CFgears

Using RepeatString to create a mask in NumberFormat

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:38:00 -0500

Today I was working on creating a CSV file that required numeric columns to be a fixed number of digits, using leading zeros to make up the difference. So, for example, if the column required 5 digits, the number 123 should show up as 00123. This is super simple using the NumberFormat() function in CFML, simply specify a mask like so:



#variables.myNum#

But, in my particular case, I had several columns that required 12 and 15 digit numbers. [More]

Nashville ColdFusion User Group members presenting at BFlex, BFusion, and MAX 2010

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:32:00 -0500

This is a repost of a news item I put up on the Nashville ColdFusion User Group website earlier today.

I just wanted to take a minute and spotlight some of the guys from the Nashville ColdFusion User Group that are going to be speaking at some upcoming conferences. These guys are really sharp, and if you get the chance to attend any of their presentations I highly recommend it.

[More]

Microsoft recommends Chrome to fix Hotmail issues

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 09:30:00 -0500

Wow.


If you happen to be one of the millions of Hotmail users who are having issues since the roll out of the new design, Microsoft has a fix for you: use Google's Chrome browser.

Here's the full article, with links to a more detailed article.

How bad is it when the best fix for problems with one of your services is to recommend people use a competitor's product?

Changes to the Nashville ColdFusion User Group

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 21:21:00 -0500

I've been putting this announcement off for a while now, because I wanted to make sure I had everything in order before I really started talking about it. I have officially taken over as one of the co-managers of the Nashville ColdFusion User Group. Aaron West, our previous manager, made the announcement on our local user group mailing list back at the end of May, and since then I've been working hard to try to get things revamped for the group. I'm not taking on this task alone, though. Rather than have the traditional manager and assistant manager for the group, J.J. Merrick and myself decided to split the responsibilities and both of us run the group as co-managers.

I'm really excited about some of the things that are in the works, and can't wait to get things kicked off with our CFlunch meeting next week. So, if you're in the Nashville area and want to come have lunch and hang out with some fellow CF'ers, be sure to RSVP today!

All CFCs inherit component.cfc

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 10:49:00 -0500

This is a pretty cool feature built in to ColdFusion that I'll wager many people don't know about. I had certainly never hear of it until this morning. Did you know that ColdFusion has a built in component.cfc component that is automatically inherited by all CFCs on your server? [More]

Automating backups for SQL Server Express

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:30:00 -0500

I like SQL Server. It's always been my RDBMS of choice, and has pretty much been the standard at most places I've worked. But here at my current gig we use Oracle, and we recently purchased a third party application that requires SQL Server. Since this application wasn't going to be working with a ton of data, and it's probably the only thing we'll use SQL Server for, we opted to go with SQL Server Express instead of actually purchasing a full-blown edition.

One of the limitations of SQL Server Express is that you can't automate backups in it like you can the other versions of SQL Server. You have to manually write the backup scripts and then schedule them to run in Windows Scheduled Tasks. This really isn't a big deal, but it is annoying. So, as you can imagine, as soon as we got our databases up an running, the first thing I had to do was create some backup scripts.

[More]

So many choices...

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:31:00 -0500

InfoWorld recently published an article titled Top five scripting languages on the JVM. It gives a comparison of Groovy, JRuby, Scala, Fantom, and Jython, and even winds up talking a little about Clojure, JavaFX, and NetRexx there at the end. (Thanks to John Sieber for blogging about the article, that's how I found it.) It gives a nice detailed explanation of each language and lists a few pros and cons, all without getting too technical. It's very informative and unbiased, which is a nice change from the language comparison flame wars that seem to be so prevalent today.

This is a really good article for someone like me, as I know very little about any of those languages. For a while now I've been wanting to add a new language to my utility belt, and I've been saying that I want to learn Java and Groovy. But a recent discussion I had with Sean Corfield about this had me thinking about trying out Scala instead. Now, after reading this InfoWorld article I think I'm probably going to give Scala a try. I don't know when, but when I do get around to learning a new language Scala will be at the top of my list. I still want to learn Java and Groovy, though. :)

New Toy: The Nikon D3000

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:31:00 -0500

So, I'm not much of a gadget guy. I know it's strange with me being in the tech field and all, but I just really don't care about having the latest and greatest smartphone/laptop/e-reader/gadget of the month. When I upgraded my last phone almost 2 years ago, I had been out of contract for so long that Verizon offered me any Blackberry I wanted for free, any of their other smartphones for free or under $50, and up to a $150 discount for any other phone that didn't fall in those categories. You want to know what I got? A Boulder, so when I drop it (over and over again) it won't hurt it. That's all I need. It makes phone calls, and if I get lost it has a compass. ;)

All that to say, you'll rarely hear me talk about gadgets. But, last week I got a new DSLR camera and I'm pretty excited about it. [More]

ColdFusion debugging breaks jQuery AJAX calls

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 09:56:00 -0500

This may be a no-brainier for some, but I fought with it for about 2 hours yesterday so I wanted to make note of it in case it happened again.

I had a situation where my code worked correctly on my local development machine, but wouldn't work in our staging environment. The exact problem was that I was using jQuery to call a CFC, which returned some JSON, and jQuery then populated a div with it. Pretty basic stuff. But for some reason, on our staging server jQuery encountered problems and would never populate the div, even though I could see in FireBug where the CFC call was returning the JSON correctly. All code was identical in every comparison, and both sites were using the same database so the data was identical as well.

[More]

ColdFusion Developer position at Vanderbilt

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 09:37:00 -0500

Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where I work, currently has an opening for a full time mid-to-senior level ColdFusion developer. A minimum of 5 years ColdFusion experience is preferred, and Oracle database experience is highly desirable. While the posting states that a degree is required, experience may be substituted for education.

If you're in the Nashville area (or relocating here), and looking for a ColdFusion job, we'd like to hear from you. This position is onsite, for local candidates only. Sorry, no recruiters, contractors, or telecommuters.

You can view the full job description and application here

[More]

Presentation files from NCDevCon

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 09:10:00 -0500

Well, I'm about 3 weeks late but I finally got around to getting my presentations files from NCDevCon online. You can download the files here.

I have to say that I had a blast at NCDevCon! This was the first conference that I'd been to in a couple of years, and I really enjoyed it. This was also my first time speaking at a conference. I used to teach ColdFusion at a local tech college a few years ago, so I guess I've had a little experience in that area (although I'll admit I'm rusty!). I had forgotten just how much I enjoy it!

I'll definitely be heading back to NCDevCon next year!

My favorite cigars are....

Wed, 26 May 2010 14:35:00 -0500

...Itsaboys!

I guess I'll have to get a box of these in October. :)

ColdFusion feedback from a Java/Ruby Developer

Mon, 17 May 2010 08:20:00 -0500

I just came across this blog post and wanted to share it. For me, it's always interesting to hear from someone coming to ColdFusion from another language/background and get their thoughts on it. As he openly admits, when he started working at a ColdFusion shop two years ago, he didn't think much of CF. His exact quote is, "With more than 15 years of development experience, primarily as a Java, ActionScript, and Ruby developer, I had a relatively low opinion of ColdFusion."

Read the whole post here

I'll be teaching a Hands On ColdFusion course at NCDevCon.

Thu, 13 May 2010 08:49:00 -0500

This is just a quick a note to announce that I'll be teaching one of the 2 hour Hands On ColdFusion labs at NCDevCon next weekend. Specifically, I'll be teaching Session 1 from 10:00-12:00 on Saturday morning. I'm super excited about this and can't wait to get to Raleigh!

For those that don't know, NCDevCon is a free developers conference put on by the Triangle Area ColdFusion User Group. It is held at NC State University in Raleigh, North Carolina, and consists of general web development sessions, web design, Javascript, Ajax, ColdFusion, Flex, AIR and more. In addition to all of that, this year they are also offering two days of free hands-on training for ColdFusion.

So make plans to be in Raleigh for two days of FREE CF Goodness!

Change size of desktop icons in Windows 7

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 10:58:00 -0500

This is a neat little tip that a coworker of mine discovered this morning, and it's going to really come in handy on my new laptop. If you don't like the size of the desktop icons in Windows 7, you can easily make them larger or smaller. Simply hover over an icon, click ctrl, and with your mouse wheel scroll up or down. The icon sizes will change as you scroll.

Don't have a wheel mouse? There are other methods for doing this as well, as shown here: http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/how-to-resize-desktop-icon-in-windows-vista/