BlueDragon Developer's Journal

Many of my articles in this column have dealt with theoretical concepts and syntax of implementing those concepts in ColdFusion. In this article, I want to concentrate on the implementation steps you might take when building something. Most Web applications have a "sign me up" feature that allows users to register. Registered users often have access to additional information or features that anonymous users don't. I'm going to walk you through the process of creating a simple login form, including database authentication and a "remember me" checkbox. The Database Before you start coding this application, you'll need to create a database. Most login schemes include a username and password. You can put that information in a table called Users. The table will also need a unique identifier, called a primary key in database terms. Here is a sample of data from the tabl... (more)

It's Not ColdFusion - It's J2EE!

Over the past few months I've had several conversations with developers that have all been pretty much the same. Here's a paraphrase of a recent one: "My management decided to standardize on , and my company isn't going to use ColdFusion anymore. "They're telling me I have to convert my existing CFML applications to run on the J2EE server so they can retire the old ColdFusion 4.5 and 5.0 servers. "The server admins say I have to package my applications into standard J2EE WAR files for deployment. I've looked at BlueDragon - the J2EE edition - ... (more)

Making the Case for CFML

Many BlueDragon customers tell us they're being asked to defend their choice of CFML (ColdFusion Markup Lanuage) over JavaServer Pages (JSP). They need help making the argument that CFML and J2EE work well together, and that perhaps CFML is a better choice for presentation layer technology than JSP for developing J2EE Web applications. They know instinctively it's the right choice, but aren't quite sure how to build the case. As more organizations are standardizing on J2EE (and .NET) the issue of defending CFML will only become more urgent. The good news is that you've made the ... (more)

Profiling CFML at the Tag Level, Finally!

The ability to view tag-level execution profiling (the amount of time spent on each tag in a request) is no longer a dream, and it opens up powerful new forms of debugging and performance tuning. The Problem: Tools We Lack Most CFML developers know that both ColdFusion and BlueDragon can be configured to show debugging info at the bottom of a page, which shows (among other things) the total time spent on a request and in each template within that request. But how often have you wished you could see the time spent on each tag within the request? This would really help in determini... (more)

AJAX Tipped To Play Major Role in the Shape of i-Technology to Come

Among all the terms cited by SYS-CON's worldwide network of software development activists, evangelists, and executives, what were the two that cropped up most often? "AJAX" and "IE7" -- Internet Explorer 7, currently in limited beta test. Other terms they focused on included: LAMP, Virtualization, SaaS, Open Source, SANs, Web 2.0, Blog consolidation, InfoSec, BitTorrent, Googlecrash, Adobe, SOA, REST, Single Sign-On, SemWeb, iComm, Structured Blogging, VPMNs, VoIP Phones, Semantic Technologies, Ruby on Rails, spam/phishing, VoIP, .NET 2.0, Terror Hacking and WiFi. 2006 promise... (more)