Recent Web Log Entries
Object Oriented Data Validation And Error Message Translation
Posted: May 9, 2008 at 2:50 PM by Ben Nadel
Yesterday, I discussed that as I am learning more and more about Object Oriented Programming (OOP) in ColdFusion, one of the biggest mental hurdles seems to be data validation. Well, data validation and the translation of data errors into user-friendly error messages. I talked about how the translation cannot be made in the Model because that wo... read more »
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More On Data Validation - Translating Error Messages
Posted: May 8, 2008 at 9:13 AM by Ben Nadel
I am still trying to wrap my head around things like MVC (model-view-controller) and OOP (object oriented programming) and cf.Objective() has really brought that back into the spotlight. One of the largest road blocks in my journey to understanding it all is the processing of data validation and reporting errors. I gather that a smart bean will ... read more »
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CFDirectory Filtering Uses Pipe Character For Multiple Filters (Thanks Steve Withington)
Posted: May 7, 2008 at 9:47 AM by Ben Nadel
After I just posted about how the CFDirectory tag can use the single-character wild card , "?", in its filtering, Steve Withington came in and demonstrated that you can also use the pipe character, "|", to use multiple filters in the same CFDirectory tag. After reading this, I went to the ColdFusion 8 docs but didn't see this listed or mentione... read more »
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ColdFusion CFMailParam's New "Content" Attribute Is Awesome
Posted: May 7, 2008 at 9:23 AM by Ben Nadel
As part of the ColdFusion 8.0.1 updater, the CFMailParam tag can now attach files to an email using the Content attribute. When using this, the CFMailParam takes a File attribute and the Content attribute. In this case, the File attribute provides the name of the file as it will appear in the mail attachments list, not the path of the file on the ... read more »
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CFDirectory Filtering Uses Single Character Wild Card
Posted: May 7, 2008 at 8:21 AM by Ben Nadel
Minor tip here, but over the weekend, at cf.Objective() , I was watching a presentation (I think it was Mark Mandel ) when I saw that someone was using a ColdFusion CFDirectory filter that had the "?" wild card. I knew that CFDirectory filtering could use the multi-character "*" wild card, but I am pretty sure I didn't know that it could use the... read more »
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Work At Edit.com - The Website Maintenance Experts
Posted: May 6, 2008 at 1:40 PM by Ben Nadel
My friends at Edit.com are looking for three people to join their team. Recently, I have had a chance to talk with David Ries and it sounds like they are building some really awesome applications over there; elastic clouds, on-demand services, project management systems, remote communication. I am always impressed with Dave's vision and his arch... read more »
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Soft References In ColdFusion
Posted: May 6, 2008 at 8:39 AM by Ben Nadel
At cf.Objective() , Mark Mandel held a presentation on the caching mechanisms and algorithms he uses in his Transfer ORM project . In it, he talked about his use of Soft References. A soft reference, as opposed to a hard reference, is a reference to an object that does not get flagged as a "use" of that object. When the JVM cleans up all the g... read more »
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cf.Objective() 2008: Walking Among Giants
Posted: May 5, 2008 at 9:24 AM by Ben Nadel
As a child, I remember laying out on hot summer nights and staring up at the sky. I wasn't in a city then, so the stars, unobstructed, would spread out far beyond my periphery in infinite arrangements. The sky seemed so big to me then - so incomprehensibly vast; its endless expanse always made me feel small, but not in a negative way - not small a... read more »
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Updated CFHttpSession.cfc With Spoofed Referer Can Log Into PayPal
Posted: May 1, 2008 at 9:30 AM by Ben Nadel
Yesterday, Steve Stout brought it to my attention that my CFHttpSession.cfc ColdFusion component does not use any Referer spoofing. When I read that, I almost couldn't believe my eyes; I have spent a good amount of my time playing around with CFHttp and CFHttpParam and the fact that I forgot to put in referral spoofing blows my mind a little b... read more »
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New ColdFusion CFMailParam "Remove" Attribute Makes Deleting Attachments Simple
Posted: April 30, 2008 at 8:58 AM by Ben Nadel
For anyone who has built a web page that has uploaded and sent files (such as sending resumes to the Human Resources department of a law firm), you probably know that one of the most frustrating things about sending mail from ColdFusion is that the mail doesn't get sent out immediately; it gets spooled. This means that your mail file sits in a dir... read more »
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Creating A "Remember Me" Login System In ColdFusion
Posted: April 29, 2008 at 9:59 AM by Ben Nadel
The other day, I was working on a login system that had a "Remember Me" checkbox where, when checked, the user would be automatically logged back into the system upon subsequent visits to the site. I have built systems like this many times before, but for some reasons, I was hitting a mental road block; I was having trouble wrapping my head around... read more »
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Image Manipulation ColdFusion Wrapper Component
Posted: April 28, 2008 at 8:08 AM by Ben Nadel
Back when Pete Freitag came to talk at the New York ColdFusion User Group , Peter Bell asked if there was a way to treat the ColdFusion image object as a more traditional object and call methods on it like Image.GetWidth() and Image.GetHeight(). Technically, you can do this, but it is not documented and leverages the underlying Java object. O... read more »
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ClearCode Standards Project
Posted: April 25, 2008 at 4:00 PM by Ben Nadel
The ClearCode Standards Project is the development standard that outlines the way in which I code all of my applications. I have talked about my methodology before and since then, it has continued to evolve and become more refined. In this blog post, I intend to keep the most up-to-date outline of the rules and the styles involved. I have chosen... read more »
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Dynamically Evaluating Image Functions In ColdFusion 8
Posted: April 24, 2008 at 3:07 PM by Ben Nadel
I was playing around with some ideas when I came across an odd behavior with ColdFusion's Evaluate() method. Now, let me start by saying that I hate the Evaluate() method with a passion and I cringe at the idea of using it; however, I was doing something that involved dynamic execution of built-in ColdFusion methods and Evaluate() is the only way ... read more »
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Turning On Multiple Statements In ColdFusion 8 MySQL 4/5 Datasource
Posted: April 24, 2008 at 2:31 PM by Ben Nadel
Lately, I have been doing a lot of work in ColdFusion 8 and MySQL 5. One of the things that I noticed immediately was that MySQL didn't seem to allow multiple statements within one CFQuery tag. I read that this is apparently done to prevent SQL injection attacks, which as a ColdFusion developer seems kind of silly. Anyway, it took just a little bi... read more »
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Previously Posted
ColdFusion Image Manipulation Functions Return Nothing - Posted Apr 24, 2008
Getting Excited For cf.Objective() 2008 - Posted Apr 22, 2008
Content Is Not Allowed In Prolog - ColdFusion XML And The Byte-Order-Mark (BOM) - Posted Apr 22, 2008
No More New Fonts May Be Applied In This Workbook - Posted Apr 21, 2008
You Cannot Submit Non-Rendered Forms - Posted Apr 18, 2008
Writing AJAX Return Value Logic On The Server - Posted Apr 17, 2008
Rob Gonda Rocks AJAX At The New York City ColdFusion User Group - Posted Apr 17, 2008
Update To MSSQL To MySQL Translation (II) - Posted Apr 17, 2008
Update To MSSQL To MySQL Translation - Posted Apr 16, 2008
Translate Microsoft SQL (MSSQL) To MySQL - Posted Apr 15, 2008
A Reminder About Interfaces And The User Experience - Posted Apr 15, 2008
Defaulting To The Numeric Keyboard On The iPhone - Posted Apr 14, 2008
I'm Not Dead Yet - But Blogging Might Be Killing Me? - Posted Apr 11, 2008
Exception-Driven Multi-Step Dependent Algorithms In ColdFusion - Posted Apr 11, 2008
Thoughts On Chained And Dependent Algorithm Steps - Posted Apr 10, 2008
Happy Medium Between Generic Getters / Setters And Property Methods - Posted Apr 9, 2008
Compiling Several Linked Files Into One File - Posted Apr 8, 2008
Been Busy, Ready To Be Back - Posted Apr 7, 2008
Thoughts On Storing Duplicate / Calculated Data In The Database - Posted Mar 28, 2008
Ben Nadel's Easy Tips For Writing Better, More Optimized SQL - Posted Mar 27, 2008
Pete Freitag At The New York ColdFusion User Group - Posted Mar 27, 2008
POI ColdFusion Custom Tags First Release - Posted Mar 25, 2008
POI ColdFusion Custom Tags Almost There - Posted Mar 24, 2008
Minor CSSRule.cfc ColdFusion CSS Parser Update - Posted Mar 20, 2008
Been Very Stressed Lately - Posted Mar 19, 2008
Strange URL Hash Problem With CFLocation In IE6 - Posted Mar 19, 2008
Initial Thoughts On POI Utility ColdFusion Custom Tag Output - Posted Mar 13, 2008
Name vs. Variable In ColdFusion - Posted Mar 12, 2008
ColdFusion Kinky eCards Update - Posted Mar 11, 2008
Ask Ben: Extending Application.cfc And OnRequestStart() With SUPER - Posted Mar 11, 2008
Never Be Conflicted About Being Nice - Posted Mar 10, 2008
Custom User Agents For ColdFusion Debugging - Posted Mar 7, 2008
Trouble With My Mail Server - Posted Mar 6, 2008
ColdFusion 8 Image Manipulation Web Service - Posted Mar 6, 2008
Negative CSS Margins Are Not Cool - Posted Mar 5, 2008
Kinky Calendar Leap Year Update - Posted Mar 4, 2008
Dig Deep Fitness And Unique Application Usability Testing - Posted Mar 3, 2008
CFHTTPSession.cfc For Multi-CFHttp Requests With Maintained Session - Posted Mar 3, 2008
Dig Deep Fitness iPhone Fitness Application Beta - Posted Feb 29, 2008
Odd MySql CFQueryParam Truncation Issue (Help)? - Posted Feb 27, 2008
