Steve Bryant - com.sebtools

Records / Manager Form

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 09:30:00-0500

I did a rough introduction to Records.cfc last time - just enough to show how it can make really basic CRUD operations easy. This time I want to show how you can take advantage of it to help keep your applications DRY. In addition to the methods that I discussed last time, Records.cfc components (that is, components that extend Records.cfc) also get another method that I would like to discuss today: [More]

Records / Manager

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 09:30:00-0500

It occurred to me recently that I haven't yet blogged about one of my favorite tools in my com.sebtools package. It makes the most common CRUD tasks dead simple (I think more than any other CRUD tool that I have seen). Records.cfc is one of the only components in the com.sebtools package that is used by extension rather than composition. Normally, I prefer composition but I think the benefits are worth it in this case. Rather than try to describe what it does in generic terms, let's start with an example. We can start with a completely empty folder. [More]

Updated SpamFilter Definitions

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 10:30:00-0500

This is just a quick note that I have updated the spam definitions for SpamFilter.cfc. So, if you are using SpamFilter.cfc and have the second argument of init ("getNewDefs") set to true, simply re-initialize it and you will have the updated definitions. [More]

Introducing Manager.cfc

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 10:00:00-0500

I have been told by some people using DataMgr that it should handle files as well. The problem with that is that managing files is outside the purview of what DataMgr should do. I actually do have another project called FileMgr (part of the com.sebtools package) that does a little bit of what DataMgr does, but for files. Mostly, it handles uploads and makes sure that the needed folders exist - one less thing to worry about on deployment. What would be nice, is a component that works like DataMgr but handles files (and even image resizing) just as automatically as DataMgr handles data. The component is (showing no imagination on my part) called Manager.cfc. [More]

com.sebtools Build 8: FileMgr and Mailer Updates

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:15:00-0500

John Whish found a couple of bugs in FileMgr (ColdFusion 9 compatibility and a bug in the getFilePath method) that should be fixed now. I also added getNoticeMethod to Mailer.cfc which should make it easier to see what it is doing when sending notices as well as make it possible to interject a step after the notice email is compiled but before it sends. com.sebtools is open source and free for any use.

Tracking Scheduled Tasks with Scheduler 1.1

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 10:15:00-0500

One of the sites I work on went through a period where it ran very slowly (or even crashed) a few times a month. Each time, the problem generally started around three in the morning. As the site has several scheduled tasks, I was asked if any of them could be the culprit. At the time, I had no reliable way to answer that question. Now I do.

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DataMgr 2.2.0.2 and com.sebtools Build 2

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 07:30:00-0500

I just fixed a couple of bugs in DataMgr which caused an update in both DataMgr and in the com.sebtools pack. The com.sebtools package also includes an update to FileMgr among other components. [More]

com.sebtools Build 1

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 06:00:00-0500

I have done a few entries on components that use DataMgr (listed under "DataMgr Utility Set"). Until now, I have had each as a separate download. My thinking was that it would reduce the amount of data you would need to download in order to use the tools. In fact, this added a step to use them as you had to download DataMgr as well if you didn't already have it. In an attempt to learn from this mistake, I have merged all of these projects as the com.sebtools package. [More]

I Never Break Encapsulation (almost)

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 07:30:00-0500

One of the larger systems that on which I work runs multiple sites from one code base. Each site needs to have some data that is specific to that site. For example, each site should use a different from email address and mail server when sending email. During the initial development of the system, I decided to give each site its own application scope. After that, I don't have to worry about which data is site-specific and which isn't. Despite a continually growing number of sites, this has worked pretty well for more than five years. Then the use of one of my own open source projects revealed a problem with this approach. [More]

Scheduler.cfc 1.0

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 08:00:00-0500

More than a year ago, I released a beta of Scheduler.cfc. Then I promptly forgot to release a full version. So, now I mean to correct that oversight. [More]

SpamFilter 1.1

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 09:15:00-0500

Since I first released SpamFilter, I have added several new spam definitions to it without needing to touch the actual code. The most recent addition, however, did require me to update the code. Since I did that, I decided to go ahead and make another change to take advantage of new functionality in DataMgr 2.2 (on which SpamFilter 1.1 is dependent). [More]

Managing Uploaded Files with FileMgr

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 08:30:00-0500

Years ago, I used to put uploaded files any random place in my sites. This turned out to be a pain when I wanted to deploy a new version of a site. If I was using FTP, I couldn't just upload a set of root folders because some folders used for uploads might be within them and I wouldn't want to overwrite files that had been uploaded on the live site. If I was using subversion, then I would have to select "ignore" on each upload location individually. Even comparisons in BeyondCompare were a little more tedious. [More]

Preventing Form Spam in cf_sebForm

Wed, 21 May 2008 06:00:00-0500

I use cf_sebForm for all of my contact forms. Form spam is a constant problem for those forms. So, I set up a generic way to do filtering in those forms and wrote both cf_sebForm and SpamFilter.cfc to follow the same guidelines. [More]

Add SpamFilter.cfc to BlogCFC

Thu, 15 May 2008 06:30:00-0500

BlogCFC does a good job of preventing spam, but I sometimes get comment spam that I think SpamFilter.cfc could prevent. I decided to see how easily I could implement it on BlogCFC. It turns out that it is pretty easy. I had to add a few lines to Application.cfm and addcomment.cfm. The drawback here is that I will have to repeat this process when I upgrade BlogCFC, but it is pretty painless. [More]

SpamFilter.cfc Goes Gold

Wed, 14 May 2008 07:00:00-0500

I have been using SpamFilter.cfc to prevent form spam for nine months now with great success (and no user impact). Other than some new spam definitions (including one in this build), I haven't made any changes in a while - no bugs or problems to be fixed. [More]