	Fusion Authority The House of Fusion Technical Magazine	Issue: 117 November 21, 2002 December 13, 2002
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Specials: SPECIAL REPORT: SAMCFUG Flashcom Broadcast, November 21, 2002
Community: EasyCFM Tutorial Contest
News: Macromedia Contribute Now Available; Macromedia Releases Director MX; Macromedia Announces Director MX for Mac OS X; Fast Search Engine the first to Allow Searching of Flash Web Applications; Yahoo Adopts Macromedia Streaming Video Solution
Tech and Tags: What's New in the Tag Gallery?; What's New at CFLib.org?
Reviews: Application Servers - Flash Communication Server MX; Collaboration Made Flexible; Review -- Macromedia Contribute
Best of ColdFusion Talk: Best of Talk (10/28/02); Best of Talk (10/29/02); Best of Talk (10/31/02); Best of Talk (11/01/02); Best of Talk (Weekend, 11/02/02 - 11/03/02)

Specials

SPECIAL REPORT: SAMCFUG Flashcom Broadcast, November 21, 2002

By Doug White, SAMCFUG
with Michael and Judith Dinowitz, NYCFUG

In order to expand its membership (virtually), the San Antonio Macromedia and ColdFusion User Group conducted a broadcast of its November meeting through the Flash Communications Server. The topic of the meeting was a overview of Contribute, the new desktop application that was just announced by Macromedia. This was the second CFUG Flashcom broadcast conducted in the space of a month (see our writeup of the broadcast by NYCFUG). The cumulative knowledge of the two broadcasts provided a number of good ideas on how to best serve the viewers of Flashcom broadcasts with a quality experience. We hope that this article, together with the previous one, will help other CFUGs conduct their own Flashcom broadcasts successfully.

There were 28 people physically attending the meeting, with another 20 or so virtually. The attendees at the meeting were very positive about Flashcom as a technology and very enthusiastic. To break the ice, the CFUG managers had some of the participants introduce themselves to those watching over Flashcom. The introductions got everyone in a light-hearted mood, which really helped the atmosphere of the meeting in general.

There were some minor technical issues with the broadcast, which no one seemed too bothered by, and there was an unexpected high level of excitement about the product. Three of the more experienced Flash folks at SAMCFUG were interested enough to want to get other components working in order to provide more features for future meetings.

The Broadcast: Technical Issues

The equipment used for the presentation was a Dell Latitude 8000 Laptop, 1.8 GHz and 512 MB RAM with a maestro sound system, running Windows 2000 Server. The browser used was IE 6 with all the latest updates. The camera was a Logitech Quickcam Traveler connected via the USB port on the laptop ($69.95 at Circuit City). The connectivity was a T-3 connection to the Internet backbone, through the College's network. The microphone and speakers were the ones built into the laptop; external versions would have helped a lot.

One of the issues that we found was a problem with excess noise. The microphone was near the computer and all the sounds of the computer, such as hard drive clicks and the fan movement, could be heard. About 2/3 of the way through the meeting, one of the attendees found his wired microphone (a real cheapo at that) and we were able to extend the mike about 6 feet away from the speakers. That instantly stopped the excess noise problem.

An additional problem, solved by the external mike, was the issue of echo and feedback. This comes up when other people are broadcasting as well, and their speakers and microphone are close together. The sound from one microphone comes out of another person's speakers. Because that second person's microphone is close to his speakers, it picks up the sound and rebroadcasts it. The original person gets that sound out of his speakers, which then, again, goes into his microphone. Due to amplification, this circuit of sound gets louder and louder, and eventually turns into a piercing scream. There is a setting on the Flashcom client to mute some of this echo and avoid some of the feedback, but it is not 100% effective. Having the speakers and the microphone a distance apart avoids much of this problem.

The meeting facility was equipped with two outlets for CAT-5 cable connections, and the plan was to use one laptop for the Flashcom operation and the other for the Contribute Demo. However, the CFUG managers discovered that one of the Cat-5 outlets was dead, and they tried to do the Contribute presentation on the Dell laptop by opening a second instance of Internet Explorer. This worked great on their end for the physical audience. However, the audience on the Flashcom saw only a bright white screen (one person described it as "watching a TV in the window of an electronics store from across the street." At SAMCFUG's January meeting, they are planning to include a small network hub, which will allow more than one computer and camera to be hooked up. One can be panning the audience and the other can be dedicated to the speaker, who will have a lapel (wired) microphone.

Another technical glitch was the configuration of the camera, in that the auto white balance had not been turned on, thus giving very dark images, even though the room was well-lit. The camera is capable of producing a much better picture than was seen during the broadcast. The video and audio received from Michael Dinowitz and others that were logged in could not have been better, and the presentation suffered no reported choppiness, either with video or audio.

There are two things that people forget to do when they log on that can make all of the difference. The first is to choose their bandwidth setting in the Flashcom application. The default setting is modem, but DSL is probably the best option if you have the bandwidth.

The second thing people forget is to select the settings they're broadcasting with. When broadcasting, you should right click on the movie box, go to settings and the microphone icon. There you should check the option for reduced echo. This will not completely kill the echo, but it will greatly reduce it.

Suggestions that were heard at the meeting:

Run the SWF file through Flash player instead of through the browser, although those using Mozilla or Netscape reported better quality than those using Internet Explorer.
Make sure the camera software is optimized for video quality, including white balance.
Use a remote microphone (wired ones are much easier to find) to give as much distance as possible between the laptop's speakers and the presenter.
One person also asked if the images could be made larger. This is really dependant on the quality of the camera and the amount of data being sent. Previous presentations found that pictures started to pixilate as they got larger.
Make sure you have a good mount for the camera in order to hold it steady and allow panning.
Plan the meeting to allow for greater interaction between the people physically present at the meeting and those on the Flashcom. (In fact, we suggest making sure you have a well-defined agenda and a producer that is tasked with providing good video content.)

For the future, there needs to be more intuitive audio control by the broadcaster, and of course, many are asking "When will this be available for the Solaris/Unix/Linux platform?" This question is because most web servers in SAMCFUG's area (San Antonio, Texas) are not on Windows.

Flashcom, the Community Builder

Doug has already been asked to do another demo for the Distance Learning and English Department faculties of the Alamo Community College District, as well as the faculty of the University of Texas at San Antonio. The representatives of several potential commercial users seem to be reserving comment until they can see a little more.

But beyond the educational and business potential, Flashcom has shown itself to have many applications in the field of community building, and in the production and sharing of content over the Internet. There was a lively chat going on among the Flashcom audience during the presentation. At certain points, Michael and Judith had their children present. Now everyone wants to know how Michael and Judith managed to have such beautiful kids! This helped bring more of a community aspect out during a technical lecture, as people were able to see others (in this case the Dinowitz's) in their "normal" setting.

All of SAMCFUG wishes to express their gratitude to Jochem Van Dieten, Michael Dinowitz, Judith Dinowitz, and the many others who logged in and patiently sat through all the glitches and enjoyed the presentation. Both SAMCFUG and NYCFUG are doing additional Flashcom broadcasts in the next two months. NYCFUG will be broadcasting on December 10, 2002, and SAMCFUG will be broadcasting on January 16, 2003. Please visit our respective websites (http://www.samcfug.org and http://www.nycfug.org) for more information. We hope to see you again, on the Flashcom or at the meetings themselves!

Thread Title:	Application Framework problem
End Date:	10/28/02 9 Posts
Summary:	Should Application.cfm and OnRequestEnd.cfm be used to display headers and footers? Here are some differing opinions and a tip or two about how to best resolve a table display problem.

Thread Title:	Arrays vs. Lists
End Date:	10/28/02 10 Posts
Summary:	Is it true that arrays are processed faster than lists? Depends on the operation and the size of the list. For long lists, ListFind() is usually faster than looping over an array, but ArrayToList(ArrayDeletAt(ListToArray(list),1)) is much faster than ListDeleteAt(list,1).

Thread Title:	CFHEADER - explanation
End Date:	10/28/02 2 Posts
Summary:	This one's worth repeating...use CFHEADER instead of CFLOCATION when setting a cookie: <cfcookie ...> <cfheader name="Location" value="urlpath/to/file.cfm"> <cfheader statuscode="302" statustext="Document moved">

Thread Title:	Date - Weekly Format?
End Date:	10/28/02 5 Posts
Summary:	If you need to populate a select with Sunday through Monday weekly ranges, this thread provides an efficient code snippet that will help you do just that!

Thread Title:	Query Problem
End Date:	10/28/02 14 Posts
Summary:	Use CFQUERYPARAM to effectively code for null updates. Try: null="#IIf(Trim(myvariable) EQ '', DE("Yes"), DE("No"))#" or, better yet, null="#yesnoformat(not len(trim(myvariable)))#".

Thread Title:	SQL OT: Selecting Bottom Most 10 Records
End Date:	10/28/02 8 Posts
Summary:	Need to select just the bottom 10 records? Simple. Use SQL's TOP function and ORDER BY DESC.

Thread Title:	CFXML Question
End Date:	10/29/02 8 Posts
Summary:	Have you tried XML in CFMX? If you are acessing a well-formed XML doc, use the CFXML method and output using dot notation; preface with XMLParse() for non-XML docs.

Thread Title:	DSN-less Connection to a CSV File?
End Date:	10/29/02 14 Posts
Summary:	Here's "a real find"...sample code to query a CSV file directly using a DSN-less connection. Check this out...
Related Threads:	The Solution: DSN-less Connection to a CSV File?

Thread Title:	Locking and Clustered Servers
End Date:	10/29/02 11 Posts
Summary:	If you need to INSERT a record and immediately access its ID, use CFTRANSACTION ISOLATION="serializable" or, better yet, write a stored procedure. SQL Server users can refer to the SP code included in this thread.

Thread Title:	Replacement for CFX_fMAKETREE
End Date:	10/29/02 10 Posts
Summary:	Need a custom tag to replace CFX_fMAKETREE? Try CF_MAKETREE at http://www.houseoffusion.com/_library/. (Use this syntax when implementing: QUERY=#myquery#.)

Thread Title:	Basic Question - Testing for No Results From Query
End Date:	10/31/02 17 Posts
Summary:	Use <cfif queryname.recordcount eq 0> to test for an empty recordset. Note that although <cfif queryname.recordset gt 0> and <cfif queryname.recordcount> both evaluate to true, the former syntax is actually correct since the value is numeric, not boolean. This is a good hedge against the possibility that CFML will evolve into a typed language.

Thread Title:	CF MX Query of Query Lower() Function
End Date:	10/31/02 12 Posts
Summary:	The Lower() function throws an exception when handling nulls in CFMX Query of Queries. As a workaround, try applying the Lower() function in the original query to format your data for use with Query of Queries.

Thread Title:	CFLoop Query Problem
End Date:	10/31/02 9 Posts
Summary:	Need a sum of the values returned in a query column? Try this elegant and efficient solution: <cfscript> aPrices=arrayNew(1); aPrices=ListToArray(valueList(mQry.ItemPrice)); </cfscript> <cfoutput> #arraySum(aPrices)# </cfoutput>

Thread Title:	OT JS Value Validation
End Date:	10/31/02 7 Posts
Summary:	Since HTML forms return string values by default, we need to cast numeric values, using either parseInt or parseFloat, before comparing them in Javascript.

Thread Title:	Relative Path for FileExists() Inside Custom Tag
End Date:	10/31/02 3 Posts
Summary:	If you need to use the FileExists() function, note that its argument is a path that resolves relative to the base template. To resolve the path relative to the current template, try <cfif fileexists("#ExpandPath(myrelativepath)#")>.

Thread Title:	Auto Resize Images? (Plus Some list Rants/Suggestion)
End Date:	11/01/02 5 Posts
Summary:	You can use CFX_Image to resize images on the fly. CFMX developers may opt to manipulate images with the Java Advanced Imaging API (see URL to related article).

Thread Title:	Client vs. Session
End Date:	11/01/02 4 Posts
Summary:	This is an excellent comparison of session and client management ... concise and complete.

Thread Title:	Hidden Frame in Frameset
End Date:	11/01/02 14 Posts
Summary:	Need to create a hidden frame or expand/collapse frames? Here's a mini-lesson complete with code examples.

Thread Title:	Multi-Lingual Translations
End Date:	11/01/02 9 Posts
Summary:	Language translation presents a serious challenge to web developers. Here we offer a few URLs, a cost estimate, and an admonition to seek out a multi-lingual user to review translations.

Thread Title:	OT: Uploading More Than One File at a Time?
End Date:	11/01/02 8 Posts
Summary:	This thread includes some useful code and a custom tag recommendation for multiple file uploads. We also discuss a problem with Internet Explorer for MAC when using <input type="file"> to pass in multiple files.

Thread Title:	Performance Tweaking - Friday Morning Brain Fart
End Date:	11/01/02 13 Posts
Summary:	Need an efficient way to reuse a dropdown menu throughout your site? Try CFSAVECONTENT to save the dropdown code to a variable, CFFILE to write the variable to a file, and CFINCLUDE to render the dropdown in your templates.

Thread Title:	CFMX Variable Creation - Is This Normal Behavior? or a Bug?
End Date:	11/02/02 9 Posts
Summary:	CFMX does not require explicit variable declarations; instead it can create and type variables based on first usage. But we get an error if we attempt to overwrite a scalar variable with a new, complex variable. Is this an MX bug?

Thread Title:	HELP!! SQL Weirdness and the Client's Coming Tomorrow!!!
End Date:	11/03/02 6 Posts
Summary:	If PreserveSingleQuotes() is used within a SQL statement, it will prevent ColdFusion from automatically escaping single quotes in a string variable. We also learn that CFQUERYPARAM may help to prevent errors by identifying the data type and the value of parameters passed to the DBMS.
Related Threads:	<CFQUERYPARAM> and preservesinglequotes() was RE: HELP!! SQL Weirdness ERROR Message <CFQUERYPARAM> and preservesinglequotes() was RE: HELP!! SQL Weirdness ERROR Message Return of the SQL Weirdness ERROR Message

Thread Title:	MSXML Alternative for Linux?
End Date:	11/02/02 9 Posts
Summary:	CF-Talk is at its best as developers team up to perfect a CFMX solution for passing XML to the UPS website.
Related Threads:	MSXML Alternative for Linux? (SOLVED!)

Thread Title:	Understanding Locking In CFMX
End Date:	11/02/02 31 Posts
Summary:	Confused about CFMX locking? Here's an in-depth discussion among some of ColdFusion's top gurus. Give this a look .... Well worth the read.

Thread Title:	Using CF to Interface IIS and Microsoft DNS
End Date:	11/02/02 11 Posts
Summary:	Use CFEXECUTE with DnsCmd.exe to get IIS to automatically create a website entry and register DNS information with Windows DNS.

Specials

SPECIAL REPORT: SAMCFUG Flashcom Broadcast, November 21, 2002

The Broadcast: Technical Issues

Flashcom, the Community Builder

Community

EasyCFM Tutorial Contest

News

Macromedia Contribute Now Available

Macromedia Releases Director MX

Macromedia Announces Director MX for Mac OS X

Fast Search Engine the first to Allow Searching of Flash Web Applications

Yahoo Adopts Macromedia Streaming Video Solution

Tech and Tags

What's New in the Tag Gallery?

What's New at CFLib.org?

Reviews

Application Servers - Flash Communication Server MX

Collaboration Made Flexible

Review -- Macromedia Contribute

Best of ColdFusion Talk

Best of Talk (10/28/02)

Best of Talk (10/29/02)

Best of Talk (10/31/02)

Best of Talk (11/01/02)

Best of Talk (Weekend, 11/02/02 - 11/03/02)