Fusion Authority The House of Fusion Technical Magazine	Issue: 35 August 7, 2000 August 13, 2000
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Community

Fusion Authority Readers: Get Your Discount Now for Memphis Ecommerce Conference!

Portland CFUG to host Fusebox Panel

Will We See You in Charlottesville?

ColdFusion Site Offers Extensive Links

New FREE ColdFusion Hosting and Tips Site

Mark Your Calendar for the Allaire Developer's Conference

ZDNet Looks at the Cost of Doing Internet Business

Allaire's DevCenter News Index

Allaire's Consulting Practices Have Been Updated

 

News

SecretAgents.com Launches New Testing Tool

Relaunch of Crayola.com Powered by ColdFusion

eStar.com Standardizes on ColdFusion and Chuckwalla for Broadband Media Management

BrightStreet.com to Debut Privacy Manager

Novera Announces JBusiness for ColdFusion

Starbase Corp. Announces the eCollaboratory

Anderson Computers/Tidalwave and Beyond.com Rank HomeSite Among Top 10 Software Products

 

Tech and Tags

What's new in the Tag Gallery

Using CFFILE with IE to Upload Larger Files

Allaire Releases ColdFusion 4.5.1 NT Performance Guide

Intraware Article Focuses on Content Management, Architecture and Spectra

CNet Builder's Tag Mania Column Focuses on the Nonbreaking Space

Allaire Offers an On-Line Developer's Tour of New Features in ColdFusion 4.5

Allaire Spectra Hot Fixes

Allaire White Paper: Spectra Cacheing Strategies

ColdFusion Powers Online Yellow Pages Directory

 

Techniques

Fusebox (An Overview) Part III

QuickTip: Using Name (Label) Links with CFLOCATION

Locking in ColdFusion

Test Your Knowledge

 

Security

Bugs Afflict Microsoft, Netscape, Sun

Microsoft Internet Explorer Scriptlet Rendering Vulnerability

Netscape Communicator URL Read Vulnerability

Allaire Security Bulletin (ASB00-18)

Allaire Security Bulletin (ASB00-19)

 

Knowledge Base

ColdFusion Server 4.5.1 Installation and Configuration on Slackware Linux 7.0

ColdFusion Server 4.5.1 Installation and Configuration on SuSE Linux 6.4

 

Stock

The Wall Street Transcript Interviews Jeremy Allaire

Quote.com Makes Predictions of Near Term Growth for Allaire

Allaire Releases SEC-10Q for 2Q2000

Allaire Files S- 8 Employee Plan with SEC

CSFB Reiterates Its _Buy_ Rating for Allaire Corp.

Weekly Numbers

 

Community

Fusion Authority Readers: Get Your Discount Now for Memphis Ecommerce Conference!

Every participant is given a binder with a printout of all the slides used in the presentation, plus a listing of code highlights covered. After the seminar, attendees get to download the CommerceBlocks Explorer application, and receive a paid license to their choice of CommerceBlocks module: DatabaseBlocks V2.0, ShopBlocks, or BallotBlocks. They can also download the complete listings of all code highlighted during the seminar.

Fusion Authority readers get a special discount pass for $195 (less than half of the regular $395 conference price) for three days of solid ecommerce information. To get your Special Price Pass, send an email request to registration@coldfusionseminar.com and they'll send you back a PassCode. Mention that you're a Fusion Authority reader.

Make sure to have this PassCode ready BEFORE you register on http://www.ColdFusionSeminar.com, or you will not receive the special discounted price.

Registration closes soon, so register now! For complete details, go to http://www.ColdFusionSeminar.com.

Seminar Itinerary:

Part 1: ColdFusion and Ecommerce Development

Part 2: Introduction to Ecommerce

Part 3: Taxation

Part 4: Shipping and Handling

Part 5: Payment Processing

Part 6: Designing the User Experience

Part 7: Implementing the User Experience

Part 8: Managing an Ecommerce Development Project

Part 9: Integrating the Merchant

Part 10: Ecommerce Site Maintenance

Part 11: Scalability

Part 12: Database Design Essentials

Part 13: The Importance of Data Warehousing and Data Mining

Part 14: Implementing Data Warehousing and Data Mining

Part 15: Server-to-Server Integration

Part 16: Putting It All Together

Part 17: Hosting an Ecommerce Site

Part 18: Security

Part 19: Legal Considerations

Part 20: Things Every Ecommerce Developer Should Do

Part 21: Resources

[Top]

Portland CFUG to host Fusebox Panel

Fusebox Book Handouts Part of the Package

The head of the Portland CFUG, Jeff Cram, expects 35-50 people in attendance thanks to strong local media coverage and word of mouth buzz in the developer communities. Cram said that there has been high interest from the group to learn more about Fusebox at the developer level, looking at tangible coding examples and sample sites. Way to go, Portland!

The meeting starts off with a food and networking period (5:45-6:30 p.m.). The panel itself runs from 6:30-8:00 p.m. Location: The Portland Community College Workforce Training Center, 1626 S.E., Water Ave. in room 4.

The meeting is open and free to everyone. Please contact Jeff Cram at (503) 221-9860 x103 or jcram@isitedesign.com for more information.

[Top]

Will We See You in Charlottesville?

Fusebox Developers Conference Registration Site

[Top]

ColdFusion Site Offers Extensive Links

[Top]

New FREE ColdFusion Hosting and Tips Site

NSND.com

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Mark Your Calendar for the Allaire Developer's Conference

Allaire Registration Site

Conference Session Titles, Descriptions and Schedules

[Top]

ZDNet Looks at the Cost of Doing Internet Business

Silicon Valley: Can the Good Times Last?

[Top]

Allaire's DevCenter News Index

Allaire DevCenter News — July 2000

[Top]

Allaire's Consulting Practices Have Been Updated

Allaire's Consulting Arm Information

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News

SecretAgents.com Launches New Testing Tool

Pricing for this new product, while not finalized, is estimated in the range of $25-50 per test, with bulk rate prices for unlimited tests. A "lite" version of this tool will be included in the upcoming book by Steve Nelson and Craig Girard, Fusebox: Methodology and Techniques (ColdFusion Edition), due out in November 2000.

Of special interest to developers is the chance to register to use this testing tool in the first month of its release. (To test how big a load SecretAgents.com can handle, the site is only accepting applications from 100 developers.) So hurry up and register today!

SecretAgents.com Website and Registration Form

[Top]

Relaunch of Crayola.com Powered by ColdFusion

World's Most Colorful Company Chooses Allaire ColdFusion To Power Content-Rich Site And Handle Increased Traffic

Crayola.com Relaunch Uses ColdFusion (Company Sleuth News)

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eStar.com Standardizes on ColdFusion and Chuckwalla for Broadband Media Management

eStar.com Standardizes on ColdFusion (Northern Light News Alert)

[Top]

BrightStreet.com to Debut Privacy Manager

BrightStreet.com To Debut Privacy Manager (Northern Light News Alert)

[Top]

Novera Announces JBusiness for ColdFusion

Novera Announces JBusiness for ColdFusion (The International Java Club--Look Near the Bottom of the Page)

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Starbase Corp. Announces the eCollaboratory

"Inherent in the concept and design of the eCollaboratory is the objective of satisfying the marketplace's desire to better and more rapidly integrate best-of-breed eBusiness enabling technologies."

Starbase Corp. Announces The eCollaboratory (Northern Light News Alert)

[Top]

Anderson Computers/Tidalwave and Beyond.com Rank HomeSite Among Top 10 Software Products

Anderson Computers/Tidalwave and Beyond.com Announce Top 10 Software Products (Northern Light News Alert)

[Top]

Tech and Tags

What's new in the Tag Gallery

CFX_ReplaceInQuery

This ColdFusion custom tag allows you to perform global replacements within queries with virtually no decrease in performance. It is convenient for replacing NULLs and empty strings, but it may be used for any string. All you have to do is place the tag below your query and supply the name of the query. The specified OrigString (e.g., "", which includes both NULL values and empty strings) will be replaced with a user-specified ReplaceString (default is '-').

CF_DHTMLQUERY

CF_DHTMLQUERY generates a table (like CF_DUMPQUERY), but each column is client-side resortable (using DHTML) if they are using IE4+. Otherwise a normal table is generated.

cf_states

CF_states is a ColdFusion custom tag that displays the two-letter state abbreviation, or a state's full name in a select list. It allows the user to select one or multiple states, background and text colors, and fonts.

Spectra Studio Integration

Creates full Studio integration for all the tags in the Allaire Spectra Tag Reference Documentation. Extends the Spectra toolbar so it is possible to insert an object ID directly into a page in Studio.

CF_IncrementAlpha

CF_INCREMENTALPHA takes an initial letter or series of letters (or word) and increments the last letter. This tag would be useful if you had a series of items and wanted to identify them with a series of letters instead of numbers.

e-church

Provides an affordable web solution for small- to medium-sized churches. Most of the content on the site is dynamic, running on an Access 2000 database. It puts control of the website into the hands of the local church staff, virtually eliminating the continuing costs of site maintenance. The church staff does not need to have any knowledge of web design or development to maintain an updated and fully functional web site. Includes church mission, ministries, bulletin, facilities tour, contact information, and worship services. Open source code--easy to customize!

CF_ROWS

This is especially created for work with CF_ResultPages. See in that tag how they work together (although you can use CF_ROWS tag just for setting the StartRow (for CFOUTPUT cases), the EndRow (for CFLOOP cases), and the maxrows (for either)).

LightningDOCS

LightningDOCS is our comprehensive application for document management. This personalizable application features a secure login form, online help documentation, and more.

BrowserRedirect

Automatically generates Javascript that redirects the user based on his/her browser and platform. Allows the developer to choose distinct URL's for each browser/platform combination.

CF_ResultPages

Displays the Result Pages of a query and lets you link to next or previous pages and next and previous series of pages. So you can pass from ten to ten pages or the number you specify in maxpages=" ".

urlPipe

The urlPipe is a set of three Java classes (now includes source code) that expand the power of Internet browsers by allowing data to be exchanged with a web server without having to post back each page. Instead, urlPipe uses sockets to communicate with the parent web server.

Plain text to HTML URLs

This tag finds URL's (like http://mail.yahoo.com) in the middle of plain text. It is not currently a custom tag, but could easily be made into one. If you've downloaded it recently, go to my site and get the newer, much more powerful, version for free.

html2PDF

Here is a custom tag (cfx_html2PDF) that will take the contents of static html page and write them to Adobe PDF on the fly. What I do is dynamically generate a static html page based on some user input or db input, and then I run this tag on it. You can format the html page the way you are familiar with (give it the look and feel). This will give you the PDF you are looking for. Once I've written the PDF out, I then delete the static html file that was dynamically generated and make the PDF available to the user. This tag is currently unsupported and I've only tested it on NT4.0 and IIS.

CF_Romanize

CF_ROMANIZE takes any positive whole integer and recreates it as a Roman Numeral. Any whole number, starting with 1, will easily convert into Roman Numerals. It's pretty simple, actually! To install, simply place the tag (ROMAINZE.CFM) in your Custom Tags directory under CFUSION!

[Top]

Using CFFILE with IE to Upload Larger Files

"Issue: Trying to use CFFILE with IE (5 and 5.5, other browsers not tested) to upload larger files (test file 4.2meg) over an internet connection. Files less than 1 meg worked fine, 4.2 meg file would almost instantly return a 'Page Not Found' error in IE when the 'Upload Now' button clicked.

"Why: As far as we can tell, IE doesn't seem to be able to handle browser based uploads of larger files when there is a proxy server involved 'at all.' If you have a direct connection to the internet you are fine. If you have a dialup connection to your ISP and you are not forced to their proxy, you are fine."

Example Given:

"I have a permanent dialup connection. I use my ISP's proxy for general browsing. If the proxy is set up in the Tools>Internet Options>LAN Settings, I'm stuffed when I try to use IE to upload the files to the site (despite the site being hosted at that ISP). I went into the advanced LAN settings and put the client's domain in the 'Exceptions' box and the CFFILE upload worked every time (no intervening proxy). I took the proxy setting off the connections settings completely and it worked perfectly (no intevening proxy).

"My client's workstation accesses the internet through a proxy server over a LAN through msproxy. Uploads from his workstation fail. Do the same thing from [the company's] server and it works (no proxy), BUT ONLY as long as my client's ISP doesn't force them to use a proxy at their end.

"I reported in my initial posts that I had success with Netscape in all circumstances. My success here may have been because I didn't have a proxy set up in [my Netscape] preferences, [but I'm] not sure. I'll let you know when/if I test it further. I'm going to wait till my hair grows back though ;-)"

Thank you, Craig. If anyone else has some more information on this bug, please email the editor at Fusion Authority (editor@fusionauthority.com).

[Top]

Allaire Releases ColdFusion 4.5.1 NT Performance Guide

ColdFusion 4.5.1 NT Performance Guide

[Top]

Intraware Article Focuses on Content Management, Architecture and Spectra

Content Management: Focus on Architecture First

[Top]

CNet Builder's Tag Mania Column Focuses on the Nonbreaking Space

The Beauty of the Nonbreaking Space

[Top]

Allaire Offers an On-Line Developer's Tour of New Features in ColdFusion 4.5

A Developer's Tour of New Features in ColdFusion 4.5

[Top]

Allaire Spectra Hot Fixes

Allaire Spectra 1.01 Hot Fixes

[Top]

Allaire White Paper: Spectra Cacheing Strategies

Spectra Cacheing Strategies White Paper

[Top]

ColdFusion Powers Online Yellow Pages Directory

Feature Article on QuillPages.com

[Top]

Techniques

Fusebox (An Overview) Part III

The Finer Points of Fusebox

AppGlobals.cfm and AppLocals.cfm

As we discussed in part II of this article, one of the most important ideas in the Fusebox methodology is that you break your code up into small modules and then use the ColdFusion CFINCLUDE statement to reconstitute the needed pieces back into your application on the fly. CFINCLUDE simply embeds the requested code back into your application as required.

A typical application is going to need more than just a few CFINCLUDES to make it complete. There needs to be a vehicle to set default variable values and to hold important ColdFusion tags such as CFAPPLICATION. In a Fusebox application, this is done through two files that always get included at the top of every INDEX.CFM file BEFORE your CFSWITCH statement. These are your app_locals.cfm and app_globals.cfm files.

These two files are really going to save you time! Any Fusebox application will always contain one and only one app_globals.cfm file. Its purpose is to house global variables, default values and any directives that will be needed for every part of your application. Its contents will always wind up at the top of every page of your application. This is accomplished by using CFINCLUDE to include the file's contents at the top of the app_locals.cfm file. Aside from conveying the values of the app_globals.cfm file, the app_locals.cfm file is basically used to house the values of variables that will only be needed for "local" sections of your application. A simple Fusebox application will only need one app_locals.cfm file. A more complex application could have many of them. To help clarify this, have a look at these two file listings:

App_Globals.cfm:

<CF_FORMURL2ATTRIBUTES> <!---Set up the application file ---> <cfapplication name="MyApplication" sessionmanagement="yes" clientmanagement="YES" setclientcookies="YES"> <!---Set up the default database name for the entire application ---> <CFPARAM NAME="application.dsn" DEFAULT="MyDatabaseName">

App_Locals.cfm:

<CFINCLUDE TEMPLATE="app_globals.cfm"> <!--- set the default fuseaction for this section of the app, in case none is given ---> <cfparam name="fuseaction" default=" Sign_Up_For_Newsletter_Form ">

At the top of your INDEX.CFM file, you would need the following statement:

<CFINCLUDE TEMPLATE="app_locals.cfm">

As explained above, this would cause the app_locals.cfm file to be included, which in turn would include the app_globals.cfm file. You’ll want to put default values for your application in these two files. This way, whenever someone needs to change default values of some variable in your application, they can avoid opening up your code to search for the values. If they’re familiar with Fusebox, they’ll know right away that they can go directly to these two files.

Attribute Variables and <CF_FORMURL2ATTRIBUTES>

Index.cfm

1. The first is responsible for a definition of variables that will affect the entire application. The normal way to do this is to CFINCLUDE your app_locals.cfm file, which in turn includes your app_globals.cfm file.
2. The second part of Fusebox is responsible for direction. At any one time, the app has only one fuseaction. Each user action is associated with a fuseaction. A single <CFSWITCH> statement determines the value of this variable that directs the program flow.

A Sample Index.cfm File:

<!-- Part I: Definition of Variables Includes app_locals.cfm, which includes appglobals.cfm ---> <CFINCLUDE TEMPLATE="app_locals.cfm"> <!-- Part II: Direction of Fusebox Flow Each CFCASE statement indicates a different fuseaction, and involves different fuses (all CFINCLUDEd) ---> <CFSWITCH expression="#attributes.fuseaction#"> <CFCASE value=“Sign_Up_For_Newsletter_Form"> <CFINCLUDE template="/public/Main/blocks/dsp_html_header.cfm"> <CFINCLUDE template="/public/Newsletter/blocks/dsp_reg_form.cfm"> <CFINCLUDE template="/public/Main/blocks/dsp_html_footer.cfm"> </CFCASE> <CFCASE value=“Sign_Up_For_Newsletter_Form_Submitted"> <CFINCLUDE template="/public/Main/blocks/dsp_html_header.cfm"> <CFINCLUDE template="/public/Newsletter/queries/qry_chk_for_dups.cfm"> <CFINCLUDE template="/public/Newsletter/blocks/dsp_reg_thnk_you.cfm"> <CFINCLUDE template="/public/Main/blocks/dsp_html_footer.cfm"> </CFCASE> </CFSWITCH>

Designing for Fusebox

• Fuseactions: dsp_, act_
• Responsibilities
• Required attributes
• Optional attributes
• Return attributes
• RFA (Return Fuseaction)

This system has been written about extensively by Hal Helms from TeamAllaire. See his website (http://www.teamallaire.com/hal) for more information about fusecards and how they can help you organize your site. Specifically, check out the Fusebox Primer at http://www.teamallaire.com/hal/articles/Fusebox1.htm (the section titled "Making Fuse-Responsibilities-Attributes Cards").

Other CF Programming Tips

We also strongly recommend that when maintaining the primary key manually, you turn on unique index for the field in question. This helps maintain referential integrity of the database by preventing contention between two people who happen to update the database simultaneously. In case a conflict does occur, use the CFTRY tags around your INSERT statements with a CFCATCH that retries the query. This way, you can be certain that the update will execute properly.

RULES ARE MADE TO BE BROKEN

Keep your eyes open for more Fusebox articles on Fusion Authority, and for further news about the upcoming Fusebox book.

[Top]

QuickTip: Using Name (Label) Links with CFLOCATION

If you use a name label in CFLOCATION you must double up the #:

<CFLOCATION url="index.cfm?##mylabel">

The main problem comes when you use URL variable in combination with labels, since it will corrupt the last URL variable in the string.

In the following example,

<CFLOCATION url="index.cfm?fuseaction=main##mylabel">

FuseAction will evaluate to the following undesired value:

URL.FuseAction = main#mylabel

The way around this is to set a dummy URL variable that you don't use in your ColdFusion code, like the following:

<CFLOCATION url="index.cfm?fuseaction=main&temp=1##mylabel">

Some HTML Basics: If You Don't Know About Labels

If you don't know, you can jump down to a specified location in a long HTML page by setting labels, and linking to them. The syntax is a little different from regular links.

Define a location/label on a long HTML page like this:

<a name="mylabel">text goes here</a>

and then link to the label from the same page, as in:

<a href="#mylabel">

or from a different page, as in:

<a href="http://mydomain.com/mypage.cfm#mylabel">

Here the # symbol does NOT indicate a CF variable, and is part of the HTML specifications.

[Top]

Locking in ColdFusion

Locking in ColdFusion

[Top]

Test Your Knowledge

Last week's questions

1. Name 3 ways of getting information from a database.

CFQUERY will access a DB with a direct SQL statment or a stored procedure.

CFSTOREDPROC will access a stored procedure.

CFOBJECT will allow access to the ADODB object used by MS to access a DB.

CreateObject() function works exactly like CFOBJECT.

 

2. Name 4 ways of using custom Java with ColdFusion.

Custom Java extensions can be accessed by using Java CFX tags.

Java classes can be accessed by CFOBJECT and CreateObject().

Enterprise Java Beans can be accessed by CFOBJECT and CreateObject().

Servlets can be accessed by CFSERVLET (or CFHTTP).

A Java Applet can be included into CFFORMs by using CFAPPLET.

 

3. Name all the tags that do comparisons of data.

The CFIF tag

The IIF() function

Using a CFLOOP over a condition

A CFSWITCH/CFCASE set can be included here as well

[Top]

Security

Bugs Afflict Microsoft, Netscape, Sun

Bugs afflict Microsoft, Netscape, Sun

[Top]

Microsoft Internet Explorer Scriptlet Rendering Vulnerability

Microsoft Internet Explorer Scriptlet Rendering Vulnerability (information and patch)

[Top]

Netscape Communicator URL Read Vulnerability

Netscape Communicator URL Read Vulnerability

[Top]

Allaire Security Bulletin (ASB00-18)

Patch Available for JRun 3.0 EJB Property Disclosure Issue

Allaire Security Bulletin (ASB00-18): Patch Available for JRun 3.0 EJB Property Disclosure Issue

[Top]

Allaire Security Bulletin (ASB00-19)

Patch Available for JRun Trailing Character JSP Source Code Disclosure Issue

Allaire Security Bulletin (ASB00-19): Patch Available for JRun Trailing Character JSP Source Code Disclosure Issue

[Top]

Knowledge Base

ColdFusion Server 4.5.1 Installation and Configuration on Slackware Linux 7.0

ColdFusion Server 4.5.1 Installation and Configuration on Slackware Linux 7.0

[Top]

ColdFusion Server 4.5.1 Installation and Configuration on SuSE Linux 6.4

ColdFusion Server 4.5.1 Installation and Configuration on SuSE Linux 6.4

[Top]

Stock

The Wall Street Transcript Interviews Jeremy Allaire

Allaire's CTO Sees Long-Term Growth for Investors

QAWire Looks at Allaire

[Top]

Quote.com Makes Predictions of Near Term Growth for Allaire

David Solomon Article on Allaire Corp. (Posted August 8)

Fadi Gedeon on Allaire Corp. (Posted August 8)

[Top]

Allaire Releases SEC-10Q for 2Q2000

ALLAIRE CORP (ALLR) Quarterly Report (SEC form 10-Q) (Yahoo!)

ALLAIRE CORP files 0630 qtr 10-Q. Reports $59.9 mil tot rev (Internet Financial Network News Alert)

[Top]

Allaire Files S- 8 Employee Plan with SEC

Allaire Corp. Files for Employee Plan (Internet Financial Network News Alert)

[Top]

CSFB Reiterates Its _Buy_ Rating for Allaire Corp.

Allaire Corp. Reiterated 'Buy' at CSFB (CNet Investor Report)

[Top]

Weekly Numbers

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All articles are for informational purposes only and do not constitute a suggestion to buy, sell, or in any way trade in any stock or securities.