!
You may be suffering and not even realize it. As a consultant, I focus on helping people troubleshoot CF problems, and one of the most common (and least appreciated) problems people suffer are those related to having too many active sessions in memory or a high rate of creation/update of client variables (whether in registry or database). EVEN IF YOU'D SAY YOU DON'T USE SESSIONS OR CLIENT VARIABLES, this may impact you.

In this session, veteran CFer Charlie Arehart will explain the problem. Using live demonstrations and offering code you can use yourself for free, he'll show how to identify both the extent of and the cause of the problems, and various solutions. The concepts provided will apply to any version of CF (or BD or Railo).

(PDF (PDF is mostly just section heads. listen to recording for details), Connect recording from CFMeetup)

Presented at: The ColdFusion Meetup, Apr 2009;
CF 8 Multi-User Admin & RDS Feature
ColdFusion 8 Enterprise (and as of ColdFusion 9, CF Standard) offers a powerful new feature that many have missed and which hasn't been talked about much: multiple user access for the CF Administrator, and for RDS. As opposed to the traditional 'one ring to rule them all' single Admin (and RDS) password, this new feature provides for separate usernames (and corresponding passwords) and, more important, for each username you can define what parts of the Administrator they can access, including access to the new Server Monitor, the Administrator API, and more.

And for those using RDS, a username can be given to each developer to permit them access to RDS-based features in Eclipse, Dreamweaver, and HomeSite+, including query building, CFC browsing, server file access, CFML debugging, and more. Combined with the Sandbox security feature, such RDS users can be restricted in what directories and datasources they can access.

In this talk, Charlie Arehart will introduce these features, explain their benefit and some gotchas, and walk through implementing and using them.

(PDF, Connect recording from CFMeetup)

Presented at: Atlanta CFUG, Apr 2009; The Online ColdFusion Meetup, Feb 2009;

2008 (created or last presented in)

ColdFusion 8: Best-Kept Secrets
Learn about the enormous productivity gains offered by ColdFusion 8. Available for a year, ColdFusion 8 is such a massive release that many have yet to discover all of its features. This session unearths some best-kept secrets.

(This was a session scheduled originally to be presented by Adam Lehman of Adobe, but when he was unable to make the conference, Adobe asked Charlie to fill in, presenting an updated version of his CF8 Hidden Gems talks given in 2007.)

(PDF, Video, recorded at Max, available via tv.adobe.com)

Presented at: Adobe Max 2008, San Francisco CA, Nov 2008;
Interactive Step Debugging with the CF8 Debugger
In this talk, veteran CFML developer Charlie Arehart will introduce and demonstrate the ability ColdFusion developers now have to step through their code interactively to debug it on ColdFusion 8. While it's a plug-in for Eclipse, don't worry if you don't use Eclipse. You can continue to use DWMX or CF Studio/HomeSite+ for editing: just use the Eclipse-based tools for debugging. Charlie will show you how easy it is and the problems step debugging can solve. And if you're thinking you don't need interactive debugging, he'll also explain over a dozen benefits this offers over traditional CFDUMP/CFOUTPUT debugging, as well as tips, tricks, and traps.

(PDF, video recording (at CFUnited 2008))

Presented at: CFUnited, Washington DC, Jun 2008;
Developing with Eclipse and CF Extensions
This hands-on session is an abridged version of a unit in Fig Leaf Software's Adobe Moving to ColdFusion 8 course. Geared primarily for those new to Eclipse, you'll learn the basics of CF Eclipse and the Adobe CF8 extensions for Eclipse, including how to install and configure them and Eclipse. We'll focus especially on the Adobe CF8 Extensions for Eclipse, which offer features to browse CFCs and web services, build queries, generate code using wizards, and debug your ColdFusion applications using the Adobe CF8 step debugger. Some of the information presented in this class will apply to those running on CF7 as well.

Presentation materials were a chapter in FigLeaf's copyrighted "Moving to CF8" course, so are unavailable here.

Presented at: WebManiacs, May 2008;
CF911: CF8/9 Enterprise Server Monitor Introduction
Whether you're a CFML developer or a ColdFusion Server administrator, you can find tremendous value from the ColdFusion Enterprise Server Monitor, new in CF8 and mostly unchanged in CF9 (which works only on the Enterprise and Developer editions). If you're a developer and the thought of a "monitor" makes you yawn, seeming to be the province of administrators, you will show you the many ways that the tool can be of great value to you, helping you make much better informed decisions about various coding practices. You no longer have an excuse to "just wing it" when using some feature, tag, or function in ColdFusion.

And both developers and administrators will appreciate the tool's ability to help highlight the most troublesome offenders (whether CPU, memory, or database I/O) as well as to detect and notify when trouble's brewing, as well as the ability to monitor multiple servers. In this talk, veteran CFML developer Charlie Arehart will introduce the CF8/9 Server Monitor and its use with ColdFusion 8/9 Developer and Enterprise editions.

(PDF, Recording [at CFUnited 2008])

Presented at: CFUnited, Washington DC, Jun 2008; Atlanta CFUG, November 2007;
Continuous Server Analysis: Keeping ColdFusion Servers Healthy! (also presented as "Keeping your CF apps & servers Healthy")
People often wait until their server crashes until they do something about it. The stress and cost this creates are typically enormous. Often on consulting engagements one sees many errors in log files that have accumulated over time. Fixing the problem becomes an issue of finding out which of the many problems is the root cause(s) of a crash, and that can take time! There is another way. Continuous Server Analysis is a methodology using processes and tools to monitor, tune, stabilize and maintain ColdFusion servers. It's the process where server, application and page performance and stability are examined on a regular basis leading to the identification of problem areas, action plans and feedback to development and support. This presentation will focus on resources available within your ColdFusion server (logs and more) as well as available tools (built into CF and external) to assist in the process.

(PDF)

Presented at: Scotch on the Rocks, Edinburg Scotland, Jun 2008; CFUnited Europe, March 2008;
CF911: CF8/9 Enterprise Server Monitor Hidden Gems
Ok, so maybe you've started working with the CF8/9 Enterprise Server Monitor or perhaps seen some demos of, but are sure you really know all that it can do for you? In this talk, veteran CFML developer Charlie Arehart will explore and expose some surprising observations about the CF8/9 Server Monitor (which works with CF Enterprise and Developer editions). There are lots of nooks and crannies with info that may surprise you, including features you may have missed, or that are more useful than you thought. We'll also explore such questions as, do you need to worry about using it in production? The answer is, don't believe all that you've heard. One of many surprises uncovered in this talk. This talk does presume that attendees are already familiar with the CF8/9 monitor, such as discussed in his "CF8/9 Server Monitor Introduction", or his 4 part series at the Adobe DevCenter. If you're new to the CF8/9 monitor, you'll still learn a lot, but without the introductory background.

(PDF)

Presented at: cf.Objective(), May 2008; Atlanta CFUG, November 2007;
Step Debugging in CF 6/7/8/9 with the CF8 Debugger and FusionDebug
In this talk, veteran CFML developer Charlie Arehart will introduce and demonstrate the ability all ColdFusion developers now have to step through their code interactively to debug it, whether running on CF 6, 7, 8, or 9. For those moving to CF8/9, there is now a debugger built into CF, but it works only with CF8/9. For those on CF 6, 7, 8, or 9, they can use the commercial FusionDebug tool (www.fusiondebug.com) . Both are plug-ins for Eclipse which enable step debugging, and they're very similar, which is why Charlie will show them both in the one talk. He'll also cover some differences.

Don't worry if you don't care for Eclipse. You can continue to use DWMX or CF Studio/HomeSite+ for editing: just use the Eclipse-based tools for debugging. Charlie will show you how easy it is and the problems step debugging can solve. And if you're thinking you don't need interactive debugging, Charlie will also explain over a dozen benefits this offers over traditional CFDUMP/CFOUTPUT debugging, as well as tips, tricks, and traps.

(PDF, Streaming Recordings on 12/6/07, on 10/10/07)

Presented at: cf.objective(), May 2008; The Online ColdFusion Meetup Dec 2007; NSW (Sydney) and Brisbane (Queensland) CFUGs, Oct 2007; CFUnited, Jun 2007;
Leveraging RDS in Eclipse, DW, and HS+: Secure, Useful
Are you using the RDS-enabled features in Eclipse, Dreamweaver, or HomeSite+? If not, you could be missing out on a lot of increased productivity, from the query building tools it enables, to the component browsing tools, to enabling file access across the web, and more.

Perhaps it's been disabled on your server, or people may argue that it's insecure. If you could be shown how it could be secured, might you (or your admin) reconsider it? I think it's a tragedy how many developers suffer without leveraging RDS, certainly on their own machines, and even on shared servers.

Whether you think RDS evil or a blessing, or are unaware of what it enables in your favorite CFML editor, and whether you use CF 8 or earlier, there may be more to RDS than you realize. And there are solutions to security concerns, especially in CF8/9 but even beforehand.

In this talk, frequent CFUG speaker Charlie Arehart will show you all the ways that RDS can be used to make you more productive in Eclipse, Dreamweaver, or HomeSite+. He'll also address (and in some cases resolve) common security concerns, especially the multi-user RDS security available in CF 8 (and CF 4 and 5), as well as how to enable it if it's been disabled (assuming you have the right to make configuration changes, of course).

(Connect recording from CFMeetup)

Presented at: The Online ColdFusion Meetup, May 2008;

2007 (created or last presented in)

Hidden Gems in CF8: preview of half-day class
Prepare to be surprised! In this talk, veteran CFML developer Charlie Arehart will introduce over 100+ hidden gems in CF8. Sure, we've all heard about the big features, but in every release there are lots of little things, and in CF8 especially, Adobe has pulled out the stops! Seriously--this talk is NOT about the major features, and there are really that many "little things". Some may solve a long-standing problem for you, or provide a new technique. This talk is a preview of a planned half-day class. It will list all 100 features, but we only have time to cover the first 25%. If you're interested in all the details, contact him to express interest in the class.

(PDF )

Presented at: German CFUG Oct 2007; Toronto CFUG Oct 2007; CFUnited Express Chicago Sep 2007; Atlanta CFUG Sep 2007; Boeing CFUG Aug 2007; Tulsa CFUG Jun 2007; Minimax Conference at CFUnited Jun 2007; Queensland CFUG, Jun 2007; Auckland CFUG, Jun 2007;
Understanding, Improving, and Resolving Issues with the SQL Server Procedure Cache
Whether you're a developer or administrator, using 2005, 2000, or 7, there are issues in how SQL Server manages the procedure cache (the results of compiling SQL statements) which you should understand and which can impact nearly every query run on your server. In this talk, veteran developer and DBA Charlie Arehart will show how to introduce the procedure cache, explain why it's more important to understand than most realize, as well as identify and resolve issues related to it and improve its effective use. While he'll focus on a couple of specific new features related to it in SQL Server 2005, the talk will apply to all users of all versions of SQL Server .

(PDF)

Presented at: Atlanta MDF (SQL Server User Group), August 2007;
New in CFMX 6, 7 - What did you miss? (CFunited Preview)
Planning to move to CF8? Did you skip either 6 or 7? Or have you perhaps installed and been running on them but doing little or no new development? Were you paying attention as all the new features (and folks' experiences using them) were being shared? There may be a lot you've missed. Veteran CFML developer Charlie Arehart will introduce both the key features introduced in those releases as well as many hidden gems. It's surprising how many little things get slipped into releases, and point releases, and sometimes it's those which can be as important to you as any prominent feature. In his typical encyclopedic but pragmatic style, Charlie will help you make the most out of features you may have missed. Of course, this is just a 20- minute preview of what is in fact a day-long course. But it will give a taste of what's to expect and will provide value in and of itself.

(This is a preview of a day-long class I did at CFUnited 2007, purchased separately by attendees as part of 2 days of such day-long classes the Mon/Tues before the conference. I may consider offering the full day-long content as a separately purchased online or on-site class. Let me know if you're interested).

(PDF, Connect recording on CF Meetup)

Presented at: CFUnited Jun 2007;
Introducing the CF Administrator - CFUnited Bootcamp session
Whether you're new to CF or have been using it a while, if you've wished you understood more about the ColdFusion Administrator, this bootcamp session is for you. Veteran CFML developer Charlie Arehart will review and discuss the key features of the Admin and how to use them, including CF performance and security features.

(PDF)

Presented at: CFUnited, Jun 2007;
FusionReactor and FusionDebug - Professional Monitoring and Debugging tools for CF 6,7 and 8!
Are you using or interested in CF monitoring and debugging, whether on CFMX 6, 7, or 8? Come join the team that brought the FusionReactor and FusionDebug products to the CF community. Hosted by veteran CFML developer and CFUnited speaker Charlie Arehart, who will briefly introduce both products, show demos of current and future functionality, discuss how the tools fit in a marketplace of alternatives from Adobe and others, and have an open forum discussion to address any questions you may have.

(no slides available)

Presented at: CFUnited, June 2007; CFDevcon, Oct 2006;
Understanding, Improving, and Resolving Issues with Database Prepared Statements, or the Performance Impact of CFQUERYPARAM
Whether you're using SQL Server or MySQL, or anything else, there are issues in how the database server manages query plans, prepared statements, and the "procedure cache". This has nothing to do with CF caching techniques, though it can be influenced by CFQUERYPARAM. It's also possible to affect the behavior without modifying CFML code, depending on the database. In any case, this is info which developers should understand and which can impact nearly every query run on your server. In this talk, veteran developer Charlie Arehart will introduce the notion of the procedure cache in multiple databases and explain why it's more important to understand than most realize. He'll also identify and resolve issues related to it and show how to improve its effective use. Of course, CFQUERYPARAM is also useful for security reasons, but that's not the focus of its use in this talk.

(PDF, sample code)

Presented at: cf.Objective(), May 2007;

Note: a more SQL-server specific version of the talk, also not at all specific to CF, is offered separately above.
"Caching In" on CF Performance
Whether you think you have a performance problem or not, you ought to understand the many ways of benefiting from caching in a CF web app. And they go way beyond the common solutions of query caching, template caching, and page or partial page caching. Whether you know what those mean or not, come learn about more than a dozen other ways to leverage, control, and monitor caching in CF.

(PDF, sample code)

Presented at: Twin Cities CFUG, May 2007; CFUnited Express, Mar 2007; WebDU, Australia, Mar 2007; Atlanta CFUG, Apr 2006;

2006 (created or last presented in)

Taking Your SQL Beyond Simple SELECTs and (Inner) Joins
Many developers quickly grasp how to do Selects and (inner) joins in SQL, but often fail to get past those fundamentals, ultimately missing data (for lack of understanding outer joins) or writing code in client applications that would be better performed in the database. Charlie Arehart introduces important features of SQL that save you time and create more effective applications. Learn how to slice and dice data, including handling distinct column values, summarizing data (counts, averages, etc.), grouping data, manipulating data in the database rather than code and understanding the value of outer and self-joins.

(Powerpoint from 2006)

Presented at: SQL Pass Summit, November 2006; Atlanta Microsoft CodeCamp, May 2006; presented under a different title in various CFUGs since 2001
Step through your CFML code with FusionDebug
In this talk, veteran CFML developer Charlie Arehart will introduce and demonstrate the ability all ColdFusion developers now have to step through their code interactively. FusionDebug is a commercial plug-in for Eclipse (www.fusiondebug.com) that gives you that ability. No, it's not free, but it's a small price to pay (< $300) if you want to do step debugging. He will show all the features, as well as some tricks and traps. Don't worry if you don't care for Eclipse. You can continue to use DWMX or CF Studio/HomeSite+. Just use FD for your debugging. He will show you how easy it is and the problems it can solve. And if you're thinking you don't need interactive debugging, Charlie will also explain over a dozen benefits this offers over traditional CFDUMP/CFOUTPUT debugging. Finally, he has also arranged with the vendor to give away 2 free copies.

(PDF from 2006)

Presented at: The Online ColdFusion Meetup, Oct 2006; Mid-Michigan CFUG, Oct 2006; Bay Area CFUG, Sept 2006; Charlotte CFUG, Sept 2006; Atlanta CFUG, Sep 2006;
Understanding SQL Server 2005 ReportBuilder
You may have heard that SQL Server 2005 offers a new ad hoc report building capability. What's in it for you? How do you use it as a developer or DBA? What does it give to your end users? Or how might it help you or others in-house in building reports more easily--even if never exposed to outsiders via Reporting Server? In this talk, veteran IT developer, DBA, and speaker Charlie Arehart will introduce the new reporting capability, including the Report Builder tool, and the process of creating report models in the Business Intelligence Development Studio. More than just a quick walkthrough of basics, Charlie will share his hard-earned experience deploying the tool in production, including some hidden gems that may aid those with experience already using these tools.

Having doubts about whether the talk or solution suits you? Perhaps you've not yet installed SQL2k5, or you just aren't ready to convert your have SQL2k5 installed? No problem. The tool can report against SQL 2000 databases. Just allocate a new box on which to install Reporting Services. What if you have no intention of letting customers "report against" your data? Well, it could still be useful for some in your organization who won't be up to the more developer-oriented Visual Studio Report Designer. Finally, what if you've just never gotten into the whole Reporting Services thing? Again, no problem. You don't need any prior experience.

(PDF from 2006) NOTE: PLEASE DON'T CONTACT ME FOR HELP WITH SQL SERVER REPORT BUILDER. I HAVE NOT WORKED WITH IT SINCE GIVING THIS TALK IN 2006 SO CANNOT HELP.

Presented at: Greenville SC Microsoft CodeCamp, Sept 2006;Atlanta MDF (SQL Server User Group), Aug 2006;
Creating and Consuming Web Services in CFML
CFML is one of the easiest languages with which to create and consume Web Services. Both BlueDragon and CFMX allow you to easily extend CFC methods to publish them as web services -- and it's just as easy to consume them as well. You don't need to understand XML to work with them. In this introduction to the topic, veteran CFUG speaker Charlie Arehart will show you how easy it is, explain what you need to know about CFCs, Web Services, and a little about XML. Other important issues like security and exception handling are covered as well.

(PDF from 2006)

Presented at: CFUnited Jun 2006; Ft Lauderdale CFUG, Sept 2004; NYC CFUG, Jun 2004; Twin Cities CFUG, Jun 2004; Central Michigan CFUG, Apr 2004; Austin CFUG, Mar 2004; LA CFUG, Feb 2004; Dallas CFUG, Oct 2003;
CFML Web Services Tips and Tricks
We all know that CFML makes web services creation and consumption easy. Still, there tips and tricks that can solve common problems in working with them, or expose new possibilities you may not have considered. In this presentation, veteran CFUG speaker Charlie Arehart will share some useful (and some little used) features of ColdFusion MX, BlueDragon, and Dreamweaver MX to help you make the most of web services. He~'ll also show several ways to test web services, as well as point out some interesting and useful examples of real web services you can use in business today. He'll also cover challenges of passing data between CFML and other web service apps, including .NET.

(PDF updated Oct 2007)

Presented at: CFUnited Jun 2006; Atlanta CFUG, Jul 2005; Jacksonville CFUG, Jan 2005; Albany CFUG, Oct 2004;
Making the Most of Dreamweaver MX/8, CF Studio, and HomeSite+
While the first part of this evening will cover CFEclipse--a great solution that many have switched to or will want to consider--many of us are still using DWMX/DW8, HomeSite+, or its predecessor, CF Studio. Some may have the first two available and not switched yet for lack of motivation. In this talk, veteran CFUG speaker Charlie Arehart will present tips, techniques, and resources to help make the most of these traditional CFML editors. Some will speed up the tools, some will speed up your day to day development. Others may well surprise and delight you. Come see what you may be missing.

(PDF unavailable)

Presented at: Atlanta CFUG, May 2006;
Deploying CFML Natively on .NET
Many by now know that both ColdFusion MX and BlueDragon permit you to deploy CFML on a J2EE server. This is important for shops moving to standards-based architectures, for whom running ColdFusion servers is no longer acceptable. But what if your shop (or a client) is moving to .NET? Macromedia's only current solution is web services integration, but w/BlueDragon/.NET it's possible to run the CFML on the .NET framework. It's still just CFML, redeployed. The opportunities for integration with native .NET component (ASP.NET and more) are tremendous.

In this talk, veteran CFUG speaker Charlie Arehart, CTO of New Atlanta (makers of BlueDragon) will explain the environment motivating this need, as well as the enterprise integration possibilities it enables (calling ASP.NET from CFML and vice-versa, sharing data, leveraging .NET features, and more). Even if you don't see a need to support .NET, you likely will. For folks with large investments in CFML and CFML developers, it's a unique solution that helps keep CFML alive and thriving. It might even win over projects otherwise slated for ASP.NET!

(Powerpoint not available)

Presented at: Houston CFUG, Jan 2006; Salt Lake CFUG, Dec 2005; UK (London) CFUG, Nov 2005; Scottish CFUG, Nov 2005; Phoenix CFUG, Oct 2005; Denver CFUG, Oct 2005; San Diego CFUG, Sep 2005; MidMichigan (Lansing) CFUG, Sep 2005; Powered By Detroit Conference, Apr 2005; Jacksonville CFUG, Jan 2005; Dallas CFUG, Dec 2004; Raleigh CFUG, Oct 2004; Albany CFUG, Oct 2004; Southern FL (Ft Lauderdale) CFUG Sep 2004; San Francisco CFUG, Aug 2004; Boston CFUG, Aug 2004; San Diego CFUG, Aug 2004; MD CFUG, Aug 2004; NYC CFUG, Jun 2004;

2005 (created or last presented in)

Laszlo and WebOrb: Alternatives for Flash Integration for ColdFusion and BlueDragon
Frequent speaker Charlie Arehart will introduce WebOrb and Laszlo. Some may have known WebOrb formerly as FlashOrb, and as an alternative Flash Remoting gateway. In its new incarnation, WebOrb 2.0, it goes well beyond Flash Remoting to also add Ajax support. It also adds support for calling CFCs both directly and as web services, and it can integrate with ASP.NET and Java objects as well. WebOrb comes in both a Standard edition which is free for most commercial uses and a Professional edition.

Finally, he'll introduce Laszlo, which is an xml-based mechanism for generating Flash components and pages. Sound like Flex? It's quite similar, and predates it. In its latest 3.0 version, formally called OpenLaszlo and now open source, it adds many useful new features and solves some challenges previously held against it. It can integrate effectively with CFML and CFCs on both CF and BlueDragon (as well as ASP.NET, JSPs, PHP and more).

(PDF unavailable)

Presented at: Phoenix CFUG, Oct 2005; Denver CFUG, Oct 2005; Atlanta CFUG, Oct 2005; San Deigo CFUG Sep 2005; MidMichigan (Lansing) CFUG Sep 2005; Minimax, Jun 2005;
Integrating CFML and .NET
ASP.NET developers have access to all sorts of nifty controls to help build datagrids, calendars, and more. In ASP.NET 2.0, the list grows even larger. With BlueDragon for the Microsoft .NET Framework, CFML developers can also leverage those Controls, and a lot more. Rather than a 50-line template to create a grid with next/previous logic, you can do it in one line of ASP.NET code. And you can pass a CFQUERY result to that, either by invoking a CFC from the ASP.NET page, dropping a CFQUERY inline onto the ASP.NET page, and referring to the query as a session Variable set in CFML, and more. In this talk, all these and other compelling possibilities will be demonstrated. A free copy of BlueDragon/.NET will be available for all to try it on.

(no handout) (Audio recording)

Presented at: CFunited, Jun 2005;
Leveraging .Net Strengths from CFML (daylong course)
In my hour-long CFUNITED talk I barely have time to scratch the surface of leveraging .NET strengths from CFML. In this day-long session, we'll have both more time to talk about and the chance to really try out all the cool examples of such CFML/.NET integration. Besides learning briefly about .NET itself, to understand its strengths, and seeing some basics of leveraging .NET controls and features, we'll then focus first on benefits that come from running CFML on .NET even without changing CFML code. There are performance, stability, security, session management, and other advantages that come. Further, you'll learn why CFML on .NET is supercharged! Yet it's still just CFML.

We'll see how just minor changes in your CFML can open up new doors, and even if you don't know ASP.NET, you'll learn how simple changes in an ASP.NET page can leverage your legacy CFML apps. For instance, CFML applications can directly call .NET objects, including those that return .NET datatables, which can be processed as CF query resultsets. Further, CFML pages can even create .NET control output (datagrids, calendars, and more) directly within CFML, as well as "include" ASP.NET pages (and vice-versa) that use them and other features (like internationalization, mobile device support, and more). We'll also learn about sharing complex data objects between CFML and ASP.NET, learn how to invoke CFCs from the ASP.NET page, and even see how to drop CFML inline into an ASP.NET page. A copy of BlueDragon/.NET will be available for all to try it on and take home for free developer use. It may sound like a lot to cover, but we will, because it's so easy to do!

(no handout)

Presented at: CFUnited, Jun 2005;
SeeFusion: CFML Monitoring and Troubleshooting for BlueDragon and ColdFusion
Frequent speaker Charlie Arehart will introduce SeeFusion, a powerful tool for monitoring CFML web applications and database traffic coming out of either ColdFusion or BlueDragon. It offers a free development edition that may satisfy your needs, and the commercial edition is very inexpensive.

(PDF unavailable)

Presented at: Cleveland CFUG, Nov 2005; Atlanta CFUG, Oct 2005;

2004 (created or last presented in)

Building Web Services with CFML
CFML has to be one of the easiest languages with which to create and consume Web Services.

Both BlueDragon and CFMX allow you to easily extend CFC methods to publish them as web services -- and it's just as easy to consume them as well. And while you don't need to understand XML to work with them, it can sometimes be useful.

In this introduction to the topic, veteran CFUG speaker Charlie Arehart will show how easy it is, explain what you need to know about CFCs, Web Services, and XML, as well as discuss important issues like security and exception handling.

More and more vendors, organizations, and developers are taking advantage of Web Services. Don't be left behind!

(Powerpoint not available)

Presented at: South FL (Ft Lauderdale) CFUG, Sep 2004; NYC CFUG, Jun 2004; Minneapolis CFUG, Jun 2004; MidMichigan (Lansing) CFUG, Apr 2004; Austin CFUG, Mar 2004; Southern Cal (LA) CFUG, Feb 2004; Dallas CFUG, Oct 2003;
Secret Powers of Includes
In this session, veteran CFUG speaker Charlie Arehart will share some tips and likely a few surprises as he demonstrates the many forms of includes available in CFML. More than just a boring introduction for newcomers to CFML, he'll show how long-held beliefs about CFINCLUDE are just wrong, and how new features in CFMX and BlueDragon open new doors of possibility for code reuse by way of includes. Finally, he'll show that an include is NOT about "pulling code" into your program. You may be shocked to learn what else you can "include" into your CFML program.

(PDF unavailable)

Presented at: MD CFUG, Aug 2004; Atlanta CFUG, Dec 2003;
Secret Powers of Session Handling in CFML
You may have been using CFML for years but still suffer from various problems with session management. Do you know that the latest releases of CFMX and BlueDragon offer great solutions to these long-vexing problems? For instance, did you know you can now (finally) have sessions terminate when the browser is closed? Did you know you could more easily handle sessions for browsers that don't support or allow cookies?

And if you're running CFML on a J2EE server, did you know you may be able to cause sessions to be persistent so that they remain available after a server restart, and you can cause them to be replicated across servers in a cluster so that the session remains active when failover forces a user to a new server?

All these and more can work on both CFMX and BlueDragon, and Charlie will show you how, with examples, live demos, pointers to resources, and bonus tips. Every CFML developer is sure to come away with some new knowledge.

(PDF)

Presented at: Bay Area CFUG, Aug 2004; Central Jersey CFUG, Jun 2004;
Introducing BlueDragon
BlueDragon is an alternative CFML runtime engine that can solve important deployment problems for CFML shops looking to preserve their investment in CFML while also considering strategic platforms like .NET and J2EE.

There are numerous other compelling reasons to consider BlueDragon - including for redistributing your CFML applications for sale as a standalone turnkey solution.

If you don't know BlueDragon is, or why you'd want to use it, or how it fits with your current CFML programming, this presentation will be build a solid foundation for expanding the possibilities and potential of your existing CFML assets and skills.

(Powerpoint not available)

Presented at: Minneapolis CFUG, Jun 2004; Mid-Michigan (Lansing) CFUG, Apr 2004; Austin CFUG, Mar 2004; Louisville-Lexington CFUG, Feb 2004; WVa MMUG, Feb 2004; Portland CFUG, Jan 2004; Seattle MMUG, Jan 2004; Tampa CFUG, Jan 2004; Southern CA (LA) CFUG, Nov 2003; Dallas CFUG, Oct 2003;
Deploying CFML on J2EE with BlueDragon
It's now possible to deploy CFML applications on a J2EE server. It's still CFML, but it can leverage many benefits both for developers, server administrators, and line of business managers. In this talk, Charlie will introduce and demonstrate the notion of deploying CFML on J2EE servers. The focus is mostly on the benefits of deployment, even for CFML developers with no knowledge of, or interest in, pure J2EE development and integration.

(Powerpoint not available)

Presented at: CFUN-04, June 2004; MDCFUG Jun 2004; Atlanta CFUG, Jul 2003;
Database 2: Slicing and Dicing Data in CF and SQL
(CFUN-04, June 2004; CF Edge Conference in NY, 09/24/2001;) (PDF)
Database 1: Using Databases in CF and SQL Basics
(CFUN-04, June 2004; CF Edge Conference in NY, 09/24/2001;) (PDF)
HomeSite+ for CF Studio Fans
Are you a longtime CF Studio fan?
Do you lament that it's no longer sold?
Do you know about HomeSite+?


CF Studio and Homesite+ are essentially the same thing, and you may not know that it's offered free on the Dreamweaver MX CD. It's even been updated since it's release. In this talk, veteran CFUG presenter Charlie Arehart will introduce HomeSite+ to current CF Studio users.

It's not a walk through of features you knew from CF Studio, but instead a discussion of matters relevant to current CF Studio (or even Dreamweaver MX) users: what it is, how to get it, how to update it, how to extend its help for CFMX, and more.

(Powerpoint from 2004)

Presented at: West Va MUG, Feb 2004; NYC CFUG, Nov 2003; Southern Cal (LA) CFUG, Nov 2003; Dallas CFUG, Oct 2003;
More Flexible Testing Against BlueDragon, CF5, and CFMX
In this talk, veteran CFML developer and CFDJ columnist Charlie Arehart will show how to set up your web server in such a way as to allow code in a single directory to be executed against multiple CFML servers at once.

By default ColdFusion won't configure a single web server to integrate with both CF5 and CFMX at the same time -- it's an either/or proposition. That forces you to either use multiple web servers (such as IIS for CF5 and Apache for CFMX), or use the built-in web server in CFMX (and then have to move code into the cfusionmx\wwwroot for MX testing).

But Charlie will show how you can manually configure a web server (such as IIS) to let you run a set of CFML in a single directory against either version of CF (or BlueDragon, for that matter). This greatly simplifies testing against multiple versions of CF.

(Powerpoint not available)

Presented at: Central Jersey CFUG, Feb 2004; Louisville-Lexington CFUG, Feb 2004; WVa MMUG, Feb 2004; Portland CFUG, Jan 2004; Seattle MMUG, Jan 2004; Tampa CFUG, Jan 2004;

2003 (created or last presented in)

Browsing Within CF Studio and HomeSite+
Most CFML developers love CF Studio (or its latest incarnation, HomeSite+). When you're editing code, do you have it set up to browse the code with a single keystroke? Or do you open a browser window and type in the URL? Sure, you can create a browser bookmark, but if you edit lots of code, it's a lot easier to have one-button browsing either internal to, or external to, Studio/HomeSite+. In this talk, veteran CFML developer and CFDJ columnist Charlie Arehart will show how to use this often missed but very important feature. It doesn't require RDS, and it works with CF5, CFMX, and even BlueDragon.

(Powerpoint from 2003)

Presented at: LA CFUG, Nov 2003;
Deploying Fusebox w/BlueDragon
Fusebox developers are often at the leading edge in considering compelling alternatives to get the job done. In that spirit, this talk will introduce the newly available support in BlueDragon for Fusebox 4. Whether you're an old hand with BlueDragon, still haven't heard of it, or have been disinclined to consider it, this talk will explain how it's been extended it to support the XML tags and functions needed for FB 4. It will also provide a more general intro to the benefits and distinctions about BlueDragon, the alternative CFML runtime engine.

(Powerpoint unavailable)

Presented at: Fusebox Conference, Aug 2003;
Deploying CFML w/BlueDragon
Charlie will discuss re-deploying existing CF4.5 and CF5 applications to BlueDragon. He will examine both the benefits and challenges of running your applications on BlueDragon, the only solution for natively running, integrating, and extending CFML apps on both J2EE and .NET servers.

(Powerpoint)

Presented at: CFUN 03 6/21-22/2003; MX Vegas 6/2-4/2003; CF Europe 5/29-30/2003; MX On The Rocks 3/20-21/2003;
Intro to JSP for CFML Developers
This presentation introduces JSP to CFML developers by comparing and contrasting JSP with CFML. It assumes the audience is familiar with CFML, but assumes no prior experience with JSP. This talk is very basic and is not for experienced JSP developers.

Presented at: MX Vegas, May 2003; CF Europe (London), May 2003; MX On The Rocks (Denver), Mar 2003; MX North conference, Mar 2003;
Augmenting Application.cfm with Filters
What's a filter? And what's it got to do with Application.cfm? One of the hidden gems in CFMX is the ability to leverage servlet filters. Don't let those terms (servlets and filters) scare you. No servlet or even Java experience is needed for this talk. Like Application.cfm, they allow you to perform some action before a CF page is processed, including such things as logging visits, blocking execution of a page for a given time period, blocking visitors from given domains, or during a maintenance period, to name a few.

Unlike Application.cfm, however, filters can apply to one or more named templates, all templates under a directory, or all templates on the server. And they don't require any changes to CF code. They're declarative and set in the configuration files of CFMX. They also don't interfere with your current Application.cfm processing.

Even more, they can modify the output of CF processing, such as compressing all the page output using Gzip for browsers that support it (which is most modern ones). This may the only reason for some to consider using them, and it can be a great performance benefit. And unlike OnRequestEnd.cfm (the counterpart of Application.cfm for end of page processing), their processing won't be skipped due to a CFABORT.

In this seminar, frequent CFUG speaker, trainer, and CFDJ writer Charlie Arehart will show you how easily you can apply filters. The focus won't be on building these components but instead simply taking advantage of existing ones that he'll share. Everyone attending will be able to apply this knowledge to their CFMX environment.

(PDF)

Presented at: FAA CFUG 4/17/2003; NASA CFUG 1/9/2003; Central PA CFUG, 12/3/2002;
CF RDS: From Stress to Success
Are you using the RDS-enabled features in CF Studio or Dreamweaver MX? It could be banned on your server, but perhaps we can resolve that. Seriously. And do you realize all it can enable for you as a developer, whether coding on your own machine, a machine down the hall, or a commercial shared hosting server?

Whether you think it's evil or a blessing, whether you use CF MX or earlier, there may be more you can take advantage of in RDS than you realize. And there are solutions to security concerns that many administrators never knew existed, particularly before CFMX. It's a tragedy how many developers suffer without RDS.

In this talk, frequent CFUG speaker Charlie Arehart will put to rest common misconceptions about RDS, point up key security solutions, and show you how to make the most of it as a CF developer. You can make it secure, it is quite valuable, and it's sorely misunderstood. This is a talk for all CF developers, even if not (perhaps especially if not) moving to CFMX or Dreamweaver MX.

(PDF)

Presented at: DC CFUG/WAMMO 4/9/2003; So. MD CFUG 2/27/2003;
Flash for CFers: Getting Over the Hump
Perhaps you've heard all the hype about Flash, and you're likely impressed, until you open the program--or a typical book about it. There's so much focus on graphics, drawing, animation, sounds, etc. If you just want to get started with it to spice up your forms and add new client-server interactivity, it can be overwhelming. But it doesn't have to be.

Frequent CFUG speaker and CFDJ author Charlie Arehart will bring his unique style and perspective to help get you over the hump of getting started with Flash. Unlike so many articles on remoting, this presentation doesn't presume you have any Flash experience. Indeed, Flash Remoting (and CFMX) is just one of several ways to interact between Flash and the server. If you're using an older release of CF, or PHP, or even an older version of Flash, you'll still get benefit from this talk.

(PDF)

Presented at: San Antonio CFUG 2/18/2003; So. MD CFUG 1/28/2003; DelMarVa CFUG 1/20/2003;
Dreamweaver MX for Studio/HomeSite Users
Are a CF developer who loved CF Studio but are being pushed or pulled into Dreamweaver MX? Feeling a little reluctant, perhaps frustrated? Finding it pokey? Annoyed by it messing with your code? Confused about where to find your favorite features you loved in CF Studio? In this hour-long talk, veteran developer and frequent CFUG speaker Charlie Arehart will explain these challenges as well as how to get around them. Perhaps more important, you'll learn how to speed up DWMX dramatically. He'll also help you find or add in the CF Studio features you know and love. He'll conclude by pointing you to many features that you may have missed that never existed in CF Studio, as well as a hidden gem on the DWMX CD that may blow you away.

(PDF)

Presented at: Southern California Regional CF Conference 2/18/2003; DelMarVA CFUG 1/20/2003; Central Jersey CFUG 1/15/2003; Maryland CFUG 1/14/2003; Twin Cities CFUG 11/06/2002; DevCon Community Suite 10/30/2002; Central PA MMUG 10/22/2002;

2002 (created or last presented in)

  • Using JSP Custom Tags in CFMX (Macromedia DevCon 10/28/2002; MXDC 09/28/2002; Central Jersey CFUG 10/9/2002;) (PDF)
  • Overview of CF Security Options (CF Underground at DevCon, 10/27/2002;) (no formal presentation)
  • Incorporating JSP Custom Tags into Your Web Apps (Harbor Java User Group 10/8/2002;) (PDF)
  • ColdFusion MX Hidden Gems (Birmingham CFUG 09/17/2002; Albany CFUG 09/12/2002; Syracuse CFUG 09/10/2002; Mid-Michigan CFUG 08/13/2002; NASA/Goddard CFUG 08/08/2002; NYC CFUG 06/06/2002; CFUN-02 Event Rockville MD 06/16/2002;) (PDF)
  • ColdFusion Performance Testing and Tuning (Albany CFUG 09/12/2002; Syracuse CFUG 09/10/2002; Tampa Bay CFUG 7/10/2002; DesMoines CFUG 6/18/2002; Nashville CFUG 6/11/2002; Portland CFUG 5/30/2002; Salt Lake CFUG 5/9/2002; Rhode Island CFUG 5/7/2002; San Francisco Bay Area CFUG 4/25/2002; New Orleans CFUG 4/11/2002;) (PDF)
  • Java Web App Performance Testing and Tuning (Capital District [Albany] Java Developers Network User Group 09/11/2002;) (PDF)
  • User Defined Functions in CF5: Best Practices and More (Maryland CFUG 5/14/2002;) (PDF)
  • Toward Better Error Handling (CFNorth Conference, 5/4-5/2002;) (PDF)
  • Wireless Possibilities for CF Programmers (Atlanta CFUG, 5/1/2002;CFSouth, 02/02/2001;) (PDF)
  • E-Testing: Debugging Your CF Apps (CFNorth Conference, 5/4-5/2002; Philadelphia Area UG, 3/21/2002; CF-Europe, Munich Germany, 1/24-25/2002; Central Jersey CFUG, 1/17/2002;) (PDF, reduced PDF)
  • CF5 in Depth: Opportunities and Challenges, One Day Seminar (Southern Maryland CFUG 4/30/2002; New Orleans LA 4/12/2002; Rockville MD 3/26/2002; Rockville MD, 1/31/2002; Description)
  • Marrying ColdFusion and Java, Also offered previously as Going from CF to Java, Java for CFers (Colorado Macromedia Tech Con, Denver, 3/15/2002; Atlanta CFUG, 10/03/2001; CF Odyssey, Bethesda, 07/28/2001; Central Jersey CFUG, 04/25/2001; Maryland CFUG, 04/10/2001;) (PDF, and older version as PDF)
  • Toward Better CF Server Administration (Colorado Macromedia Tech Con, Denver, 3/14/2002;) (PDF unavailable)
  • ColdFusion 5 Hidden Gems: What You May Not Know (CF-Europe, Munich Germany, 1/24-25/2002;) (PDF)

2001 (created or last presented in)

  • The Wonderful World of Wireless (Macromedia DevCon, 10/22-24/2001;) (PDF)
  • Lighting the Shadows: A Roundtable on Overcoming Fusebox Objections (Fusebox Conference @ DevCon, 10/20/2001;)
  • Database 3: Improving Database Processing (CF Edge Conference in NY, 09/24/2001;) (PDF)
  • Slicing and Dicing Data in CF and SQL- Part 2 (House Of Fusion Community Suite @ DevCon, 10/23/2001;)(PDF)
  • Slicing and Dicing Data in CF and SQL- Part 1 (House Of Fusion Community Suite @ DevCon, 10/23/2001;) (PDF, updated from 9/24/01 CF Edge presentation, and split into two parts)
  • What's New in CF5: More than you'd think (Annapolis CFUG 08/23/2001; Central Jersey CFUG, 07/19/2001;) (PDF)
  • CF Hidden Gems (Annapolis CFUG 06/24/2001; MD CFUG, 06/12/2001; CF Underground 2, Rockville, 04/07/2001;) ) (PDF)
  • CF and JSP (CF Underground 2, Rockville, 04/07/2001;) (PDF)
  • Real World WAP Development, Issues and Challenges for WAP Developers, a day-long seminar offered at the Software Productivity Consortium, Vancouver, BC, Canada in April 2001; (slides available only to attendees)
  • Getting Started with WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) and WML (Wireless Markup Language), a day-long seminar offered at the Software Productivity Consortium, Vancouver, BC, Canada in April 2001; (slides available only to attendees.)
  • Server-side Source Code Control: It really can work! (MD CFUG, 01/09/2001;) (PDF)

2000 (created or last presented in)

  • Common Problems Developing Wireless Applications (PDF), from Wireless DevCon in San Jose, 12/2000;
  • Creating and Using ColdFusion Custom Tags (Allaire Developer's Conference, 11/2000;) (PDF)
  • CF- Just the Basics (a weekend seminar, Bethesda, 09/2000;) (PDF)
  • Building Dynamic WAP Applications with ColdFusion (PDF), from the Wrox Wireless Developers Conference in Amsterdam, 07/2000; Wireless DevCon, SF, 08/2000 PDF
  • Building Wireless (WML) Apps With ColdFusion (for the CFUN2k, Bethesda, 07/2000; MD CFUG, 04/11/2000;) (PDF)
  • Helping Yourself, Resources for Learning and Getting Questions Answered (DC CFUG, 02/2000;) (PDF)

1999 (created or last presented in)

  • DatabaseBlocks Wizard Tool (DC CFUG, 12/1999;) (PDF)
  • Web Application Development with ColdFusion (a presentation for the ACM, 11/1999;) (PDF)
  • Potpourri of Topics (DC CFUG, 09/1999;) (PDF)
  • Hidden Gems in 4.01 (DC CFUG, 08/1999;) (PDF)
  • Setting Up and Using the CF Studio Debugger (MD CFUG, 07/10/1999; DCCFUC Bethesda, 06/26/1999; DC CFUG, 06/1999;) (PDF)
  • Using the Studio Query Builder (DC CFUG, 04/1999;) (PDF)
  • Stored Procedures in Access? Yes indeed! (MD CFUG, 02/09/1999;)
  • Journeyman CF (Obtaining the 4.0.1 Beta, Deleting a Session Variable in 4.0, Mailing to More than 40 people in 4.0, Top 10 Studio customizations in 4.0, Using Access "Stored Procedures" in 4.0) (DC CFUG, 02/1999;) (PDF)

1998 (created or last presented in)

  • Remote Development in ColdFusion: More than Meets the Eye (National CF Conference Ft Collins, CO, 07/1998; MD CFUG, 04/1998;) (PDF)
  • Version Control in ColdFusion: It's Free, and Not Just For Teams Anymore (National CF Conference Ft Collins, CO, 07/1998; MD CFUG, 02/1998;) (PDF)



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