This is a bit of a sad announcement, but I have to shut down my local (Tulsa, OK) CFUG today. Since my kids were born last January, the attention that I have given to the group has really suffered. In truth, I probably never put enough effort to it.

In any event, attendance hasn't been good for several months and I haven't made the time and effort to really change things enough. I think if I were going to really turn things around, I would have done so already.

Even so, the group has been around for seven years so I don't consider it a total failure. When I moved to Tulsa in 2002, it didn't have an active group and I resolved to make sure that I did. I hoped to find someone else to run it, but others were too busy. This was, as it turned out, quite a blessing.

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The Tulsa CFUG is proud to host a Connect presentation by Christian Ready on ColdFusion Security tomorrow (September 28, 2010) at 12:30 PM central.

The details on are the Tulsa CFUG meetings page.

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The Tulsa CFUG is proud to host a Connect presentation by Jason Dean on ColdFusion Security today (August 31, 2010) at 12:30 PM central.

The details on are the Tulsa CFUG meetings page.

Every time I read Jason's blog entries on security, I find it frightening to see just how much I still have to learn on the subject. I'm excited to learn more today.

If you are in the Tulsa area, we would love to see you on location where you can pick up some swag and talk to other local ColdFusion programmers. Otherwise, feel free to watch on line.

A big "Thank you" to Jason for graciously accepting the invitation to present to our little group.

Meeting URL

The Tulsa CFUG is proud to host a Connect presentation by Barney Boisvert on CFGroovy tomorrow (May 25, 2010).

The details on are the Tulsa CFUG meetings page.

If you are in the Tulsa area, we would love to see you on location where you can pick up some swag and talk to other local ColdFusion programmers. Otherwise, feel free to watch on line.

A big "Thank you" to Barney for graciously accepting the invitation to present to our little group.

Ray Camden gave a presentation to the Tulsa CFUG on ColdFusion Security last night. We got off to a late start due to my own ineptitude in setting up Adobe Connect. After that, however, the presentation was great.

I was actually a bit surprised by how well everyone in the group was doing on security (if they are all to be believed). Not you, of course, dear reader. You, I knew, would do well. ;-)

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I presented on DataMgr to my local users group yesterday and created a demonstration site to illustrate most of the features. 

I hope to release the demonstration site early next week and release the next beta of DataMgr 2.0 around the same time (and make the download available directly from the site). The demonstration site will also act as a test-bed for DataMgr functionality and will include links to the documentation and some notes on using DataMgr. It will allow you to actually use DataMgr to update data in the database.

This data will be periodically removed and recreated to prevent abuse. Additionally, I hope to have the application regularly switch databases. The demonstration site will demonstrate DataMgr on Access, MySQL, and MS SQL Server. I have to test it on PostGreSQL elsewhere.

The presentation also served as a bit of a dress rehearsal for my February 22nd presentation on DataMgr to the Nashville ColdFusion Users Group. After that, I would love to give presentations (in person or by Breeze/Connect dpending) to any other groups that are interested (just let me know if you are).

The group isn't technically new, but the focus is. The Tulsa Macromedia Users Group is now the Tulsa ColdFusion Users Group. The code for the site is freely available as well.

The Site 

Following the idea I got from Ben Nadel's Skin Spider, I am releasing the code as I work on it. The feature set is pretty thin right now. I can manage users, meetings, presentations and downloads. I want to add a forum (Ray's Galleon forum seems to have a visual conflict with the CSS on my site which I need to fix) and CMS (I have one that I need to clean up a bit).

Feel free to download the code to see an example of what I consider to be a good approach to a basic site. I would love to get any feedback.

The Group 

More significantly, if you or someone you know is in the Tulsa area, let them know about the group. Our inaugural presentation is on extending the CF Administrator and will be by our own Jason Holden.

I would like to start scheduling presentations a few months in advance if possible. If you would like to present to our group (either in person or via Breeze/Connect), let us know .

Our user's group had our first Breeze presentation this week. Not having any experience with Breeze (other than attending several Breeze presentations), I was a little nervous about what trouble we would run into.

As it turned out, the set up was really easy and the presentation went off without a hitch.

More significantly, however, Peter Farrell did a really good presentation. He presented on source control software (mostly on subversion - but the presentation was a good overview of available options). He has a good voice for presenting and his pace and demeanor were perfect for an online presentation.

I have not been using a version control system and even after the presentation I am not sure that I will. I am sure, however, that I will at least look into it and weigh my options very seriously. Before hearing the presentation, I wasn't really sure where to get started on making that decision. Now I feel like I have a good starting point for investigating the possibilities.

If you are in a users group that is in a smaller market (Tulsa isn't quite Dallas or NYC), a Breeze presentation is a great way to get presenters and presentations that you might not otherwise be able to get.

Charlie Arehart just covered Breezos for user's groups in his blog , so you might want to read more about it there if you are interested.

Since I work at home and don't have an iPod (the shame!), I have only listened to one or two episodes of ColdFusion Weekly . After this presentation, I will be sure to find a way to listen to more of them.