Archive for the ‘ColdFusion’ Category
Integrate Wordpress into your ColdFusion app
Thursday, January 13th, 2011
Lately I’ve been working on a few ColdFusion apps that require a comprehensive blog system. While I could easily install Mango Blog or Blog CFC, nothing really rivals the functionality of Wordpress when it comes to blog apps - but of course, Wordpress is a PHP based system.
Installing Wordpress alongside a ColdFusion app isn’t too difficult, but I need to customise the blog so that it looks identical to the rest of the site, and allow the user to switch seamlessly between the two.
This level of integration requires two main bits of functionality. Firstly I need to use ColdFusion to connect to the Wordpress database and pull out articles and comments for use in summary blocks around the rest of the site, and secondly I need to be able to embed CFML templates directly into the Wordpress blog to generate headers and footers whilst keeping any session based information such as login status, cart contents etc. - Essentially I need a CFINCLUDE equivalent for PHP.
Tags: ColdFusion, php, wordpress
Posted in ColdFusion, Railo, Website Development | 10 Comments »
Cache and display multiple Twitter feeds in ColdFusion - CFC
Friday, November 19th, 2010
I’ve worked on a few sites recently that have required Twitter feeds to be pulled in and displayed on the homepage.
Thanks to the awesome <cffeed> tag this is a relatively easy task, but I’ve noticed a bit of an overhead when pulling the data in from Twitter’s servers.
I had a look around and came across this post by Simon Bingham, showing how to cache the results of a Twitter feed in the Application scope.
This worked well, but I needed to be able to pull in both outgoing tweets (using the Twitter ID) and incoming tweets (using a search string). This meant not only updating the CFC to take both types of argument and act accordingly, but also to allow mutiple feeds to be cached.
Building on Simon’s original, I’ve created a new CFC that does just that, and even has a bit of error handling for good measure.
Tags: ColdFusion
Posted in ColdFusion, Railo | 1 Comment »
If ColdFusion is dead, it’s Adobe that killed it.
Wednesday, September 15th, 2010
(Or, ‘Controvertial ColdFusion post #34124′)
I’ve been using ColdFusion happily for the last 6 years. I can honestly say that if it weren’t for the ease of learning ColdFusion, and the instant gratification to be gained from rapidly developing apps that interact with databases, I’d have never found my way into backend development.
Like any language however, ColdFusion is not without its problems. We can compare functionality until the proverbial cattle return to their domiciles, but what I’d like to talk about is the culture of elitism that surrounds ColdFusion.
‘Elitism?!’ I hear you cry, ‘But ColdFusion is so easy to pick up, and the community is so friendly and welcoming! That’s hardly elitist, is it?’.
Yes. You’re right… but what I’m concerned with is the difficulty ColdFusion developers face in the environment in which they work. Adobe have done a very good job of making ColdFusion inaccessible to the masses by focussing on enterprise clients, inadvertently turning ColdFusion into quite an exclusive club.
Don’t believe me? Reel off the names of some well known ColdFusion celebrities… Ray Camden, Ben Nadel, Ben Forta, Et al. I’ll bet if you’re a ColdFusion developer, you’ll know who those people are. You’ll have read their blog posts, be aware of projects they’ve done. You’ll probably be able to list 10 more without too much trouble…
Well, you shouldn’t be able to do that - because the list should be huge. If we were talking about PHP, there’d be maybe 5,000 people in that list. In ColdFusion there’s maybe 20.
Let me explain… (more…)
Posted in ColdFusion, Railo, Servers, Website Development | 7 Comments »
Tutorial: Setting up a production Windows 2008 server with IIS7 & Railo
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
Prologue:
In which Gary explains his new found appreciation for anyone who calls themselves a sysadmin.
I’m not a sysadmin. I like to make websites. It’s what I do, what I’ve always done.
Dealing with servers is the un-planned love child of my long term affair with website development. A horrid child that demands constant attention and gives nothing back in return.
In the past, I would point clients in the direction of a decent web host and let them get on with it, but as it turns out these clients would still phone me as the first point of contact when their servers went down, making me a mediator between them and their hosts. Frankly, I figured if I’m spending my time doing this anyway, I may as well get paid into the bargain.
Well, after four years of hosting client’s websites I can quite categorically state that sysadmins have one of the most difficult jobs imaginable. Anything can go wrong, at any time. Running a tight system involves research, dedication, and genuine enjoyment of high level tinkering.
If I’m ever in a position to employ a sysadmin, they will be treated well. I will make them tea. And cake. And give them sympathy.
Recently, after a long and gruelling battle with the most unreliable hosting company I’ve ever used, I finally took the plunge and set up my own Windows VPS using IIS7 & Railo. (more…)
Tags: ColdFusion, IIS, Railo, Server
Posted in ColdFusion, Railo, Servers | 4 Comments »
Combatting misinformation in web design
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
I received an email from a client recently, informing me that they have hired someone to redevelop their entire website in php, as they have been informed by their SEO company that ColdFusion is ‘bad for search engines’.
Frankly, I think it’s astounding that any SEO company could make such an assertion, anyone in the industry would immediately understand just how ridiculous this statement is - but unfortunaty our clients are not experts and can only make their decisions based on the advice they receive from the people who claim to be. My clients in this case have made an informed choice, based on patently false information…
So I’d like to state definitively: ColdFusion has nothing whatsoever to do with SEO… Neither does php, asp, ruby, python, perl, or in fact any back end language at all…
(more…)
Tags: ColdFusion, Rants, SEO
Posted in ColdFusion, General, SEO, Website Development | 6 Comments »
Coldfusion, IIS7, Plesk and 401 Authentication
Thursday, July 16th, 2009
While installing Coldfusion 8 on Windows Server 2008, I came across a problem that I simply couldn’t find an answer for anywhere on the interwebs. Now, some three hours later I’ve stumbled across the solution and thought I’d blog about it in an attempt to save others the headache.
The Problem:
You have a fresh install of Windows 2008 server running Plesk Control Panel.
You innocently download and install a copy of ColdFusion 8. The installation goes fine and you can access the ColdFusion administrator with no problems…
However, when you try to access a .cfm page on any other site, you’re greeted with a login prompt asking for authentication details. You’ll also find that your Plesk URL does the same thing.
In fact, any page on any site other than the default (which is where your ColdFusion Administrator is installed) is now asking for authentication, and of course returning a 401 error when you are unable to supply the correct login details.
(more…)
Posted in ColdFusion, General | 8 Comments »
Recent Comments
- Sam: Hey Gary, Interesting post…although i feel its a little too late to respond
I have a similar issue... - Bill: Not sure what you mean by “With that function set up at the top of the php template”. Are you...
- Mark: ahh. I found it in the PARALLELS folder, but coldfusion is not listed in there.. any ideas? I did run it...
- Mark: I have the same problem (godaddy virtual server). Can’t seem to find the Plesk Reconfigurator, where do I...
- Mark Cadle: This argument is worn out as you stated in your title. I think what most people miss is the enterprise...
- Sam: Hey Gary, Interesting post…although i feel its a little too late to respond