Doug Boude (rhymes with 'loud')

Providing for Service Layer Objects in CFWheels: Hello Wirebox!

2012-04-18T11:50:00-05:00

This is the third and final post in a series on making the case for service layer objects (in CFWheels or any framework for that matter!), and two means of implementing them. The second post demonstrated

Providing For Service Layer Objects in CFWheels

2012-04-13T19:39:00-05:00

In my previous post in this series, I made the case for why I believe that service layer objects are a common need in an application's architecture. I also pointed out the fact that CFWheels does not provide for such animals within its framework, and that I had overcome this obstacle using two different approaches. What fo

Why Provide for Service layer objects in CFWheels?

2012-04-12T10:48:00-05:00

It's been probably 3 months since I started using the CFWheels framework, and I have nothing but praise for it. It's a compact conventions-based framework patterned after Ruby on Rails that, once you have a grasp of the relatively simple yet complete (mostly) API, makes putting an app together a pleasure. Having come to CFWheels from other frameworks that I've been using for a few years now (Model Glue and Coldbox primarily), I

Picking Up Where Interfaces Fail

2011-04-19T12:18:00-05:00

What Is An Interface?

Interfaces in ColdFusion are something that makes most of us turn our heads sideways and give the two dollar look. Any of us who didn't come from other languages before ColdFusion probably hadn't heard of them, and since they were introduced into CF, the majority of us haven't taken the time to even understand their purpose, let alone actually use them for anything. Myself, I d

Use Case for Circular Dependency

2011-01-20T10:38:00-05:00

Circular dependency is a concept that's been around a long, long time and most people who do OOP style programming are aware of it. But in my own personal experience, there are very few real instances where a use case exists for implementing it. I am currently working on a project, though, where circular dependency is exactly what the doctor ordered, so I thought I'd share the use case for the next time someone te

Real World Benefits of Encapsulation

2010-02-23T11:46:00-05:00

I, as most if not all of you do, realize that to do any new development and NOT encapsulate my code would border on absurdity and I would be painting myself into a very narrow corner with regard to maintenance and future project expansion. This post, however, is focused on those projects where you are thrown headlong into an existing codebase that is not based, even loosely, on any kind of objec

Using a CFC as a Configuration File

2009-12-17T12:41:00-05:00

SO, you too find yourself needing to write something that could really benefit from having its settings contained in some external resource. Let's see, what are the choices...we could possibly store our settings in the database and retrieve them at application initialization, if our architecture permits that; we could create an xml file that contains our settings in a nice, nested, readable manner; we could (as one person I mentioned this to sugg

SQL Forward Engineering with Visio 2003 Professional

2008-11-07T18:04:00-05:00

Finding the shortest route from diagram to tangible product can be tricky depending on the tool you use to create your Entity Relationship (database) diagrams. I'm using Visio 2003 Professional for mine, and so I went on the hunt for a way to transform diagrams into SQL 2005 Scripts (Visio Professional doesn't include any export features for ER diagrams). The final solution isn't the absolutely most elegant, but I'd call it live

Just What Is 'Application Logic', Anyway?

2008-08-22T19:56:00-05:00

In a previous post I did on "what is Business Logic", I used the analogy of the application's controller making a request for information from the model, and how the process that the model executes in order to produce the requested information IS the business logic itself. Since I had taken the time to expound on the term "Busi

How to Think about Controller objects and Model objects

2008-07-29T09:31:00-05:00

Even though MVC has been "all the rage" now for a good long time and several frameworks have been lovingly and painstakingly developed and shared by the CF community to help facilitate the migration to a more standardized OO approach to development, I do believe that there will always be a need to regularly return to the foundational principles of our craft. For some, an affirmation or further perfecting of their core

Why I Hate ORMs (a solicited rant)

2008-05-01T11:54:00-05:00

A necessary disclaimer...
Everything in the following post that appears to be an opinion most likely is and should be taken as such. My personal view on a topic does not (necessarily) invalidate any other opposing view. Readers should ascribe whatever value they so choose to the information that follows and either adopt it or reject it at their own discretion.

In the comment threa

What IS a Function, Anyway?

2008-03-07T01:27:39-05:00

Function.
The word has given not just new coders wrinkled brows and vacant stares, but also most everyone who encounters the term initially. Though we programmers might tend to think "function" only applies to us, in reality it crosses every boundary and therefore I believe that NOBODY should live one moment longer without being armed with a precise understanding of it. Here's what got me thinking about it...

What IS 'Business Logic', Anyway?

2008-03-06T20:32:40-05:00
So I'm having a discussion with my friend Jim the other day about an article he was writing and I give him a suggestion regarding one of his sentences on the subject of encapsulation. He had stated that encapsulation is about hiding data, while I appended the fact that it also hides business logic. This prompted an immediate discussion on the term 'business logic', and what exactly it was and was not. So, I thought it good to share

Appropriate Usage of the "THIS" Scope

2007-10-08T11:45:00-05:00
For the past several days, my good friend Jim and I have been having a series of discussions regarding the use of the 'THIS' scope within CFCs; specifically, CFCs that are to be used in an OO fashion. He's part of a small team that has just begun their OO journey and are embarking on a project where they hope to grow and refine their understanding in this arena. Jim being the stickler for correctness that he is, he often bounces ap

Dumping An Object is Like Taking an X-Ray

2007-10-02T15:03:00-05:00
Lately I've had the privilege of helping a good friend of mine climb "Mt. OOP", and in the process have been able to refine a lot of my own knowledge. I've also discovered that I sometimes make too many assumptions when imparting understandings, and this short post is in regards to one of those items: Dumping Objects.

One thing I always urge my fellow developers to do is to form a solid expectation of what the

Just what IS an Object, Anyway?

2007-09-17T12:34:00-05:00
Making a distinction between the definition of an Object versus a Class is probably not a vital factor in one's OOP abilities. I believe, however, that if we're going to have and use terms, we should do so accurately in order to effectively communicate. I absolutely hate it when people misuse words in ignorance, such as when someone refers to a Cicada as a Locust (a locust is a grasshopper! a Cicada is a Cicada!), or a bat as a rod

Just What IS a CLASS Anyway?

2007-09-14T18:12:00-05:00
Which phrasing is correct:

1."Hey boss, take a look at this object I just wrote!"
2."Hey boss, take a look at this class I just wrote!"

The answer is number 2. After reading the following definition, hopefully the phrasing in choice 1 will sound strange to you.

The term "CLASS" tends to be misused, or even UNDERused in OO conversations with regard to Cold

Reactor: A LOT Like a Wendys Drive Through

2007-09-12T12:29:00-05:00
Okay, I've been up since 3 A.M (went to bed waaay too early last night) working on a Modelglue project, and now I'm feeling the need to rant a little bit. Not complain, per se, because I truly do appreciate the blood, sweat, and tears that must have gone into creating the frameworks that comprise Unity; But out of the 4 hours I "worked", a full third of it was spent on issues related to trying to get my app to "see&q

"My Boss Wants To Know Why We Should Create Objects"

2007-08-29T10:58:00-05:00
A good friend of mine IM'd me this morning, hot in the middle of a sales pitch to his boss as to why it was a good idea to get away from the Spaghetti paradigm and move towards some semblance of OO methodologies. Our conversation was short and sweet, but I thought I'd toss it out here in case anybody else has anything to add (or correct), for the benefit of any other developer who finds themselves in a similar "sales" pos

The Model-Glue Event Lifecycle in Layman's Terms

2007-08-29T01:04:00-05:00
Okay, actually there's no way to COMPLETELY distill this topic down to the point where you don't have to have a decent understanding of web development to grasp it. BUT, I do believe that I've been able to demystify the subject sufficient to allow even the beginner OOP/Model-Glue developer to "get it", which is what I wish I would have had a year ago when I left the comforts of procedural and embarked on m

OO Lexicon Available as Webservice

2007-08-13T17:56:00-05:00
Some time back someone asked me if I would consider exposing my personal OO lexicon as a webservice. My answer was yes. However, I didn't get around to doing it until just today. I've decided to secure it, so if you're interested in consuming it, just email me (email address buried in To anyone who has not yet breached the subject of model-glue event security, it can potentially be confusing at first, so I thought I'd share my approach to it in case it helps save someone a little time.

Understanding and being able to visualize the life-cycle of a Model-Glue event is a prerequisite to really grasping event security, so let me share my take on what a brief overview of that life-cycl

Circular Dependency Experiment

2007-06-20T14:26:00-05:00
Circular Dependency is a phrase used to describe two objects who both use one another internally. That's simple enough. But...how the heck do those two OBJs get inside each other? And how do they behave once they're in there? These were some of the questions I needed answers to, and so I'd like to share with you my experiment and some of the things it taught me about circular object dependency.

I basi

Just What IS Circular Dependency?

2007-06-20T13:33:00-05:00
Circular dependency.

Initially, the phrase invokes visions of things that we naturally know to steer clear of, like infinite loops. If we've come to OO from a procedural world, we've probably been groomed to fear circular dependency in coding, reinforced by having encountered errors that demeaningly declared "Can't resolve circular dependencies, Idiot!". Circular dependency...it just sounds

Global Configuration Settings in Model-Glue:Unity

2007-06-10T09:58:00-05:00
When making the transition from procedural CF to OO, sometimes what was SO simple before can become a challenge (at least the first time). For instance, the way we used to pass around our app's DSN value was probably something along the lines of setting an application variable in our application.cfm or cfc, thus making it accessible throughout our app while consolidating the value to a single

Just What IS Abstraction, Anyway?

2007-03-27T14:11:00-05:00
Consider scenario 1:

It's Saturday, and I have a list of chores to do.

Throw the laundry into the washer;

Do the dishes;

Scoop the cat poop out of the litter box;

So, I take the

Just What IS the Factory Pattern, Anyway?

2007-03-22T17:16:00-05:00
A Factory makes things, right? And that is precisely what is being referred to when someone talks about a Factory, or the Factory Pattern: an object or framework whose job it is to create other objects for you.
So, rather than create your own object yourself like so:
<cfset myObject = createobject("component",model.my

Just What IS the Singleton Pattern, Anyway?

2007-03-22T16:41:00-05:00

You, O Best Beloved, are a Singleton. There is nobody else like you in the whole wide world, nor has there ever been. You’re a singular occurrence, a unique random combination of genetics that exists only wherever you happen to be at a given moment. And if any of your friends wants to interact with you, they know just where to find you. You can interact with lots of different pe

Lost my public speaking virginity!

2007-02-28T17:14:00-05:00
Yesterday evening (Tuesday February 27th) I gave my first live presentation! The Kansas City Coldfusion User's group (www.kcdevcore.org) invited me to come and speak about Model-Glue since I've been using it on my day job for the past six months or so and have learned it and OO coming from a strictly procedural background. I wasn't nervous until Jim Pickering (the UG manager) and I drove up to the building where they meet. The nervousness finally