Steve Bryant - Productivity

ColdFusion Programmer Wanted

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 07:00:00-0500

So, my last blog entry was about my needing a developer to help me out. I found one and he is great. I just have even more work that needs doing. At this point, I am looking for a 1099 contractor, not a W2 employee. I need someone with current U.S. residency, but I don't particularly care where you are located. All work is remote. [More]

Business is Booming and I Need Your Help

Tue, 29 May 2012 09:15:00-0500

In less than 3 months, I will have been working for myself for 10 years. In that time, I have mostly been able to keep up with client demand on my own. This has been by a combination of hiring occasional subcontractors and turning away business. Now, however, I have too few clients to turn away and still too much work to handle on my own. [More]

What technologies, other than ColdFusion, should a developer know?

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 10:15:00-0500

Fusion Authority recently ran an article called What's Hot? What's Not? Where Do We Go From Here? subtitled "What technologies, other than ColdFusion, should a developer know?". Mike Henke followed up the theme with a post called "What's Hot & Where do we go from here?". I'm pretty sure I don't have the insight that other people have who have already written on the subject. But it seemed like a fun exercise, so I thought I would toss in my two cents with:

What technologies, other than ColdFusion, am I learning?

I'm not sure what technologies you should learn, but here are the ones that I am learning: [More]

Essential Software for ColdFusion Development

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 13:15:00-0500

I recently went through a rather severe computer tragedy from which I am just now recovering. As such, I have had the opportunity to rebuild my computer from scratch. Here is the software I deemed essential for my work as a ColdFusion developer. I'm curious what others have installed. These are roughly in the order that I install them

Firefox: First thing I install on any computer.
IIS: Not really software, but I did have to enable it. Apache may be "better", but I like IIS personally and it is easy to get going. Just be sure to enable all of the correct services before you install ColdFusion
SQL Server Express: It is free for local development and a really good database program.
MS Office: The last of the Microsoft software. Despite all of the Microsoft haters out there, MS Excel is still my favorite program ever and MS Access is actually a pretty good local database.
ColdFusion: It's what I do.
ColdFusion Builder: I still miss ColdFusion Studio, but this is really growing on me.
Adobe CS Web Premium: I love Fireworks and it is handy to have Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and Flash as well.
Pidgin: Currently my IM of choice. Works well across lots of networks and runs fast.
CloudBerry Backup Desktop: I have tried Mozy and Rackspace's JungleDisk and liked them both well enough, but a friend recommended this so I am giving it a try.
ShadowProtect: Windows 7 has image back-ups, but the hardware independent restore feature of ShadowProtect seems like it could be really handy.
BeyondCompare: Simply the best file comparison program I have found.
Git for Windows: I'm in the early stages of learning Git, but I love it so far.

So, what do you think? Did I miss anything essential? For anyone wondering what happened to my upcoming list of "How I got Started in ColdFusion" entries, I lost them but I know how to get that back so I will try to get on that soon. Sorry for the delay.

Finally Biting the Bullet on Git

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 11:00:00-0500

OK. I am finally going to bite the bullet and start using Git. This has been on my to do list for a white, but I haven't found the time. So, instead of finding the time I am just going to move open source projects that are currently on subversion over to github. My plan is that I will then learn Git by necessity. We'll see how that works. It is a little scary to just jump in like this, but I have yet to just "dip my toes in the water" so this seems the best way. That being said, if anyone has any suggestions for best ways to learn Git as I go or tools I can use to make this easier, I am eager to hear about them. I have a Git repository set up for the com.sebtools package and for my Neptune framework already. More coming very soon. Here's to jumping in with both feet! I'll try to blog about my progress.

"Set IIS Root" ColdFusion Builder Extension is Gold

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:30:00-0500

Several months ago, I posted my first ColdFusion extension. It allows me to switch the web root on IIS to any folder in ColdFusion Builder. Since my primary development machine is Windows XP, this has proven pretty handy. In the intervening months, I have found that I have used this several times a day. In that time, I haven't needed to change the underlying code at all. So, I am going to go ahead and call it a full 1.0 version. [More]

My First ColdFusion Builder Extension: "Set IIS Root"

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:15:00-0500

I had a magic moment this weekend when my wife and both of our babies were all asleep. I thought to myself "What should I do with this free time?". So, of course, I used it to make my first ColdFusion Builder extension, "Set IIS Root". The extension allows me to right-click on any project or folder and set it as the web root in IIS directly from ColdFusion Builder. The functionality to do this was originally written by my friend, Jason Holden. Admittedly this is now only useful on flavors of Windows that have IIS, but don't allow multiple sites (Windows XP Pro, but not Windows 2003 or Vista), but I am in that group so it saves me time. I was a little concerned about how difficult it would be to make an extension for ColdFusion Builder. It turned out to be really easy, taking me about an hour (or less) including the time to learn how to make an extension and to test it out. The ColdFusion Builder development team deserves major kudos here as do the authors of the documentation. [More]

Preventing Errors

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:00:00-0500

Hopefully some dear readers can help me out with my current quandary.

I have several components that I use on nearly every site that I develop. By using them, I save untold hours of programming and therefore provide cheaper results for my clients. At the same time, I am using solutions that have been tried and proven rather than developing from scratch every time.

There is, of course, a catch to all of this.

[More]

Upgrading My Development Environment

Sun, 21 Oct 2007 06:00:00-0500

I admit it; I have been behind the times for a while. Most of my ColdFusion development has been on HomeSite and I haven't been much using source control. I started using CFEclipse a few months ago, but I would still switch back to HomeSite with some frequency. I decided, however, that it is time for a change.

[More]

On Code Generation

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 06:00:00-0500

I just read Brian Rinaldi's article on building a code generator . He lists five steps to build a code generator. I think the article is a good one overall, but it inspired me to point out where I would (and have) done things differently.

His steps are as follows (quoted directly from is article):

the Admin API in ColdFusion MX 7;
accessing database metadata in varying RDMS;
converting this data to a basic XML format;
transforming your XML into code with XSL;
the CFML code necessary to bring the first four parts together into a functional application.

1. The Admin API in ColdFusion MX 7

Brian uses this to get a list of available databases. I agree that this is nice, but I don't think it is an essential part of code generation. If someone has to type in the datasource, that doesn't completely negate the value of the code generator.

If you choose to use the Admin API, however, you might consider running your code as an extension in the ColdFusion Administrator. If you run your code in the CF Admin and you use the Application.cfm at the root of the administrator (in CFMX 7), then you will have a variable called "variables.factory". This holds the Admin API - and without you having to know the username and password. I don't think that this is a security problem as someone had to enter to the username and password to get your code to run in the first place.

I will also add in that you can see an example of how to do this as well as how to get a list of supported datasources can be found in my CodeCop code checker program.

2. Accessing database metadata in varying RDMS

I agree with Brian that this is an essential step (though Peter Bell has some good thoughts on code generation and the limits of database metadata). The approach that he used, however, means that he has to write different code for each database. He could have gotten the same information by using DataMgr. A call to DataMgr's getDBTableStruct() would get all of the same information for any database supported by DataMgr (which currently includes MS Access, MS SQL Server, MySQL, and PostGreSQL).

3. Converting this data to a basic XML format

This step isn't necessary unless you want to use XSLT for your code generation (see Peter Bell's thoughts on XSLT code generation). Assuming that you want to use XSLT, however, DataMgr can help you out again. In fact, you can skip the previous step and just have DataMgr give you an XML representation of the table structure. A simple call to getXml() will return an XML string for that table. If you need to add more information to the XML, just use ColdFusion's built in XML functions to add data to the XML.

4. Transforming your XML into code with XSL
and
5. The CFML code necessary to bring the first four parts together into a functional application

These two steps are really the same for me. This is the "generate the code" portion of the process. No doubt essential (it is the point, after all). I have already mentioned that XSLT may or may not be the best choice

Let me just mention one other tool that may be of use if you decide not to use XSLT (which is a fine option).

I have a small component (tag.cfc ) which can be extended to be an object representation of virtually any tag. I have already extended it for cfcomponent, cffunction, and cfargument (as well as some of my own custom tags). You can use it to generate code for virtually any tag. I don't want to imply that it is better than XSLT, just another approach.

Conclusion

I really liked Brian's article. It got me thinking about how I do things differently. I have been intending to work on my code generator again for some time (I actually use it for myself on most new projects, but it isn't quite "ready for Prime Time" yet). Hopefully I can work on that again as soon as I release DataMgr 2.0.

UPDATE

Here is a handy link to Brian's response (so you don't have to copy and paste from the comment below):

http://www.remotesynthesis.com/blog/index.cfm/2007/1/17/Generating-Code-vs-Generating-Applications

Sharpen the Axe

Thu, 07 Sep 2006 21:00:00-0500

While busy with several urgent projects, I spent most of yesterday improving my tool set. This might seem like a bad time, but I think it will pay of well.

I found that I was performing several tasks several times. My general rule is that on the third time I perform the same task, I try to automate it. I found that I had several tasks that I had performed more than three times and that I would need to perform more times very soon for my urgent problems.

Abraham Lincoln said "Give me eight hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first six sharpening the axe." I think this is a valuable (which has been discussed as Sharpening the Saw).

I think that time spent improving your tool set is time well spent. Be careful, however, not to try to wait until your tool set it perfect before you start your work.

I find it is valuable to improve my processes and tool set a little bit every project. I find that in the long run, the time a save as a result more than makes up for the investment of time in improving your tools.

In this case, DataMgr received some major improvements. I was planning to make these upgrades a 1.5 release, but they have already had such a major impact on my coding, that I might rename the release 2.0 (still plenty of testing before it is ready though).

According to his quote, Abraham Lincoln would spend two thirds of his time improving his tools. I suspect he was exagerating a bit. I spend about a sixth of my time improving my tools.

Dreamweaver Extensions for ColdFusion Frameworks

Thu, 22 Jun 2006 12:14:00-0500

If you are using any of the three major ColdFusion frameworks (Model-Glue, Mach-II, Fusebox), Massimo Foti has put together a Dreamweaver extension to make your life easier.

As I am not currently using any of the major frameworks (I am a recovering Fuebox addict), I haven't tried the extensions. Massimo has been responsible for plenty of other good work, however, so I am confident that these won't dissapoint.

You can find them on the Dreamweaver Extensions portion of his site, or use the following URLs for direct access to the extension of your choice.

http://www.massimocorner.com/dreamweaver/coldfusion/model-glue.mxp
http://www.massimocorner.com/dreamweaver/coldfusion/mach_ii.mxp
http://www.massimocorner.com/dreamweaver/coldfusion/fusebox.mxp

As I said, Massimo has done plenty of good work. If you go to his site, I recommend that you take the time to peruse his other free ColdFusion offerings as well (be sure to read the license first though).

Preview of New Code Creator

Fri, 14 Apr 2006 13:08:00-0500

Recently, a few ColdFusion programmers have written code generators. I was pretty excited about this until I realized that they don't write code the way I write code. I figured I wasn't the only one to want code generation "my way".

So, I started work on a code creator that would write code however you want it. The code creator provides a wizard and tools for creating a code generator. The generator is a cfc that extends a provided Generator.cfc. Each generator would take the information from the wizard and creates code from it.

Keep in mind that this is just a preview at this point. That being said, feel free to take a look and give me any feedback.

http://www.bryantwebconsulting.com/clients/generator/

I know it still needs plenty of work, but I am curious if this is something that others would find useful and what improvements other see that it needs.

Things I know that I need to add:

The ability to select the type of form field based on the datatype.
Limit the length of the form fields based on the length allowed in a column.

My hope (perhaps idealistic) would be that we could get some generators to create code for the different popular frameworks. This would make it more generally useful and provide another means of learning and comparing frameworks.

Incidentally, I am currently calling this "Configurable Code Creator", though I am not committed to that name, so I am open to suggestions.

This code is built on several other tools on which I have been working. Namely sebtags, DataMgr, and tag.cfc (now in version 0.2). I hope to write more about each of these in the future.

Handy JavaScripts

Tue, 29 Mar 2005 13:45:00-0500

Over time I have found a handful of nifty little JavaScript utilities. I was about to compile a handy reference of them for myself when I realized that others might be interested in them as well.

These are scripts that I have used and liked as well as some scripts that I haven't used book look nifty.

Here they are in no order:

General

Menus

WYSIWYG Editors

Let me know of any other scripts that I should add to the list.