Recent Web Log Entries By Ben Nadel

How To UN-Unformat Your Code (Like A Pro)

Posted: November 6, 2009 at 4:50 PM by Ben Nadel

Tags: ColdFusion

After my previous post on how to quickly and easily take my style of formatting and strip it out of ColdFusion code , some people suggested that I make a function that goes back the other way (adding my style of formatting into ColdFusion code). While I love this concept, the problem is actually quite a bear! Removing formatting doesn't really re... read more »

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How To Unformat Your Code (Like A Pro)

Posted: November 6, 2009 at 10:04 AM by Ben Nadel

Tags: ColdFusion

At this past CFUNITED, big Dan Vega told me about a little project he wanted to show in the Demo Derby. The conversation went a little something like this (in meaning, not word for word): Ben, I love using your code; but I hate that it takes me 30 minutes to remove all of your freaking formatting. So, I'm trying to create a ColdFusion Builder (... read more »

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Matching Multi-Line Regular Expression Patterns In MULTILINE Mode (?m)

Posted: November 5, 2009 at 2:04 PM by Ben Nadel

Tags: ColdFusion

This morning, I was (and am still) having a problem getting some MULTILINE regular expression patterns to match properly. As such, I wanted to put a quick blog post together as a sanity check for myself. As I have blogged about before , when a Java regular expression is running in multiline mode (as denoted by the "?m" flag), the "^" and "$" expr... read more »

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Tracking Request Volume Based On IP Addresses In ColdFusion

Posted: November 4, 2009 at 2:44 PM by Ben Nadel

Tags: ColdFusion

This much less a "how to" post and much more just a " thinking out loud " post. I don't really know if I even like what I came up with; but, I figured I would put it out here in case it lead to some good conversations. In the wake of some spam comments on my site, I started to think about tracking the IP addresses of requests in ColdFusion in orde... read more »

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IIS MOD-Rewrite: R6016 Not Enough Space For Thread Data

Posted: November 3, 2009 at 7:58 PM by Ben Nadel

Tags: ColdFusion

This is just a quick note to anyone who comes across this error. I just upgraded my blog to use IIS MOD-Rewrite using the PATH_INFO approach and when I started running the IIS MOD-Rewrite installer on my server, I got the following Microsoft Visual C++ RunTime error: R6016 Not Enough Space For Thread Data The IIS service was running at the t... read more »

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Using IIS URL Rewriting And CGI.PATH_INFO With IIS MOD-Rewrite

Posted: November 3, 2009 at 10:45 AM by Ben Nadel

Tags: ColdFusion

Previously, I explored the concept of using URL rewriting with IIS and IIS MOD-Rewrite in order to make ColdFusion's OnMissingTemplate() event handler more effective . This worked fine with some fenagling, but Justice suggested that I take a look at using PATH_INFO. I've only briefly looked into PATH_INFO before, but one thing that I do like ab... read more »

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A Moment That Touched Me - The Fountainhead

Posted: November 2, 2009 at 2:02 PM by Ben Nadel

Tags: Books, Life

I'm in between audio books right now, so I'm listening to bits and pieces of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead. I can't quite articulate why I love the book so much, but I find it to be hugely moving and inspiring. This morning, on the way to work, I listening to a passage that almost moved me to tears. Out of context, it might not have much meaning; bu... read more »

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Using Regular Expressions In Javascript (A General Overview)

Posted: November 2, 2009 at 10:07 AM by Ben Nadel

Tags: Javascript / DHTML

I love regular expressions; they are the cat's pajamas. I find that hardly a day goes by where I don't use them in some way to solve a problem. But, as much as I love them, there has always been something about using them in Javascript that has felt a bit shaky. I think it's simply that I didn't have a fleshed out understanding of the full breadth... read more »

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Learning ColdFusion 9: Iterating Over Pseudo XML Node Wrappers With CFLoop

Posted: October 31, 2009 at 1:24 PM by Ben Nadel

Tags: ColdFusion

For several versions of ColdFusion, we have been able to reference groups of XML nodes using pseudo node wrappers and struct and array notation. This has been a useful shorthand when extracting node data from an XML document; but, about two years ago, I found out that these pseudo node wrappers could not be used in conjunction with ColdFusion 8's... read more »

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Building A Fixed-Position Bottom Menu Bar (ala FaceBook)

Posted: October 30, 2009 at 9:10 AM by Ben Nadel

Tags: HTML / CSS, Javascript / DHTML

Now that I've explored two ways of creating fixed-position elements across browsers - using IE6 expressions and absolute layouts - I wanted to give a go at creating a fixed-position bottom menu bar, ala FaceBook. The menu bar isn't going to contain much of anything - just a single button and a pop-up menu; mostly, I wanted to see how easily I ... read more »

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Using PushStack() In jQuery Plugins To Create New Collections

Posted: October 29, 2009 at 9:58 AM by Ben Nadel

Tags: Javascript / DHTML

Most of the time, when creating a plugin in jQuery, I'll leverage built-in functions like filter() and each() to select from or alter the current collection. Plugins that are built in this fashion are auto-wired to have the appropriate stack connections; that is, since jQuery performs non-destructive collection augmentation, when you use a plugin ... read more »

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Caching ColdFusion Component Methods Has Negligible Performance Improvements

Posted: October 28, 2009 at 8:52 AM by Ben Nadel

Tags: ColdFusion

One thing that I find intriguing about inheritance in Javascript is that it is object-based. Meaning, you inherent from an actual object instance, not from a class. This is known as Prototypal inheritance, sometimes referred as differential inheritance, in which your class contains only that which differs from your prototype object. In this form o... read more »

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jQuery Powered Mine Sweeper Game

Posted: October 27, 2009 at 10:17 AM by Ben Nadel

Tags: Javascript / DHTML

While I was on the road going from CFinNC to BFusion / BFLEX, I tinkered around with some jQuery code. I wanted to try and make something fun but not something that would take too much time (since being on the road is exhausting). And so, I created this jQuery powered Mine Sweeper game. Much like the old computer game, you can select the number of... read more »

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My BFusion / BFLEX Keynote Address

Posted: October 24, 2009 at 2:11 PM by Ben Nadel

Tags: ColdFusion, Life

I just finished my portion of the BFusion / BFLEX keynote address and got some really great feedback. A few people even asked for a copy of my speech. Here is what I wrote: . . . A few weeks ago, I attended a meeting hosted by the NYCUPA, which is the New York City chapter of the UPA - the Usability Professional's Association. This particular ... read more »

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Using CSS Fixed Position Elements Across Browsers Without Javascript

Posted: October 16, 2009 at 9:34 AM by Ben Nadel

Tags: HTML / CSS

Yesterday, I posted my first experimentation with CSS fixed-position elements and getting them to work across all browsers, including IE6. The solution I demonstrated yesterday involved using proprietary Javascript expressions in the CSS that would be used by IE6; this technique worked pretty well, but caused a jittery effect as the "fixed" posi... read more »

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November 2009 Entries »

Previously Posted

Using CSS Fixed Position Elements Across Browsers - Posted Oct 15, 2009
jQuery In Action By Bear Bibeault And Yehuda Katz - Posted Oct 14, 2009
THIS, Function Context, And Object Literals In Javascript - Posted Oct 13, 2009
jQuery Plugin: From - Filtering A Collection Based On Ancestors - Posted Oct 12, 2009
Building Single-Page Applications Using jQuery And ColdFusion With Ben Nadel (Video Presentation) - Posted Oct 9, 2009
Passing A Function To jQuery's Attr() Method For Implicit Iteration - Posted Oct 7, 2009
jQuery's Closest() Method Returns Only One Ancestor - Posted Oct 6, 2009
Viewing jQuery DOM Event Bindings With FireBug - Posted Oct 5, 2009
Adobe Officially Releases ColdFusion 9 - The Newest, Most Powerful ColdFusion Server (Saucy) - Posted Oct 5, 2009
jQuery's is() Method Checks For Any Matching Elements - Posted Oct 1, 2009
Using Javascript's IN Operator To Test For Object Property Existence - Posted Oct 1, 2009
Parsing Invalid HTML Into XML Using ColdFusion, Groovy, And TagSoup - Posted Sep 30, 2009
Thoroughly Document Your Use Of ColdFusion's CFHTMLHead Tag - Posted Sep 29, 2009
Default To The Numeric, Email, And URL Keyboards On The iPhone - Posted Sep 29, 2009
jQuery's Filter() Method Can Take A Callback Function For Advanced Filtering - Posted Sep 25, 2009
jQuery's Passes Itself As An Argument To The "Ready" Event Callback - Posted Sep 24, 2009
Ask Ben: Displaying A Blog Teaser (Showing The First N Words) - Posted Sep 23, 2009
Ask Ben: Parsing Nested Lists With A Single Delimiter In ColdFusion - Posted Sep 22, 2009
Ask Ben: Excluding Script Tag Content From The jQuery .text() Method - Posted Sep 22, 2009
Ask Ben: Creating ColdFusion Templates On The Fly - Posted Sep 21, 2009
Groovy Operator Overloading Does Not Work In The ColdFusion Context - Posted Sep 18, 2009
jQuery Enlightenment By Cody Lindley - Posted Sep 18, 2009
Instantiating Groovy Classes In The ColdFusion Context - Posted Sep 17, 2009
Returning An Array From jQuery's Map() Utility Function - Posted Sep 16, 2009
jQuery Plugin: Tracing Your Selector Paths - Posted Sep 15, 2009
String Data Type Gotcha When Using CFGroovy - Posted Sep 14, 2009
Ask Ben: Updating Columns In An Existing ColdFusion Query Object - Posted Sep 14, 2009
Running UPDATE And DELETE SQL Statements Using ColdFusion Query Of Queries - Posted Sep 12, 2009
Maintaining ColdFusion Sessions Across SMS Text Message Requests Without Cookies - Posted Sep 10, 2009
Using Contextual SMS Short Code Messages With TextMarks And ColdFusion - Posted Sep 10, 2009
Using SMS Short Codes And TextMarks To Send Text Messages With ColdFusion - Posted Sep 9, 2009
Simon Free Launches "Win A CF Dude" Contest - Watch The Video - Posted Sep 9, 2009
How Much Should Our ColdFusion Applications Actually Know About ORM? - Posted Sep 8, 2009
Using IIS URL Rewriting And Application.cfc's OnMissingTemplate() Event Handler - Posted Sep 8, 2009
Ask Ben: Creating A PDF And Attaching It To An Email Using ColdFusion - Posted Sep 4, 2009
RewriteCond Directives Evaluated After RewriteRule Directives In URL Rewriting - Posted Sep 4, 2009
Understanding The IIS Mod-Rewrite Server Variables - Posted Sep 3, 2009
Understanding The IIS Mod-Rewrite Log File And Work Flow - Posted Sep 3, 2009
Exploring IIS Mod-Rewrite For Rewriting URLs In A ColdFusion Application - Posted Sep 1, 2009
Ask Ben: Extracting And Resizing A ZIP Archive Full Of Images With Coldfusion - Posted Aug 31, 2009

Recent Blog Comments
Nov 7, 2009 at 5:53 PM
Ask Ben: Javascript String Replace Method
You can find here an advanced function that prepared with javascript replace function. This can make the first letters of words, sentences, lines and whatever you define automatically: http://www.m ... read »
Andrew Neely
Nov 7, 2009 at 4:56 PM
A Moment That Touched Me - The Fountainhead
Ben, Glad you enjoyed the podcast. Yeah, the Tank Riot guys can get really chatty during the episodes, but that's part of the charm of it for me. They've covered everything from Nichola Tesla to Cha ... read »
Nov 7, 2009 at 4:43 PM
Building A Fixed-Position Bottom Menu Bar (ala FaceBook)
Is it possible to make some more MenĂ¼`s ? ... read »
Jill
Nov 7, 2009 at 11:40 AM
How To Unformat Your Code (Like A Pro)
Derek, I think you might be right - sweet! Thanks for the link :) ... read »
Nov 7, 2009 at 11:25 AM
How To Unformat Your Code (Like A Pro)
I think it would be way easier to just use this http://www.logichammer.com/html-formatter/ He just released v3 and it rocks. ... read »
Jill
Nov 7, 2009 at 7:58 AM
How To Unformat Your Code (Like A Pro)
LMAO - this was pretty funny! I have to admit - I also love to reformat code so I can read it. My boss used to tell me to leave my OCD at home. Now I don't feel so bad after reading everyone else' ... read »
Nov 6, 2009 at 10:10 PM
How To Unformat Your Code (Like A Pro)
The timing of this post is just uncanny. I spent the last 15-20 minutes manually un-formatting my "Ben Nadel" style code within a CFC of mine. I was really digging the readability a few weeks ago, bu ... read »
Roe
Nov 6, 2009 at 5:11 PM
Passing Arrays By Reference In ColdFusion - SWEEET!
ArraySort also reorders the results of these java obj's ... read »