Posts Tagged ‘ColdFusion’
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 | 5 Comments »
New site live… Vertical rhythm FTW!
Friday, March 13th, 2009
After many sleepless nights, the new Simian Enterprises site is now live - complete with a lovely new back-end system as well as a *gasp* Wordpress blog!
I know as a ColdFusion developer, I should probably be using Mango Blog or BlogCFC - Both of which are pretty awesome in their own right - but at the end of the day Wordpress is simply a better tool for the job.
I’ve heard it said before, but I’ll chuck my opinion out there too: The new Wordpress UI is absolutely fantastic, and I have to say it’s that more than anything else that made me choose it over the other two.
Of course, integrating Wordpress with the rest of my ColdFusion site proved interesting. Several things in the site template are achieved through ColdFusion and had to be replicated in PHP. I ended up writing a CFC to pull data from a Wordpress blog, which has proved enormously helpful. If I get the chance, I’ll clean that up a bit and put it up as a download - I can’t be the only one wanting to use Wordpress on a ColdFusion powered site.
Props go to Anthony at Afovea.com for the lovely new design.
Also, due largely to two fantastic talks by Jon Tan and Richard Rutter at Skillswap Brighton, I have lovingly embraced typography and this site adheres strictly to a vertical rhythm. The math excites me. Really. It’s actually quite worrying.
That’s all for now. I’ve a few articles in the pipeline that I’ll be posting up here fairly soon. Until then, I’d love to hear any feedback on the new site.
Use the lovely comments box below.
Awesomage.
Tags: ColdFusion, website, wordpress
Posted in General | 3 Comments »