Fusion Authority The House of Fusion Technical Magazine	Issue: 7 January 24, 2000 January 30, 2000
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Community

Atlanta User Group Hosts Top ColdFusion Speakers, Plans for 550

 

News

Allaire Proposes a Two-For-One Stock Split

'It Was a Very Good Year' for Allaire

Updates, Hot Fixes and New Releases

Good News Spurs Significant Allaire Stock Sell-off

WebTrends Acknowledges Allaire's Role in Its Record Growth

New DevCenter for Spectra Launched

Conference 2000 Call for Topics

More News on February ColdFusion E-Commerce Conference

First National XML Conference Will Include ColdFusion Track

Catouzer Product Takes Off with a Little Help from ColdFusion

CNET HomeSite 4.5 Tour Highlights Time-Saving Features

 

Tech and Tags

What's New in the Tag Gallery

ACCESS DENIED Error When Writing to File-Based Database (Access, FoxPro, etc) That ColdFusion is Accessing

Cybercash Action='Batch-Commit' Does Not Work As Expected

String Data Right Truncation Error When Submitting a Form

Spectra Starter Series

Transforming XML to Application Data Using WDDX

A Hands-On Servlet Tutorial

Cryptography Basics

Ejipt 1.2: Installation Instructions and FAQ

Allaire Helps Siemens AG Group Synchronize the Munich Field Group

Allaire Tallies Popularity of Offerings on Developers' Exchange

 

Reviews

Book Review: Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, and Source Code in C

 

Techniques

Crypto in ColdFusion

 

Community

Atlanta User Group Hosts Top ColdFusion Speakers, Plans for 550

The user group is also gearing up for a big turnout. While ACFUG's membership consists of over 250 ColdFusion programmers, the group has reserved a space at Emory University that seats 550 people. The user group has initiated a media push, sending press releases to local media outlets and to the Atlanta Association of Internet Professionals and spreading the word to other user groups in the area.

"ACFUG is very excited to have Mr. Forta and Mr. King as our special guests," said Cameron Childress, ACFUG President. "This will be an excellent opportunity for business leaders and those unfamiliar with ColdFusion to get a good taste for how the program operates, and what it can accomplish for any business."

Congratulations to ACFUG for taking the concept of a user group to the next level. For more information, email Cameron Childress or visit http://www.acfug.org.

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News

Allaire Proposes a Two-For-One Stock Split

Allaire Corporation announced that its Board of Directors has approved a two-for-one split of the Company's outstanding shares of common stock. (This is subject to the stockholders increasing the authorized shares at a special meeting of stockholders scheduled for March 13, 2000.) The stock split will be effected in the form of a stock dividend and will entitle each stockholder of record at the close of business on February 15, 2000 to receive one share for every outstanding share of common stock held on the record date. The expected pay out date is March 14, 2000, with Allaire common stock anticipated to start trading on a split-adjusted basis on March 15, 2000.

Allaire Press Release
Individual.com Article: "SplitTrader.com Announces Investment Opinion on Allaire Corporation"
VarBusiness.com Article: "Allaire Stock Soars, Splits on Earnings Report"

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'It Was a Very Good Year' for Allaire

Allaire Corporation has reported record financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 1999, above analysts' expectations. Revenues for the quarter were $18.3 million, a 164% increase over the fourth quarter of 1998, and a 22% increase over the third quarter of 1999. The result: earnings for the quarter of $478,000, or 3 cents per share, compared with a loss of $4.3 million, or 54 cents per share, for the same period in 1998. This is the first quarter that Allaire stock has turned a profit.

For the fiscal year overall, Allaire lost $2.6 million, or 22 cents a share, on sales of $55.2 million, compared to a loss of $17.1 million, or $2.20 a share, on sales of $21.4 million in fiscal 1998.

The press release, noted below, also discusses Allaire's acquisitions of Bright Tiger Technologies, Inc., Live Software, Inc. and Valto Systems, Inc., as well as new business, product offerings, partnerships, industry recognition, and the just-announced proposed two-for-one split of the Company's outstanding shares of common stock (see previous article).

Allaire Press Release: "Allaire Announces Year-End Results and Profitable Fourth Quarter"
Computer Reseller News: "Allaire Shares Climb After Posting Solid 4Q Results"
ZDII: "Net Earnings Roundup: Allaire, Proxicom Shine"
CNET News: "Allaire Taking on the Tech Giants and Thriving"
On24.com Interview with David Orfeo, Allaire President and CEO, on Stock Split

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Updates, Hot Fixes and New Releases

HomeSite 4.5a Update:
Instructions
Update

ColdFusion 4.5 Server:
Hot Fixes

ColdFusion 4.5a Studio:
Instructions:

http://www.allaire.com/handlers/index.cfm?ID=14215
http://www.allaire.com/handlers/index.cfm?ID=14216

Update

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Good News Spurs Significant Allaire Stock Sell-off

Allaire's announcement of earnings and revenue above analysts' estimates and a two-for-one stock split prompted a 25% drop in Allaire's stock, but this shouldn't disturb your sleep. Hear why Robert Fagin, Analyst with Bear Stearns, has a very positive outlook on Allaire.

On24.com Complete Streaming Audio Story

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WebTrends Acknowledges Allaire's Role in Its Record Growth

WebTrends Corporation reported a 200% increase in revenues for the fourth quarter 1999: $7.4 million compared to $2.5 million for the same period last year. The company's strategic partnership with Allaire (and other venues) is listed as one of the contributing factors.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/000124/or_webtren_1.htm
(This yahoo link may move or be down. They like doing that to their news.)

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New DevCenter for Spectra Launched

For more information, visit http://www.allaire.com/Developer/spectrareferencedesk/.

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Conference 2000 Call for Topics

An added incentive: Participants in the survey get a chance to win a free conference pass (a $795 value) as thanks. For more information and to add yourself to the conference reminder e-mail, visit http://www.allaire.com/coldfusion.cfm?web_ID=1060.

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More News on February ColdFusion E-Commerce Conference

The seminar is presented by Adam Churvis of Productivity Enhancement Inc., publishers of the Database Blocks ColdFusion development tool. There is a detailed agenda and a schedule for the conference at http://www.teratech.com/cfconf2/DetailedAgenda.cfm. Mr. Churvis was the featured speaker at the last Atlanta CFUG meeting. He promises, "This one's going to be fast and furious; your brains will be smoking when you leave on the second day. Also, we will be remotely managing a co-located server live during the class to show what is necessary to setup and run a secure web server. Our many thanks to ComStar for providing the server and hosting for these seminars."

Online registration is at: http://www.teratech.com/cfconf2/.

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First National XML Conference Will Include ColdFusion Track

XML DevCon 2000 will be held June 25-28, 2000, at the New York Hilton in New York City. A four-day technical program focused on how to maximize XML for the enterprise, it is expected to attract more than 1,500 attendees from around the world. XML and Internet technology professionals can explore the exhibit floor or attend their choice of more than 20 sessions, including "Leveraging XML in ColdFusion Using WDDX ."

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/000125/ny_sys_con_1.htm
(This yahoo link may move or be down. They like doing that to their news.)

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Catouzer Product Takes Off with a Little Help from ColdFusion

http://businesswire.com/hightechlink

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CNET HomeSite 4.5 Tour Highlights Time-Saving Features

CNET HomeSite 4.5 Tour

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Tech and Tags

What's New in the Tag Gallery

GSTracker

Monitors traffic to your web site. Generates text and graphical reports. These reports compare traffic with previous time periods.

CF_Secure 1.0.1

The best solution for login process and securing CFM templates. Managing everything in just one tag.

Digits to Hex

Converts an integer with value 0 - (2^31) - 1 to its equivalent hexadecimal string. Allows you to name the return variable.

CheckWriter

CFX_J tag that converts dollar amounts to English text. Accepts amounts between 0 and 999999999999999.99 . Amounts < 0 return -1. Syntax errors submitted to tag return -2.

Virtual Office

Functions: * BBS * Announcement System * Messaging System * Web FTP * User Profile System * Group Calendar * Internet Search * Project Manager * Web browser-based page builder

Internet Calendar Server V2.0

Multilingual, easily configurable, fully searchable events Calendar with support for unlimited categories as well as "Private" and "My Calendar" categories.

MSExcel Payment Function

This function is the Microsoft Payment Function in Excel. The output is the payment for per period.

CF_GlossarizeText

Make a glossary for your site. This tag replaces terms specified with a unique wrapper you choose with a JavaScript-enabled anchor tag.

CFX_PullPage

CFX_PullPage allows you to pull a remote page into the calling ColdFusion template and display it as if it resided locally.

Modified IEEditor and ImgSel

A modified version of HTMLEditor along with a script to repair problems with uploading images to the DHTML editor.

Regional date and time

This tag returns regional date and time in a datetime variable, no matter which part of the world you have hosted your site.

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ACCESS DENIED Error When Writing to File-Based Database (Access, FoxPro, etc) That ColdFusion is Accessing

Solution: A workaround is posted on the Allaire site.

For more information, visit http://www.allaire.com/handlers/index.cfm?ID=14275.

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Cybercash Action='Batch-Commit' Does Not Work As Expected

Solution: Download the new Cybercash.DLL, available on the Allaire Site. For more information, and the download, see Article 14246.

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String Data Right Truncation Error When Submitting a Form

http://www.allaire.com/handlers/index.cfm?ID=14205

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Spectra Starter Series

http://www.allaire.com/coldfusion.cfm?web_ID=1070

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Transforming XML to Application Data Using WDDX

XML Introductory Article

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A Hands-On Servlet Tutorial

Servlet Tutorial

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Cryptography Basics

Cryptography Basics

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Ejipt 1.2: Installation Instructions and FAQ

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Allaire Helps Siemens AG Group Synchronize the Munich Field Group

Allaire Article: Case Study

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Allaire Tallies Popularity of Offerings on Developers' Exchange

http://www.allaire.com/coldfusion.cfm?web_ID=1086

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Reviews

Book Review: Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, and Source Code in C

Let me start by saying that I don't know a whole lot about cryptography. Originally, I didn't know anything, but once I started reading this book (I'm still not finished) I learned a lot. To be totally honest, I learned a lot on the first few pages. Bruce Schneier is one of those masters of their fields that can take a concept, lay it out for you and have you smack yourself because it looks so simple.

The spice of this book is that it goes over almost every crypto-system that's in use and explains where each one came from and what it does. Want to know how the Hash() function works? It's in there. Want to know what's behind CFEncode.exe (CFEncrypt.exe in version 4.01 and earlier)? It's in there (under DES). Want to write your own crypto extension in ColdFusion? This is a great starting point. Even if you just want to get a little more esoteric knowledge, this is a great book to have and read. I even gave a copy to Rain.Forrest.Puppy as a gift. :)

Applied Cryptography : Protocols, Algorithms, and Source Code in C

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Techniques

Crypto in ColdFusion

I want to start this article with a word of thanks to Allaire. After writing this article a few months back, I told them about it during a conversation concerning functions. They mentioned that they would show it to their new documentation team. I didn't hear back from them, but last week found a great article on both crypto and the Hash function (Dec. 27, 1999 - Jan. 2, 2000 issue of FA). This article was great. The new documentation team really knows what they're doing and I'm impressed. The only thing they missed was the CFusion_Encrypt() and CFusion_Decrypt() functions. For that reason, I'm reposting my article with both more information and a better layout. Between this article and Allaire's, you should know a lot about how encryption is handled in ColdFusion.

A distinct difference exists between CF 4.0.x and 4.5 when it comes to cryptography (crypto) functions. Before we go into the specifics, lets examine the two types of crypto functions that exist and how they're used. The first set of crypto functions in ColdFusion are the older, but hidden CFusion_Encrypt()/CFusion_Decrypt(). These functions are used in the CFAdmin and they've been in existence since CF 3.0. The 'official' functions used in the general program are Encrypt()/Decrypt() , which have existed since CF 4.0.

CFusion_Encrypt()/CFusion_Decrypt()

A small disclaimer here. These functions are 'administrative' in ColdFusion and are not documented anywhere other than here. Allaire does not suggest using them and offers no support for their use.

Encrypt()/Decrypt()

Another issue with these functions is more of a version issue. In versions of ColdFusion before 4.5, extra characters were added to the encrypted value. These characters were removed when the decrypt() function was used, but the storage and comparison of these values were a problem. The 'extra' characters were one of four different sets of three characters each. If we assume an Encrypt() function that simply encrypts a single character, the following 4 results may be expected. The first 2 characters are the actual encrypted character while the last three are the 'extras':

!4'X[ 
!4,LY 
!4$X$ 
!4.D@ 

Which to use

<CFSET Test1=CFusion_Decrypt('154507110711', 'test')>

<CFOUTPUT>
|#Test1#|<BR>
</CFOUTPUT>
  

CFusion_Encrypt	(String, Key)
String	(Required; accepts: String) String to be encrypted.
Key	(Required; accepts: String) Encryption key used to encrypt the String.
	This function will take a string and encrypt it using the key. This will result in a numeric string that will be twice the length of the source string. This process can be reversed using the CFusion_Decrypt() function. <CFSET Test1=CFusion_Encrypt('a test', 'test')> <CFOUTPUT> |#Test1#|<BR> </CFOUTPUT>
Results:	|154507110711|
Data Type: Category: Version: Related Functions:	String Crypto 3.0 CFusion_Decrypt(), Encrypt()

Decrypt	(String, Key)
String	(Required; accepts: String) String to be decrypted.
Key	(Required; accepts: String) Key used to decrypt the String.
	This function will take a string that has been encrypted with Encrypt() and decrypt it using the key. This function will only decrypt strings that have first been encrypted by Encrypt(). If you look below to the encrypt function, you'll see that the result of the encryption is a string that contains a space as well as a single quote. This causes a problem with the decrypt in some cases. For this reason, the example will include the Encrypt() function to set the string as well as the Decrypt() function to decrypt it. <CFSET String=Encrypt('a test', 'test')> <CFSET Test1=Decrypt(string, 'test')> <CFOUTPUT> |#Test1#|<BR> </CFOUTPUT>
Results:	|a test|
Data Type: Category: Version: Related Functions:	String Crypto 4.0 Encrypt, CFusion_Decrypt

Encrypt	(String, Key)
String	(Required; accepts: String) String to be encrypted.
Key	(Required; accepts: String) Encryption key used to encrypt the String.
	This function will take a string and encrypt it using the key. This will result in a numeric string that will be twice the length of the source string. This process can be reversed using the Decrypt() function. Note that the results of this function will differ based on the version of ColdFusion you are using. Versions of ColdFusion earlier than 4.5 added one of 4 different sets of 3 characters to the end of an encrypted string. The 4 sets were: 'X[ ,LY $X$ .D@ This behavior was removed in ColdFusion 4.5. The string that results from this function will be between 1.5 and 2.5 times the length of the original string. In addition, result string can contain special characters including spaces ( ), single quotes (') and pound signs(#), all of which can cause problems in many cases. <CFSET Test1=Encrypt('a test', 'test')> <CFOUTPUT> |#Test1#|<BR> </CFOUTPUT>
Results:	|&<$R9K&V' |
Data Type: Category: Version: Related Functions:	String Crypto 4.0 Decrypt(), CFusion_Encrypt()

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