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Fusion Authority The House of Fusion Technical Magazine |
Issue:
128 September 4, 2003 October 14, 2003 |
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- Community
- Fusebox Conference 2003
- Motion Over Time Offers Classes in Flash MX 2004
- Small Developer Not So Small After All
- Google Sponsors Code-Jam Competition
- Motion Over Time Offers Classes in Flash MX 2004
- News
- Shortages Amid The Jobless
- Eolas Files Motion to Enjoin IE
- Microsoft Announces a Change to the Internet Explorer Browser
- Macromedia Prepares Customers for Microsoft Internet Explorer Browser Changes
- Macromedia to Court J2EE Developers: A Heads up About Royale
- Eolas Files Motion to Enjoin IE
- Tech and Tags
- News on Central: Public Beta, SDK and Development Guide
- Knowledge Base
- ColdFusion MX: Installation Fails with MSVCRT.dll Error
- ColdFusion Hot Fixes (All Versions)
- ColdFusion MX 6.1 (Windows Only): Hot fix for Crystal Reports After Upgrading from CFMX to CFMX 6.1
- ColdFusion MX: Service Startup Fails with Service-Specific Error 2 Following a Service Shutdown or Restart
- ColdFusion MX: CFC and UDF Names Cannot Match Reserved Method Names
- Batch Files for Stopping and Restarting ColdFusion Services on Windows
- ColdFusion: Maximum SSL Encryption Levels By Version
- ColdFusion 5: CFMAIL spool and undelivr Directories Limited to 65,535 Files
- Starting ColdFusion MX Causes the Webserver Connector Wizard to Run Every Time on Unix Platforms
- ColdFusion Hot Fixes (All Versions)
Community
Fusebox Conference 2003
Compiled by James Husum and Mike Brunt
This year's Fusebox conference was held at the Rio Hotel and Casino on Sunday, August 31st and Monday, September 1st in beautiful and very warm Las Vegas; temperatures topped 100 degrees every day. Ninety-three people from all over the globe attended, including folks from Britain and Australia. There were eleven ladies signed up for the conference. According to Sandra Clark, a speaker at the conference, this is the highest ratio of women attending ever in the history of Fusebox. Other notable firsts at the 2003 conference were the launch of Fusebox 4.0 for procedural programming and Mach-II for 'OO' development. Charlie Areheart, CTO of New Atlanta, also announced the impending launch of NewAtlanta's Blue Dragon server 3.1 for running CFML pages.
The conference commenced with a reception and registration on Saturday night including the now legendary Fusebox Fuseball contest. Conference packets were distributed that contained handouts for the presentations, a demo copy of Adalon 2.6 from Synthis, a sheet for the CF tag game, and a really cool FB beer glass (sadly there were no free samples to test the glasses!). Steve Nelson, from SecretAgents.com, was showing off two tools he has developed - the improved Prototype Toolkit and the Fusedoc Validator. The evening also hosted the annual Fuseball tournament (full report further on).
Day 1: Fusebox 4.0
| On Sunday, things started off early at 8:00 AM and finally wrapped up at 10:00 PM. This was a marathon session featuring a number of good presentations and a Fusebox Panel finale that included Sean Corfield from Macromedia. Many noted Corfield's presence as a good thing for Fusebox and he made the point of asking for more Fusebox and Mach-II contributions for DevNet. Michael Smith of TeraTech handled the welcoming duties and the general Master of Ceremonies tasks. TeraTech has been a major sponsor of Fusebox events for several years. You can find conference details at http://www.cfconf.org/fusebox2003/.
Hal Helms kicked off the day with an introduction to Fusebox 4, which helped bring everyone up to speed on the new framework. FB4 uses the power of XML to great effect to configure, amongst other things, the application level settings. Since XML is language neutral, these same files can be used to control your app in ColdFusion, PHP, JSP and other languages. More information on Fusebox 4.0 can be found at Fusebox.org. John Quarto-vonTividar presented a session on a powerful new feature in FB4 - plugins. Plugins allow you to extend the functionality of the FB4 core files without having to change the core itself. They can also handle things such as security or error handling for an app. Multiple plugins can be used within the same application without conflicting with each other. |
Sean Corfield 
Michael Smith |
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| Sandy Clark |
Jeff Peters' session on Fusedocs covered the XML-based documentation standard for Fusebox. Jeff went over the benefits of using Fusedocs, such as having an easy way of knowing what the fuse is meant to do and what variables it handles. He also showed how Fusedocs provide a good way of documenting what your thought process was in case you have to revisit your code six months later for maintenance. Steve Nelson has already used Fusedocs very effectively for his ongoing Fusecoder project.
Michael Smith came back for a presentation on Real World FLiP (Fusebox Lifecycle Process.) In the session he went over some of the problems developers encounter while using FLiP. He then departed from the usual format and broke the audience up to form teams. Each team took one of the problems and brainstormed possible solutions. At the end, each team presented their solutions for peer review.
Picasso would have been proud of some of the drawings!
To end the first day, Michael Smith, Sandy Clark, Steve Nelson and Sean Corfield sat on the Fusebox Panel and fielded questions from the audience. One nice piece of information came from Corfield. He said that while Macromedia was optimizing the CF 6.1 code, several Fusebox apps were used to help optimize and tweak performance. This involved testing Fusebox 3.0, Fusebox 4.0 and Mach-II (formerly Fusebox MX) applications to ensure that the new XML-driven FB apps also ran faster under ColdFusion MX 6.1! He also mentioned that Macromedia was using Mach-II to build some internal web applications and shared some amazing metrics for the number of hits the MM web sites get in a typical day.
Day 2: Mach-II
The second day focused entirely on the Mach-II framework, which is based on object-oriented principles and uses ColdFusion Components as an integral part of its design. Mach-II was developed by Ben Edwards and Hal Helms. Helms explained that 'mach' represents breaking the procedural barrier, and 'II' stands for the implicit invocation architecture, on which the framework is based. Sean Corfield is likely to be a major contributor to the Mach-II effort, and mentioned he was already working on some enhancements. In fact, since the conference, he has built a whole section of his blog to cover Mach-II topics: http://www.corfield.org/index.php?fuseaction=machii.main.The first presentation focused on object-oriented principles and how they apply to coding web applications. Helms listed the three essential aspects of object-oriented (OO) programming as Polymorphism, Inheritance and Encapsulation. He stressed the long-term need for us all to start grasping OO principles. We have a golden opportunity to do so, thanks to ColdFusion MX. Head First Java by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates, published by O'Reilly, was recommended as a good reference for ColdFusion developers wanting to get up to speed on Java and OO.
The next segment went into more of the architecture and configuration of a Mach-II app. Configuration of the app is done using XML. The system is event-based. A component of the system broadcasts an event. Other procedures in the system are set to listen for the broadcasted event. When they 'hear' the event their own methods are invoked and run. There are sample apps along with the Mach-II framework available from the Mach-II web site (http://www.mach-ii.com).
Hal Helms and Ben Edwards
The last segment provided further detail on the workings of Mach-II, such as how events are defined and examples of how to create listeners and event filters.
View from Starship Fuseballprise! Where's Stan Cox?
Just before the drawings for the door prizes started there was an appearance by TV personality ALF, standing in for the legendary Stan Cox. It seems that Stan is now living on ALF's home world (Melmac) and enjoying having every fantasy fulfilled, courtesy of Mach-II! (It couldn't have happened to a more deserving guy than Stan.)
Finally, the winners of this year's Fuseball tournament were Devin Holloway and John Vachalek. On their way to glory they had a really hard-fought, tight game against Rey Muradaz and Steve Nelson. For their efforts, they won nicely laminated posters proclaiming them Fuseball Champions for 2003. Congratulations, guys, and better luck to everyone else next year.
We talked with many attendees after the conference. Overall, most attendees had a positive experience with the conference and thought it was worthwhile. Kathryn Butterly said, "I liked it very much. FB4 has a lot of things we need, such as layouts and security." But the whole conference was probably best summed up by Chris Phillips, who said, "It was just so awesome!"
James Husum runs RIAH Software, a web application development company
based in The Woodlands, Texas. He has used ColdFusion since 1997 and
Fusebox since 2001. He is the author of a useful blog app written in CF5
and FB3 which can be found at http://www.riahsoftware.com/fuseblog/. When he
is not busy programming, he is usually reading a book or trying to learn
some new technology.
Mike Brunt runs Webapper.com, a consulting company that pulls developer talent from all around the world. He is an all-around nice guy, a great photographer (as you can see!) and very helpful on the community lists, such as the CF-Talk list on House of Fusion.
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Motion Over Time Offers Classes in Flash MX 2004
Programmers in the New York area who are interested in Flash MX 2004 might want to check out a new two-day course offered by Motion Over Time. The course is meant for those who are new to Flash, or who have used it only to build applications, that want to use it to build rich media applications.[Top]
Small Developer Not So Small After All
Congratulations to Matthew Small, CF-Community member and an information technology manager for Showstoppers International, for raising awareness of a community problem through his website, www.stopthestoplight.com. Matthew was interviewed by his local newspaper about the problem, and will be interviewed on his local TV station as well -- all through the power of the Web! Good work, Matthew.Man Hopes Web Site Puts Brakes on Stoplight (MyrtleBeachOnline.com, October 12, 2003)
[Top]
Google Sponsors Code-Jam Competition
In a bid to find new employees, Google is sponsoring a programming contest worth up to $10,000 and a possible career at the search company. The rules? The contest is basically a timed, Internet-based test of programming skills. After two rounds, 25 finalists will get flown out to Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California, to compete for a total of $25,000 in cash prizes. The finalists will also be evaluated as potential employees.Registration for the contest began October 1st, but there's still a chance to get in on the action. The final round starts November 14th. So -- serious programmers, full speed ahead!
Google Seeking a Few Good Code Jockeys (ZDNET, September 17, 2003)
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News
Shortages Amid The Jobless
Survey Finds Change in Job Search Environment After High-Tech Meltdown
CATA-PMI Survey reveals new key for finding jobs, hiring employeesSeptember 24, 2003 -- A new job-placement environment has created a surprisingly different dynamic for those seeking jobs and for those seeking employees, says a new survey from executive recruiting firm Perry Martel International and the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (CATA). The 2003 Survey Of High-Tech Employers found that if high-tech workers want to get a job, they have to dramatically change their approach to the search process.
"The environment following the high tech meltdown is one where an oversupply of workers is being accompanied by a shortage of highly skilled workers," said PMI President David Perry. "This is causing the dynamics of job-hunting to change dramatically from the situation a few years ago. The old ways of job-hunting not only don't work, they have been supplanted by a new approach.
"The Survey results turn the old 'networking' adage on its head."
John Reid, President of CATA, agrees. "The ways of the world in 2003 are very different from the world of 2001. The environment is sending contradictory signals: while many high-tech workers are seeking jobs today, employers are facing a shortage of highly skilled workers."
Sensing a shift in hiring practices, PMI and CATA set out to survey North American employers on their actual hiring practices and develop a guide to tell technology workers how to best find new employment in the post DOTCOM high-tech economy. Employers were represented in two categories: executives and non-executives, with major differences in attitudes between the two groups.
Among the Survey findings:
- There were no differences between industries or countries on the best way to find a high-tech job. The differences are between Executives and Non-executives.
- 97% of executives feel that the best way to find a high tech job today is through Target Marketing of firms followed by a direct approach to the executive. For executives, the second best method is through recruitment companies. "Networking" rated less than a one percent response.
- Among non-executives, however, 73% felt that networking was the best way to find a job. This feeling was strongest among Human Resources professionals (83%) and lowest among the engineering professionals (57% favoured going to recruiting companies).
- 84% of executives said they were always in strategic hiring mode, vs. 7% of non-executives.
- Executives (81%) concentrate almost entirely on intangible skills instead of tangible skills. They look for core qualities that add value to the profit-line of the organization. A table of these values can be found in the Survey Report on the CATA website: www.cata.ca
- Non-executives (by 77%), however, are still looking to fill in boxes on a standard recruiting form.
"The biggest surprise in the survey was that Networking rated so low among Executives," said Mr. Perry. "Executives prefer a direct approach and are less likely to suggest using Head-hunters, whereas Non-Executives still believe Networking is the best way to find a job. In the kind of hiring freeze situation that often accompanies a slow-down, it's easy to understand why Non-executive staff may be loath to bring forward anyone they interview no matter how strong their skill set. This means that the Networking favoured by Non-executives will keep Job-seekers very busy but is not likely to result in a job offer.
"The Catch 22 in all of this is that while Executives are looking for people with the kind of qualities that can advance their business, their hiring staff has a very different set of standards for the candidates they think the company needs."
To resolve the imbalance between Job seekers and Executive searchers, both sides are advised to approach the problem differently:
- Job-seekers need to become adept at direct self-promotion to Executives, and to answer the question "How can I increase shareholder value?"
- Employers need to instill in their search teams the values they themselves cherish in their continuing search for star talent -- the realization that value is not salary; worth does not flow from a job title. Knowing how to evaluate the worth of someone's contribution is the important element.
About The Survey
A total of 19,000 contacts in various high tech categories in the U.S. and Canada were invited to respond to the survey. A total of 7182 people completed the survey for an overall response rate of just over 37.8%. The unusually high response rate is attributed to the brand awareness of the CATA. Participants were asked to self select their titles which were divided into executive and non-executive.Download the Guide!
You can download the guide that was developed by Perry Martel International and CATA right here on the Fusion Authority site! Our thanks to PMI for this privilege.The Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (CATA) is a business development association dedicated to stimulating global growth for technology enterprises through the promotion of strategic partnerships, technological innovation and entrepreneurial values. More information about CATA can be found on the CATA Web site: www.cata.ca
Perry-Martel International Inc. is an international executive search firm with clients in Canada, United States, England, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. Founder David Perry launched the first information technology search firm, which today, dominates the Canadian technology space. Perry is the author of Career Guide for the Hi-Tech Professional: Where the Jobs are NOW, and How to land Them, (Career Press - Spring 2004). More information on PMI can be found at www.perrymartel.com
[Top]
Eolas Files Motion to Enjoin IE
Thanks to John Dowdell for keeping us posted on the latest round in the Eolas-Microsoft battle. Eolas has filed a motion to keep Microsoft from distributing copies of its Internet Explorer browser that allow for plug-in technologies in any way covered by the Eolas patent.Eolas Files Motion to Enjoin IE
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Microsoft Announces a Change to the Internet Explorer Browser
Microsoft has announced a change to the Microsoft Internet Explorer web browser, which may impact how active content is displayed. Examples of affected content include Macromedia Flash, Shockwave, Authorware, Windows Media Player, QuickTime, RealAudio, or RealVideo content, as well as Java applets and other ActiveX controls.For more information, visit the Macromedia Active Content Developer Center and the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN).
[Top]
Macromedia Prepares Customers for Microsoft Internet Explorer Browser Changes
October 6, 2003-Macromedia announced it has launched the Active Content Developer Center on macromedia.com to provide information, tools, and resources for responding to future changes that will be made to Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) browser. The alterations to Internet Explorer are the result of the Microsoft/Eolas patent case. For information on changes to Internet Explorer please visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/ieupdate/."Our goal is to ensure developers have the tools they need to update their web sites so that end users continue to enjoy the best digital experiences possible," said Norm Meyrowitz, president of products, Macromedia. "Even though the new browser is not going to be available until early next year, we have been working hard, and today have made available a number of solutions to help developers, website administrators, and business owners navigate through this change and ensure a straightforward transition."
To help web developers get started, the Macromedia development team is today providing some examples of "before and after" HTML and scripts in the Active Content Developer Center at http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/activecontent/. Developers can immediately begin updating their websites by applying a manual change to affected web pages, or by writing their own scripts to apply the change across their site.
Macromedia is also developing a set of free tools called Active Content Update Utilities, which will be available shortly through the Active Content Developer Center. By using the utilities, developers can efficiently incorporate the changes necessary to support content created with Macromedia technologies such as Macromedia Flash, Shockwave, and Authorware. The utilities will be provided for free under an open source license.
"For developers, we want to make this change as easy as possible," said Mike Sundermeyer, senior vice president, product design, Macromedia. "We believe that most websites will be updated by the time the new version of Internet Explorer becomes widely used, so for most web users, this change should be transparent."
As the user community works to incorporate changes in support of the alterations to Microsoft Internet Explorer, macromedia.com will continue to provide the latest information and solutions for responding to these changes.
[Top]
Macromedia to Court J2EE Developers: A Heads up About Royale
This article on CNET discusses Royale, a new set of Flash tools that is currently in development at Macromedia. Until now, Royale has not gotten much space in the media (aside from Mike Chambers' discussion of it in his blog, reviewed in Fusion Authority Issue 122.)The CNET article describes Royale as a set of tools that will use "a standards-based text format similar to that used by Java developers." The point here is to extend Flash's appeal, and make it more accessible and usable to J2EE developers. The focus of Royale will be "on using Flash to create attractive, easy-to-navigate interfaces for using J2EE applications."
Dates for beta testing and final release of Royale have not yet been announced by Macromedia.
Macromedia to Court J2EE Developers (CNET)
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Tech and Tags
News on Central: Public Beta, SDK and Development Guide
Macromedia has released a public beta version of Macromedia Central, so that you can try out this new Internet experience. If you don't remember what Central is, you can see our article in issue 120 of Fusion Authority. To help you explore the potential of Macromedia Central, this public beta release includes "first looks" at the Movie Finder and Weather applications. This is a beta for the application that sets up and maintains the Central environment.However, there are those who might wish to develop applications to distribute or sell through Central. Macromedia has released a public beta of the SDK as well for those developers who would like to get in on the ground floor. And to make it even easier, they've provided a white paper, and Mike Chambers has come out with a development guide to Central.
I see a lot of potential in Central for connecting developers and users of Macromedia products all over the world. Even if you don't become part of the beta programs, you should definitely read the information below and familiarize yourself with what Central is and what it can mean to you.
Macromedia Central Software Page
Mike Chambers' Blog and Central Development Quick Start Guide
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Knowledge Base
ColdFusion MX: Installation Fails with MSVCRT.dll Error
While installing Macromedia ColdFusion MX or higher, the installation may fail and display the following error:Procedure entry point __ lc_collate_cp could not be located in MSVCRT.dll
ColdFusion MX and higher requires Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 runtime or higher, as detailed in the ColdFusion MX System Requirements. The above error is caused by having MFC/MSVC Components prior to version 6 installed.
A workaround is provided in the TechNote below:
ColdFusion MX: Installation Fails with MSVCRT.dll Error
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ColdFusion Hot Fixes (All Versions)
Macromedia has updated its hot fixes page, which provides interim solutions to issues that will be included in an upcoming Updater or product release. You can download these hot fixes at:ColdFusion Hot Fixes (All Versions)
[Top]
ColdFusion MX 6.1 (Windows Only): Hot fix for Crystal Reports After Upgrading from CFMX to CFMX 6.1
After upgrading from Macromedia ColdFusion MX to ColdFusion MX 6.1, Crystal Reports .rpt files called via cfreport no longer render the correct report. The same report will always be rendered, regardless of what .rpt file is defined in the cfreport tag of the ColdFusion template.Note: New CFMX 6.1 installs will not have this issue.
You'll find more information, and a workaround, in the technote below:
ColdFusion MX 6.1 (Windows Only): Hot fix for Crystal Reports After Upgrading from CFMX to CFMX 6.1
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ColdFusion MX: Service Startup Fails with Service-Specific Error 2 Following a Service Shutdown or Restart
Following a service shutdown or restart, the Macromedia ColdFusion MX Application Server service may fail to start with the following error:The ColdFusion MX Application Server service terminated with service-specific error 2.
The above behavior can occur if the ColdFusion MX Application Server service fails to stop properly. The TechNote below will tell you how to determine if this is the case, and what to do to resolve the error.
[Top]
ColdFusion MX: CFC and UDF Names Cannot Match Reserved Method Names
Certain Java class names cannot be used as names of CFCs or UDFs. All public methods in UDFMethod, FusionFilter and java.lang.Object are reserved names. This TechNote will help you get a handle on what names you can and can't use.ColdFusion MX: CFC and UDF Names Cannot Match Reserved Method Names
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Batch Files for Stopping and Restarting ColdFusion Services on Windows
The batch files to stop and restart ColdFusion services on Windows have been updated.Batch Files for Stopping and Restarting ColdFusion Services on Windows
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ColdFusion: Maximum SSL Encryption Levels By Version
ColdFusion provides support for SSL in various elements of CFML, such as CFHTTP and CFLDAP. The maximum encryption level possible for those elements varies across product versions. The TechNote below enumerates the maximum possible SSL encryption level by version, as well as any additional relevant details.ColdFusion: Maximum SSL Encryption Levels By Version
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ColdFusion 5: CFMAIL spool and undelivr Directories Limited to 65,535 Files
In ColdFusion 5 and earlier, mail files are generated using a hex naming convention from 0000.cfmail to FFFF.cfmail. As a result, neither the cf_root/mail/spool directory, nor the cf_root/mail/undelivr directory may contain more than 65,535 messages at any one time. If the upper limit is reached in either directory, an error is generated. For more information and a workaround, see the article below.ColdFusion 5: CFMAIL spool and undelivr Directories Limited to 65,535 Files
[Top]
Starting ColdFusion MX Causes the Webserver Connector Wizard to Run Every Time on Unix Platforms
Starting Macromedia ColdFusion MX on Unix platforms may cause the webserver connector wizard to run every time, rather than just the first time ColdFusion MX is installed. The TechNote below will explain why, and how to resolve the problem.Starting ColdFusion MX Causes the Webserver Connector Wizard to Run Every Time on Unix Platforms
[Top]
| This is an opt-in magazine. To join, leave or change subscription mode, please visit the signup page. All content of this magazine is copyright Fusion Authority, Inc. It may not be reproduced without permission. | ||