The Alagad Technical Team Blog
Entries: 295
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The Differences Between This and Variables
Published By: Doug Hughes on May 9, 2008 at 7:08 AM
Times Viewed: 361
Categories: ColdFusion, OO Development, Programming
This morning I received an email from Jason, whom I met at CF.United():
We are working to adopt/increase OO in our environment. We were debating over what may be best practice for object properties as far as ColdFusion components are concerned. For example:
<cffuntion name=”init” …>
<cfset this.foo = “bar”>Vs.
<cffuntion name=”init” …>
<cfset Variables.instance.foo = “bar”>From the conference, conventions seemed mixed. We understand from blogs the benefits of the later example from a practice standpoint in mirroring OOP. However, are you aware of any performance advantage or future directions of either? One of use remembered hearing something particular about using “this”.
HA High Availability - Great Discussion
Published By: Mike Brunt on May 8, 2008 at 1:21 PM
Times Viewed: 376
Categories: None
This might seem like an odd thing to do, as what I am going do do here is simply add a link to one of our previous blog posts. The reason is that there is a really interesting and informative discussion going on about High Availability (HA), on Windows 2003 and ColdFusion. There is some very informative information there and this is not theory but an actaul user adding their experiences with HA and clustering.
CF.Objective() '08 and Alagad
Published By: Doug Hughes on May 7, 2008 at 10:59 AM
Times Viewed: 356
Categories: None
This is my third day back from CF.Ojective() '08 and I think I have almost caught up on sleep. No matter what your purpose, attending a conference is all work. You're attending sessions, talking with other developers and sponsors, or networking. Not to mention staying up late for social events. Individually, each of these can be exhausting. Collectively they can be overwhelming. As a sponsor who is also speaking you get no breaks. Despite the fact that I still want to sleep through the day, the conference was fantastic. I may be a bit biased, but trust me, Jared put on a good show.
CF.Objective() was the first conference Alagad has ever sponsored. This was a new thing for me, being on the other side of the table. Our purpose there was to help people learn about Alagad and what it is that we do. In particular I spent a lot of time talking to people and informing them of Alagad's Object Oriented and Framework-based Coldfusion expertise.
My Job is Done! Everyone in the World Knows Model-Glue!
Published By: Doug Hughes on May 7, 2008 at 9:50 AM
Times Viewed: 337
Categories: Conferences and Events, Model-Glue
Ok, so that’s not true. But, whether you know it or not, Alagad is teaching two full-day classes before the CFUnited 08 conference. Jared is teaching “ColdFusion's AJAX Advantage,” a class on ColdFusion’s AJAX features. I’m supposed to be teaching “Introduction To Model-Glue,” a one-day crash course to help developers new to Model-Glue get started.
Unfortunately, though Jared leads the rest of the classes in registrants, my Model-Glue class has no registrants yet. (Thus everyone already knows Model-Glue?) At this point it looks like the class will be canceled. This is bad and good. It’s bad because I apparently did a bad job of marketing the class. But it’s good because it frees up an already-committed room at the conference where I can teach you whatever you might want to know about ColdFusion and most ColdFusion frameworks.
A Possible Problem When Using Hardware Clustering
Published By: Mike Brunt on May 5, 2008 at 4:53 PM
Times Viewed: 475
Categories: None
I presented at CF.Objective on the subject of clustering and distributing ColdFusion applications. During the presentation I pointed out a "gotcha" I have encountered many times; where I have been asked to review existing High Availability (HA) environments. It has been mentioned before in previous blog posts but I wanted to amplify it, as I believe it is very important to avoid this pitfall.
Hardware clustering devices can and often do, perform two distinct functions.
ColdSpring+ModelGlue+Transfer In Production?
Published By: Mike Brunt on Apr 28, 2008 at 10:54 AM
Times Viewed: 563
Categories: None
This is just a quick blog post and not technical at all, as yet. I am curious to know how many out there are using ColdSpring+ModelGlue+Transfer in Production, on a live web site.
Also, if any of you have done any reasonable load-testing of applications using ColdSpring+ModelGlue+Transfer.
It would also help if you could state what version of ColdFusion-JVM you are running this on. Thanks in advance to all who reply.
Introducing CFANT
Published By: Doug Hughes on Apr 28, 2008 at 10:16 AM
Times Viewed: 767
Categories: Ant, ColdFusion
Deploying apps can be a pain. It’s not so much the copying of files from one place to another, but all the related tasks you have to remember to do!
As an example, we tend to have local development, staging, and production servers. Each of these servers tend have different configuration settings. On staging I might have a datasource called myAppDev. In staging it might be known as myAppStaging and in production it could be known as something completely different.
Then there are the issues of mappings, custom tag paths, event gateways, email servers, reloading applications, clearing template caches, etc, etc. Historically, I’ve avoided using a number of advanced features of ColdFusion because of the configuration required on the server and the requirement that I remember tasks that need doing on each deployment.
TACFUG’s Never Ending Quest To Make My Life Easier
Published By: Doug Hughes on Apr 16, 2008 at 2:03 PM
Times Viewed: 521
Category: General
I came back from lunch today to find a pleasant surprise sitting in my IM client. Dan Wilson, programmer and CFUG manager extraordinaire, had sent me URLs for the Triangle Area ColdFusion User Group’s calendar of events!
Just a week ago I had been bemoaning the fact with Dan that I never know when things are going on. I don’t make a habit of going to the user group’s website and I had avoided signing up for the mailing list so I pretty much was out of the loop.
This calendar should give me fewer reasons not to show up to these events. Other user group managers should make a note of this. All Dan did was create a new calendar in Google Calendar and make it public. All I did was add it to my Google Calendar.
For those of you who want the TACFUG calendar URLs, here you go:
XML: http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/calendar%40tacfug.org/public/basic
Alagad Needs You!
Published By: Doug Hughes on Apr 15, 2008 at 12:18 PM
Times Viewed: 768
Categories: Alagad, ColdFusion, Flex, Jobs
This is a quick blog entry to call out to the Flex and ColdFusion community. If you’re looking for contract work, we have some that you might be interested in.
Firstly, we have a ColdFusion project we’re working to secure which we need to staff with a full time programmer with Model-Glue and ColdSpring expertise though the end of December.
Secondly, we have a Flex project we’re working to secure which would be going live on August 1st. This project is a refactoring of an existing application into a Flex framework such as Cairngorm or EasyMVC and then building new features on top of the application. The backend for this project is ColdFusion.
Thirdly, as Jeff blogged earlier today, we need help from an Interface Architect on a project. Please see Jeff’s entry for more details.
If you’re interested in either of the first two opportunities please send me an email at dhughes@alagad.com with any questions or thoughts you might have.
Looking for Interface Architects
Published By: Jeff Chastain on Apr 15, 2008 at 9:37 AM
Times Viewed: 487
Categories: Alagad, General, Jobs
Here at Alagad, we typically use an "interface driven architecture" process when building applications. In other words, we start with the user interface of the application and get it completely finished before developing any of the backend architecture and databases. This allows us to easily make changes when the client sees something they don't like without having to make changes to the object model, service layer, database structure, etc.
However, we are currently working on a project which has very little existing design to work from and one of the biggest goals of the project is to increase end user usability. So, I am proposing to the client that we enlist the services of a professional interface architect - somebody whose focus is application usability and design, not necessarily programming. The problem is, we don't have anybody on staff that has this skill set to the level needed. This is where we need your help. Are you an interface architect or do you know anybody that you could refer? If so, please drop me a line at jchastain at alagad dot com.
Thanks!
Vertical and Horizontal Clustering with ColdFusion
Published By: Mike Brunt on Apr 12, 2008 at 10:26 AM
Times Viewed: 1233
Categories: None
I am slowly publishing a series of blog posts relating to clustering in particular with ColdFusion and JRun. It can get fairly complicated pretty fast and I urge all who are going to embark on clustering to plan out how you want to cluster and why.
Another key issue is to make sure when we are creating a web application that it designed and engineered from day one with clustering in mind. I have helped so many clients who hit major problems when they start building clusters, largely because the application was too tightly coupled to the environment it is running in. Hard-coded directory paths would be a classic example.
In this blog posting I wanted to illustrate an interesting concept, well two in reality, Horizontal Clustering and Vertical Clustering. This was prompted by a comment from someone on another blog piece I did on clustering, here.
In this first graphic we have Vertical Clustering...
On CF8? Be Cautious About Rolling Back To JVM 1.5
Published By: Mike Brunt on Apr 9, 2008 at 11:31 PM
Times Viewed: 1135
Categories: None
There have been several blog posts recently about class-loading issues apparently linked the use of the Sun-Java 1.6 (6.0) JVM. Mark Mandel has a detailed article on this here.
Before seeing this article we had been working on optimizing a ColdSpring-ModelGlue-Reactor application. We blogged our progress in this article.
We thought a reality check was a good idea and ran some load tests comparing this same application performance in Java 1.5 and 1.6. Once again we observed better performance in 1.6; here are the results.
These results are for a 50 Virtual User (vUser) Test for 1 hour with 8 second think time (delay between clicks) comparing Java 1 5 to 1.6.
Firstly Java 1.5
Total Number of Clicks: 13,345 (0 Errors)
Average Click Time of all URLs: 5,298 ms
Secondly Java 1.6
Sign Up from My One-Day Model-Glue Class before CFUnited!
Published By: Doug Hughes on Apr 7, 2008 at 8:00 AM
Times Viewed: 2766
Categories: Conferences and Events, Model-Glue, OO Development, ColdSpring
It’s not yet common knowledge, but Teratech has kindly invited me to give a one day class on Model-Glue before CFUnited 08. I’ll be giving an abbreviated version of my four day Enterprise ColdFusion with Model-Glue class.
Up to this point, the class description has been a bit vague. However, here are the details of the class:
Model-Glue is a fantastic framework for creating robust and maintainable applications using the Model View Controller (MVC) design pattern. Unfortunately, it can be quite challenging for a programmer to learn how to be productive with such a framework without prior experience.
Luckily, Doug Hughes, a member of Team Model-Glue has been working with Model-Glue since version 0.4 and has advised and assisted with the development of the framework.
This class will cover a range of topics including:
HA - Clustering ColdFusion Part 1 - Installing CF
Published By: Mike Brunt on Apr 2, 2008 at 8:01 PM
Times Viewed: 1492
Categories: None
This will be the first post in a series relating to clustering ColdFusion. In this first series of posts we will be looking at clustering CF at a software level using ColdFusion 8 Enterprise. Hopefully later on, we can move to a Hardware-Software set-up with examples.
I mentioned in a previous post that what I will detail is drawn from my experiences from either creating clusters for clients or working on existing clusters. There are no doubt other ways to do this.
Firstly, I always create what I call a "master instance", typically the first instance which is created from a multiple-instance install. Here are some important steps from that...
As the install progresses select "Multiserver configuration".
High Availability - Clustering ColdFusion
Published By: Mike Brunt on Mar 31, 2008 at 5:25 PM
Times Viewed: 1457
Categories: None
I have added several blog postings here before on the theories of High-Availability (HA) and Clustering. In this series of blog postings I will be attempting to create dedicated postings for the following scenarios. Please keep in mind that there will be alternative ways to do these things and what I am showing here is drawn from my experiences from either creating clusters for clients or working on existing clusters
Here are the scenarios I will be posting on...
Setting up a two instance cluster from a fresh install of ColdFusion
Load testing a two instance cluster on Java 1.6 (6.0) using the Round Robin algorithm
Load testing a two instance cluster on Java 1.5 (6.0) using the Round Robin algorithm
Load testing a two instance cluster on Java 1.6 (6.0) using the Round Robin algorithm and Sticky Sessions
Load testing a two instance cluster on Java 1.5 (5.0) using the Round Robin algorithm and Sticky Sessions
Load testing a two instance cluster on Java 1.6 (6.0) using the Round Robin algorithm and Sticky Sessions with Session Replication
The Great Plague - UnFrameworked Frameworks
Published By: Mike Brunt on Mar 28, 2008 at 2:01 PM
Times Viewed: 869
Categories: None
I blogged some time ago about in-house Frameworks and how I regard them as "The Black Death". This comes from years traveling the world troubleshooting and fixing ColdFusion and JRun applications.
Recently I have been working on two projects which were "supposedly" FuseBox frameworked. One was FuseBox 5 the other FuseBox 3. My opinion about Frameworks is if you use them do not fiddle with the core files and do not do things outside the Framework that should be done inside. If you are going to do either of these two things or even worse, both; do not use a Framework at all.
In one of these projects the application went to outer Mongolia and back before even getting to the Framework. In the other there were fbx_switch files with no switch-case blocks at all.
If anyone can convince me that there is good cause to use Frameworks and then usurp them; please let me know why?
Testing Contribute CS3 For Blogging
Published By: Mike Brunt on Mar 25, 2008 at 8:38 AM
Times Viewed: 661
Categories: None
Recently I had a crash of my main work-tool; my trusted 18 month old note book, a Dell Inspiron E1705. This had been a great system and I still don't know what happened to it and sent it back to Dell for repair. They told me the system board, keyboard and CD-DVD reader-writer needed replacing, oh and before I returned it they asked me to remove the hard-drive. After paying the requested $500.00 for replacement parts and shipping/handling I eagerly awaited it's return. I should mention, by the way, that I had to go out and purchase a replacement immediately, a Fujitsu Lifebook, chosen because it had Windows XP installed (I avoid Vista like the plague). So my trusted Dell Inspiron arrived and I eagerly put back the hard-drive and what did I get - nothing. So whatever happened fried everything. The good news is I back up everything nightly but even then there are so many nice utilities etc that I had not missed till they are not there any more.
Easy Rich Internet Applications With ColdFusion 8
Published By: Scott Stroz on Mar 19, 2008 at 10:59 AM
Times Viewed: 1073
Categories: Alagad, ColdFusion
SitePoint recently published an article of mine about developing Rich Internet Applications with ColdFusion 8.
SitePoint is a repository of tons of tech-related articles. From what I understand, they will be releasing more ColdFusion related articles in the future.
What are you waitng for? Go check it out.
New Community Chronicles at Fusion Authority
Published By: Jared Rypka-Hauer on Mar 4, 2008 at 11:18 AM
Times Viewed: 884
Categories: ColdFusion, General
I've been waiting for Michael to get the comment functionality online at Fusion Authority before I blog about this.
I had an opportunity for a second talk with Bruce Chizen, this time about ColdFusion's place in the Adobe family. I think you'll really like what you see... I was amazed and pleased, anyway. I think the resulting article is the place to send anyone who wants to tell you that ColdFusion is dying.
The article is here.
Laterz!
Debug or Not Debug?
Published By: Scott Stroz on Mar 3, 2008 at 8:51 AM
Times Viewed: 1322
Category: ColdFusion
We spent some time last week trying to troublshoot an issue where one user was unable to use a Flex application we developed. It was quite maddeing actaully, I was able to use the application from 4 different computers in my house using 4 different browser versions (IE 6, IE 7, FF 2 and Safari for Windows). Other people at Alagad were also able to use the application as well. The user who was unable to use the application was even able to use it when he tried from different computers in his office, but not from his normal workstation.
The culprit, as was discovered, was ColdFusion debugging. For some reason, ColdFusion debugging was interfering with one, not all, just one of the remoting calls. The odd thing is that after being alerted to this, I enabled ColdFusion debugging and I was able to use that application without issue. The user who was having problems was able to use the application after turning off debugging, and it continued to work after debugging was turned on again.
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