The Coldfusion Open Source Software Blog

The For Open ColdFusion Foundation

2009-10-18T13:38:21-07:00

Sean Corfield gave a great presentation about ColdFusion and Open Source at the CFinNC Conference today. I'm going to give a little summary of one part of that here.

Many open source projects are supported by foundations, like the Open Source Initiative, the Apache Software Foundation, the Free Software Foundation, and the like. Sometimes, large projects even have their own supporting foundations, like the Drupal Association, or the Plone Foundation.

Until recently, ColdFusion has had no such supporting organization, but we now have the For ColdFusion Foundation. From their website:

The For ColdFusion Foundation (4CFF) is a non-profit dedicated to helping the ColdFusion Community at-large through fostering a collaborative environment for ColdFusion Free Open-Source Software Projects and their Developer Communities, so that we all may enjoy great software.

Sean says they'll be making an announcement soon about some of the first projects they'll be supporting. I don't think they're mine, since I only learned about 4CFF today :)

But check it out anyway!

www.4cff.org

A Beginners Guide to Using Java in ColdFusion

2009-10-17T10:31:24-07:00

I'm presenting tomorrow at CFinNC in Raleigh, and I've uploaded the presentation and examples here:

http://www.opensourcecf.com/cfinnc

CFFM 1.30 Now Available

2009-08-31T10:52:00-07:00

Project Page for CFFM: http://www.opensourcecf.com/cffm

CFFM 1.30 is now available for download

Compared to the previous r elease, CFFM 1.3 has been fully "ajaxified", includes lots of jQuery stuff, and some plugins like imgPreview and uploadify (a flash/javascript multi-file uploader).

CFFM 1.3 also can be used as a filebrowser plugin for FCKeditor 2.x and the new CKEditor 3.x, as well as TinyMCE. If you'd like to integrate it into another file manager, please let me know.

Coldfusion file browser plugin for CKeditor

2009-08-29T05:31:00-07:00

In case you were not aware, the new version of FCKEditor is now called CKEditor. It was just released about a week ago, and I discovered that it does not yet come with a filebrowser of any kind, but you can PURCHASE his commercial product called CKFinder.

However, with a bit of work, I've managed to make CFFM integrate nicely into the new CKEditor. Please see the editor integration demo for more details, and view the README.TXT for installation and integration instructions.

This feature is available in CFFM 1.3 RC2.

CFFM Project Page: http://www.opensourcecf.com/cffm
Get it from SVN at http://svn.riaforge.org/cffm

CfinNC Registration Is Now Open!

2009-08-24T09:38:05-07:00

Registration for CFinNC is now open! CFinNC is a free web development conference held in Raleigh, North Carolina during the weekend of October 17th and 18th with an International line-up of speakers presenting on timely and relevant topics on web development. Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors and the creativity of the planning committee, registration for the event will be free and includes entry to the weekend event and to all presentations.

In order to keep the event free we have removed some hard costs and some benefits you normally get from paid-registration events.

Please be aware of the following:

1) You are responsible for paying for lunch for both days. We have enlisted the services of a local caterer and will be providing lunch each day for $10/day. This includes a sandwich, chips and drink. Please bring cash the day of the event! We will not be able to process credit cards!

2) Limited Edition, Collectible CFinNC conference t-shirts will be available for purchase for $15 with any proceeds going to offset costs and possibly sponsor a planning committee dinner (if we sell them all).

Lunch and shirt purchase is completely optional. You may indicate if you would like to purchase lunch and/or a t-shirt on the registration form.

For more information, please check the CFinNC website at: http://www.cfinnc.com.

CFFM 1.3 Release Candidate

2009-08-24T07:47:00-07:00

I've been working on making CFFM cooler, with jquery and a few plugins (imgPreview, uploadify)... It all still runs on "older" versions of CF (tested on CFMX7, 8, and 9)
It's fully ajaxified... the main document is never reloaded.

www.opensourcecf.com/cffm/demo/cffm.cfm

I haven't "released" this version yet but if you desire to put it on your own server for testing, you can get it out of subversion (http://svn.riaforge.org/cffm)
If you play on the demo, make a directory of your own and upload some files, otherwise you may experience unexpected behavior from you and someone else doing stuff to the same file =) The demo also resets its file structure every 30 minutes so if you're working in your own directory and suddenly its gone, that's why :)
I appreciate any and all feedback and suggestions for improvement.

CFFM 1.21 Releaseed

2009-08-17T05:44:53-07:00

Project Page for CFFM: http://www.opensourcecf.com/cffm

So I sucked it up and added a few more features to CFFM last night.

CFFM now defaults to using CFIMAGE on Coldfusion 8 and above. This means a couple of image manipulation features are gone since CFIMAGE doesn't seem to have the ability to flip horizontal, flip vertical, or crop an image. Though I honestly didn't really dig that far into the cfscript options for CFIMAGE, I do know that such options were not available via the cfimage tag. If you want to use something else like ImageCR3, or Blue Dragon's CFIMAGE, you could write your own image object that wraps the component in question. For examples, see ImageObject_imagecfc.cfc and ImageObject_cfimage.cfc.
Because of the CFIMAGE integration, CFFM's image manipulation features are now enabled when using the RAM:// drive in Coldfusion 9.

Translations - If you have done a translation for CFFM, please let me know, I'd like to include it with the distribution.

CFFM 1.20 Released

2009-08-14T21:27:59-07:00

Project Page for CFFM: http://www.opensourcecf.com/cffm

CFFM 1.2 is finally here. I fixed all open bugs, and tested it on CF9 Beta on Windows, OpenBD 1.1 on Windows, and CF7 on Linux.

I also did a preliminary test of using the the Virtual File System (VFS) in Coldfusion 9. It actually works for file management but since the files aren't in the web root they can't actually be accessed. I suppose that'll have to wait until 1.21!

CFFM 2.0 - Coming Soon

2009-08-14T14:58:42-07:00

Alright, it's currently vaporware. But I'm actually gonna do a new version of CFFM, very soon. It's still a damn fine file manager and I think a spot nicer than the one that comes with fckeditor. Also, someone at adobe suggested with a few changes it could be used as a file manager for the new virtual file system in Coldfusion 9. That sounds fun.

The initial release will be programmed for Coldfusion 8 and beyond. It'll make use of CFIMAGE probably so maybe I'll add a flag to disable those features if the server is not running CF8.

It also may end up using a lot of jquery. We'll see!

10,000 Random Names Database

2009-05-28T07:24:16-07:00

I had a need to generate a list of random names, and finding such a list on the internet was not particularly easy. Of course, I have access to a larage database of about 600,000 people, so I just took the top 500 first names, the top 1000 last names, and did a cross join. Selected the top 10,000 of them, ordered randomly, and put them into a spreadsheet for your pleasure. I've also uploaded a csv file and an access db.

10,000 Names - Zip Archive (contains XLS, CSV, and MDB files)
10,000 Names - Excel Spreadsheet (.xls)
10,000 Names - Microsoft Access (.mdb)
10,000 Names - CSV

Example data:

firstName	lastName	middleInitial	firstNameFirst	lastNameFirst
Kristina	Chung	H	Kristina H. Chung	Chung, Kristina H.
Paige	Chen	H	Paige H. Chen	Chen, Paige H.
Sherri	Melton	E	Sherri E. Melton	Melton, Sherri E.
Gretchen	Hill	I	Gretchen I. Hill	Hill, Gretchen I.
Karen	Puckett	U	Karen U. Puckett	Puckett, Karen U.
Patrick	Song	O	Patrick O. Song	Song, Patrick O.
Elsie	Hamilton	A	Elsie A. Hamilton	Hamilton, Elsie A.
Hazel	Bender	E	Hazel E. Bender	Bender, Hazel E.
Malcolm	Wagner	A	Malcolm A. Wagner	Wagner, Malcolm A.
Dolores	McLaughlin	C	Dolores C. McLaughlin	McLaughlin, Dolores C.
Francis	McNamara	C	Francis C. McNamara	McNamara, Francis C.
Sandy	Raynor	A	Sandy A. Raynor	Raynor, Sandy A.
Marion	Moon	O	Marion O. Moon	Moon, Marion O.
Beth	Woodard	O	Beth O. Woodard	Woodard, Beth O.
Julia	Desai	E	Julia E. Desai	Desai, Julia E.
Jerome	Wallace	A	Jerome A. Wallace	Wallace, Jerome A.
Neal	Lawrence	A	Neal A. Lawrence	Lawrence, Neal A.
Jean	Griffin	R	Jean R. Griffin	Griffin, Jean R.
Kristine	Dougherty	O	Kristine O. Dougherty	Dougherty, Kristine O.
Crystal	Powers	O	Crystal O. Powers	Powers, Crystal O.
Alex	May	A	Alex A. May	May, Alex A.
Eric	Steele	T	Eric T. Steele	Steele, Eric T.
Wesley	Teague	E	Wesley E. Teague	Teague, Wesley E.
Franklin	Vick	I	Franklin I. Vick	Vick, Franklin I.
Claire	Gallagher	A	Claire A. Gallagher	Gallagher, Claire A.
Marian	Solomon	O	Marian O. Solomon	Solomon, Marian O.
Marcia	Walsh	A	Marcia A. Walsh	Walsh, Marcia A.
Dwight	Monroe	O	Dwight O. Monroe	Monroe, Dwight O.
Wayne	Connolly	O	Wayne O. Connolly	Connolly, Wayne O.
Stephanie	Hawkins	A	Stephanie A. Hawkins	Hawkins, Stephanie A.
Neal	Middleton	I	Neal I. Middleton	Middleton, Neal I.
Gretchen	Goldstein	O	Gretchen O. Goldstein	Goldstein, Gretchen O.
Tim	Watts	A	Tim A. Watts	Watts, Tim A.
Jerome	Johnston	O	Jerome O. Johnston	Johnston, Jerome O.
Shelley	Weeks	E	Shelley E. Weeks	Weeks, Shelley E.
Priscilla	Wilkerson	I	Priscilla I. Wilkerson	Wilkerson, Priscilla I.
Elsie	Barton	A	Elsie A. Barton	Barton, Elsie A.
Beth	Walton	A	Beth A. Walton	Walton, Beth A.
Erica	Hall	A	Erica A. Hall	Hall, Erica A.
Douglas	Ross	O	Douglas O. Ross	Ross, Douglas O.
Donald	Chung	H	Donald H. Chung	Chung, Donald H.
Katherine	Bender	E	Katherine E. Bender	Bender, Katherine E.
Paul	Woods	O	Paul O. Woods	Woods, Paul O.
Patricia	Mangum	A	Patricia A. Mangum	Mangum, Patricia A.
Lois	Joseph	O	Lois O. Joseph	Joseph, Lois O.
Louis	Rosenthal	O	Louis O. Rosenthal	Rosenthal, Louis O.
Christina	Bowden	O	Christina O. Bowden	Bowden, Christina O.
Darlene	Barton	A	Darlene A. Barton	Barton, Darlene A.
Harvey	Underwood	N	Harvey N. Underwood	Underwood, Harvey N.
William	Jones	O	William O. Jones	Jones, William O.
Frederick	Baker	A	Frederick A. Baker	Baker, Frederick A.
Shirley	Merritt	E	Shirley E. Merritt	Merritt, Shirley E.
Jason	Cross	R	Jason R. Cross	Cross, Jason R.
Judith	Cooper	O	Judith O. Cooper	Cooper, Judith O.
Gretchen	Holmes	O	Gretchen O. Holmes	Holmes, Gretchen O.
Don	Sharpe	H	Don H. Sharpe	Sharpe, Don H.
Glenda	Morgan	O	Glenda O. Morgan	Morgan, Glenda O.
Scott	Hoyle	O	Scott O. Hoyle	Hoyle, Scott O.
Pat	Allen	L	Pat L. Allen	Allen, Pat L.
Michelle	Rich	I	Michelle I. Rich	Rich, Michelle I.
Jessica	Rich	I	Jessica I. Rich	Rich, Jessica I.
Evan	Grant	R	Evan R. Grant	Grant, Evan R.
Melinda	Proctor	R	Melinda R. Proctor	Proctor, Melinda R.
Calvin	Diaz	I	Calvin I. Diaz	Diaz, Calvin I.
Eugene	Graham	R	Eugene R. Graham	Graham, Eugene R.
Vickie	Watkins	A	Vickie A. Watkins	Watkins, Vickie A.
Luis	Hinton	I	Luis I. Hinton	Hinton, Luis I.
Allan	Marsh	A	Allan A. Marsh	Marsh, Allan A.
Melanie	Hewitt	E	Melanie E. Hewitt	Hewitt, Melanie E.
Marianne	Branch	R	Marianne R. Branch	Branch, Marianne R.
Natalie	Walton	A	Natalie A. Walton	Walton, Natalie A.
Caroline	O'Brien	'	Caroline '. O'Brien	O'Brien, Caroline '.
Arlene	Case	A	Arlene A. Case	Case, Arlene A.
Kyle	Watts	A	Kyle A. Watts	Watts, Kyle A.
Calvin	Christensen	H	Calvin H. Christensen	Christensen, Calvin H.
Gary	Parks	A	Gary A. Parks	Parks, Gary A.
Samantha	Hardin	A	Samantha A. Hardin	Hardin, Samantha A.
Sara	Lucas	U	Sara U. Lucas	Lucas, Sara U.
Stacy	Eason	A	Stacy A. Eason	Eason, Stacy A.
Gladys	Davidson	A	Gladys A. Davidson	Davidson, Gladys A.
Mike	Whitehead	H	Mike H. Whitehead	Whitehead, Mike H.
Lynne	Rose	O	Lynne O. Rose	Rose, Lynne O.
Faye	Sparks	P	Faye P. Sparks	Sparks, Faye P.
Diana	Moore	O	Diana O. Moore	Moore, Diana O.
Leon	Pearson	E	Leon E. Pearson	Pearson, Leon E.
Ethel	Rodgers	O	Ethel O. Rodgers	Rodgers, Ethel O.
Steve	Graves	R	Steve R. Graves	Graves, Steve R.
Alison	Scarborough	C	Alison C. Scarborough	Scarborough, Alison C.
Sherri	Sutton	U	Sherri U. Sutton	Sutton, Sherri U.
Patsy	Sinclair	I	Patsy I. Sinclair	Sinclair, Patsy I.
Kelly	Bowman	O	Kelly O. Bowman	Bowman, Kelly O.
Stacy	Olsen	L	Stacy L. Olsen	Olsen, Stacy L.
Curtis	Love	O	Curtis O. Love	Love, Curtis O.
Dana	McLean	C	Dana C. McLean	McLean, Dana C.
Jennifer	Christian	H	Jennifer H. Christian	Christian, Jennifer H.
Brett	Lamb	A	Brett A. Lamb	Lamb, Brett A.
Brandon	James	A	Brandon A. James	James, Brandon A.
Keith	Chandler	H	Keith H. Chandler	Chandler, Keith H.
Joann	Stout	T	Joann T. Stout	Stout, Joann T.

Creating IIS Virtual Directories with Coldfusion 8 and .NET integr

2008-06-15T09:08:10-07:00

Ever had a need to automate the creation of virtual directories in IIS? Coldfusion 8 can do this quite well using the System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry class in the .NET framework.

After a whole lot of trial and error, this is what I came up with and it seems to work quite nicely:

<cfset serverid="2017647531">

<cfset metabasePath = "IIS://localhost/W3SVC/#serverid#/Root">

<cfset vdirName = "vdir001">

<cfset physicalPath = "D:\Inetpub\ricktest\realdir">

<cfset dllPath = "C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\System.DirectoryServices.dll">

<cfobject
    type=".net"
    class="System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry"
    assembly="#dllPath#"
    name="site">

<cfset site.init(metabasePath)>

<cfset className = site.Get_SchemaClassName()>

<cfif reFind("VirtualDir$",className) gt 0>
    
    <cfset vdirs = site.Get_Children()>
    <cftry>
        
        <cfset newVDir = vdirs.Add(vDirName, className)>
        <cfcatch type="any">
            <cfoutput><h3>Failed to create #vDirName#</h3></cfoutput>
            <cfif cfcatch.ToString() contains "already exists">
                <p>Another directory with that name already exists.</p>
            <cfelse>
                <cfoutput><p>#cfcatch.ToString()#</p></cfoutput>
            </cfif>
            <cfabort>
        </cfcatch>
    </cftry>
    <Cftry>
        
        <cfset newVDir.Get_Properties().Get_Item("Path").Set_Value(physicalPath)>
        
        <cfset newVDir.CommitChanges()>

JavaCSV for creating large CSV and other delmiited files with Coldfusion

2008-06-04T08:03:47-07:00

In an effort to resolve memory and performance problems with generating large CSV and tab delimited files in an application I wrote at Duke, I started hunting around for solutions.

Initially, I was using the java stringbuffer method, but found that it's really hard to be sure that CF doesn't use String objects, especially when doing things like calling out to an external function to perform formatting (ie, if the field is a string, then surround it with double quotes and escape any internal double quotes).

A simple file drop of 7200 rows and 140 columns took 68 seconds and sucked a lot of memory. And no, it wasn't the file writing that caused the problem, it was the call out to the formatting function.

If I performed the same drop using the tab delimited format, I didn't have to call out to that function, but the drop still took 30 seconds. I needed it to be faster because some of the drops my users perform are much much larger.

so I started hunting around for a java-based solution and found the JavaCSV library:

Java CSV Homepage:
http://www.csvreader.com/java_csv.php
JavaCSV Sourceforge Project Page:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/javacsv/

After installing this library in my C:\Jrun4\servers\myInstance\cfusion.ear\cfusion.ear\WEB-INF/cfusion/lib directory and restarting Coldfusion, I was able to use the following code to generate my CSV files:

<cfloop from="1" to="#numFields#" index="i" step="1">
     <cfset fileOutput.write( fieldsArray[i] ) >
</cfloop>

<cfset fileOutput.endRecord()>

<cfloop query="resultSet">
     
     <cfloop from="1" to="#numFields#" index="i" step="1">
          <cfset fileOutput.write( resultSet[fieldsArray[i]][resultSet.currentRow].toString() )>
     </cfloop>
     
     <cfset fileOutput.endRecord()>
</cfloop>
<cfset fileOutput.close()>

The same drop which had previously taken 68 seconds now only took 18 seconds - AND used considerably less memory.

As you can see, the code handles both CSV and tab-delimited formats AND handles the proper escaping of strings containing delimiters as well.

cfsavecontent vs. cfset for performance improvement

2008-06-03T13:23:00-07:00

Many CF programmers out there know that coldfusion uses java string objects to store its variables usually. And since java strings are "immutable", every time you change it, a new string is created.

If you find yourself doing huge amounts of string concatenations, you'll often see people suggesting that you look up the java StringBuffer object and use that instead. That would allow you to append to a single StringBuffer object rather than creation a million string objects.

But there's another solution, apparently.

CFSAVECONTENT is so ridiculously fast compared to the old string concatenation method with CFSET that it has got to be using a StringBuffer behind the scenes. At least, that's what I'm thinking.

Take the following code, for example. On my local machine, the CFSET method took 64 seconds to complete. The CFSAVECONTENT method completed in a mere 203ms.

Also, the memory consumption of the CFSET method was significant, while the CFSAVECONTENT method was hardly noticeable.

<cfif 1>
     <cfset start = now().gettime()>
     <cfset result = "">
     <cfloop from="1" to="#reps#" step="1" index="i">
          <cfset result = result & i>
     </cfloop>
     <cfset end = now().gettime()>
     <cfoutput><p>#end-start#ms : #len(result)#</p></cfoutput>
<cfelse>
     <cfset start = now().gettime()>
     <cfsavecontent variable="result">
     <cfloop from="1" to="#reps#" step="1" index="i">
          <cfoutput>#i#</cfoutput>
     </cfloop>
     </cfsavecontent>
     <cfset end = now().gettime()>
     <cfoutput><p>#end-start#ms : #len(result)#</p></cfoutput>
</cfif>

Value Object Generator

2008-03-07T10:11:00-07:00

I wrote a little CFM file to generate actionscript classes for value objects from coldfusion queries. It uses getMetaData() on the query to determine data types for the VO. I've only coded in some simple datatypes in the getColType() method to handle the conversion from the dbtype to actionscript data type - you can add whatever you need.

<cfquery name="qry" datasource="ENQUIRE" maxrows="1">
select
  A.QUERYID, A.USERID, A.QUERYDATE, A.INSTANCE,
  A.TITLE, A.SAVED, A.LASTRUNDATE,
  A.CRITERIA
from dbo.DROP_QUERIES A
where
  A.USERID=<cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_char" value="ADSRJR">
  AND A.SAVED=<cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_smallint" value="1">
order by
  A.QUERYDATE desc
</cfquery>

<cfoutput><pre>
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// #voName#.as
//
// generated by voGenerator.cfm (Rick Root)
// generated on #dateFormat(Now(),'yyyy-mm-dd')# at #TimeFormat(Now(),'h:mm tt')#
//
//
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////

package #voPackage#
{
[RemoteClass(alias="#remoteClass#")]
public class #voName#
{
</cfoutput>
<cfset metadata = getMetaData(qry)>
<cfloop from="1" to="#ArrayLen(metadata)#" step="1" index="x">
<cfoutput> private var _#metadata[x].Name#: #getColType(metadata[x].TypeName)#;#chr(10)#</cfoutput>
</cfloop>

<cfloop from="1" to="#ArrayLen(metadata)#" step="1" index="x">
<cfoutput>
  public function get #metadata[x].Name#(): #getColType(metadata[x].TypeName)#
  {
   return _#metadata[x].Name#;
  }

  public function set #metadata[x].Name#(value:#getColType(metadata[x].TypeName)#): void
  {
   _#metadata[x].Name# = value;
  }

</cfoutput>
</cfloop>
<cfoutput>
public function #voName#()
{

}
}
}
</pre>
</cfoutput>

Here is an example of the value object generated from the code above:

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// EntityLogVO.as
//
// generated by voGenerator.cfm (Rick Root)
// generated on 2008-03-07 at 12:40 PM
//
//
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////

package model.vo
{
[RemoteClass(alias="cfcs.enquire.vo.EntityLogVO")]
public class EntityLogVO
{
  private var _QUERYID: int;
  private var _USERID: String;
  private var _QUERYDATE: Date;
  private var _INSTANCE: String;
  private var _TITLE: String;
  private var _SAVED: int;
  private var _LASTRUNDATE: Date;
  private var _CRITERIA: String;

  public function get QUERYID(): int
  {
   return _QUERYID;
  }

  public function set QUERYID(value:int): void
  {
   _QUERYID = value;
  }

  public function get USERID(): String
  {
   return _USERID;
  }

  public function set USERID(value:String): void
  {
   _USERID = value;
  }

  public function get QUERYDATE(): Date
  {
   return _QUERYDATE;
  }

  public function set QUERYDATE(value:Date): void
  {
   _QUERYDATE = value;
  }

  public function get INSTANCE(): String
  {
   return _INSTANCE;
  }

  public function set INSTANCE(value:String): void
  {
   _INSTANCE = value;
  }

  public function get TITLE(): String
  {
   return _TITLE;
  }

  public function set TITLE(value:String): void
  {
   _TITLE = value;
  }

  public function get SAVED(): int
  {
   return _SAVED;
  }

  public function set SAVED(value:int): void
  {
   _SAVED = value;
  }

  public function get LASTRUNDATE(): Date
  {
   return _LASTRUNDATE;
  }

  public function set LASTRUNDATE(value:Date): void
  {
   _LASTRUNDATE = value;
  }

  public function get CRITERIA(): String
  {
   return _CRITERIA;
  }

  public function set CRITERIA(value:String): void
  {
   _CRITERIA = value;
  }

public function EntityLogVO()
{

}
}
}

AIR Url - Adobe AIR Project

2007-08-15T09:06:34-07:00

The Adobe on AIR bus tour is stopping by the Raleigh area on Saturday, courtesy of TACFUG and RDAUG, and they're having a contest. Best AIR app wins a prize!

Well, my url shortener app may not be the best, but if I'm lucky, it'll be the only app submitted.

I've recompiled the URL shortener app as an AIR app (I built it when it was still called Apollo), and you can get it here:

AIR Url Installer - AIRUrl.air

Here's the source code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:WindowedApplication
xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml"
layout="absolute"
width="400" height="68"
creationComplete="init()">
<mx:Script>
<![CDATA[
import mx.rpc.events.FaultEvent;
import mx.rpc.events.ResultEvent;
import mx.rpc.Fault;
import mx.controls.Alert;

import mx.utils.StringUtil;

private function init():void {
txtLongUrl.setFocus();
}
private function genericFault(e:FaultEvent):void
{
txtShortUrl.text = e.fault.faultString;
btnTryIt.enabled = false;
}
private function tryUrl(url:String):void {
navigateToURL(new URLRequest(url), '_blank');
}
private function addUrlResult(e:ResultEvent):void {
txtLongUrl.text = '';
txtShortUrl.text = e.result.toString();
if (e.result.toString() != 'Invalid Source URL!') {
  btnTryIt.enabled = true;
}
}
]]>
</mx:Script>
<mx:WebService id="ro" wsdl="http://url.rickroot.com/url.cfc?wsdl" showBusyCursor="true">
  <mx:operation name="addUrl" fault="genericFault(event)" result="addUrlResult(event)"/>
</mx:WebService>
<mx:VBox x="10" y="10">
  <mx:HBox>
   <mx:Label text="Url to Shorten:" width="100" fontWeight="bold"/>
   <mx:TextInput id="txtLongUrl" width="200"/>
   <mx:Button id="btnDoIt" label="Do It!" click="txtShortUrl.text = ''; ro.addUrl(txtLongUrl.text);"/>
  </mx:HBox>
  <mx:HBox>
   <mx:Label text="Results:" width="100" fontWeight="bold"/>
   <mx:TextInput id="txtShortUrl" width="200"/>
   <mx:Button id="btnTryIt" label="Try It!" click="tryUrl(txtShortUrl.text);" enabled="false"/>
  </mx:HBox>
</mx:VBox>
</mx:WindowedApplication>

ImageCFC 2.16 Now Available

2007-05-31T08:48:59-07:00

ImageCFC Project Page: http://www.opensourcecf.com/imagecfc/

I released ImageCFC 2.15 yesterday without testing it.

Today, I released ImageCFC 2.16 *AFTER* testing it. Not heavily, but I did run at least one test of every method. I also included my simple test file, "test-cases.cfm"

If you haven't gotten ImageCFC lately, you should definately update! If you're using a recent version of ImageCFC, you should be able to just drop the code in place without changing YOUR code. ImageCFC 2.15 and 2.16 only included changes to the main "image.cfc" file.

See the CHANGELOG for details.

My First Apollo Application

2007-05-11T14:37:24-07:00

okay, it's really my second apollo application. But it seemed silly for my first apollo blog entry here to say "My second apollo application" when I never mentioned the first one. Plus, the first one is really an internal app for my job that serves no purpose outside my department.

Anyway, if you participate in a lot of mailing lists, then you probably use tinyurl a lot. Need a shorten a URL, load up www.tinyurl.com, paste in your url, and submit. It returns a nice "tiny url" for you.

Well now you can have a little flex app running all the time called "My Url Shortener" that does the same thing, without having to launch a browser. Just keep it running.. put it in your startup or something like that.

To run this application, you'll first need to install the Apollo Runtime from Adobe, then get the MyUrlShortener installer and run it.

If you'd like the source, which includes the mxml, cfc, and cfm files, along with a README.TXT, the LICENCE.TXT, the air file, and a sample virtual host entry from httpd.conf using mod_rewrite, you should download MyUrlShortner.zip.

Smith Project - Open Source Coldfusion Server

2007-05-08T06:14:15-07:00

The Smith Project, another alternative CFML server, announced yesterday that they've gone to an open source license.

From their web site:

07-May-2007

Smith goes open-source.

After the very positive feedback from the ColdFusion® Developer Community, youngculture decided to open source its ColdFusion® Server "Smith". Till the end of April Smith Application Server has been downloaded more than 6'000 times.

Developers are welcome to join the project. The project is published under the GPL Licence and will be run and maintained by the newly founded Smith Open Source Software Association (SOSSA).

I haven't tried Smith yet, but it looks promising.

Paging Through Record Sets without URL variables

2007-04-06T17:41:01-07:00

One of my clients recently asked me to avoid the use of URL variables when paging through record sets. He wanted the "clean" URL look. So I converted some code I'd written to the following.

The following code uses a hidden form and some javascript to achieve the first/next/previous/last functionality. It also displays "Showing records X - Y of Z total records"

<cfsetting enablecfoutputonly="yes">
<cfset perPage = 100>

<cfparam name="session.lastStartRow" default="1">
<cfparam name="startRow" default="#session.lastStartRow#">
<cfif startRow gt qry.recordCount or startrow lt 1>
     <cfset startRow = 1>
</cfif>

<cfset nextStartRow = startRow + perPage>
<cfset prevStartRow = startRow - perPage>

<cfset endRow = startRow + perPage - 1>
<cfif endRow gt qry.recordCount>
     <cfset endRow = qry.recordCount>
</cfif>

<cfset session.lastStartRow = startRow>

<cfset lastPageStart = qry.recordCount - (qry.recordCount MOD perPage)>

<cfoutput><form name="frmPage" action="DataTable.cfm" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="startRow" value="1" id="startRow">
</form>
<script language="Javascript">
function goPage(startRow) {
     // update the form and submit
     document.frmPage.startRow.value = startRow;
     document.frmPage.submit();
}
</script>
</cfoutput>

<cfsavecontent variable="pager"><cfoutput>
<p>
Showing records #startRow#-#endRow# of #qry.recordCount#.
<br/>
<a href="javascript:goPage(1);">First</a>  
<cfif startRow gt 1><a href="javascript:goPage(#prevStartRow#);">Previous</a><cfelse>Previous</cfif>  
<cfif endRow lt qry.recordCount><a href="javascript:goPage(#nextStartRow#);">Next</a><cfelse>Next</cfif>  
<a href="javascript:goPage(#lastPageStart#)">Last</a>
</p></cfoutput></cfsavecontent>
<cfsetting enablecfoutputonly="yes">

<cfoutput>#pager#</cfoutput>

<cfoutput>#pager#</cfoutput>

Join the Open Source NCAA Pool!

2007-03-12T16:34:52-07:00

The Open Source NCAA Pool is now open! The winner gets a 2gb USB Flash Drive!

http://www.opensourcecf.com/forums/ncaapool.cfm

CFMBB 1.20 Release Candidate Available

2007-03-07T10:16:40-07:00

Project Page for CFMBB: http://www.cfmbb.org/

I've been working on CFMBB 1.20 for a little over a month now, adding features, debugging, etc... there are a HUGE number of changes to CFMBB 1.20. User groups, restricted forums based on usergroup membership, integrated "content management", integrated file manager, integrated chat, lots of caching for better performance on busy sites, improved installation script, CAPTCHA for improved spam prevention, new topic notification options for entire site, per conference, and per forum, along with some bug fixes, modifications for Bluedragon 7 compatibility, etc.

Download CFMBB 1.20RC now!

Thanks to everyone who helped me get it to this point! And thanks to Ray for a great app to start with :)

ImageCFC 2.14 Released

2007-03-07T09:53:08-07:00

Project Page for ImageCFC: http://www.opensourcecf.com/imagecfc/

New in Version 2.14 - Exact Size Thumbnails

Thanks to some contributed code, there is now a new "cropToExact" argument to the resize() method. This argument, when combined with a specified width, specified height, and the preserveAspect argument being set to true will cause a image to be resized then cropped to fit exactly within the specified dimensions.

For example, this will allow you to take a 800x600 image, and create a 100x100 thumbnail while still preservign the aspect ratio. In this case, the image would be resized to 133x100, then cropped to 100x100.

Download ImageCFC 2.14 Now!

CFMBB 1.20 In Beta

2007-02-27T01:24:20-07:00

CFMBB 1.20 is in beta now! It includes many new features, including support for user groups, restricting forum access to specific user groups, integration of the CFOpenChat chat software, addition of basic content management features with integrated file manager (CFFM).

Themes have been "simplified" in that the navigation is no longer included in the header/footer pages. Previous versions of the themes included with CFMBB used wrapping tables, which aren't used any more.

Version 1.20 also includes several bug fixes, adds support for Bluedragon 7 (they've implemented a new built-in CFML function called querySort, which was the name of one of the UDFs in CFMBB, so I had to change its name to qrySort)

This is not an official release, but if you'd like to download the beta for testing, it's here.

Check out the demo here. Username: admin, password: admin

Open Source NCAA Tournament Pool

2007-02-27T01:16:13-07:00

My NCAA Tournament pool application has been updated. It now works with both Galleon (untested) and CFMBB. You can probably pretty easily modify it to work with pretty much any authentication framework.

For a demo, check out http://www.opensourcecf.com/forums/ncaapool.cfm

The project page is here: www.opensourcecf.com/ncaapool

The brackets included are current projections from CollegeRPI.com (Jerry's February 23 brackets). Don't come whining to me about why your team isn't in there, and don't come whining to me about why your team is seeded so low!

Determining Zip Code Proximity

2007-02-06T12:51:00-07:00

So I got a request from one of our development officers the other day. They wanted to be able to perform prospect reports based on zip code, or a range of zip codes. So I started investigating, and found numerous resources thanks to the members of the coldfusion community on the cf-talk mailing list.

First, someone pointed me to http://www.teamredline.com/, a company that sells zip code databases for $5. The database contains city, state, state abbreviation, zip code, latitude, and longitude. I forked out the $5 and downloaded the data, and then imported it into SQL Server.

Russ also provided a SQL Server function that would determine the distance between two points on the globe, and here it is:

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[getDistance]
(
@lat1 numeric(9,6),
@lon1 numeric(9,6),
@lat2 numeric(9,6),
@lon2 numeric(9,6)
)
RETURNS NUMERIC( 10, 5 )
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @x decimal(20,10)
DECLARE @pi decimal(21,20)
SET @pi = 3.14159265358979323846
SET @x = sin( @lat1 * @pi/180 ) * sin( @lat2 * @pi/180 ) + cos(
@lat1 *@pi/180 ) * cos( @lat2 * @pi/180 ) * cos( abs( (@lon2 * @pi/180) -
(@lon1 *@pi/180) ) )
SET @x = atan( ( sqrt( 1- power( @x, 2 ) ) ) / @x )
RETURN ( 1.852 * 60.0 * ((@x/@pi)*180) ) / 1.609344
END

He also provided a method of querying based on zip code that used a cross join. Several other users had recommended modifying his query to restrict the number of zip codes it compares by looking for latitude between A-X and A+X where A is the latitude of the origin zip code, and X is some factor of degrees that would contain the search radius. You can do the same for longitude (though the further north you go, the wider the area you end up including because the longitude is only 69 degrees per mile at the equator... but enough math! Here's the query, cfquery style:

SELECT
z2.CITY, z2.ABBR, z2.ZIPCODE
FROM
ADSPRD.dbo.zipcodes z
cross join ADSPRD.dbo.zipcodes z2
WHERE
z.zipCode=<cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_char" value="#zipcode#">
AND z2.LATITUDE BETWEEN z.latitude-(<cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_smallint" value="#range#">*0.014457*2) and z.latitude+(<cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_smallint" value="#range#">*0.014457*2)
AND z2.LONGITUDE BETWEEN z.longitude-(<cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_smallint" value="#range#">*0.014457*2) and z.longitude+(<cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_smallint" value="#range#">*0.014457*2)
and ADSPRD.dbo.getDistance(z.Latitude, z.longitude,z2.latitude, z2.longitude)
<= <cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_smallint" value="#range#">;

But I found an even faster way, as follows. It uses some Transact-SQL statements, but gets the same results without the cross join.

DECLARE @lat1 decimal(5,2);
DECLARE @long1 decimal(5,2);
DECLARE @rangeFactor decimal(7,6);
SET @rangeFactor = 0.014457;
SELECT @lat1 = LATITUDE, @long1 = LONGITUDE from ADSPRD.dbo.zipcodes where zipcode = <cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_char" value="#zipcode#">;

SELECT B.CITY, B.ABBR, B.zipcode
FROM ADSPRD.dbo.zipcodes B
WHERE
B.LATITUDE BETWEEN @lat1-(<cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_smallint" value="#range#">*@rangeFactor) and @lat1+(<cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_smallint" value="#range#">*@rangeFactor)
AND B.LONGITUDE BETWEEN @long1-(<cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_smallint" value="#range#">*@rangeFactor) and @long1+(<cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_smallint" value="#range#">*@rangeFactor)
AND ADSPRD.dbo.getDistance(@lat1,@long1,B.latitude,B.longitude)
<= <cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_smallint" value="#range#">;

The difference in query execution time is pretty minimal in terms of actual milliseconds, but it is significant, anywhere from 2x to 3x faster, depending on the radius of the area you're looking in.

UPDATE - Mysql GetDistance Function

goondocs.com took the above code and produced a MySQL function for the same purpose. Since links in comments in my blog don't do anything for search engine visibility due to the nofollow attribute, I'm posting the link up here as an update:

MySQL function to compute the distance between two zip codes

CFCPhotoBlog to use ImageCFC

2007-01-29T09:47:36-07:00

I had a conversation with Seth Duffey via email the other day. Seth is the author of CFCPhotoBlog, a free, open source photo blogging project. It's a pretty nice project, if you're looking for a photo blogging application.

Looks like future versions are going to implement my ImageCFC project for some basic image manipulation like flip and rotate.

Check it out if you get a chance!

CFOpenChat 1.01 Released

2007-01-26T11:21:00-07:00

CFOpenChat version 1.01 is now available. There were two very minor bug fixes, both of which were discussed in the forums quite some time ago, I finally decided to put out a release.

download CFOpenChat 1.01 here.

ImageCFC 2.13 Now Available

2007-01-25T12:37:43-07:00

ImageCFC version 2.13 is now available. Very minor bug fix only to prevent unfriendly errors when attempting to read non-image files or unsupported image types like CMYK jpeg images.

download ImageCFC 2.13 here.

ImageCFC 2.11 Released

2006-12-18T13:33:56-07:00

Project Page for ImageCFC: http://www.opensourcecf.com/imagecfc/

version 2.11 includes the following changes:

performance improvements to the GaussianFilter.cfc and BoxBlurFilter.cfc
corrected bugs in GetOption() method
Added an object oriented wrapper cfc called ImageObject.cfc (as yet undocumented, though the cfc itself has some example code)
corrected documentation error in docs/getOption.cfm

I originally realized 2.11 on December 14, but made a minor correction to ImageObject.cfc today and repacked it without changing the version number so if you downloaded version 2.11 already, please do so again.

Also, ImageCFC 2.11 has been integrated into CFFM 1.15.

UDF to generate File Drops in CSV, Excel, and Tab delimited formats

2006-12-18T09:41:46-07:00

At a reader's request, I'm posting a UDF I wrote to generate file drops from queries. The UDF takes as its arguments a query, a format (EXCEL, CSV, or TAB), a list of column names, and a list of column labels. It returns a text string that can be used to either generate a file on the server or can be returned with cfcontent with the appropriate mime type.

<cfscript>
function formatFileOutput(qry, format, columnNames, columnLabels)
{
  // use java string buffer to dramatically improve
  // performance for large queries.
  var output = createObject("java","java.lang.StringBuffer");
  var x = 1;
  var fields = "";
  var row = 1;
  var col = 1;

  var PAGE_HEADER = "";
  var PAGE_FOOTER = "";
  var ROW_HEADER = "";
  var ROW_FOOTER = "";
  var START_OUTPUT = "";
  var END_OUTPUT = "";
  var START_ROW = "";
  var END_ROW = "";
  var START_FIELD = "";
  var END_FIELD = "";

  // generate column label structure
  for (x=1; x lte listLen(columnLabels); x = x + 1)
  {
   columnData[listGetAt(columnNames,x)] = listGetAt(columnLabels,x);
  }

  format = trim(ucase(format));

  // set up output variables
  if (format eq "CSV" or format eq "TAB")
  {
   page_header = "";
   row_header = "";
   for (x=1; x lte listLen(columnNames); x = x + 1)
   {
    row_header = listAppend(row_header, columnData[listGetAt(columnNames,x)]);
   }
   row_header = row_header & chr(13) & chr(10);
   start_output = "";
   end_output = "";
   start_row = "";
   end_row = chr(13) & chr(10);
   start_field = "";
   if (format eq "TAB") {
    row_header = listChangeDelims(row_header," ");
    end_field = " ";
   } else {
    end_field = ",";
   }
   page_footer = "";
  } else if (format eq "EXCEL") {
   page_header = "<HTML;
<head>
<title>Results</title>
<style type=""text/css"">
BODY, TD {
font-family: sans-serif;
white-space: nowrap;
}
TD.header {
font-weight: bold;
background-color: ffff00;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>";
   row_header = "<tr>#Chr(10)#";
   for (x=1; x lte listLen(columnNames); x = x + 1)
   {
    row_header = row_header & " <td class=#chr(34)#header#chr(34)#>#columnData[listGetAt(columnNames,x)]#</td>#CHR(10)#";
   }
   row_header = row_header & "</tr>#Chr(10)#";

   start_output = "<table cellpadding=2 cellspacing=0 border=1>#Chr(10)#";
   end_output = "</table>#Chr(10)#";
   start_row = "<tr>#Chr(10)#";
   end_row = "</tr>#Chr(10)#";
   start_field = " <td valign=top>";
   end_field = "</td>#Chr(10)#";
   page_footer = "</body></html>";
  }
  output.append(PAGE_HEADER);
  output.append(START_OUTPUT);
  output.append(ROW_HEADER);
  for (row=1; row lte qry.recordCount; row = row + 1)
  {
   output.append(START_ROW);
   for (col = 1; col lte listLen(columnNames); col=col+1)
   {
    thisColumn = listGetAt(columnNames,col);
    field = evaluate("qry.#ThisColumn#[row]");
    if (field eq "" and format eq "EXCEL") {
     field=" ";
    }
    output.append(START_FIELD);

    if (format eq "CSV")
    {
     if (field neq "" and not isNumeric(field) )
     {
      field = replace(field,chr(34),"#chr(34)##chr(34)#","ALL");
      field = "#Chr(34)##field##Chr(34)#";
     }
     output.append(field);
    } else {
     output.append(FIELD);
    }
    if (col lt listlen(columnNames,", ")) {
     output.append(END_FIELD);
    }
   }
   output.append(END_ROW);
  }
  output.append(END_OUTPUT);
  output.append(PAGE_FOOTER);
  return output.toString();
}
</cfscript>

Here's an example of how to use it. You could place the following code in a file called "drop.cfm"

<cfparam name="FORMAT" default="TAB">
<cfquery name="myQuery" datasource="WEBREPORTS_MSSQL">
select top 30 * from dbo.TB907
</cfquery>
<cfscript>
if (format eq "EXCEL")
{
  mimetype = "application/msexcel";
  filename = "report.xls";
} else {
  mimetype = "text/plain";
  filename = "report.txt";
}
results = formatFileOutput(myQuery, format, myQuery.columnlist, myQuery.columnlist);
</cfscript>
<cfsetting enablecfoutputonly="Yes">
<cfcontent type="#mimetype#" reset="Yes">
<cfheader name="Content-Disposition" value="attachment; filename=#filename#">
<cfoutput>#results#</cfoutput>