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

IRRITATING CF QUERY ERROR AND SOLUTION

2011-10-07T12:29:24-05:00

Today I'd like to help save someone from pulling their hair out when they encounter a Coldfusion error similar to the following:

Error Executing Database Query. Incorrect string value: '\xC2\x96 OTH...' for column 'Comments' at row 1

This error would occur during a database insert or update, and very likely w

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

Approaches to Building Strings: The Imploding Array

2011-04-15T13:11:00-05:00

So I'm working on a method that needs to generate a potentially giant SQL script, so of COURSE I'm NOT going to use ColdFusion's string concatenation functionality...far too slow. In other words, I will NOT be doing this:

JBase: The Virtual Relational Database Component

2011-04-12T15:58:00-05:00

DISCLAIMER: My JBase project is in no way related to or in competition with a commercial relational database product called jBASE. Though my project remotely resembles jBASE only in that both perform data storage and retrieval, my project does so in a COMPLETELY different and very specific-context: ColdFusion. My product cannot and never will be able to compete with jBASE for market share. End of disclaim

JBase Documentation Ready for Peer Review

2011-04-06T14:24:00-05:00

The little open source project I've mentioned a time or two via Twitter is almost ready for release into the wild. All I have left to do is build a sample app that utilizes it and do a little more testing. BUT, I went ahead and did the documentation for it so that those who are curious can get a good feel for what the heck JBase even is.

I'm working on a CFC that contains a data structure which many methods within that CFC are able to access and modify. Since this CFC will live life as a singleton, and since in theory many simultaneous users could be calling different methods that will modify the contents of this one central data structure, I needed a way to ensure that any and all methods being executed that touch this structure would have to &qu

The Future of CFML

2011-02-23T00:46:00-05:00

Everyone freshly stuffed from their various dinners and socializing, we all waited in anticipation for the start of this evening's Birds Of a Feather session entitled "The Future of CFML". The zeal and comaraderie of the group was alive and well in the room (as are all such meetings involving members of this community) when the three panelists/moderators seated themselves in front of the room. On the lef

Rennaissance Man

2011-02-14T17:31:00-05:00
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

Adding Mura Components to a Page Without Cascading

2011-01-17T10:24:00-05:00

The Scenario

My last Mura post was on how to include Ajax functionality in a Mura site. In my case, I needed to add this functionality to the home page (very topmost in my page hierarchy), and I did so by placing a component into that page's "main content" area. Well,

Using Ajax in Mura

2011-01-14T15:27:00-05:00

Part of the process of porting our company web site over to Mura involved including some ajax functionality. I spent a few hours researching and experimenting, so thought I'd share what I learned in case it saves someone else some time later.

The Scenario
The site you're porting to Mura currently retrieves and outputs a list of scheduled events, an

Porting Coldfusion Code to Mura

2011-01-10T17:06:00-05:00

Porting a static HTML site over to Mura is one thing, but porting over existing Coldfusion functionality is another entirely.

The Scenario

In this scenario, my old site has a dynamic form CFM page (content driven by incoming parameter values) and a matching dynamic action CFM page. Let me show you the approa

Adding and Customizing Mura Editor Styles

2011-01-10T14:21:00-05:00

Preface (aka, my rant)

Skip this preface and go directly to The Scenario if you're not interested in my opinion (thus far) on Mura. Some of it is good, some of it is harsh and opinionated. Never the less, ranting is therapeutic for me so I have to do it.

I finally got fed up with ma

Clearing Coldfusion Output Buffers Mid-Flight

2010-10-08T12:34:00-05:00

I'm blogging this mostly for my own sake so that next time I have a need for this information I don't have to go Googling for it again. It's nothing that I learned during some "massive exploration", just gleaned and assimilated it by perusing the knowledgesphere. :)

The Scenario

Configuring Apache To Use Multiple Versions of ColdFusion

2010-09-06T03:37:00-05:00

This post is for those of you out there who have managed to get two or more versions of Coldfusion running side by side, but are now facing the challenge of HOW on earth you can actually run your apps in both versions using Apache. For example, now you'd like to test your app in CF9 by typing in "localhostCF9/myKillerApp" and in CF8 by typing in "localhostCF8/myKillerApp". In theory, this

THE DAY CFUNITED DIED

2010-07-31T01:27:00-05:00

As you ALL know, this was the last CFUnited ever, and as an attendee, I am certain that this fact was actually a positive influence on how the conference played out. The camaraderie that is always an integral part of this event was magnified by the ever-present fact that we just don’t know when we may be able to assemble ourselves in these numbers again. I know for myself (and I do believe that

PHP vs COLDFUSION

2010-07-13T12:43:00-05:00

I had the privilege of doing a short presentation at our local CFUG meeting last night, the topic being "Coldfusion Vs PHP", so thought I'd share the slides and some brief commentary on some of them. We didn't record the meeting, so what you're about to see is an abbreviated version.

Whether you're a developer, a designer, or fancy yourself to be a citizen of both worlds, it is nearly impossible for anybody at any place in that spectrum to completely avoid the need to have at least some knowledge of both disciplines. Designers need to have a good understanding of what is possible in the development world so that t

D2W Session Review - The Art and Science of RIAs

2010-06-21T23:54:00-05:00

The Art and Science of RIA's

by Ben Stucki

As I've mentioned before (but it's worth mentioning again), this year's first annual Designer Developer Workflow conference was, in my opinion, a monumental success and an outstanding start to what I'm sure will become an annual tradition. The session topics hovered anywhere between developer-oriented and designer-oriented topics, yet NONE of the sessions e

D2W Session Review - Using Facebook and Twitter to Market Your Creative Services by Lisa Heselton

2010-06-21T00:40:00-05:00

Using Twitter and Facebook to Market Your Creative Services

by Lisa Heselton

Being the enlightened individual I am, I decided to expand my horizons and attend a session that wasn't directly relevant to programming or prototyping (the equivalent of a guy forcing himself to watch a chick flick end to end for the sole purpose of ensuring that he still has feelings). In this instance, the session I had the distin

D2W Session Review - Prototyping by Chris Griffith

2010-06-20T12:24:06-05:00

Prototyping: A Component for Success by Chris Griffith

I can't speak highly enough of the Designer Developer Workflow conference, aka "D2W"! Having been using Coldfusion for a long time now, I find more often than not that I glean maybe 10% new knowledge and information from the other conferences I attend. This one, however, has skillfully addressed a niche

D2W Conference: My Speaker Highlights

2010-06-03T02:21:00-05:00
Dee Sadler sent me the following questions as a way of gathering my opinions and information for my area of the Designer Developer Workflow Conference Speaker Highlights section of the site. I figured I'd go ahead and post them here as well, just to give folks an idea of what my role will be when i'm in Kansas City, Missouri June 19-20.
SPEAKER HIGHLIGHTS: DOUG BOUDE

Designer Developer Workflow Conference!

2010-06-03T02:13:00-05:00

In just a little over 2 weeks I'll be in Kansas City, Missouri speaking at the first annual D2W (Designer/Developer Workflow) conference, organized with the specific purpose of helping to enhance and/or bridge the gap in the knowledge and workflow disparities that can exist between the design and development aspects of a project. Though we in the CF/Adobe community are fortunate enough to have several conferences to choose from

CONDITIONAL INSERT IN A SINGLE QUERY

2010-05-17T13:33:00-05:00

Ever had the need to insert a record, but only wanted to do so if the record doesn't already exist? Typically the first approach to this is two queries: one to check for the existence of the values you want to insert, the second to peform that insert IF the first query returned no records. Well, I was in such a spot today, but hated the idea of having to hit the db twice to perform a conditional insert. Though I'm

Easy Way to Integrate ColdFusion into Non-ColdFusion Templates

2010-03-31T15:52:00-05:00

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you needed to implement some new feature using one scripting language within a template that is written in a different scripting language, or possibly no scripting language at all (pure HTML)? Of course, you could just turn the pure HTML template into a CFML template, and at times that is indeed the best route to go, as long as breaking every link pointing back to this page

Leveraging Response Headers in Ajax Calls

2010-03-16T12:47:00-05:00

If you're doing any sort of Ajax development, then you undoubtedly already are quite familiar with the different ways you can use an Ajax call. For instance, you can have the call return a fragment of fully formed html (such as a table populated with data). For a more advanced user, you may have your Ajax calls returning raw data in the form of JSON or XML and parse it on the client side. In either case, though, your single Ajax

Spreadsheet to XML Transformation Utility Overview

2010-03-12T14:22:00-05:00

I am currently working on a project that has proven to be very challenging, architecturally speaking. I've been learning a lot along the way, and I have come up with some approaches to addressing the challenge that I feel are pretty doggone sweet, so I thought I'd share some of the details in case it helps spark ideas for other people.

Let me describe how this challenge came about, and the challenge